How to Unleash Breakthrough Thinking in Business

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In today’s rapidly changing and exceedingly competitive business environment, it is imperative to continually uncover new and innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve and, most importantly, not get left behind. To outperform the competition, breakthrough thinking is mission critical—the kind of out-of-the-box ideation that expands horizons and provokes epiphanies. It is about the kind of thinking that can take a company from good to great, or from failing to wildly successful.

The rewards realized from developing even one breakthrough idea can be immense. Indeed, the most successful company is the one that works smarter, not necessarily harder.

Every single employee at an organization is a potential diamond in the rough – possibly possessing latent ideas and visions that lay dormant, which represents an immense potential opportunity. The key challenge is discerning how to tap into that diamond mine and unearth hidden gems – those game changing ideas that propel companies to reach their highest potential.

But, how exactly does an organization foster breakthrough thinking? The answer is surprisingly simple: Trivia! While most people consider such games to be hobbies or playful ways to pass idle time, trivia is far more than just fun and games. In fact, the use of trivia has been proven to unlock the potential of the human mind, thereby improving mental performance and enhancing creativity. One report cited “the engagement and excitement produced by trivia games is directly related to cognitive and brain development.”

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About the Author

Gene Jones, one of America’s leading authorities on unlocking innovation through transformational play, has realized great success converting unique trivia game show formats into exercises in mindfulness training. His proprietary Triviation® corporate training program is based on the art, science, and educational aspects of transformational play that help individuals and companies unleash and capitalize on their full creative potential. Gene may be reached online at www.triviation.com.

Sources:

http://www.littleabout.com/Health/top-ten-benefits-trivia-games-brain/98891/
http://www.edudemic.com/2013/03/5-reasons-playing-trivia-will-keep-your-mind-sharp/

The New Economic Revolution

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There’s a revolution in full swing that is changing the way ordinary Americans make a living. From internet commerce technology has sprung forth the Bottom-Up Economic Revolution. It’s dramatically altered the way business is conducted by both the seller and consumer. Front and center in this shift is platform businesses – small business cloud-based companies, online marketplaces and crowdfunding sites. They bring buyers and sellers, as well as non-profits and donors together in new ways to interact and do business.

Now the average Joe and Jane can create income, and in many cases a livelihood, with relative ease compared to the offline brick and mortar approach to business. Thanks to websites designed to bring sellers and buyers together in new ways, the possibilities are virtually endless. You can find homeowners in need of your maintenance services sell your own custom made clothing, rent a room on Airbnb, to name just a few opportunities. Need capital? Funding opportunities are also available and could be just a few clicks away at crowdfunding sites for the everyday entrepreneur.

This new group of self-employed individuals who are making part or all of their income online are fueling the Bottom-Up Economic Revolution like never before. As traditional employment opportunities continue to be in flux, these proprietors are increasing at a fast pace. The numbers tell it like it is:

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About the Author

Bill Clerico is CEO and co-founder of WePay, where he drives the company’s vision, strategy and growth. His goal is to make payments easy for the world’s small businesses and the platforms that serve them. Before founding WePay, Bill worked in technology investment banking at Jefferies & Company, where he advised enterprise software, digital media and financial technology companies on M&A and capital market transactions. In 2010, he was named one of Business Insider‘s Silicon Valley 100 and in 2011, as one of BusinessWeek’s 30 under 30 Best Tech Entrepreneurs.

The Myth of Virality and What Marketers Can Learn From Justin Bieber

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The current social strategy of many Marketing and Ad Agencies goes something like: “It doesn’t matter if the content is good, as long as we get a celebrity to tweet it, the thing will go viral!”

The prevailing consensus is that if a Kim Kardashian or Justin Bieber tweets your content out to their followers, the inherent size of their audience will cause a viral loop, exploding the campaign into the news feeds and inboxes of everyone and their grandmother.

This fallacy is perpetuated by the ‘hip,’ ‘disruptive’ agencies as they focus on buzz words like ‘share-ability’ and ‘social’ (read in a loathing, sarcastic voice while I make air quotes). If a campaign has a presence on every social network in the known universe, with custom widgets that all connect to each other, then its success is just a matter of turning a key and watching the crowd swarm. Right?

Wrong.

This strategy is not only absurdly lazy, but is ineffective, irresponsible, and even a little offensive to the intelligence of your desired audience. And yet, campaign after campaign saturates the Internet, towing along promises of fame, virality and ubiquity.

Any producer or agency that has had an Internet hit will tell you that content?s value, not “share-ability,” is the most important key to virality.

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About the Author

Christiano Covino is the CEO and Founder of Mischievious Studios, a digital entertainment studio based in Hollywood, California. Mischievious Studios works to blur the line between advertising and entertainment by creating entertaining online commercial content and engaging brand-sponsored entertainment (Branded WebSeries, Films, Sponsorships). Mischievious Studios also produces and programs content for MischiefTube their YouTube channel that receives over 30 million views annually. When not creating a splash online, Mischievious Studios develops and produces feature films. Passionate about innovation, Christiano helps Mischievious Studios stay on the cutting edge and develop new opportunities in the fast-changing entertainment landscape.

Recommended Resources – Look At More

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StrategyDriven Recommended ResourcesLook at More: A Proven Approach to Innovation, Growth, and Change
by Andy Stefanovich

About the Book

Look at More by Andy Stefanovich details a framework for unleashing an organization’s creativity to develop new products, build brands and audiences, and grow market share. Andy’s framework specifically targets the liberation of the ‘5Ms’ of innovation:

  • Mood: attitudes, feelings, and emotions creating the context for creativity and innovation
  • Mindset: intellectual foundation of creativity, the baseline capacity each of us has for getting inspired, staying excited, and thinking differently
  • Mechanisms: tools and processes of creativity; helping individuals incorporate inspiration into the way they work and fostering innovative behaviors
  • Measurement: qualitative and quantitative assessments providing employees with direction and feedback
  • Momentum: active reinforcement of the creative behaviors supporting innovation

Benefits of Using this Book

StrategyDriven Contributors like Look At More for its immediately actionable framework that encourages and reinforces the behaviors unleashing an organization’s innovative creativity. Additionally, we appreciate the detailed examples Andy provides from his experience implementing the framework at world renown corporations.

Besides driving innovation, we believe organization implementing Andy’s methods will also experience an increased level of employee engagement that, in our experience, significantly enhances productivity and the bottom line.

Look At More prescribes an immediately actionable method for unleashing employee creativity to support achievement of organizational goals; making it a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Recommended Resource – Creative Thinkering

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Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work
by Michael Michalko

About the Reference

Creative Thinkering by Michael Michalko provides readers with actionable methods to tap into and broaden their natural creativity. Aimed at those who question their imaginative abilities, Michael reveals a systematic approach to generating new ideas through the association of two or more dissimilar subjects; resulting in the generation of entirely new products, services, and methods.

Throughout Creative Thinkering, Michael provides detail rich examples of his method’s application as well as challenging the reader to develop his or her own capabilities through numerous thought experiments. These elements transform this book from one that simply provides a method into one that is a teaching manual; helping even the most rigid of thinkers expand their creative horizons.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like Creative Thinkering because of its immediately implementable methods for expanding one’s creative output. Michael clearly illustrates that anyone can be highly creative and through his plentiful thought experiments convinces even the most rigid thinkers that they too can be the source of highly original ideas. In a fast moving world that requires continuous adaptation, Creative Thinkering can help arm any professional with a crucial skill needed to remain competitive.

StrategyDriven Contributors have long benefited from Michael’s insights on creativity. We thoroughly enjoyed his earlier book, Thinkertoys and have applied the methods he prescribes therein to our work almost every day. If we had one criticism of Creative Thinkering it would be that Michael’s new book is not as ‘fun’ as his last – but it is by all accounts just as valuable.

Overcoming ones creative doubts is a key ingredient to taking the actions necessary to remain competitive in our highly innovative and rapidly changing world. Michael’s book provides those with such doubts a clear method for dealing with their rigidness and conceiving the truly unique; making Creative Thinkering a StrategyDriven recommended read.