Every week, we publish an exciting summary of the best articles, videos, events, and posts that relate to innovative management. This week, check out these 9 articles that inspire better management. Enjoy!
Listening to Shame
TEDShame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behavior. Brené Brown, whose earlier talk on vulnerability became a viral hit, explores what can happen when people confront their shame head-on. Her own humor, humanity and vulnerability shine through every word.
James Cameron Now at Ocean's Deepest Point
National GeographicAs of 5:52 p.m. ET Sunday (7:52 a.m. Monday, local time), James Cameron has arrived at the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep, members of the National Geographic expedition have confirmed.
His depth on arrival: 35,756 feet (10,898 meters)—a figure unattainable anywhere else in the ocean.
Reaching bottom, the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker typed out welcome words for the cheering support crew waiting at the surface: "All systems OK." Folded into a sub cockpit as cramped as any Apollo capsule, the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker is now investigating a seascape more alien to humans than the moon. Cameron is only the third person to reach this Pacific Ocean valley southwest of Guam (map)—and the only one to do so solo.
Hubris and the Data Scientist
Cloud of DataReadWriteWeb‘s Joe Brockmeier captures a recurring issue from last week’s O’Reilly Strata conference, asking “Can Big Data replace domain expertise?” According to Brockmeier, the audience (of data scientists) apparently narrowly agreed that their arsenal of tools and algorithms trumped the knowledge and experience of the meteorologists, financiers, and retailers to whose domains data scientists are increasingly turning.
Is Kindness a Strategy?
HBRHere’s how it works. When a problem occurs, swift and effective resolution can elevate repurchase intent to a level that’s actually greater than if the problem had never occurred at all. Every problem, if managed well, is thus an “opportunity” to boost overall loyalty among a company’s already loyal customers. Spill soup on a guest in the hotel dining room? Solution: offer on the spot to dry clean the suit or, if the damage is severe, offer to replace it entirely. The customer is delighted; the employee has done the right thing; the hotel raises that customer’s lifetime value.
The Origins of Positive-Constructive Daydreaming
The important difference between mind wandering and daydreaming
Psychology TodayOnce accused of being absent-minded, the founder of American Psychology, William James, quipped that he was really just present-minded to his own thoughts. William James didn’t just live in his own head, but he also studied the phenomenon, coining the term “stream of thought” in 1890. In his famous textbook Principles of Psychology, he opened an early chapter with the following: “We now begin our study of the mind from within”. He clearly saw the internal stream of consciousness as an important topic within psychology.
Daydreaming may be regarded as a feature of William James’ stream of thought. It is characterized by a shift of attention away from focusing on a physical or mental task to a series of thoughts derived from long-term memory (often taking a narrative form). Daydreaming may be regarded as falling within the general phenomenon of mind-wandering except that much of mind-wandering may be characterized by shifts of attention from an already ongoing task towards new sensory reactions in the individual’s physical, social, or bodily environment rather than towards one’s thoughts derived ultimately from long term memory.
Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort
BlogMaverick"Follow Your Passion' is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get. Why ? Because everyone is passionate about something. We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives.
Think about all the things you have been passionate about in your life. If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time.
Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you:
- When you work hard at something you become good at it.
- When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.
- When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it
- When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.
The Godfather of Punk on Creativity and Innovation
InnovationExcellenceRichard Strange is ‘punk rock’s illegitimate Godfather’, having preceded the Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Ramones and The Clash with his highly influential pop art band ‘The Doctors of Madness’. Richard’s career has spanned pop art, punk, writing and acting, most famously for his film roles in Batman, alongside Jack Nicholson and in Robin Hood and Harry Potter. Kiss Hello Tomorrow – Strange but wise advice for innovators.
Richard concluded by offering 3 pieces of advice to the aspiring artist trying to carve out an innovative niche for themselves.
If you want to be more productive, do less work
Thought LeadersWant to be more productive? Just do less work.
I know you’re probably scratching your head right now wondering how to not get fired by taking this recommendation. The truth is you’ll probably be on your way to a promotion if you pull this off correctly.
Step 1: Eliminate the Extremely Stupid Crap.
Step 2: Stop the Moderately Stupid Crap.
Step 3: Make the Remaining Stupid Crap Simpler.
Step 4: Take all that newly-found time and spend it on crap that matters. You’ve freed up time, bandwidth, and energy. Reinvest those into the projects you know will make a difference. Or simply spend a few hours less at the office to get your life back in balance. See? Do less work. Be more productive.
Gamification
TopTrends Now And NextGamification is the application of online gaming techniques, like gaining points or status, to engage the attention or alter the behaviour of individuals or communities. Wearable devices linked to game-like systems, for instance, could induce overweight people to take more exercise or eat healthy foods.
Gamification works on three principles:
First, people can be competitive (with themselves and with others).That’s why if you regularly buy a coffee at your local coffee shop you might end up with a nice badge courtesy of a company like Foursquare. And perhaps why, if you drink enough coffee at the same place, you might be crowned the coffee shop king – for a day. Or there’s Chore Wars, where people battle the washing up in return for virtual points or avatar energy boosts.
Second, people will share certain kinds of information.
Third, people like to be rewarded.
