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10 COMPELLING REASONS NOT TO DOWNSIZE
Almost daily, newspapers, business magazines, radio and television carry reports of companies, large and small, that are downsizing. Their attention is chiefly focused on the impact to the employees, as they are the ones most acutely experiencing...
Business Innovation – Radical and Disruptive Innovation
One of the most interesting aspects of creativity and innovation is the relationship between incremental and radical change.
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as...
CHANGE LEADERSHIP
The L.E.A.D.E.R. Way INTRODUCTION In June 1997,the Prime Minister of Singapore unveiled the Government’s vision of ‘Thinking Schools, Learning Nation’ (TSLN). This vision was forged to improve Singapore’s education system in the light of the...
Innovation Management – the need for Knowledge Managers
But what do we do with all these ideas?
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
There are other useful...
Positioning Professional Service Firms
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets in the world. So, how does this relate to service firms? About a century after Claude Hopkins...
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Know the Building Blocks of Dialogue that Lead to New Learning, Innovation and Synergy
With the complexity and continuous change leaders and managers face today, continuous learning, responsiveness, adaptation and innovation are essential survival skills. Yet, one constant that human beings seem to want and need more than anything when they are in relationship to another human is to be heard. So often in conversation, we spend a lot more time advocating for our position rather than seeking to hear and understand another.
Listening may be the single most powerful skill of communication for it is an act of respect and of valuing. It seems counterintuitive, yet when we listen and seek to understand first, we also create more receptivity in the other to hear us. When we create such an environment of safety, people are willing to take risks and new learning can occur.
There are four building blocks of conversation that help people move out of defensive, routinized, or reactive communication patterns that inhibit movement towards clear action and successful achievement of desired goals.
1. Developing Your Listening Skills — This includes eye contact, listening without thinking of one’s rebuttals or preparing for what to say next, listening for emotional content as well as information, and asking questions to clarify meaning
2. Seeking to Suspend Judgment — To be human is to be a judgment manufacturer. We are always in the process of making judgments, both positive and negative. Whether we are judging ourselves or others, judgment shuts down creativity, imagination and learning.. Whether you agree or disagree with the other person, your judgments will limit your ability to listen and learn something new. Be aware that negative judgments are particularly damaging to your ability to listen. Strive to first be aware of your judgments. In so doing, you can become clear that this is a reaction and you can then more objectively bring it into the conversation as an interpretation.
3. Testing Your Assumptions — Assumptions are all those things that we think we know about
how reality is, whether for ourselves or for others. We carry multiple sets of assumptions that act as lenses or filters for our perceptions. Because each of us has a unique life experience, we each carry a unique set of assumptions although we do, of course, also have shared assumptions which serve to glue us together. Effective communication demands that we test our own assumptions as well as clarify those of others. Only then can we know that we are speaking a shared language of meaning. Different assumptions in and of themselves don’t create problems so much as the need to be right about our assumptions!
4. Balancing use of inquiry with advocating your own position and interests — Growing out of the ability to listen, inquiry is about asking questions and holding an attitude of curiosity. Questions that seek to understand (as opposed to questions that seek to interrogate) create doorways into new levels of understanding and learning for both the speaker and the listener. Inquiry, by its very nature, can deepen your ability to think systemically because questions often reveal the relationships among the parts that make up the whole.
Organizations and businesses need to create effective communication cultures in order to thrive. The competitive edge in business will be maintained by those who are continually learning how to improve. Leaders who understand and employ these high-impact communication strategies will create robust and resilient organizations that cannot only adapt to the new challenges and changing conditions of these uncertain times but can actually thrive.
About the Author
Manya Arond-Thomas, M.D., is the founder of Manya Arond-Thomas & Company, a coaching and consulting firm that catalyzes the creation of “right results” through facilitating executive development, high-performance teams and organizational effectiveness. She can be reached at (734) 480-1932 or e-mailed at manya@arond-thomas.com. Subscribe to Emotional Intelligence at Work mailto:many_list@aweber.com
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DTI - Welcome to the DTI's Innovation Home Page |
The DTI is working to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout ... It covers Living Innovation, web streaming of a series of high profile ... |
www.dti.gov.uk |
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Innovation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating ... A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
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National Innovation Website |
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources has developed this website to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of innovation and ... |
www.innovation.gov.au |
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Innovation, creativity and brainstorming resources from ... |
A comprehensive site designed to provide busy entrepreneurs with a focused collection of the best resources on innovation, creativity, and brainstorming. |
www.innovationtools.com |
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Innovation Weblog - Trends, resources, viewpoints from Chuck Frey ... |
The Innovation Weblog - Valuable trends, resources and viewpoints in innovation, creativity and brainstorming from Chuck Frey at InnovationTools. |
www.innovationtools.com |
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CORDIS: Innovation Portal: Home |
This Innovation Portal is supported by DG ENTR of the European Commission, ... European Commission adopts new Communication on Innovation: on 13 September ... |
cordis.europa.eu |
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CORDIS: Promotion of Innovation: Home |
This programme stands at the cross-roads of the Community's policies on Research, Innovation and SMEs. |
cordis.europa.eu |
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Innovation Network... leveraging innovation, creativity and ... |
The Innovation Network is an association of companies and employees committed to innovation. The site features some interesting articles as well as some fun ... |
www.thinksmart.com |
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Business Innovation : Car Reviews, Online Gaming, and Product Branding |
If your in need of great Online Gaming material, we carry up to the minute news and reviews for all of your favorite games and gaming systems. |
www.businessweek.com |
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Innovation - Life, Inspired | PBS |
Learn about fascinating innovations, explore interactive features, submit questions to our experts, investigate resources and lesson plans, and more. |
www.pbs.org |
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Innovation.org - Welcome |
Impact of Innovation Saving & Improving Lives Controlling Healthcare Costs Strengthening ... Future of Innovation New Medicines in Development Next Wave of ... |
www.innovation.org |
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Innovation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with innovation on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
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Innovation Relay Centres - The World Largest Network for ... |
Innovation Relay Centres giving advice on Innovation, Technology Transfer and Exploitation. Major European source for innovative technologies or new ... |
irc.cordis.lu |
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The Tech Museum of Innovation | Welcome |
The Tech Museum of Innovation - Welcome! The Tech Museum inspires and educates the innovators of the future. |
www.thetech.org |
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Pages tagged with "innovation" on del.icio.us |
CoDev 2007 - Co-Development for Business Growth: Open Innovation and Alternatives ... PDMA & IIR's 5th Annual Front End of Innovation ... |
del.icio.us |
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innovation |
Publication highlighting the research activities of NUS. The site provides snippets of selected articles online, and provides a subscription form online. |
www.innovationmagazine.com |
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Canadian Innovation Centre |
Services includes invention evaluation, technology due diligence, market research, and education programs. |
www.innovationcentre.ca |
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London INNOVATION :: Home |
Maximise your business potential through innovation. Learn the secrets of successful business innovation in London. |
www.london-innovation.org.uk |
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Eric Von Hippel's Homepage |
Downloadable Books. Democratizing Innovation (2005) ... The Sources of Innovation (1988). Free download of the complete book. Permission granted by Oxford ... |
web.mit.edu |
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Intel Innovation in Education |
www.intel.com/education/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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