On The Job
JANUARY 5, 2009
"Excuse me, Brianna, but I was reviewing this report and it looks like there's an error in the numbers. I need you to look them over and see what you can find so I can go ahead and submit this to the client today." "Gee, Jennifer, I doubt there are errors, but I'll look it over. I know that you can't add more than two numbers together unless you've got a calculator nearby.
Lateral Action
DECEMBER 30, 2009
Image by Elizabeth Audrey New Year is a time for looking back and reviewing the events of the past 12 months – and that goes for blogs too. 2009 was the first full year of Lateral Action, and we’d like to say a big thank you to all our readers, guest writers and interviewees for […]. The post The Best of Lateral Action 2009 appeared first on Mark McGuinness | Creative Coach.
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Creative Think
DECEMBER 14, 2009
Click HERE to follow me on Twitter! For the past month, I've been Twittering — and having a lot of fun doing it. I was an early adopter of Twitter — March, 2007 or member #1,810,431 — but didn't much do with it until recently. One thing that has helped make the experience enjoyable is the Tweetie app for iPhone. Now, I can take a few minutes here and there and check what's happening in the "river of Tweets" that flows by.
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Lateral Action
DECEMBER 20, 2009
Not all Christmas guests are welcome; not every Christmas game is harmless fun. King Arthur’s Court had seen many marvels, but all agreed they had seen none as strange as the visitor who appeared one Christmas. It was a crisp New Year’s Day, carpeted with snow. In the Great Hall, tables were laid with gold […]. The post What Do You Say When Adventure Comes Knocking?
Lateral Action
DECEMBER 18, 2009
Supposing you came across a website selling works that looked very similar to yours. To you, it looked like a straightforward case of copyright infringement. So you asked the owner to stop. But instead of stopping, they took you to court, to challenge the copyright in your work. And supposing that the way the legal […]. The post What Would You Do If Someone Challenged Your Copyright?
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Lateral Action
DECEMBER 7, 2009
Image by watercolors08 Far above the streets of Paris, scattered across the rooftops, parapets and pinnacles of Notre Dame Cathedral, is a collection of monuments to perfectionism. These are the gargoyles, sacred figures, finials and other sculpted details that constitute the icing on the cake of this magnificent building. If you take the rooftop tour […].
Lateral Action
DECEMBER 3, 2009
You might like to check out the guest article I’ve just written for online magazine The 99% – RSS Creativity: Routines, Systems, Spontaneity. If you like Lateral Action, you should enjoy The 99%. Their take on ‘productive creativity’ is nicely aligned with the Lateral Action approach to ‘creativity + productivity’ The 99% is the think […].
Lateral Action
NOVEMBER 30, 2009
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. (Albert Einstein) Are you attempting to unleash creativity through familiar, comfortable pathways? If so you’re only human – but remember that creativity thrives on novelty. The eight multiple intelligences described by Howard Gardner offer plenty […].
Creative Think
NOVEMBER 24, 2009
Today, Apple approved a new version (3.1) of my Creative Whack Pack iPhone app. [Here is the link to iTunes.]. Since it was introduced last March, this product has become the iPhone's premier creativity/innovation tool. It has also been #1 in its category (Business). Great price too: $1.99. The three main new features are: Note-taking workshops. Each specific Creative Whack card has its own sound effect.
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Lateral Action
NOVEMBER 23, 2009
Image by Dina Regine There has never been a bigger, badder or better rock band than Led Zeppelin. And there never will be. Now we’ve got that straight, let’s take a look at how they did it – and what you can learn from their example. 1. Think Big, Act Big It’s easy to think […]. The post The Led Zeppelin Guide to Creative World Domination appeared first on Mark McGuinness | Creative Coach.
Creative Think
NOVEMBER 21, 2009
It's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus , the world's first creativity teacher (he lived around 500 BC). Today's insight is: “I searched into myself.”. Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own
Creative Think
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
If you asked me how this decade went for me, I'd say: "Swimmingly!". Why? I'll share a personal swimming milestone with you. This week, I passed the 10,000,000 yard mark for yards swum this decade (2000-2009). (9,144 kilometers, or approx. 5,700 miles.) This started with an innocent remark that a teammate (Jim Merchant) made to me in January, 2000. He said: "I've had a couple of million-plus yard years.
Creative Think
NOVEMBER 17, 2009
For the past two weeks, I've watched the 1969 thirteen-part BBC series, "Civilisation" which was written and narrated by Kenneth Clark. This series --which focused on western art over the past thousand years -- was quite popular when it first appeared four decades ago. I greatly enjoyed it then, and I feel that it holds up pretty well now!
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Lateral Action
NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Image by Hugh MacLeod. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I just wanted to write poetry. Twenty years ago I would have told you “Business Is Evil”. I associated entrepreneurship with people like Gordon 'greed is good' Gekko. I was so ignorant I didn't know the difference between an entrepreneur and a Wall Street trader. To me, they were the same thing.
Lateral Action
NOVEMBER 11, 2009
When we last saw Jack , he was just about to sign a deal with Lou to start a business. But suddenly, Marla showed up at the last minute. Did Jack do the deal? If so, why is Marla giving Jack entrepreneurial advice? And what do these 5 elements have to do with starting a successful business? Create (Don’t Compete). Lead (Don’t Manage). Communicate (Don’t be Shy).
Lateral Action
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
Image by Muffet. If you think the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is something only marketers need to worry about, have a look at this snippet from a letter to T.S. Eliot, by his boss. Geoffrey Faber is explaining why Eliot was the ideal candidate to take charge of poetry publishing at Faber and Gwyer, the firm that eventually became famous under the name Faber and Faber.
Lateral Action
NOVEMBER 2, 2009
Image by Hugh MacLeod. Of all the painfully funny cartoons on Hugh MacLeod's Gapingvoid blog, for me this is the funniest and most painful. It's painful because I know exactly how Eric feels. A few years ago, I was in his shoes. And I feel for him - because I know if he doesn't change, his story is going to have a messy ending. The humour, of course, turns on the idea of what is 'asking for too much'.
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Lateral Action
OCTOBER 21, 2009
Dan Pink has been one of the presiding spirits of Lateral Action from day one. Specifically, his book A Whole New Mind provided inspiration for the very first article we published - Innovate or Die: Why Creativity Is Economic Priority Number One - and more recently I wrote about his TED Talk, in Why Rewards Don't Work. But more generally, Dan's writings have been a big influence on our thinking as we've developed the site.
Creative Think
OCTOBER 15, 2009
The Internet makes many new enterprises possible. For example, I recently ran across this example. Hooray for human ingenuity! The guy in the bed has used the Internet to combine his sloth (sleeping in) with environmental concern (people wishing to offset their carbon use) and clever marketing ("having an environmentally friendly day"). Made me laugh!
Lateral Action
OCTOBER 15, 2009
Photo by miyukiutada. Once upon a time there was a Buddhist master called Ajahn Chah, who lived deep in the forests of Thailand. He and his monks lived a frugal life of discipline and meditation. Although seemingly cut off from the world, his fame as a teacher spread so widely that he attracted pupils from the 'Western Paradises' of the United States, who donned the saffron robe and studied side-by-side with the local monks.
Lateral Action
OCTOBER 5, 2009
Photo by AZAdam. Computers are very smart, but they have no imagination, right? They can only slavishly follow instructions and rules - which means they can't think for themselves and generate original thoughts. This is why a computer can beat a Grand Master at chess, but it will never compose music to rival Mozart. It's why Lou 's job is under threat from automation, but Jack has a bright future, safe in the knowledge that a computer will never replicate his ability to think creatively.
Speaker: Leslie Grandy, Product Executive & Drew Weaver, Senior Program Manager
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Lateral Action
SEPTEMBER 28, 2009
Photo by Okko Pyykko. Everyone knows critical thinking kills creativity. Suspending judgment in order to come up with new and unusual ideas is one of the sacred cows of the creativity movement. Everyone knows that instant judgment is the enemy of creativity. (Edward de Bono, Serious Creativity ). Judgment and creativity are two functions that cannot occur simultaneously.
Lateral Action
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
A few weeks ago I was due to run a workshop on Time Management for Creative People, based on my e-book of the same name. Normally, I arrive for presentations at least an hour early, to set everything up, deal with inevitable technical hitches and get in the right frame of mind for the session. Not this time. For once, the audience arrived at the venue before I did.
Lateral Action
SEPTEMBER 14, 2009
Photo by Leonski. Have you ever walked into an art gallery and thought "I could do better than that!" ? Or are you a contemporary art enthusiast, tired of hearing people criticise things they don't understand? Whichever side of the fence you're on, you're bound to have an opinion on the story of Paul O'Hare , a painter and decorator from Liverpool, UK, who was given just four weeks to transform himself into a fine artist and attempt to fool the critics at a London art gallery.
Lateral Action
SEPTEMBER 7, 2009
Business is rewarding itself to death, according to Dan Pink. He's not just talking about 'fat cat' pay and bonuses. He's talking about something much more pervasive - and more destructive. In this recent TED Talk , Pink questions one of the fundamental assumptions underlying the way most businesses are managed. Here it is in a nutshell: Performance can be improved by offering rewards for good performance and penalties for bad performance.
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Lateral Action
SEPTEMBER 3, 2009
Rajesh Setty’s columns for Lateral Action have been a big hit with our readers – so you’re in for a real treat with his new free e-book Defiant: Practical Tips to Thrive in Tough Times. Raj is someone who really walks the talk – not only is he an acclaimed author, blogger and Tweeter, he’s […]. The post Free E-book by Rajesh Setty – Defiant: Practical Tips to Thrive in Tough Times appeared first on Mark McGuinness | Creative Coach.
Lateral Action
AUGUST 31, 2009
Photo by nicogenin. Did you realise you probably know Johnny Depp's films better than he does? That's if we can take this interview at face value, where he claims not to have seen his latest movie Public Enemies. Incredulous, the interviewer asks him why not. Here's Johnny's answer: I've always kind of tried to avoid them as much as possible. I just prefer the experience.
Lateral Action
AUGUST 28, 2009
Photo by Hazel Dooney. If you liked our interviews with artist-entrepreneurs John T. Unger , Natasha Wescoat and Hugh MacLeod , you should check out Hugh's recent interview with Australian artist Hazel Dooney : 10 Questions for Hazel Dooney. Four years ago, Hazel decided to quit the highly-regarded galleries in Sydney and Melbourne who were representing her and go it alone, organising her own exhibitions and marketing her work direct to collectors online.
Lateral Action
AUGUST 20, 2009
Sometimes surfing the web leads to buried treasure. That's how I felt when I found Lateral Action. The tag-line said it all. creativity + productivity = success. It Just Adds Up. My wife and I are real-life Hollywood Producers. Sounds fancy, but folks in our line of work have a pretty simple job description: Producers make stuff. They: CREATE an idea for a movie, TV show, or web content.
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