Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the month “September, 2009”

26 Sep 2009
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Run a Business Like Making a Movie

Films are successful only if everyone, from key grip to leading actor, shares a common understanding of what the end result must look and sound like.

Harvard Business Review’s Bendapudi & Bendapudi use Limited Brand’s CEO’s Les Wexner’s citation of Sidney Lumet’s book Making Movies to make the point about the role of leadership; to use language that employees get to get them to achieve things together.

The idea of leader as director and the company’s strategy as a movie is fantastic. The role of communication and engagement of the participants in the creation of a future reality (what consumers will buy) is a wonderful mindshift of the normal things leaders consider important.

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Posted in Communication, Creativity, Focus, Game Playing, Leadership, Vision and Goal Setting and tagged , ,
22 Sep 2009

Are We Getting Better at Thinking?…and Innovating?

For all the talk of the evils of the web in terms of driving us to attention deficit/ dispersal, a few areas I’ve been reading have glued together in my head which may make a case for the opposition:

First, in a fantastic book on writing powerfully for business: We, Me, Them & It,  John Simmons makes a point, ‘For as long as I can remember I’ve used writing to sort out my thinking’

I’ve been toying round with a way of prioritising my time – personally and at work – around 5Cs: Create, Connect and Collaborate, Communicate and Consume. So in that order, I try and allocate any time I have to ensure I’m not just consuming or communicating. Since I restarted writing and refocusing on creativity nearly sixteen months ago, I’ve probably never been happier. I’ve argued to others that it makes my brain feel fresher and more flexible. The act of creation is satisfying, and I feel that I think better as a result of forcing myself to articulate things better – even when I play with words or ‘dump’ thoughts without much structure. I find this unblocks my thinking. Read more…

Posted in Communication, Creativity, Learning, Neuroscience, Psychology, Social Networks, Writing and tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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