by Caroline Leach | Mar 25, 2016 | Change, Learning
Solving problems often involves coming up with new ideas. How can you use data to make better decisions? How can you better engage your team at work? How can you find more meaning in your life?
Yet coming up with new ideas can feel daunting at times. After all, is there anything new under the sun?
Here are a few ideas to get your creative thoughts flowing.
What problem are you trying to solve? Start with what you’re trying to accomplish. Make sure your problem statement is well defined. This question has become a perennial favorite ever since I took a McKinsey & Company course called Strategy 101 at DIRECTV.
What would success look like? This takes a page from Stephen Covey‘s principle to begin with the end in mind. What perfect or better world state could exist? What is lacking today that would make the world a better place? If you can imagine it, then you can create it.
How many ideas can you come up with? Start by making a list of 10 ideas. Save the judgments for later. Just jot down ideas as quickly as you can. Then explore them further to see how they could play out to solve the problem you’re tackling. What would you have to do to make them work?
What new connections can you make? Many groundbreaking ideas take two seemingly disparate areas and connect them. Think Steve Jobs with computers and calligraphy. Nate Silver with economics and baseball. Alli Webb with beauty and blowouts.
How can you expose yourself to new concepts? What are you reading? If you mainly read non-fiction, try fiction. If you read business magazines, try something in the sciences. Check out a new report from the Institute for the Future. Listen to a TED talk or playlist.
Who’s in your network? How diverse is your network? Get to know some new people, especially cross generationally. That’s one of the things I love about the TV show Younger – the friendships across generations, with different perspectives on life.
How can you vary your routine? Our brains crave novelty and variety. So drive a different way to work. Take up a new sport. Go on an artist’s date (with thanks to Julia Cameron for that fun and fabulous way to “restock the well” of creative thinking). Think about what you usually do, and consciously do something else.
This week, on a family vacation, we mixed up our routine. We watching our son’s team play baseball in beautiful San Diego. We met new parents and players on the team. We tried new restaurants.
My husband and I went to a new yoga class we’ve been wanting to attend. We went paddle boarding and tried to figure out how to navigate the waves beyond the marina where we’ve been learning.
I dipped into The Economist‘s newly revised magazine, 1843. I learned fascinating things about the resurgence of stoicism, corporate campus design and why we work so hard.
And a David Brooks column in the New York Times led me to a fascinating new book by Barbara Bradley Hagerty about Life Reimagined.
My Connecticut family is visiting for my daughter’s big event this weekend honoring her service through National Charity League.
Today will be a group artist date, with a trip to the endlessly inspiring Getty Center.
And I’m looking forward to a learning week ahead at work, with our annual leadership program.
What will you do differently today to see the world from a fresh perspective?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 12, 2016 | Change, Learning
When Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel who knew he was learning something new?
All I remember of seeing it in person for the first time was how awe-inspiring it was.
But Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor, first and foremost. So when Pope Julius requested his work as a painter, Michelangelo initially resisted.
This sets the stage perfectly in a new book by Erika Andersen called Be Bad First. It’s about “getting good at things fast to stay ready for the future.”
And who among us doesn’t need to do that?
If Michelangelo could overcome his hesitancy to learn something new, so can I. So can you.
But how?
Start by reading an overview of the book in this month’s issue of Harvard Business Review called Learning How to Learn. Then read the book to be truly inspired.
The most important thing I learned? How to change the way you talk to yourself.
Here are a few of Andersen’s examples, which align with her “ANEW” framework for learning.
While I’ve posted about these ideas before, the book came out this week, and I was able to delve deeper into specific tactics and actions.
Aspiration. Instead of “I don’t need to learn this,” say “What would my future look like if I did?”
Neutral self-awareness. Rather than “I’m already fine at this,” ask “Am I really? How do I compare with my peers?”
Endless curiosity. Move from “This is boring,” to “I wonder why others find it interesting?”
Willingness to be bad first. Shift from “I’m terrible at this” to “I’m making beginner mistakes but I’ll get better.”
As I read Andersen’s book in a single evening this week (it was hard to put down), I realized how the things I say to myself can either accelerate my learning or stop it in its tracks.
Her suggested questions are things we’d say to a beloved child, a best friend or a valued colleague. Why wouldn’t we encourage ourselves in the same way?
Because the stakes are high in our rapidly changing world. Learning how to learn throughout our lives is the most important thing each of us can do.
Michelangelo said it best in the quote Andersen selected to close her book:
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
by Caroline Leach | Mar 5, 2016 | Change, Learning
Can learning a new sport increase your overall ability to learn?
Absolutely, Gretchen Reynolds wrote recently in the New York Times. Learning a new sport may be good for the brain, she says.
Her “crash course in snowboarding” yielded multiple benefits. Not the least of which was underscoring how we learn – by trial and error and bit by bit.
Stand-up paddle boarding, or SUP, is the new recreational activity I’m learning. And as I do, I see many parallels with learning anything new. Here are 10.
Doing. The way to learn something new is by actually doing it on a regular basis. Lessons are a good way to start. Depending on what you’re learning, a lesson may be best in person (definitely the case for SUP) or online (certainly an option for my data-focused learning journey).
Experimenting. During today’s SUP session, I tried some different things. What happened if I leaned a bit to the right or the left? Bent my arms and legs slightly? Tried to stop by placing my paddle further into the water?
Equipping. Having the right tools is important for any activity. That doesn’t always mean the most expensive equipment, or having every last available gadget. But in my case, the winter jacket I got last week keeps me warm on cool Southern California mornings. And it has plenty of room for my shoulders and arms to move while paddling.
Questioning. What else do I need to do to learn and enjoy this new activity? How can I make it more of a workout? What will I need to change over time to keep the experience new and fresh? Is there a goal I can work toward? In the short term, for this summer, it’s paddleboard yoga. In the long term, for next year, maybe it’s training for a race.
Reading. After our first (and so far only) lesson, I read a few articles about the proper technique. Initially I was so focused on keeping my balance that I needed to revisit the finer points of proper stroke technique, how to turn and how to stop. There are many great articles and videos online.
Committing. What will be the catalyst to continue this activity? In my case it was getting an annual membership today. The more my husband and I paddle, the less expensive each session becomes. It reminds me of my high-school skiing days. I’d motivate myself to take that final run of the day in order to bring down the average cost per run. Maybe that explains my college major in economics.
Scheduling. Beyond the commitment is getting our sessions on the calendar. Each weekend, I look at our family’s school, sports and community commitments. Then I schedule on our calendar when we’ll paddle. It’s the same thing with my Sunday morning yoga class. When it’s on the calendar, it’s harder to skip it.
Sharing. This is special time my husband and I are spending together. And I have a friend or two who will join us this spring. It’s fun to talk about what works, how to navigate on our boards and wonder together why our feet get a bit numb while we paddle. It might be time for more lessons.
Multiplying. The jargon-appropriate term here would be “stacked win.” But whenever you can accomplish multiple objectives with a single activity, that’s a great thing in our busy worlds. With SUP there’s an arm and core workout, family time, outdoor air and the novelty of something new for your body. Which benefits your brain and stimulates greater ability to learn in other areas of life.
Enjoying. There’s a meditative quality to gliding across the water. Listening to waves crashing outside the marina. Smiling at the sight of seals enjoying a marine mammal barge as we paddle boy. Time seems to slow down. Life comes into greater focus. The brain stretches and grows in new ways, right along with the body and soul.
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