Inspiring Talent on Recruitment

There is a wonderful quote from Steve Jobs. He is quoted as asking John Sculley

"Do you want to sell fizzy water for the rest of your life or do you want a chance to change the world?"

John Sculley was inspired not by the job but the purpose to unleash the creativity in all of us....how do you inspire talent to come and work for you?

Creativity in a Box

Michael Eisner the former head of Disney does not believe that throwing money at a venture breeds creativity. He likes to describe the need for creativity in a box - ie creativity but one that must come in on budget. He tells of the Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was a film that had been rejected many times but they decided to go ahead with it - on a strict budget.

Harrison Ford on the day of the sword fight was ill - and kept running to the toilet. They could not afford the delay with the filming - so changed the scene from a sword fight to Harrison Ford getting his pistol out and shooting the guy! This became a famous comic scene and added to the film...the creativity was forced on them by constraints.

I never mind a small budget for anything...because I know that others would fail, but I love the challenge of creating something wonderful with little resource.

Developing Cool Products

I just love this quote from Hugh Macleod from the Gaping Void blog

"If you wanna have a cool product, you gotta do cool sh**!"

I just love this quote and have it on my desk......the more you read it, the more sense it makes.
Doing cool stuff means taking a few risks, but without risk you won't get cool stuff.

I will extend this quote now

"If you wanna be a cool leader, you gotta take a risk and allow people to do cool sh**!"

How do you inspire innovation?

Do you ask for ideas? Do you hold creative sessions? Or do you speak like Jeff Immelt of GE who asked his teams for

"breath-taking, mind blogging, word rattling, technological innovation"

Now that is inspiring talk, that is helping people not to have an idea but to have a dream....to create something special. Both approaches are asking in reality for the same thing, but one uses words that stir emotion, that stir the company to want to create success.

Understanding why people reject your idea

A great example from history is Galileo who claimed that the sun was at the centre of the solar system. Did everyone celebrate the idea, did people welcome this thought, did he get promoted(!) at his next appraisal?

Far from it, he faced persecution from the Church. Why? Was it the idea that they rejected, no it was how the idea made them feel, it would not have mattered what was at the centre they were thrown as someone was advocating a theory that was different to theirs.....years go by and the principle stays true.

Make sure that you understand that to be successful in convincing people of an idea, you must address their feelings, their preconceived ideas, their sense of holding on to the past. Then present the idea as a solution to an existing problem - not as a revolutionary idea that will change the centre of their universe.

People reject what they don't understand, they fear big change...to get an idea accepted you need to ease the audience into the future....

Failing is not failure it is learning

When you make a mistake or something does not turn out as you expect - remember this WD40 was named after the 40 attempts to get it right.

Unsuccessful attempts are only failures when you don't use the learning to create success in the future.

To Be Creative Think with No Barriers

A cement company in Qatar has built a cement factory on a ship - to ensure that they can get the cement around the gulf wherever there is a supply shortage.

Imagine the seen at that meeting when someone suggested that as an idea...but it is brilliant. When you want your team to think of solutions allow the whacky, allow them not to think of constraints...allow them to think freely. If the idea would solve the problem then brainstorm how to get round the constraints....

Don't fear young Einstein's

Sometimes people fear creative ideas, fear those people who want to push the boundaries, who want to challenge some of the thinking. For me, they are the people that could take your business forward - love your mavericks.

Remember Einstein, on the most brilliant thinkers of our time was

• Slow to speak as a child
• Sent packing by a headmaster
• Unable to get a doctorate because he alienated professors who didn't like to be challenged
• Working as a 3rd class examiner at a patent office when he espoused the theory of relativity.

Mavericks may need some boundaries like every other person but don't kill the creativity by making them conform....

Beating the Competition

A quote from Mark Twain helps us understand our competition

"The best swordsman shouldn't fear the 2nd best: no the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do and often catches the expert out and ends him on the spot."

At work we need to concentrate on being the best, and learning from the young companies who think and act differently. The second best is watching you, but the younger companies are looking for a differentiating factor. To be a leader of a successful business make sure that you are at the head of the pack but then learn from new starters. This is also true for learning from the new managers...they might not have the experience but they do have new ideas.

Lessons from an Elephant trainer on management!

I read this story and thought it was a great metaphor for managers and their teams. Vivek Paul, CEO of Wipro Technologies said that he saw an elephant trainer outside Bangalore.

The trainer had 3 elephants tied to 3 small stakes, and he asked him "How do you keep such large elephants tied to such small stakes?" The trainer looked and said "When they were young and they tried to break free they couldn't pull the stakes over. When they grow older they don't try anymore."

How often has this approach affected us, at work or at home. We need to shake off the shackles of the past and keep our minds pushing new boundaries. We know what we are capable of now so why limit ourselves today on past limitations. We have changed, times have changed. Don't be afraid to try something because it failed in the past - you are now a different person, you have new skills, you have new experiences - this time it may succeed.

Think also about how you may have affected others - have you blocked something in the past, which prevents them from trying in the future or blocked ideas?

Learning from the New Generation

On The Engaging Brand, yesterday I published an interview with Billy Smith (Show 39) about how the new generation feel about work and life.

I think we can learn from our children, the younger people at work. Yes, we have the experience but they also have fresh ideas, see things that we don't see. It reminded me of a quote

"Always listen to the young monks: they know all the things that you have forgotten" St Benedict

We can learn about the new technologies but also creativity. When we were younger we were more creative, somehow along the way it gets drained from us. So don't ignore the new starters - listen to what they have to say. Don't ignore because you tried it 5 years ago and it failed. It might be that it will work now.

Fail, fail and then succeed

Have you ever had an idea, gave it a go and it didn't work? Have you ever felt that you were the reason or that your idea was not good enough?

Success comes through persistence....

1. Chuck Yeager threw up on his first flight and swore he was not made for air travel - he later became the first man to break the sound barrier!
2. Charles Carlson developed photocopying in 1938 - 21 years before Xerox produced the first copier.
3. George Burns was 80 when he won his first Oscar.

If success was easy, everyone would be successful. Success comes through perseverance...Tom Peters says Fail, Forward, Fast....

Don't ignore inexperience

One of the easiest things to do, is to dismiss new recruits or young people because they have not "been there and done it"

St Benedict once said "Always listen to the young monks: they know all the things that you have forgotten"

So true.....experience is fantastic but it can often blind you...have you ever said "Oh we have tried that, no that doesn't work...." both these sentences are dangerous - you are assuming that it won't work now, or that the idea is not good.....maybe this time it will work, maybe this time you have the right people to execute it well.....so remember teams are great when experience and lack of experience are both respected and both listen to each other.

Make Targets Exciting

Words like objectives, ,metric, KPI's are all banded around but they are not passionate words. If you want to engage people in achieving targets why not bring some creativity to it?

I bet you have someone in your team, or in your business with some artistic ability. Set a visible target here are some examples

1. Race track - move the car around to the finish line which has the target on it.
2. Archery - move an arrow with the bulls eye as the target.
3. Themes - so at Christmas work up the branches on the tree.
4. Horse race - with the winning post as the target and the horse gets nearer.

The key is to bring fun and creativity to it.