» Yael Blum

Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness | Video on TED.com

Yael Blum — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:52:28 +0000

Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness | Video on TED.com.

Creative Capacity

Yael Blum — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:32:28 +0000

What are you doing to capitalize on the creativity around you? Creativity is the natural birthright of every person. And depending on whom you talk to (or read), it is considered the number one competitive advantage for success in business and life today. So what are you doing to unleash its potential? Buddhist teachings refer to something called Crazy Wisdom. It is

“an innocent state of mind that has the quality of early morning—fresh, sparkling, and completely awake.” (Chögyam Trungpa)

I am saddened by the dull, stale thinking that goes on in most of our organizations and institutions. People seem really bored and most brilliant ideas remain dormant due to the fact that no conditions exist to nurture people’s natural creative talents. To unleash even a little of that crazy wisdom in your organization, try the following:

Assume responsibility for building your creative capacity.
Be willing to set aside assumptions about your or other people’s lack of creativity.
Ask people about how they think they could bring more creativity to their work.
Create an environment that is conducive to good conversation, experimentation and idea sharing across departments and industries.
Take a different approach when it comes to process and planning.
Challenge people with good questions and stimulating opportunities.
See mistakes as part of the necessary learning and feedback process.
Provide a formal means for idea generation.
Decide how you will capture good ideas.
Don’t rush to evaluate.
Utilize creativity building tools whenever you can.
Develop your appreciation for and understanding of creativity.
Get dirty, messy and a little crazy.
Be willing to have fun and learn with others.

I invite you to leave a reply regarding your efforts to build the creative capacity in your life and work…Thank you. Yael

Designing Dialogue

Yael Blum — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:01:39 +0000

There is a quote that goes something like this: the quality of your conversations is the quality of your life. Few of us wake up in the morning with a clear sense of who we might end up having a conversation with. At least not the agenda free variety. Sure you might be leading a meeting, or gearing up for “that conversation” you wish you didn’t have to have, but beyond that we rarely set out to have rich and meaningful conversations about anything. This, I think, is a real shame and a missed opportunity to add value to our own lives and the lives of others. Statistics tell us that parents spend on average no more than 10 minutes per week-in conversation with their children. And in the work force conversation is being reduced e-mails, text messages and tweets. An unhurried conversations leads to unpredictable discoveries; it facilitates social bonding, and puts people in touch with their own and other peoples’ values, assumptions, ideas and strategies. The fact is we all know when we have had a good conversation because we leave bigger and better for having had it. Perhaps it’s time to take inventory of the quality of your conversations. Are you providing openings for dialogue? Are you giving people your attention? Are you using conversation strategically to boost creativity and innovation? Are you deepening your relationships through sharing and listening?

Six Billion Others

Yael Blum — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:26:04 +0000

I stumbled upon the most astonishing and ambitious web site i have ever seen. Called Six Billion Others it is the grand work of photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand. In an effort to help the world understand itself he dispatched 5 photographers around the globe to conduct interviews with all sorts of people about big life questions and the result is this interactive website. You can create an account and share your own perspective, you can assist with translation and site maintenance, you can share it with your friends. He also completed a movie that was released for free download called Home that he hopes people will share and use to inspire our collective imagination and commitment to save the planet before its too late. This man is a true champion and should be celebrated for his visionary approach!

Bamboozled!

Yael Blum — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:30:16 +0000

I have a tall privacy fence surrounding my backyard. The ally is paved and not particularly charming and i just prefer not to look at it when i am out in the garden. But this isn’t about my fence, it’s about making sure the right people are on our teams and in our organizations. But let me take you back to my garden for just a moment: When i bought my house i brought with me a container of bamboo, and because it met some criteria i deemed important at the time- sleek, beautiful, green, tall- i planted it. That was five years ago and today the bamboo is pushing itself up through the pavement in the ally, obstructing the gate which can no longer open or shut properly and generally pushing its way around my “organization’ with little regard for the rest of us. That pervasive problem is similar to what occurs when we fail to use our hiring intelligence. Having the wrong people- bullies, incompetents, attitudinal disasters, makes it very difficult for other things to grow. And we must be prepared to deal with that fact if we don’t take the time up front to select wisely and train and mentor accordingly. At this point, in attempting to remedy the poor choice i made five years ago, i have four options: Quarentine the bamboo; allow it to take over the entire garden; sell the house and pass the problem on to someone else- or GET RID OF IT.

Clarity of vision and purpose makes hiring a whole lot easier and using learning tools to identify personal style preferences and values can help to ensure the right people are growing together.