Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

This has to be one of the hardest introductions to an episode that I have ever recorded. As the situation unfolds for me personally one of the most challenging things to grapple with has been the inequality that is now so starkly in front of us. It has always existed however now we are all forced to pay attention more than before. I sincerely hope we don’t let this crisis go to waste and carry on with business as usual when this pandemic is over.  Rather, I hope we learn to be advocates for what we and others need. We are learning every day what these needs and pain points are for people and the burden they place upon individuals, families and businesses. 

What Kind of Content Should We Be Creating

For many content creators this is also an uncertain time about what to post and what to share. I personally believe this is the ultimate time to take a lesson from @garyvee and help people reclaim their creative confidence by providing your audience with value jab jab jab. If you haven’t read his book Jab Jab Jab Right Hook this is a great time to do so. 

It’s that combination of thought and action that defines creative confidence: the ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out.

Tom Kelley

Now more than ever people are looking for ideas, solutions, guidance and examples. If you have an idea to share, a best practice that may not seem special to you because it’s just how you do things, know that for others it may be the greatest gift you can share. Remember as Derek Sivers would say, “What’s ordinary to you is often amazing to others.”

Why Trust is Important to Idea Generation

Sharing ideas however isn’t always that easy. One of the most important parts about uniting people around change is being able to build trust with others. It is essential to design spaces where we feel safe to express our voice, safe to share ideas with vulnerability and safe to feel that we may be wrong. We need to establish trust so that we can shift from a culture where, “I want to talk about my idea” to a culture where once we share ideas around a table face to face, or online in a remote environment, it has now become our idea and we will all contribute and help it grow.

Today’s Episode with Jay Melone

It is my pleasure to introduce you today to Jay Malone.

Jay Melone is the Founder and Principal Facilitator of New Haircut, an innovation strategy firm and global leader in problem framing and design sprints. Jay’s innovation expertise stems from a unique career that’s crossed software development, product management, and design thinking facilitation. Jay supports product, design, research, and innovation teams within Google, Home Depot, Rosetta Stone, and more. Jay is also the co-founder of the Innovation Leadership Accelerator.

We always talk about how finding the gaps can lead to opportunities for design. As Jay found himself facilitating workshops for a number of organizations he found a major gap in being able to truly innovate – a lack of trust amongst teams. In today’s episode Jay Melone and I discuss

• Content ideas that you can share during this time.
• The current situation unfolding with COVID-19 and strategies for moving towards remote workshops and collaboration.
• How to establish trust amongst a team to foster a culture of collaboration where innovation thrives.
• How to design a culture that provides everyone with a voice and platform to share their thoughts and ideas.
• How to utilize the ICBD framework to help teams begin a project.

Leading During Uncertainty

In times of panic and uncertainty it can be easy to say ok let’s come up with a solution, however what we really need is to ok with experimentation and to find a way to have everyone be seen and heard. In, “Leadership in a crisis: Responding to the coronavirus outbreak and future challenges,” they share, “What leaders need during a crisis is not a predefined response plan but behaviors and mindsets that will prevent them from overreacting to yesterday’s developments and help them to look ahead.” Join me in learning more with Jay about the intersection of trust and creative confidence.