NEW PODCAST: The Stories We Tell and Their Impact
Click here for Mitch Ditkoff's 5/25 appearance on VoiceAmerica -- Wanda Wallace's Out of the Comfort Zone interview. All about the power of storytelling.
Storytelling at Work
Storytelling for the Revolution
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:50 PM | Comments (1)
May 26, 2018The Real Value of Confusion
Are you confused about what's going on in your life these days or how to proceed with your most challenging project? Baffled? Bamboozled? If so, take heart! Confusion is not always a bad thing. In fact, it's often a necessary part of the creative process.
The weirdness enters when you start judging yourself for being confused. Then, instead of benefiting from this normal stage of "not knowing" you end up in endless rounds of self-talk, procrastination, and worry.
What is confusion, really? Technically speaking, it's a state of mind in which the elements you are dealing with appear to be indiscriminately mixed, out of whack, or unable to be interpreted to your satisfaction.
Everyone from Einstein to Mickey Mouse has had this experience. It comes with the territory of trying to innovate. Most of us, unfortunately, have a hard time acknowledging it.
"Not knowing" has become a euphemism for "ignorance". And so begins our curious routine of appearing to know and giving bogus answers -- to ourselves and others -- in a pitiful attempt to mask our confusion and maintain a sense of control, brilliance, and selfhood.
Our discomfort with not knowing prevents us from mining the value of this potentially fertile time of dislocation.
Picasso understood. "The act of creation," he said, "is first of all an act of destruction."
Indeed, great breakthroughs often emerge after times of dissolution, chaos, and confusion. Wasn't the universe itself created out of chaos?
llya Prigogine, a leading brain researcher, describes this phenomenon as the "Theory of Dissipative Structures". Simply put, when things fall apart, they eventually reorganize themselves on a higher level (if they don't first become extinct).
There is no need to fight confusion. Let it be. It's a stage we must pass through on the road to creation. Fighting confusion only makes it worse -- like trying to clean a dirty pond by poking at it with a stick.
And, besides, even while our conscious mind is telling us we're confused, our subconscious mind is processing a mile a minute to come up with some amazing solutions. In the shower. While we're exercising. Even in our dreams.
Look at it this way...
First, we refuse (to have our status quo threatened). Then, we get confused (trying to sort out all the new input). Then, we try to diffuse the process (by regressing or denying.) Eventually, we get infused (inundated by new insights). And, finally, we get fused (connecting with previously unrelated elements to form a new and unified whole).
Your next step? Allow confusion to be what it is -- the catalyst for more elegant outcomes. And if you really can't stand the confusion, here are seven simple things you can do to go beyond it:
1. Take a break from the problem at hand
2. Identify what's confusing you. Name it
3. Talk about your confusion with friends
4. Seek out missing information
5. Reframe your problem, starting with the words "How can I?"
6. Pay attention to your dreams and other clues bubbling up from your subconscious
7. Maintain a longer term perspective ("this too shall pass")
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:44 AM | Comments (10)
May 23, 2018Why It's Almost Impossible to Juggle 15 Balls
VIDEO: It All Began with Balls
ARTICLE: It All Began with Balls
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Idea Champions
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May 22, 2018WHAT IS YOUR WOW PROJECT?
Here's the only creative thinking technique you will ever need. Three minutes worth. Ready? Answer this question: "What is one thing you want to manifest in this world before you die -- something that will stretch you to the limits and be of service to others?
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2018VIDEO: Nine Steps to Creating a Culture of Innovation
Big thanks to Jon Peters, of Athena Online (the Micro-Learning Gods) for getting the word out about my culture of innovation work. Click here to watch the video. And here's Idea Champions' Micro-Learning offering to help you raise the bar for innovation. Simple. Self-paced. Cost-effective. Interested? info@ideachampions.com
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:48 AM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2018The Kindness-At-Work Manifesto
It has recently come to my attention that some of the most loving, passionate, well-intentioned people in the world have a tendency to treat their co-workers unkindly -- especially during times of stress or on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Consumed by their need to do something extraordinary for humanity, they forget the people they work with are human.
And so, in an effort to restore a Culture of Caring to organizations everywhere. it is my honor to present to you the Kindness-At-Work Manifesto -- 40 daily opportunities to go beyond the imperfections of your co-workers and rise to a place of uncommon goodness.
Where does it begin? With your intention to maintain your commitment to kindness any time one of your co-workers does not.
CHOOSE KINDNESS WHEN YOUR CO-WORKERS...
1. Forget to acknowledge you for a job well done
2. Take credit for something they had little to do with
3. Don't reply to your emails
4. Talk behind your back
5. Eat the last cookie
6. Withhold vital information
7. Expect you to work on the weekends
8. Forget to send you the agenda
9. Make an impossible request on you at the end of the day
10. Criticize you for not responding to their email when the item they wanted you to read was the 93rd item on the list
11. Don't let you finish a sentence
12. See the glass not as half empty, or half full, but cracked
13. Have no clue how to listen
14. Preface their regular attempts to criticize you with "Do you have a moment? I'd like to share some feedback with you."
15. Arrive late to every meeting
16. Talk to the boss about your shortcomings before airing it out with you, one-on-one
17. Expect you to cover for them every time they do a half-assed job
18. Start humming Bee Gee songs with no warning
19. Expect you to "do the math" every time your team goes out for lunch, then proceed to forget to calculate the tip and the tax when they leave too little cash for their part of the meal
20. Seek competition instead of collaboration
21. CC you on more emails than the US Tax Code has corporate loopholes
22. Think you're an idiot
23. Forget to ask how you are after your operation
24. Rarely look you in the eye
25. Make up phony excuses why they didn't return your phone call
26. Start talking about their new ringtone as if it was the Holy Grail
27. Think they know more than you do
28. Worship data
29. Talk about their old LSD experiences every time you say the word "watermelon".
30. Only express kindness when they want something from you
31. Forget to forgive you for an old mistake you made
32. Ask you to help them start a blog at 5:30 pm
33. Give you bad information regularly, then wonder why you're late with whatever it is they expect from you
34. Think they are closer to God than you because they went to a yoga class last February
35. Invite you to brainstorming sessions that are nothing more than their veiled attempts to get you to praise their pet ideas
36. Send you emails with emoticons
37. Think they're your friend because they friended you on Facebook
38. Enter into every conversation with you as if they were late for a meeting with a more important person
39. Never return the books they borrow
40. Think you're not committed because you don't work 90 hours a week
Of course, the above 40 items don't tell you how to be kind -- they only name the occasions where kindness is missing. But guess what? No one needs to teach how to be kind. You already know how to be kind.
Your next step? Choose one of the 40 opportunities above and be conscious of it all next week. Then, when one of your co-workers manifests that behavior, choose kindness.
Also in the Huffington Post
Idea Champions
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)
May 09, 2018An Alternative to Launching Yet Another Innovation Initiative
Many organizations committed to raising the bar for innovation, end up launching some kind of internally branded "innovation initiative". Logically speaking, this makes sense, but logic is not the most powerful driver of innovation. Most employees cringe at the thought of yet another "initiative" being foisted on them.
So... instead of launching an initiative, help people take initiative by becoming more committed to fostering innovation in every conversation they have on the job -- something you can learn more about, in then next three minutes, by watching this newly produced 3-minute video of me addressing this topic.
Innovation from the inside out
Idea Champions
My new book
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May 07, 2018Perfect Advice for Anyone In Your Organization Resistant to Change
MitchDitkoff.com
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My new book
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Breaking the Unbreakable Barrier
As the story goes, several years ago the CEO of Dow Corning walked into his company's R&D lab and spoke two sentences: "Glass breaks," was the first. "Why don't you do something about it?" was the second. That's it. Just two sentences. Then he turned and left the room.
The R&D team, a brilliant group of inventors, was curious, but they were also skeptical. After all, at that time, one of the properties of glass was breakable, just like one of the properties of water was wet. Unbreakable glass? What? Huh? A paradox. A condundrum. A seeming impossibility. Nevertheless, the R&D team got busy and ended up creating 18 different unbreakable glass products. Three of them became commercially viable and one, the now famous Corelle line of dinnerware, became a multi-million dollar line of revenue.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What powerful question can YOU ask your team, department, or entire organization today? What seemingly impossible breakthrough can you spark by getting people curious enough to go beyond the status quo?
The power of asking the right question
Idea Champions
My breakthrough book on storytelling
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2018These Eight Forward Thinking Executives Walk Into a Bar
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." -- Alan Kay
Here's how. A highly engaging, productive, enjoyable two-day offsite for Senior Teams committed to co-creating a compelling, unified vision of the future for their team, department, or entire organization. Not for the faint of heart...
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:42 AM | Comments (0)
May 03, 201834 Quotes on Leadership
1. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter F. Drucker
2. "If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny." - Dee Hock
3. "A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say 'we did it ourselves.'" - Lao Tzu
4. "The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader." - Albert Einstein
5. "The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why." - Warren Bennis
6. "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you." - Max DePree
7. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
8. "The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist." - Eric Hoffer
9. "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln
10. "Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead." - Ross Perot
11. "Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob." - Oscar Wilde
12. "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." - John Kenneth Galbraith
13. "Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." - Harold S. Geneen
14. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." - John Maxwell
15. "The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision."-Theodore Hesburgh
16. "The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." - Kenneth Blanchard
17. "Leaders conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts." - John Gardner
18. "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
19. "The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense
stress lies at the heart of effective leadership." - Jim Loehr
20. "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they
will surprise you with their ingenuity." - General George Patton
21. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Bill Gates
22. "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." - Norman Schwarzkopf
23. I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control." - Margaret Wheatley
24. "The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey S. Firestone
25. "One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." - Arnold Glasow
26. "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader
27. "You don't lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
28. "Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." - Stephen Covey
29. "No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings." - Peter Drucker
30. "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt
31. "A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon Bonaparte
32. "To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone." - Harry Truman
33. "Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing." - Albert Schweitzer
34. "People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert." - Theodore Roosevelt
Big thanks to Val Vadeboncoeur for locating most of these quotes.
Idea Champions
Ingenious Leadership
How Leaders Foster a Culture of Innovation
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:06 AM | Comments (2)
May 02, 2018One Quality of a Good Executive
38 quotes on leadership
Al Siraat college making a difference in the world
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Photo: Evelyne Pouget
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May 01, 2018Visioning and Strategic Planning Sessions for Executive Teams
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Alan Kay
Face it. Most corporate strategic planning processes are boring, tedious, and highly ineffective -- a day or two of smart, highly paid executives sitting in a hotel meeting room and wishing it was over. Bad muffins. Bad lighting. And plastic ferns. The outcomes? Some new ideas, a rarely-read report, and the vague recollection that the same thing happened last year. Bottom line, a lost opportunity.
The reason why? The process used to go beyond the status quo was either lame, incomplete, or poorly facilitated. Sound familiar?
Enter Seize the Future, Idea Champions' highly engaging, two-day offsite that gets Senior Teams out of their ruts and into the kind of mindset and rigor required to create an inspired vision and strategy for their company's future.
Designed and facilitated by Idea Champions' co-founder, Steven McHugh, Seize the Future, has been used with dozens of top teams at a wide range of Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies. It works every time and will work for you, as well, no matter what your industry.
The deliverable? A consciously-conceived, inspired, and actionable vision/strategy that has been signed in blood (i.e. indelible magic marker) by the very movers and shakers whose job it is to help their organization craft a bold new, profitable future.
Intrigued? Want to speak with Steven and find out more? He is just an email away. A 15-minute call is all that's needed for you and Steven to determine if Seize the Future is right for you. Steven@ideachampions.com -- or leave a message for us at 845.679.1066.
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