All posts tagged career

Those Pesky Weeds of Innovation

ht-dwp-5-tips-control-weeds-lead

As CEO of a large, conservative company that has been in operation for over a century with little or no business growth, how do you know if you have those pesky weeds of innovation in your business? The following are some clues to help you quickly identify them before they can take root and grow.

Ideas: Should you hear an employee uttering the blasphemous words “I have an idea”, then they need to be dismissed immediately before that frightening innovation virus can contaminate your workforce.

Fashion: Luckily these recalcitrant employees are easily identifiable by their annoying clothes, colourful shirts, bow-ties and the occasional hat. Just ask HR to quietly usher them to the exit with minimal fuss.

Laughter: Fun in the office should definitely not be tolerated and should result in the employee being speedily placed on disciplinary action with the threat of instantaneous termination for a repeat offence.

Unauthorised Fonts: Yes, there are strict corporate guidelines that must be followed. Any employee daring to use any other font rather than the long standing and approved black Times New Roman needs to be quickly educated on the 100 year old corporate values that have served the company well, and are based on tradition.

Customers: Any customer having the nerve to complain about our products not meeting their requirements do not deserve the privilege of being supplied by us, after all, we know what’s best for their business. How dare they tell us otherwise!

Career: Any employee seeking clarification on their future within our business obviously does not appreciate the honour of working for us (or should I say for me).

My fellow CEOs, hopefully the above insights have provided you with sufficient information to nippily identify any annoying employees that might be creative, or have mad ambitions of creating a culture of innovation in your company. The key is to act swiftly before their offensive ideas can take hold and spread. God forbid!

Quod Erat Demonstrandum

 

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by Steven Cramer on October 21, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Steven Cramer on October 21, 2018

https://thinkingfuturethoughts.com/2018/10/21/those-pesky-weeds-of-innovation/

Your Masterpiece Signature

June 2 2010 - Paint Brushes

I recently had the good fortune to visit an art exhibition highlighting the impressionist painting works of the master artist Monet. It was just awe inspiring how Monet worked with various paint colours which when viewed from a short distance looked like discrete paint brush strokes, however when observed from a few paces away, the colours merged to form a stunning homogenous landscape.

With this in mind, let us consider the vast and complex array of personal and professional skills, together with the unique attributes which we have developed during the various stages of our lives and working careers. These are like Monet’s individual colour brush strokes on the painter’s canvas. The masterpiece is created when they are merged and utilised creatively with that touch of innovation!

The opportunity to mix these individual “paint” skills is unlimited and they can be applied to numerous personal and business endeavours characterised with your own “painting signature”, just like those of Monet.

The key is not to focus on the detail, but to behold the bigger picture. After all, we are all priceless works of art!

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by Steven Cramer on July 24, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Steven Cramer on July 24, 2013

https://thinkingfuturethoughts.com/2013/07/24/your-masterpiece-signature/

Be a large Goldfish…not a small one

Gold Fish Bowl Jump 089/365 [explore #150]

It is said that a goldfish when placed in a fishbowl, or larger watery space, will grow to a size that is suitable for that particular swimming environment. The larger the amount of available water volume, the greater the opportunity for the goldfish to increase in size.

This got me thinking….

Many employees have worked for quite a while in the same job role where they have fully mastered their position and are now regarded as the expert within their business organization. In essence, they are the “goldfish in the fishbowl” where they have grown to their maximum size potential.

However, what if they were moved into a new role, or transferred into another business division, or leave and join another company? They would still have the experiences that they had established and fine-tuned in their previous role, but they would now have greater opportunity to expand their vision, skills and learnings in the next one. This would be like the small goldfish being placed into a much larger bowl where they could now grow into a more impressive and bigger fish.

The key is to not let your current fishbowl size limit your thinking and career potential, but to always looks for the many free flowing streams that will lead you to a larger and more impressive fishbowl or pond (or even an ocean) where you can swim freely and get bigger!

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by Steven Cramer on July 11, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Steven Cramer on July 11, 2013

https://thinkingfuturethoughts.com/2013/07/11/be-a-large-goldfish-not-a-small-one/

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