My 3 favorite crowdsourcing sites:
A fun and semi-related site: http://www.ask500people.com/. I enjoy flinging random questions out there and seeing how people respond. Try one now!
Update: How cool is this—I posted my 3 favorite crowdsourcing sites at 10:00 am. By 10:10, the co-founder of www.crowdspring.com adds his comment to this post. That’s the world we live in…everyday is a New York minute!
More and more these days, I’m being asked to find ways of facilitating meaningful and successful change in organizations. Invariably, leadership needs a strategy for bringing about desired change. And there are millions of strategies out there (just google “Change management strategy” and you’ll see). So, I try to keep a pulse on change management efforts that are working out there. Today I came across Root, a forward-thinking group making interesting use of learning maps. Their concept is simple. Their process is fun. Their results are amazing.
The gist of these Learning Maps is that they use visual mapping to enable rapid communications within organizations about new strategy execution. These visual depictions of a new process or strategy tap into a collaborative process and help every employee to see beyond their own job functions to the bigger picture that is “where we are going.” These learning maps engage their workforces by communicating an understanding about the industry and internal business.
Take a “look” at ROOT’s Learning Maps and let me know what you think: http://www.rootlearning.com/www/index.htm
Susan Hendrich
Creative Strategist, Innovator & Leader, James (Not Jim) Patsalides, asks the following question:
He says, “Those of us who are Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) alums would clearly value creative leadership, but are there companies/executives out there who might be nervous of the “creative” part? How can you tell these companies from those who might embrace creativity? Why would they be nervous?”
Creative leadership, scary or not, is the survival key for these uncertain times.
This question reminds me of the following wise words: “Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.” — Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
Creative leadership, therefore, is the management and guidance of our ultimate economic resource.
Here’s how I distinguish companies that embrace creative leadership from those that are run scared:
When I talk to company representatives, I listen to the language they use to describe company happenings. Do they speak in terms of “how we work,” or do they specify individual stories about specific people and teams that creatively solve problems? When I hear specific “breaking the mold” stories about people and ideas, I know that the company is valuing creative leadership.
“The key difference between checkers and chess is that in checkers the pieces all move the same way, whereas in chess all the pieces move differently. … Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know
I’d say more, but I don’t want to scare anyone…
The concept of “vitality affects” is all about joining the rhythm of another, whether that “another” is a person, a song, a place, or a moment. Vitality affects are at the core of my therapeutic style. My style is a natural and literal entrainment with a person’s cognition and emotion, which helps “mirror” the client’s internal experience. This mirroring, or reflecting, allows the client to “see” herself outside of herself, and thus make tweaks and adjustments to her personal “music.” It’s no accident that the term is synonymous with affective attunement (get it? a-TUNE-ment, as in “tuning in” to the music of another).
A great poster on vitality affects: http://www.phil.gu.se/posters/musicmove.pdf.
I have been watching “America’s Got Talent,” a stupid yet mesmerizing talent show with Jerry Springer as host. The two front-running acts include a 400-pound young opera singer and two african american violinists from inner-city NY. The reason these two acts have risen to the top is that we in the audience become entranced by the symphony that is their music, movements, facial expressions, and tangible passion (not to mention their inspiring personal stories). Their vitality affects become hypnotic pendula that mysteriously draw us in and help us to make our own symphonies.
What types of vitality affects are you tuning in to these days?
Susan Hendrich
Here is a shining example of the difference words can make:
1. Tina writes the following on her Think Simple Now blog:
Do you find yourself saying the words I’m sorry or I don’t know often? Did you know that this over-sighted language pattern is actually limiting our potential to happiness and ultimately getting what we want?…
The language we use is incredibly powerful. It is a direct command into our unconscious mind. Whether we realize it or not, or it was spoken casually or not, our unconscious mind is listening. Your unconscious mind takes notes even when you’re not paying attention. Read Tina’s post
2. Then, people make comments on Tina’s post, like this one from Kannan:
Hi Tina,
Great Article.
I think you did lot of work to write this one.
One may wonder how even these simple words can influence our life.
Just like a garden, if we eliminate all the weeds and feed only the plants, our life will be a beautiful garden with wonderful results. Thanks for sharing.Best Wishes,
Kannan Viswagandhi
http://www.growing-self.blogspot.com
3. Other people read Tina’s blog post and Kannan’s response, and start to think…
Hey maybe I need to consider my words more carefully. Yeah, in fact, I will make a change today in some small way. Wait…by thinking that, I just did made a change! Let me write about that change.
4. And the beautiful cycle continues…
Susan E. Hendrich 