Generating More Ideas

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Ideas are everywhere. But ‘to create something novel, you must know what already exists.’

A thorough understanding of the subject matter allows anyone to understand the familiar baseline of their medium.’

‘If seeing something more makes you like it more, how can we use that to create hits?’

‘The more we’re exposed to something, the less we fear it.’

‘Familiarity doesn’t make us like things more. Rather, it makes us fear things less.’

‘The individuals who ultimately become known as creative geniuses know to abandon ideas long before they ever reach this point.’

When you peocess things deeply, you take time to evaluate them, and your competing emotions involving familiarity and novelty come into play.’

Experience makes generating ideas easier, but what happens if you don’t have experience?

Consumption provides the fuel. But how do you turn that fuel into conscious ideas?’

Structure, formulas, patterns, recipes, norms, and so forth aren’t a burden at all; in fact, they’re widely considered tools of the craft.’

‘Creation mostly has to do with the adaptation of something familiar. ‘There aren’t many truly original ideas. Originality and creativity are really just about clever remixes.”

Constraints, in fact, enable a ‘remix culture.’

Source:

Allen Gannett (2018). The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time

Leading In A Chaotic World

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Leadership is not for everybody. Great leaders know that. That is why they don’t take it for granted.

Leading other people is not about control. It is not about being the boss. It is not about who has more power.

Leading other people is about vision. It is about care. It is about being a good person, a good follower, and a good farmer.

According to George Binney, Philip Glanfield and Gerhard Wilke, ‘The authority to lead is not something given from above; it is negotiated, day by day, between people as they work together.’

‘Organizational politics and leading is not just about being a good boss; it’s also about being a good subordinate, and a good citizen of a living community.’

‘Constant negotiation and adaptation is needed, as people and circumstances change. The key is to ‘get real’ about yourself and the group.’

‘Knowing what works well in different parts of the organization (or other organization) can provide useful data, but we still have to do the work to make it our own.’

‘Leadership groups that cannot hold their differences end up in ‘group think’ because they have developed a shared and fixed view of the world.’

Paying attention to feelings is not a luxury or a diversion. The feelings are there for a reason. If we can face them and consider them, then we can be of service to the group.’

‘Leaders need to pay attention to the social fabric of the group and ensure that it legitimizes their authority and develop a sense of secure attachment to them. People work for people, not abstract documents or perfectionist, fanciful targets.’

‘If leaders see themselves as separate from the people they are leading they are not only kidding themselves, they are seeing themselves and others only as a means.’

‘Without the courage or the commitment to act, you are part of the problem.’

‘Leaders need to stick with the vision and strategy when the going gets tough- as it inevitably will.’

Source:

George Binney, Philip Glanfield & Gerhard Wilke (2017). Breaking Free of Bonkers: How to Lead in Today’s Crazy World of Organizations