Gini Nelson’s Engaging Conflicts

I came across Michael Iva’s article 100 Ways to Kill a Concept: Why Most Ideas Get Shot Down at ChangeThis recently. It says:

So, you’ve got an idea. A big idea. But will your idea take flight? Not if you let your concept be killed by all the usual excuses you hear from your managers, your bosses, your spouses—excuses motivated by fear or possessiveness. In this wide-ranging manifesto, Iva offers you ways to persuade someone to embrace your idea, to not be swayed by negative responses, and to utilize your creativity.

Most people are afraid of or resistant to change and consequently, “kill” new concepts. Sometimes it is others’ concepts, sometimes it is their own. The “100 ways” are common responses to proposals for something new that can stop even considering them further, e.g., “It can’t be done”, That’s been done before”, “It’s not us”, “Yes, but”, etc.

The article is on creativity and how to get past the “100 ways”. Read more »

            

Ralph Perrine has an article recently published at ChangeThis, described thusly:

Ralph Perrine believes drawing to be indispensable to good planning and good collaboration-the top two critical skills for success in life. Here, he shares twelve drawings to help bring focus and clarity to teams and any personal planning.

Well, actually, only 4 drawings are presented in the article but they are helpful and were enough to send me to his website where he is selling the full set as a 12-month 2008 calendar. The 4 in the article are:

• Balancing Your Life (this one has a charming metaphor so read below for more on it)
• 360 Degree Awareness (”helps you learn to widen your awareness so you can spot opportunities and issues earlier. Great ideas, and opportunities, as well as important issues often lie in our periphery, waiting for us to connect the dots.”)
• Critical Path (”helps you think through a sequence of important items you must navigate through in order to reach an objective. Do this exercise with a group to spot risks or issues ahead of time.”)

• The Bright Core (”helps you think about your ‘playing field.’ More specifically, where you are in relation to competitors, vs. where you want to be.”) Read more »
              

Happy Halloween! Spooky? Mysterious? Time to explore things that go bump in the night? Play?
Seth Godin defines Halloween as Secular Christmas + Creativity, and launched a special site — Squidboo! — with pages that include Hairspray Halloween Costumes, Infant Baby Snail Halloween Costume - Perfect Outfit for a Boy or Girl!, Clowns: the freakiest things on earth, Television Witches Over The Years, Bad Halloween Candy, The Best Zombie Movies Ever, and Halloween Tarot, among many more.

Here are some more Halloween features at sites around the internet: Read more »

            

John W. Cooley, former United States Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and partner in a Chicago law firm, is featured in the current issue of Engaging Conflicts Today. His most recent article at Mediate.com is “The Joke Model Of Creative Thinking.” The article got five stars from Robert Benjamin, who declared about it, “The creativity and quality of thought are obvious.” If you would like a copy of his interview, and are not signed up for the newsletter (which you can do in the sidebar on the right!), email me at gn@gnconflictmanagement.com with Jack Cooley in the subject line and I’ll email it to you.

Jack’s article highlights the active role the joke or mediation recipient plays in cognitively processing the “punchline” of the joke or mediation, the “new information” that can be funny or cause an “ah ha!” moment, or fall flat on its face.

            

Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist (you may not have seen his work, he draws on the backs of business cards). I came across his article How To Be Creative while browsing ChangeThis recently. The article is from 2004 but as strong a piece now as then. He states on his GapingVoid blog website that the article is the most visited page on his website. The version there precedes and is longer than the version at ChangeThis. By the way, tomorrow’s edition of Engaging Conflicts Today features a “creative thinker,” Jack Cooley.

From Hugh MacLeod’s website:

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

… Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to change the world.

… The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. How your own sovereignty inspires other people to find their own sovereignty, their own sense of freedom and possibilty, will change the world far more than the work’s objective merits ever will.

3. Put the hours in.

Put the hours in; do it for long enough and magical, life-transfomring things happen eventually. Read more »