Leadership Photo Essay

Enjoy this leadership photo essay. Great pictures. Great quotes. Get inspired. Lead and innovate!

Is Your Creativity Worth Millions?

More and more, creativity and innovation are being valued. Check out this latest blog in Forbes...

Is Your Creativity Worth Millions? - MarketShare - Advertising marketing & media - Forbes

Software Firm aims to tap unique skills of workers with autism

This is the kind of innovation that makes an impact. Check out this inspiring story from Crain's Chicago Business:

Cool New Innovation

Great Leaders Make Decisions

As I was reading this blog from Thought Leaders: Great Leaders Make Decisions, I was thinking how much overlap there is between using your imagination...being able to get at that part of your brain to think creatively...and making good decisions. Leaders are not generally called upon to make decisions that are straight-forward or logical. Rather, leaders have to make decisions when things are not as clear, when the "right" answer is not evident. While this does require a tolerance for ambiguity, it also requires an ability to think of what might be, to see what is not, but could be and to project your mind into possible future scenarios. This is imagination at work. The tasks and tools that we have been discussing from "Imagination First" are like an exercise circuit, helping us to strengthen our imagination muscle. I cannot help but believe that doing so will help us to make better decisions...and to make good decisions. Check out the Thought Leaders Blog:
Great Leaders Make Decisions

Leadership Lessons: The Power of Laughter | Jeremie Kubicek

Laughter is not only great medicine, but it adds depth and spark to our lives. Laughter opens up our minds and our spirits to what might be possible. Take a look at what Jeremie Kubicek has to say about it in his post:
Leadership Lessons: The Power of Laughter Jeremie Kubicek

Building Leadership Resilience

Building Leadership Resilience

This is worth thinking about and reflecting on...and creatively applying to your own leadership. Check out the blog above.

Imagination First - Practice #13: Chunk It

Practice #13 from Imagination First takes a tour through the idea of chunking or segmenting acts of imagination to that they become smaller, graspable acts. This is an interesting concept because it is counter-intuitive. When we think of being imaginative or creating something, we often think of starting with a blank slate and bringing something novel into existence or into our mind's eye. While we like to think of the sky as being the limit to imagination and we fret over accidentally curbing our imagination by putting up artificial boundaries, it is often very difficult for us to create or imagine when we are given no guidance or boundaries. "Create something" instructions often led to a lot of aimless time spent looking at the blank slate.

Any parent or teacher will tell you that you need to provide a bit of scaffolding for a child, a core idea for an artist (this is maybe where the muses come in), a burning question for a scientist...whatever grows starts with a kernel of something. Once you have the initial kernel or chunk you can figure out what is possible for your little chunk. This can help you collapse the distance from the blank slate to actually activating your imagination and coming up with an initial idea. Step by step or chunk by chunk, before you know it, you have painted a masterpiece, written a poem, cured polio, or changed the world.

If we can begin to unlock the power of possibility by exercising our imaginations, strengthening our muscles for asking questions and thinking about "What If" rather than "What Is", we can return to the innovative land that we once were...and, more importantly, we can begin to work together to solve the world's problems. But, as the title says, it starts with imagination first. If we are going to get really good at imagining, we are going to need a lot of practice at it...and we are going to need to start rewarding it at a young age.

Why is it that most 2 year old children are more imaginative than their parents or even than their 9 year old siblings? I hypothesize it is in large part because the 2-year-old does not know a heck of a lot about "What Is" and so is free to ask nearly all the time about "What If" and test this question out (sometimes to the dismay of their parents and older siblings). Slowly, over time and as the child grows we indoctrinate the child as to "What Is" and pretty soon the child's brain is so full of "What Is" (and the associated rules and regulations) that there is less and less room for "What If." The imagination muscle begins to atrophy. If we want to have the scientists and mathematicians and social problem solvers that we need, we are going to have to make sure that our education system supports the growth of the imagination and teaches children more about how to ask and answer "What If" and less about how to comply with "What Is." We are going to have to put imagination first.