June 15, 2021 It was the end of teaching a summer course in Colorado Springs, and Katharine couldn’t wait for one last adventure before she returned to Massachusetts. The group headed out to Pike’s Peak, one of Colorado’s 58 fourteeners—a mountain that tops out at over 14,000 feet. After a ride to the summit, she took a long, deep breath …
June 8, 2021 One of the stereotypes of innovation is that of disruption. Massive disruption. Companies like Uber, Netflix and Tesla are all icons of how quickly an industry can be turned up-side-down by the new kid on the block. One that does everything contrary to conventional thinking, yet earns massive attention and incredible success. Unfortunately, ‘disruptive innovation’ is often …
June 1, 2021 Last October, I signed up for a 30 kilometer (18 mile) trail run that hugs the perimeter of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. I haven’t run a race of that distance in four years. During that time, I’d begun to travel quite a bit more for work. My family and I moved to Spain and back …
May 25, 2021 Do you remember waiting in line at the grocery store and hearing a catchy tune? You loved the tune but didn’t have any way to figure out the name or even the artist. You pull out your phone and open “Shazam”, a music identification app. Within seconds, the name of the song, the artist, and the link …
May 6, 2021 It’s happened to all of us. We’ve missed the window to feed the meter and ended up with an annoying parking ticket. A sudden storm hit, and we got drenched in the rain between the garage and the concert venue. Or we’ve been late to an important interview because we couldn’t find a %$*&#! parking spot! When …
April 22, 2021 In one of the episodes of the US version of the comedy series The Office, Michael Scott rushes into the scene, demanding everyone give him ideas. As the regional manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, he has a reputation for his narcissistic behavior as a supervisor. On his way into the building that …
April 8, 2021 I hear B2b marketers use the terms customer journey and buyer journey interchangeably. While it’s not only incorrect, this misunderstanding creates lost opportunities to build early relationships with customers (or potential customers), create a more efficient buyer journey, and develop stronger conversations when it comes time to connect with a sales person. Let’s start with the basics… …
April 1, 2021 When I was growing up, the sophistication of my cheese palate was limited to bricks of Velveeta and jars of Cheese Wiz. Fast forward a few years and I’m working at my first marketing job at a small architecture firm in Lincoln, Nebraska. My boss, Dave, buys everyone breakfast, bagels with cream cheese. CREAM CHEESE! I felt …
March 25, 2021 There’s been a rash of research in the last year about the lost productivity of teams because of COVID and the need to work from home. While the new dynamics of how we all go to the office each day has certainly had effects we didn’t count on, some can’t be blamed on the pandemic. Instead, the …
March 11, 2021 Has any role in business morphed more than that of the CMO? It’s a position rife with constantly changing expectations yet most often lacks the necessary support to ensure its success. If you’ve worked in marketing long, this isn’t news. In 2013, the Business Marketing Association and Forrester did research about how CMOs stood at the crossroads …
January 21, 2021 Global pandemic. Fake news. Social protests. Economic turmoil. Political instability. If 2020 were a movie plot, no one would believe it. Unfortunately, this is the world we’ve endured the last 12 months. The effects of this imperfect storm come out this month in Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer. This annual index measures the average percent of trust people …
January 7, 2020 TAKE THE 30-DAY CREATIVITY CHALLENGE One the first day of class, a pottery teacher split her class into two halves. To the first half she said, “You will spend the semester studying pottery, planning, designing, and creating your perfect pot. At the end of the semester, we’ll have a competition to see whose pot is the best.” …
December 17, 2020 Find just the right something for the creative person in your life can feel like a lot of pressure. Some original thinkers are more hands on and others prefer more techie things. Regardless of the type you’re looking to please, here’s a list of 28 gifts that will show them you understand their tastes and want to …
December 3, 2020 It’s the time of year when people begin looking heavily at the change in the calendar and planning ahead. For every company, team and leader, strategic planning is the most important activity they do on a regular basis. It sets the tone for the vision of the company, and the priorities and milestones of getting there. Yet …
November 5, 2020 The manufacturer of window-unit air conditioners wanted customer input but they weren’t sure how to go about it without being overly technical in their questions. They knew the noise level of their units was loud, but they wanted to figure out if customers would pay more for a quieter unit. And if they did, how much would …
October 22, 2020 For innovative leaders, critical thinking is at the heart of everything they do. We’ve developed a tremendous reliance on technology to deliver data and analytics. Heck, I’m not sure I’d know how to get from home to the grocery store 3 blocks away without Google maps. But researchers from McGill University have determined that all the help …
October 8, 2020 I’m not going to try and sugar coat it, 2020 has been a hot mess. And we still have the 4th quarter to go. But one of history’s greatest lessons is people’s resiliency during a crisis. John F. Kennedy pointed out that the dual message in the Chinese word for crisis: “The Chinese use two brush strokes …
September 17, 2020 Most successful – not to mention remarkable – discoveries throughout history have come because someone was simply curious. Inventors interested in flight were curious about birds. Curiosity in whales inspired scientists to invest the submarine. A Swiss engineer was curious about how burrs stuck to his dog’s coat and invented velcro. People are born naturally curious. You …
September 3, 2020 If you asked 10 different people to define innovation, you’d get 20 different responses. It’s one of those things that seems simple to define and understand but turns complicated when you’re pressed for specifics. It’s no wonder. Innovation has turned into one of the biggest cliché words executives use to talk about how they differentiate their companies …
August 13, 2020 “Haven’t I seen you before?” It’s a cheesy pickup line that’s been around for ages. And while it makes people roll their eyes, there’s something to the familiarity quotient. Studies show that we’re attracted to what we find familiar. The more we’re exposed to certain people, the more familiar they become and the more we like them. …
