Growing by Design
Your Genius is Needed
It is an uncomfortable thought for many to think "your genius is needed." And yet, it is. We only use 10% of our brains and yet we have massive problems facing our country, our businesses, our lives--you name it. Can we really expect more out of...
Leaps of Faith
The toughest question to answer in Design Thinking is how to PROVE in ADVANCE that it is yielding the right direction; the same is true for a start up idea. I can answer those questions over time, in hindsight, but it is anyone's guess projecting forward on any given...
Crowd Sourcing versus Community Building
Crowd Sourcing is all the rage. Loans, venture capital, logos, they are all capable of being sourced from strangers, thanks to the power of technology. It is enticing. Yet, crowds are collections of invisible, unseen people who don't know each other. They don't have...
Inspirations from BIF9
Last week I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island to spend a couple of days at BIF9 with "innovation junkies" to share stories about Innovation. It was thought provoking and inspirational. Over the next several weeks, my blogs will be inspired by these stories. It...
21st Century Leadership…Lessons from Design Thinking
Leaders today need additional skills for the changing world they face. The tools of the 20th century are incomplete when you consider the speed of the flat world and the vexing challenges we confront. I think there are 3 key tools for leaders to add into...
Design Thinking and Lean Six Sigma…Kissing Cousins
Recently, I attended a training class to learn more about Lean Six Sigma. I had heard of it often from my manufacturing and engineering friends; and when they would ask how design thinking was similar or different, I was stumped. After all, they sound...
Name Calling
What’s in a name? I remember when my husband and I were choosing names for our children, we wanted to find the perfect name that would support their dreams. It was a daunting task. If I knew of someone who was suspect with that name, it was stricken from the list...
Meeting vs. doing
How much time do you spend in meetings?Stop and think about it...it is significant. Have you ever felt like all you do is meet and nothing moves ahead? I tried a little experiment using a curious app I found “meeting calc” (pictured here) and I calculated...
Car Caché …. prototyping and curiosity at its best!
If you are like me, there are many times a day when I question why something works the way it does (or doesn’t work). Little annoyances that I accept as "the way it is" present themselves to me. These moments represent innovation potential, if you...
On Empathy: Why Should You Care?
I love Tire Discounters. How can that be? It’s simple -- Tire Discounters has empathy for me: They greet me with respect and have a comfortable waiting room. Often they provide immediate service, even without an appointment. They know that I only want the...
