Oct/110
Be Inspired to Celebrate YOUR Thinking
WWSD? (What would Steve do?)
He would change!
Since the passing two weeks ago of one of the world’s greatest thinkers, we have had a media deluge of information about Steve Jobs, his life, his words and his brilliance. As a student of great thinkers and a lover of quotes, I have compiled in this post many of my favorites and some food for thought as you contemplate what we can learn from Steve.
Most of all, it is not about trying to imitate his thinking! The irony, I believe, is that what is happening—in a way, making him a thinking “God,” as we strive to push our own innovation and thinking by studying him to replicate what he did— is the last thing Steve would have wanted. As he said in the Stanford commencement address:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
As a thinker, Jobs was a leader who could “see around corners”—a trait I hear many are working to develop in this increasingly complex and rapidly changing world.
“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” (Inc. Magazine)
His thinking epitomized the future-oriented, conceptual, design-focused thinking preference (Yellow D-quadrant thinking in our Whole Brain® parlance.) Yet his ability to serve all needs of the business while still honoring his core tenants, great design, usability and user friendly technical innovation showed how his thinking actually served a Whole Brain® outcome.
I believe this contributed to what made him the truly remarkable business person he was: his ability to drive the top and bottom line, create a culture of extreme change and project the needs of the customer before the customer knows what they are. In addition, his obsession with quality and execution rounded out his thinking approach:
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
Most of all, like most great leaders I have observed, Steve understood what he was good at and where he struggled:
“My model for business is the Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check. They believed in each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts.” (60 Minutes interview, 2008)
One of the most important lessons we can learn from Steve is this: The secret is leveraging the thinking of others who complement your thinking. Steve’s “islands of brilliance” were more oriented to those traits we often associate with the right brain. COO Tim Cook complemented him as more of the traditional left. The 2009 Harvard Business Review article Innovation in Turbulent Times noted:
Apple may have the best-known both-brain partnership. CEO Steve Jobs has always acted as the creative director and has helped to shape everything from product design and user interfaces to the customer experience at Apple’s stores. COO Tim Cook has long handled the day-to-day running of the business.
Ironically, I understand that much of Steve’s net worth was actually in Disney assets. Steve was acutely aware of what happened after Walt Disney passed. If people would ask, “What would Walt have done?” Steve knew the answer: Walt would have changed! The last thing Steve would have wanted is for people try to think like he did to solve problems we will face in the future.
Those who knew him personally as a friend are grieving a great father and family man. May he rest in peace.
And for us, instead of trying to figure out what Steve would have done, we should follow one of his key messages: Celebrate your own thinking. Be inspired. Take action. Live!
What can you learn from Steve Jobs that will help you celebrate your thinking? Which of his quotes that follow are your favorites, or are there others that inspire your thinking? Share them with us in the comments.
Oct/106
Close the Gender Gap! Problem Solving Improves When More Women are on the Team
Years ago, our founder Ned Herrmann proposed that gender-balanced, heterogeneous teams would be more creative and effective. At the time, this idea seemed reasonable to most, but was challenged by others who felt it was perhaps too politically correct and difficult to prove. At last there is research, published this week in Science Daily, that substantiates this premise.
Although it makes sense that diversity – having different perspectives on a given problem and its solution, would drive innovation – it is often overlooked as a critical process step. Our research has demonstrated that mental diversity in a team or group can provide up to 66% more effectiveness vs. random groups. Fred Keeton, Chief Diversity Officer for Harrah’s has applied that to create what he calls Diverse By Design teams to tackle the company’s most pressing business problems.
This latest research sought to better understand how groups perform and more specifically what might facilitate or hinder that performance: “We set out to test the hypothesis that groups, like individuals, have a consistent ability to perform across different kinds of tasks,” says Anita Williams Woolley, the paper’s lead author and an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.
“Our hypothesis was confirmed,” continues Thomas W. Malone, a co-author and Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “We found that there is a general effectiveness, a group collective intelligence, which predicts a group’s performance in many situations.”
Groups that show greater “social sensitivity,” which entails effectively perceiving others’ emotions, performed better than other groups, especially those that were one-person dominated. The “social sensitivity” factor was greater in groups with more women—which can also be substantiated by our HBDI® assessment research showing that women overall tend to have stronger preferences in that domain.
I have gotten mixed reactions to our gender-related research over the years. Some women find it offensive to imply that they are using their brains differently than men do. The facts and research do prove however that women do use their brains differently, and there are important consequences that emerge. Our differences can in fact be an advantage as this research demonstrates.
Difference does not imply better or worse, right or wrong, but may make our group process feel more annoying or cumbersome. Bringing together different preferences and styles into a group process may be inconvenient and require greater facilitation skills, but the fact is, when you can effectively harness those varied styles through Whole Brain® Thinking techniques, you will get better results.
As the Science Daily article explains, “When it comes to intelligence, the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts.”
You can find more success factors for diverse teams by downloading the article, Improve Group Productivity.
May/100
Innovative Learning Takes on Today’s Workplace Challenges
As new challenges place greater demands on businesses to be nimbler, smarter and more innovative, companies are looking for the most efficient and effective ways to rapidly build the capabilities of their high-potential employees.
With the recent announcement of the US Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Awards, Herrmann International’s program, The Thinking Accelerator™ featuring HBDIinteractive™, is demonstrating that a Whole Brain® approach – both in content and delivery methods – is vital for addressing today’s workplace performance challenges.
This blended learning solution received the USDLA’s 2010 Gold Award for Best Practices in Distance Learning Programming. It was also recognized last fall with a Silver Learning in Practice Award for Excellence in Content from Chief Learning Officer Magazine.
Originally developed with IBM as part of its global new leader development program, The Thinking Accelerator™ featuring HBDIinteractive™ gives companies the ability to meet learners “where they are” with insights into their own thinking preferences and skills to apply Whole Brain® Thinking to improve their on-the-job effectiveness. It is now being implemented by organizations of all sizes and industries in a variety of applications.
Some are deploying it to meet individual learner needs while others are finding it useful in ramping up large-scale initiatives spanning continents. We’ve heard about its role in initiatives to improve teamwork, communication and innovation in addition to leadership development – all the critical skills organizations are dealing with in the 21st century work environment.
And beyond traditional elearning, many HBDI® Certified Practitioners are using it in conjunction with classroom workshops. As Deb DeNure, founder of DB Associates, told us:
“Ultimately it helps learners to be self-directed and learn to communicate in an appropriate fashion for the situation.”
The essence of Whole Brain® Thinking and learning.
Tell us: How are you using the Thinking Accelerator™ to get better results?
Haven’t seen it yet? Be sure to contact us to learn more about this award-winning learning solution.
