Innovation has many enemies, but the one you can count on to rear its ugly head all the time is expertise. You see, true innovation is something new, surprising and radically useful; it’s an order of magnitude better than what currently exists. Expertise driven innovation results in incremental improvements, which is good for stability; but it hinders progress when it comes to making leaps.
Last year I advised a restaurant owner on customer experience strategy for his restaurant. He had previously done benchmarking against other restaurants, but felt and knew he was missing something more deeper, something that would stick with people. Being a giver by nature, he wanted that same attitude to be part of the day to day operation; he felt that was missing. …
Illustration by Christian Laborin
Fake news is killing people’s minds! This is what Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said and he wants to do something about. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that fake news isn’t new.…
No standard behavior change, no innovation. It’s that simple. True Innovation results in a step-change where we can’t imagine going back to the old way, but the road to that outcome is full of rejection. It’s hard to overstate how important this is: if you’re not getting rejected you’re going the wrong way.…
Michael Dearing, a venture capitalist, has developed strong views on the similarities of innovators after screening over three thousand founders and funding over sixty companies since 2006. Dearing observed that the most successful founders are prone to certain “cognitive distortions”: biased, even objectively inaccurate, ways they think of themselves and filter information that enable them to make quicker and better decisions, bounce back from setbacks, and attract talent.
in Podcast, Psychology
Just like we’ve asked about the internet, Google and social networks, the question now shifts to our devices: As our gadgets and devices get smarter and smarter, are we getting less so?
Being connected all the time brings us many benefits, but it also hinders our ability to think for ourselves. We develop tunnel vision, and that makes us less aware of many things. I believe technology is making us smarter, maybe not dumber; but dependent on it. More importantly, it’s makes us feel as though we’re being creative with it when we’re not not.
What obstacles stand in the way of greatness?
Being someone that is on the path of Mastery, I’m in tune with the obstacles that can impede me from achieving Mastery. So, anyone who’s overcome obstacles on the path to Mastery is interesting to me. It’s also one the reasons why I’m a HUGE fan of Robert Greene, the author of The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law and Mastery.
He studies power and mastery in all his books through the lives of people from past and present.
In his latest book, Mastery, he explores the idea of reaching Mastery and how in order to reach it he lays out how social intelligence matters, because you can be brilliant in your field, but if you’re bad with people you neutralize your talent and expertise:…
Are all innovators alike?