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By Josh Linkner
Pilots are required to invest hundreds of hours in simulated flight scenarios before taking command of a live aircraft. Race car simulators help drivers prepare for the unexpected, so that they’ll be fully ready for unforeseen circumstances. Astronauts first experience weightlessness in a simulation chamber so they can become accustomed to a gravity-free environment. Simulations are used by top performing surgeons, symphony conductors, and professional athletes. Attorneys hone their skills in mock trials while boxers spend hours sparring in the ring before the big fight. Closely mimicking a high-stakes experience before it actually happens invariably leads to better performance. Now think for a moment about the work that matters most to you. The importance of interviewing a new job candidate, holding that mission-critical team meeting, or giving an impactful performance review of your team member. Or maybe you’ve got a big upcoming pitch – to an investor, new client, or key partner. Your products and services may be high stakes as well, whether you organize mountain climbing excursions, produce luxury hand-finished furniture, or run a retail shop in a busy shopping mall. How you perform determines how well you’ll serve your customers, family, and community. With such important outcomes on the line, have you first bothered to do a dry run? In the business world, we’re just supposed to know what we’re doing: 50+ hours a week of performance with virtually no time for training and preparation. The idea of an NFL player running zero practice drills before the Super Bowl or a Broadway performer never bothering to rehearse for opening night sounds crazy. Yet isn’t that exactly what we do in our professional lives? If we truly care about performing at the highest level, we must follow the lead of the greats in other professions by embracing a series of simulations before game day. In business, this can often be accomplished through role-playing. For example, if you have a big sales presentation coming up, don’t do the pitch for the first time in front of your prospective client. Instead, gather two colleagues and present to one while the other takes notes and records key points of feedback. Next, rotate and have one of your colleagues pitch you while the other plays the observer role. A few rotations a day, and you’ll start to build powerful muscle memory, which will allow you to optimize performance when it really matters. This small investment in simulation can become a game-changer when it comes to results. I have no interest in flying on a plane with a pilot who’s never bothered to practice in a simulated setting. And you should have the same discomfort when performing critical business tasks without the requisite pre-game training. If you run the drills in advance, your odds of success skyrocket. Use simulations to stimulate optimal performance. To perfect your craft. To drive better outcomes. And when you do, your victory will be anything but simulated. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Josh Linkner
In the context of seemingly endless volatility, the pandemic has led many of us to pause in order to reassess what it really takes to win in this new era of business. What leadership attributes are needed right now to create a sustainable competitive advantage? In the past, it was enough to be a thoughtful and deliberate manager, executing a plan with precision and accuracy. Today, however, leaders have to embrace a new set of roles and responsibilities to remain relevant and effective. Building on your previous training, let’s explore the five new faces of leadership: 1. Sherpa – The leader of a mountain-climbing expedition’s sole purpose is to help others reach the summit. Sherpa leadership isn’t about individual achievement – you are in your role to serve others – your team, your customers, and your community. If your team knows you are there to help them succeed, they’ll give back far more than any rah-rah speech or management technique of the week. 2. Provocateur – Tip-toeing around deeply entrenched viewpoints is less productive than trying to fry eggs on a hot sidewalk. A key role of great leaders is to challenge everything and be a poking-stick of change. A healthy disdain for the status quo is the hallmark of leaders who shape history. Don’t let fear glue you to conventional wisdom. 3. Futurist – Aiming our efforts at last year’s market data will yield a surefire miss. Effective leaders must clearly articulate a compelling vision of what lies ahead, and ensure their organizations are ready to seize it when that window opens. Imagine all the possibilities, and never allow the past to restrict your imagination. 4. Storyteller – Getting your message to stand out and be heard above the noise can be tougher than running a four-minute mile. Make sure you’re crafting your story – to both internal and external audiences – in such a compelling way that it cannot be ignored. You must communicate your purpose and a clear plan of how you’ll get there if you expect your team to leap forward with urgency and alignment. 5. Speed Demon – The world of getting things 100% right before hitting the market is long over. Today, we must execute and problem solve with ferocious speed, making regular adjustments in real-time. Complete business cycles can now last weeks instead of years. Accordingly, we must build a culture that embraces speed in all aspects of business – from innovation to customer delivery to hiring to technological advances. On the highway, speed kills. In business, speed wins. We all know that the surest path to obsolescence is hugging the status quo. It’s time to relinquish the mindsets and techniques of the past in favor of approaches better suited to the challenges of the day. Good leaders may stay the course, but great leaders reinvent. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
By the end of the second week of January, 29% of us will abandon our New Year’s resolutions. By the end of the year, only 9% of resolutions will remain resolute. Sobering. So many of us resolve to change, only to have those commitments meet an untimely death. A single, small temptation can lead us astray, causing us to conclude that our resolutions have crumbled. Better luck next year, we tell ourselves, as we regress to our old ways. A key problem with resolutions is their all-or-nothing nature. These immovable rules suggest that any deviance from perfection is an act of total destruction. Since few of us are perfect, we slip once and then terminate our commitment to change. To combat this trap and enjoy meaningful progress, I suggest you set a New Year’s theme instead. Your theme isn’t a rigid, binary, unrealistic promise but rather a direction that can be sustained over the next 12 months. Two years ago, my theme was Health. There were moments that I ate peanut M&Ms, to be sure, but I also managed to read several books on the subject, listen to dozens of podcasts, drop 20 pounds, and reduce my lipid profile by 40%. If it were a weight loss resolution, I’d likely given up after the first bite of a hot pepperoni pizza (my weakness). Since it was a theme, however, I realized that each decision on each day was a guilt-free, independent opportunity to align with my broader objective. This year, my theme is artistry. My focus will be to inject creativity into every problem I confront and every opportunity I pursue. When I send emails, I’ll try to make them more artistic. I’ll try to inject inventive thinking in weekly team meetings. To support the theme, I plan to expose myself to great works of art in many categories ranging from spoken word poetry to business invention. I’ll also be mindful of this theme when walking into a room, giving a speech, or having dinner with my family. How might an artist post a blog, negotiate a deal, or take out the trash? My theme will be ever-present, guiding my behavior rather than holding me to an unrealistic metric. Your theme could be a personal one such as compassion, kindness, better listening, or helping others. Or your theme may be a pragmatic business skill such as finance, PowerPoint mastery, or enhanced communication. Your theme may center on a passion or hobby such as music, art, or fly-fishing. Simply put, a single theme for the year has a far better probability of delivering the progress you seek compared to those vapid resolutions that most of us quickly dismiss. Once your theme is established, brainstorm rituals, reinforcements, and rewards to keep your theme front and center. Share it widely, as your public pronouncement creates its own accountability mechanism. Allow your theme to seep into daily life, and mastery will soon follow. Here’s to your tremendous success in the New Year, and to hoping your annual theme serves as a powerful guidepost along the journey. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
While these two temperature-related instruments may be easy to confuse, they’re actually surprisingly different. Thermometers can report the current temperature with remarkable precision. Your shiny new digital thermometer will ensure you know that your family room is exactly 69.3 degrees. Or if your five year old daughter seems warm, it will only take a couple seconds to know how high her fever is with that handheld device you snagged from the drugstore for just $12. In contrast, a thermostat is used to adjust the temperature, not merely report it. The thermostat is an active tool to effectuate change, while the thermometer merely reports the facts with no ability to modify them. Controlled with intention and a vision for the future, we use a thermostat to raise or lower the temperature as we choose. My good friend and business partner Seth Mattison pointed out the difference to me recently with a call to arms for us all. Leadership isn’t about reporting what already is, but rather it’s imagining what can be and taking an active role in manifesting your vision. It’s about proactively driving change rather than reacting to external circumstances. You can be a thermostat in how you show up to meetings, raising the energy of the room with your enthusiasm. You can be a thermostat by setting a new change initiative in motion and seeing to it that the project reaches its mark. You can be a thermostat by creating and sharing content with the world to change hearts and minds. Too many of us shuffle through life as the lowly thermometer, falsely believing that we can’t change much and that we’re simply victims of circumstance. Instead, let’s take agency for ourselves and those around us. Let’s step into our ability to create impact in all aspects of our businesses and lives. As thermostats, we each get to be the architect, designer, and builder. We get to envision a better future, and then set those intentions into action. Thermometers are decent gauges of the current state, but we can be so much more when we take command of the dial. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
Mention the word creativity, and people begin to squirm in their chairs. The very thought can prompt anxiety, fear, and doubt — even in the most accomplished professionals. At the same time, we know that innovation is mission-critical in these disruptive times. As many competitive advantages of the past have become automated or outsourced, creative problem solving and inventive thinking have become essential to driving growth and sustainable success. The COVID crisis has forced us all to adapt to changing conditions, making it increasingly clear that we can no longer simply rely on the models of the past and expect the same results. Recognizing the need for creativity isn’t a groundbreaking concept, but how do we cultivate this valuable resource and deploy it in order to drive meaningful results? What’s getting in our way? By exposing the five biggest misconceptions about creativity, we can bust the myths and get on with harnessing our most powerful and productive thinking. MYTH 1: Creativity is only needed at the top TRUTH: Creativity is no longer just for the C-suite. To win in these challenging times, creativity must be a core priority at all levels of the org-chart. In fact, a key leadership responsibility is to help everyday people become everyday innovators. You don’t need to be wearing a lab coat or a fancy suit to be an effective innovator. The dormant creative capacity of your entire workforce may be the most powerful asset at your disposal. To that end, encourage your full team to look for small, daily creative opportunities (micro-innovations) which are low-risk and can be highly-effective. MYTH 2: It only counts if it’s gigantic TRUTH: While massive innovations grab media headlines, small innovations are responsible for 77% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product according to recent research from Harvard University. The big ideas may be sexy, but the underappreciated small ideas are the ones that drive consistent results. Instead of shooting for a $10 billion IPO or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus instead on Big Little Breakthroughs – small creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. By building a daily habit of creativity, organizations not only enjoy a high volume of small wins, but daily practice is the fastest route to discover the massive breakthroughs we seek. MYTH 3: It’s not my job TRUTH: Your role has nothing to do with your creativity. There are professional musicians in major symphonies that are great technicians but don’t use an ounce of creativity. There are also statisticians that are brilliantly creative. Don’t let labels or job titles limit your imaginative potential. Today, creativity is everyone’s job. It is no longer just something those “artsy people” do. There isn’t a job function that can’t benefit from creative problem solving, inventive thinking, or simply finding a better way. MYTH 4: Creativity is a born talent, not a learned skill TRUTH: The research is crystal clear that as human beings, we all have tremendous creative capacity. We are hard-wired to be creative, yet many of us haven’t fully developed these skills. Importantly, your level of creativity isn’t fixed at birth. Instead, think of creativity as an expandable muscle. You don’t become a champion bodybuilder without hitting the gym. Similarly, to build creative capacity requires some practice and focus. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific research confirming that you can grow your creativity at any age. Every one of us can expand our creative abilities with the right mindset and tactics. MYTH 5: My technical skills and experience are enough TRUTH: Maybe in the past, but definitely not today or in the future. Unorthodox approaches, original thought and imagination have become the building blocks for career advancement and efficacy. According to the Future of Jobs report from the World Economic Forum, four of the top five most-needed skills in the workforce are directly tied to creativity. The report cites ‘innovation and analytical skills’, ‘complex problem-solving’, ‘critical thinking and analysis’, and ‘creativity, originality and initiative’ as positions 1, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The difference between getting a promotion, making the sale, delivering on expectations, raising capital, or fulfilling your calling lies in your ability to embrace and nurture your creative potential. As we enter a new era riddled with uncertainty, complexity, speed, and ruthless competition, busting the myths and building our creative skillset is crucial for both survival and success. The stakes are higher than ever, but so is the opportunity. It’s time to seize it, one Big Little Breakthrough at a time. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
When we hear stories about world class creators like Lady Gaga or Lin Manuel-Miranda, or ultra-successful entrepreneurs like Elon Musk or Sara Blakely, we immediately think these people must have some special gift that we normal folk are missing. As if the skies opened for a brief moment and the gods anointed a chosen few with heavenly powers. We’re led to believe that we’re either creative or we’re not, and there’s very little we can do about it. This is what we’ve been told our whole lives. And it’s dead wrong. Over the last decade, neuroscientists have made massive leaps forward in understanding the human brain. Much of this bold discovery has been the result of advanced technology such as fMRI machines, providing history-making clarity and unlocking century-old mysteries about how the brain functions. A key finding is the concept of neuroplasticity, now widely accepted in the scientific community. Until recently, the prevailing belief was that your brain was fixed. It was wired the way it was wired, and that was that. You’ve probably heard myths such as brain cells can’t regenerate or that cognition is the result of a piece of static equipment, incapable of adapting or growing. If your brain was the lawnmower you bought at a garage sale, there was nothing you could really do to upgrade it shy of replacing it entirely by shelling out $1,900 for a brand-new John Deere E120 42 in., 20 hp, V-twin Gas Hydrostatic Riding Mower (try discount code: neuroplasticity). It turns out, the brain isn’t at all like the old lawnmower that can’t be rebuilt. It’s more like the lawn itself. Your lawn is malleable, responding to changes in environment, fertilizer, pesticides, new seeds, and your neighbor’s yappy brown poodle. If you never water your lawn, it turns to scorched earth. Leave it unprotected and it becomes a hideous weed field. But if you add new seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation, trimming—if you protect and care for it—your emerald-green lawn can become the envy of the subdivision. A lawn is something that responds to change; it can be grown or killed, thickened or depleted, beautified or polluted. With the right care, it can quickly bounce back from previous neglect, once again growing and thriving. That is the essence of the incredible breakthrough of neuroplasticity: your brain isn’t fixed…it can change, adapt, and grow. One of the least-technical definitions I found was from a 2017 article in the painfully dry scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology: Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience: “Neuroplasticity can be viewed as a general umbrella term that refers to the brain’s ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to experience.” (Pro tip: reading technical neuroscience research is an excellent cure for insomnia.) What made bespectacled research scientists want to stand up from their lab desks to dance in a conga line? It was the proof that our brains can form new pathways, synapses, and connections. We’re not just talking learning; we’re talking actual changes in brain chemistry and composition. Just as coal can transform into diamonds and snotty teenagers can eventually transform into tolerable human beings, your brain is something that can be shaped and developed. Relating to your creativity, I’m taking a big leap here and coining a new phrase: INNOplasticity. (Should I disappear unexpectedly, please notify the authorities to investigate the evil geniuses behind Frontiers in Psychology: Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience.) Building on its big brother neuroplasticity, innoplasticity is the notion that your creativity is expandable just like your brain. Swapping out a few words from the above definition, think of innoplasticity as “a general umbrella term that refers to one’s ability to modify, adapt, and grow creative capacity throughout life and in response to training, development, and experience.” Innoplasticity is a fancy way of saying that your creative potential is far greater than the creativity you had at birth, in eleventh grade, or even now. All of us can cultivate and improve our imagination, the same way brains—and front lawns—can transform for the better. And these changes can happen much faster than you might think. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
We know that embracing innovation is the only way to grow and win over the long term, but it sure can feel risky and overwhelming. This is often because we overemphasize idea generation while skipping the most important step in the process: experimentation. Most of us think: Step 1: Generate an idea Step 2: Widespread implementation Step 3: Grit our teeth and hope it works, or horrible stuff will happen No wonder we’re scared of trying new things when the stakes are that high. If an untested idea doesn’t manifest perfectly, we could sink our company, lose our job, or tank our career. That level of risk is just bonkers! Luckily, there’s an easy fix: crude experimentation. After initial ideas are conceived, we can drastically reduce risk by building a test plan. Instead of wild, swing-for-the-fences moonshots, start by exploring how cheap and fast you could test your idea. Could you build a prototype out of Play-Doh? Could you test with a single customer for 15 minutes on a Tuesday afternoon? These early, crude, low-fidelity experiments can quickly tell you if your idea has merit or if it should be tossed. If an experiment shows promise, just expand the size and scope of the experiment and try again. At each pass, you’ll likely tweak and refine your idea so by the time you get to a more lifelike (high-fidelity) experiment, the odds are already in your favor. And when it’s time to launch, your probability of success is 1000 times higher. Here’s a far better process: Step 1: Generate a bunch of ideas Step 2: Select a few ideas to test Step 3: Crude experiments (cheap and fast). Quickly discard ideas that flop Step 4: Refine ideas that show promise, test again. With each test, increase the scope, scale, and fidelity of the experiment Step 5: Widespread implementation, only after your experiment results are stable and predictable Step 6: Sit back with confidence and enjoy the fruits of your creativity With this new model, you only go big once the evidence supports it. In other words, you’ve now radically reduced the risk factor. This approach works for products, marketing, processes, sales strategies, safety measures, recruiting techniques, and just about everything else we care about (including getting your five-year-old twins to finish their vegetables, which I know firsthand). The experimentation mindset will help you get it right and get there faster. Realizing that every single new idea won’t work out, we might as well have the misfires occur during a small test rather than with your most important customer. Test constantly… cheap and fast. Crude prototypes and experiments are the most pragmatic way to drive widespread innovation with a high success rate. Experiment Constantly. Fail Small. Win Big. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
In these competitive and uncertain times, most of us long for that bold, fresh idea that will shake things up and drive meaningful progress. Yet great new ideas can feel harder to find than a five-leaf clover. We stare at the same problem – with the same set of eyes and the same perspective – and then wonder why our ideas fall short. To shake things up, I love using a simple technique that I simply call The Different Lens. As the name suggests, the tactic involves generating solutions from the perspective of someone else. Let’s say you’re a Realtor trying to drum up new clients. It’s a crowded and competitive field, so your first instinct may be to study the best practices of other Realtors. The problem is that we can get caught in our industry’s echo-chamber, with originality suffering as a result. Using The Different Lens, you might ask how a Hollywood agent might solve the problem? How about a hotel manager? Or a tech billionaire? The best new way to snag homebuyers may actually arrive from the most unlikely perspective. If you’re looking for fresh inspiration, think how other people in different fields or roles might approach the situation. Here are some fun ones to take for a test drive:
The notion of looking at the problem you’re trying to solve from a different lens can quickly unlock fresh thinking and bold creativity. Not to mention, it gives you a hall pass for any responsibility. After all, that crazy idea didn’t come from YOU… it came from a celebrity chef with an Eastern European accent. Next time you’re frustrated with ho-hum ideas, get unstuck by looking at the situation with a different lens. You’ll be blown away at just how different your results will be. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
In our professional lives, our days consist of delivering value in one form or another. Depending on your craft, your deliverables may take the form of a research report, sales presentation, prospecting outreach, email response, customer interaction, financial model or legal brief. Or maybe you build handmade wooden furniture, corned beef sandwiches, or industrial drill presses. Regardless of chosen profession, we’re all in the business of delivering work-product of one kind or another. With the stakes high and competition fierce, how do we optimize performance? Enter Rule 105, a remarkably simple approach to enjoying sustainable and meaningful results. Rule 105: Consistently deliver 105% on expectations in every unit of work you ship. This simple habit unlocks massive rewards because of two basic facets of human nature: Surprise and delight – With under-delivery being the norm, your customers, colleagues, or investors will be blown away if you regularly deliver more than expected. It doesn’t have to be 500% over-delivery, just a puny 5% will do the job quite nicely. That 5% could be finishing the job 5% ahead of schedule, delivering 5% more of whatever you promised in the first place, coming in 5% under budget, or adding 5% better service. Rule 105 will catapult you above the competitive pack and help you shine in a big way. Relationship currency – Think of each 5% over-delivery as a deposit into a relationship bank account. Later, when a mistake or setback inevitably occurs, you’ve already built sufficient reserves so that your client, boss, or colleague will quickly understand and forgive. If your favorite restaurant that always blows you away has one bad night, you let it go and have no problem returning. On the other hand, if they fell 5% short several times without ever beating your expectations, you might be on the hunt for a new taco joint. You’ve already developed the skills, landed the job, and are doing the work, so the extra 5% really doesn’t take that much more effort. But Rule 105 delivers a disproportionate return in the form of customer loyalty, competitive advantage, and sustainable growth. Simply put, that extra little something makes a gigantic difference. Before you hit send on your next email, make your next presentation, or ship your next product, ask yourself what a 5% over-delivery might be. If you make Rule 105 a consistent habit, you’ll be amazed how your relationships and business will transform. This habit will help you get promoted, grow key customer relationships, delight colleagues, and stand out as a top performer. Rule 105 also applies in your personal life. Consistently beating expectations by 5% with your spouse, kids, community, health, friends and family will drive positive change in a meaningful way. The rule is simple and accessible to us all. Challenge yourself to add a small dose of something extra, and you’ll enjoy oversized success as a result. Now that’s a rule worth following. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
Words like ‘innovation’ and ‘disruption’ can feel overwhelming and out of reach. Too often, we think an idea must change the world or have a billion-dollar value in order to count. Instead of establishing an impossibly high minimum threshold, let’s think of innovation more like fresh, delicious salsa: mild, medium, and spicy. A flavor option for each of us. Let’s start with the spicy version – INNOVATION (all caps). This is the big stuff, the world-changing inventions we celebrate in the media. Inventing the electric guitar was an INNOVATION. Digging the Panama Canal, INNOVATION. The combustion engine? Yep. INNOVATION. We’re talking life-altering, history-making, legendary innovation. Movable type. Penicillin. Wireless communications. But something doesn’t need to reshape history to be innovative. One double-click beneath INNOVATION is Innovation (capital I). Think of this as your medium-spicy salsa – important ideas that each of us may discover once or twice a year, not once in one hundred lifetimes. Maybe it’s a new product offering that helps boost revenue 28 percent in just six months. Or a new production process that creates a 13 percent cost savings. Capital I Innovations are juicy and meaningful even though they may not have books written about them by future generations. And then there’s the mild-flavored, often-bullied innovation (all lower case). I refer to these micro-innovations as Big Little Breakthroughs. While I adore these petite powerhouses, lowercase innovation can be dismissed as not valuable or potent enough. A lowercase innovation might be reimagining the way you conduct a job interview, refining the process to submit an expense report, or discovering a faster route to work. Small but mighty, it turns out that 72% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product comes from these Big Little Breakthroughs, from everyday people creating everyday innovations. As the most overlooked and underutilized of the innovation family, these bite-sized sparks are the pound-for-pound champions. They are less risky, easier to discover, and faster to implement. They cost less and are accessible to us all. They stack nicely and build upon each other, adding up to large wins over time. And if you really want to develop an all-caps INNOVATION, the best way to get there is to hone your skills through practice on a large number of lowercase innovations. Let’s stop thinking of ourselves as lacking innovation simply because we haven’t patented 193 inventions or launched a billion-dollar company. And let’s not fall into the trap of thinking we aren’t creative because our first attempt at art didn’t rival Frida Kahlo or Salvador Dalí. Instead, let’s celebrate all levels of creativity and innovation, realizing that the more we cultivate little ideas, the greater our breakthroughs will become. Great innovation — just like great salsa — comes in many flavors and varieties. The more we expand our palate to enjoy each style, the more we’ll savor the delicious outcomes we seek. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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