'R.E.A.D. – Research, Earn, Analyze, Develop'

 

Always in my life since I was young, aiming to get influence, inspire, observe, earn and learn things by different elements of our society, such as Arts, Business, Science and Technology.
 
In this article I would like to share some things, phrases, quotes and statements, some wonderful things who always knead in my mind, talking about Creativity, Leadership, EQ, Workplace Culture, Art & Business, etc.
 
All of the following I use them very often in my lectures and in my professional occupation as L&D Lead, Coach, and Leadership, Culture Development Specialist and Artist, which has also influenced my entity.

 

In most statements, I have not mentioned the sources because I don't think it matters much, and that is not the goal, but to share and highlight important influences of my personal content.

 

I hope you enjoy it and get some inspiration you too!

Creativity

'The dumbest Creative act remains a Creative act' Clay Shirkey, Author

'As Wassilly Kandinsky once said... Everything starts with a dot'.

‘The gift of creativity is not only to have ideas but to take action on those ideas.’

‘I define creativity as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative. Innovation is the production or implementation of ideas that add social and economic value’.

‘Regardless of how many of these you figured out, we, as artists, need to learn how to develop and use our natural skills to lead. Leaders build their visions, unit people and thrive. It’s time we as natural leaders, and as artists, do too’.

‘To be most creative, teams should have people of differing skills, talents and backgrounds, but with similar values and motivations. Everyone should be united behind a common goal’.

‘You can have great ideas, but if you don't <illustrate> them, and you don't translate them into an image; they have no value’.

‘Asking the right questions up front helps create frames for the stimuli needed to develop and design ideation techniques. The questions are the tough part; getting the ideas is relatively easy’.

‘Every product category or platform represents a separate box. But each box is more—it is a set of values, emotions, and attributes that define a perceptual reality about a brand. Once you’ve identified a box, you will have to move around inside of it to keep fresh perspectives. That is, you have to ask questions and decide how to improve it (e.g., with line extensions) and when to move to another box or category (e.g., to enter new business segments)’.

‘The ability to make connections between unrelated things and imagine new ways to communicate’.

‘You art is as it is. Doing so you can become more self-confident and willing to show your own style. This translates to your behavioral patterns in your professional life’.

 

 Art & Business

 

‘Better than making lists with bullets, more important and valuable is to create questions’.

‘Just like artists portraying their imagination, entrepreneurs work to make their dreams a reality and innovators create new ideas. The imagination has to be influenced by something,  it's easy to find inspiration. It is just a case of working through the chaos of data and bring order to it through analytics and observation’.

‘Business is an on-going cycle of art and science. Analyzing data that influences the imagination to create something new and then experimenting with the idea to see how and if it works in the market. It goes on with gathering information, creating from it and experimenting with it, a never-ending balance of art and science’.

‘No artist or author or inventor in history ever knew they were making something of interest. They didn’t look for answers, they lived the questions, taking deliberate action every damn day and allowing the answers to reveal themselves when the time was ripe. The proof of their genius could only be found out in retrospect’.

 

‘The artist transcends convention and the result is always beautiful. Philosopher/artist Eric Gill reminds us that “the artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist.”

‘What is amazing about art is that it knows no boundaries. It feeds on breaking the rules and the element of surprise. Interacting with it may help you develop openness’.

Science — finding similarities among things that are different

Art — finding differences among things that are similar

     Design — creating feasible ‘wholes’ from infeasible ‘parts’

 

Culture

‘Success comes from a generous exchange of information’.

‘Follow your curiosity and feed your brain on a regular basis’.

‘Creativity and Innovation is not just how things are, but how things could be’.

‘Dialogue is the single-most important factor underlying the productivity and growth of the knowledge worker (the people who get paid to think). Ram Charan in his essay on Conquering a Culture of Indecision, said the root of business is relationships, and that dialogue is the basic unit of work in an organization. Healthy relationships are at the heart of a company. Dialogue is characterized by incisiveness, creativity, and synergizing diverse points of view into a cohesive understanding that illuminates new insights, enabling decision-making and action. The quality of dialogue determines the quality of idea generation, problem –solving and how people make decisions. How people feel about one another impacts the outcome of these decisions’.

‘Culture is the set of processes in an organization that affects the total motivation of its people. In a high-performing culture, those processes maximize total motivation’.

For organizations and entrepreneurship

'Balance science with art -- the science of finding enough money for the short term, and the art of creating a great company for the long term'.

 

'I always feel like I am at the beginning because I am always learning my craft'.

 

‘The best way for a purpose-driven company to deliver aid during a crisis is to take inspiration and guidance directly from its reason for being. Make your efforts a clear extension not merely of what the company does, but who it is, and you can mobilize far more resources for impact while unifying stakeholders in the process.

'Rather than just doing good works in the name of purpose, let your purpose guide your response. Think deeply about what your company stands for, and how you might best use that to confront the present circumstances. Think through the differential impact on disparate interests that each course of action might entail and use your purpose as the compass to help guide you in choosing the right path. How might you best deliver on your reason for being, even if certain stakeholders don’t benefit as much as others in the short term? 

If your business must make painful cuts, how might your purpose guide those decisions? Do any new opportunities exist to deliver value to society, even if a commercial logic doesn’t yet exist? The best purpose-driven companies take a leap and pursue social benefits, having faith that they’ll figure out a sustainable business model. Periods of crisis, when customer needs are fast evolving, can be fertile times for such experiments’.

 

Leadership

‘Leaders who are emotionally intelligent are able to open new lines of communication, create understanding and help achieve common goals’.

Leaders

• Shape a vision that is exciting and challenging for your team (or division/unit/organization).
• Translate that vision into a clear strategy about what actions to take, and what not to do.
• Recruit, develop, and reward a team of great people to carry out the strategy.
• Focus on measurable results.
• Foster innovation and learning to sustain your team (or organization) and grow new leaders.
• Lead yourself — know yourself, improve yourself, and manage the appropriate balance in your own life.

‘Next time you want to figure something out, take the time to actually listen, learn and then, explain the entire concept to yourself to make sure you've fully absorbed it’.

‘When preparing your talks, figure out the three things you want people to remember, and focus on them. Find ways to make comparisons among the elements you are presenting to help your audience generate expectations. Resist the temptation to add more content. Less is more’.

“Written with Passion by Stan Lee. Drawn with Pride by Jack Kirby. Inked with Perfection by Joe Sinnott. And lettered with a Scratchy Pen by Artie Simek.” – Stan Lee.

‘My advice: don’t tell them, show them. Involve them. Incorporate their perspectives in terms of informing the solution’.

‘Your life choices aren’t just about what you want to do; they’re about who you want to be’.

‘I believe great leaders are the ones who are preparing themselves not for the comfortable predictability of yesterday, but for the realities of today and the fantastic possibilities of tomorrow. They build great teams around them that are diverse, innovative and courageous, to help them succeed every day’.

‘Leadership should never be about one person’s agenda; it’s about facts, mission, vision, values, and principles. Consequently, it is of great importance to seek inclusive dialogue’.

‘Lead with your work and not by prioritizing the work of others’.

‘Leader - Hires competent people in sales and to run the day-to-day operations so he can spend time focusing on the big picture, planning, consulting with his/her customers and coaching his/her staff when they need help’.

‘It’s never the wrong time to build the right team. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to build the very best team. It’s up to us to attract the very best people to create a team that’s greater than the sum of its parts'.

'The example is key. No matter how good leadership policies you put in place, if the leader isn't setting the best example for employees, productivity can go down. Leading by good example is undoubtedly a characteristic that cannot be lacking in a leader who can impact and inspire others’.

 

EQ

‘Don’t ask the people whether they’re always right. Instead ask the people when was the last time they changed their opinion’.

‘The most effective leaders understand that leading involves listening and learning, and they encourage feedback from people around them to work on their weaknesses. Self-awareness, one of the key characteristics of high Emotional Intelligent, is a quality that can distinguish a good leader from a great leader. If you don’t know who you are, if you don’t know what your strengths and weaknesses are, you will have a hard time gaining people’s trust and growing as a leader’.

“What really matters for success, character, happiness and lifelong achievements is a definite set of emotional skills – your EQ — not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests.”  — Daniel Goleman

“There is no separation of mind and emotions; emotions, thinking, and learning are all linked.”— Eric Jensen

“All learning has an emotional base.” – Plato