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July 17, 2019

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Creativity

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The Game of Business

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When speaking in-depth with an executive at a successful Fortune 100 company, I find more times than not that the executive looks at the business and marketplace as a game to be won. Most sales and marketing executives that I’ve spoken with also have a penchant for playing business.

The movers and shakers in the entertainment industry find the creation of their products and services to be game-like as well. In fact, creative people, in general, find their productivity skyrockets every time they view their innovations as a game. So why aren’t the business schools teaching business game strategies?

Three rules in the world of business gameplay must be present to innovate.

RULE 1: LEARN THE RULES

Every marketplace operates under the common assumptions and perceptions of its players. Once you’ve mastered the rules in any given market, you are then able to hyper-focus on the areas that are dealmakers and breakers. You are also able to learn what it takes to introduce new perspectives and disruptive ideas to catapult the industry forward. None of this is possible if you don’t thoroughly know the existing rules.

Back when I attended university, I made a short film that stirred the viewers and gave them hope in their own future. The letters I received suggested that this miracle film needed to get a broader release to touch more lives. I immediately took the film to the 16mm marketplace that had an audience of schools, libraries, churches, and other non-profit organizations.

I printed up a 5.5 X 8.5 catalog for the distributors to promote the film. I provided films to all the distributors for their rental programs. And, I even did radio interviews sharing where the films were available. Then I braced myself to make a lot of money. Three months later, only three copies of the film had been rented. I started asking questions and learned that the distributors never sent out my promotional materials.

No one told me that the distributors bound all of their 8.5 X 11 catalogs into one large book that they gave to their customers. Since my catalog was a different size, they tossed it in the trash. I realized that before entering any marketplace in the future, I’d make sure that I understood the rules.

RULE 2: PRACTICE THE GAME

The game of business is played every day, but the tools and techniques used require developed skills. No one enters a game with ground pleasing abilities because they are natural at it. Sure, some get lucky in their first few months based on what they sensed entering the marketplace, but it’s rare to last longer than a short stint.

The more a person tests out and practices various strategies, the better they get at playing the game. However, no one can rest on their laurels in the world of business gaming because the conditions change with every innovation. The main reason businesses want to innovate is to disrupt their competitor instead of being the one scrambling to reinvent the business due to someone else’s contribution to the marketplace. I read a poster years ago and if I remember properly it said, “Change is scary unless you’re the innovator.”

RULE 3: ENJOY TROUBLE-SHOOTING

Innovation is solving a problem that the rest of the market hasn’t yet thought about. It’s a fun activity and rewarding when your product or service is first to market with clear benefits for the end-user. Coming up with a viable solution worth exploring requires a significant amount of research and brainstorming.

The fuel used in successful brainstorming sessions is called F.U.N. and is the key to the successful play required to innovate.

  • F = Free from Failure: Every idea is a good one because it’s either an element in the final solution or the cause that leads to a better idea. Therefore, failure does not exist, as all aspects of the brainstorming process benefits the system.
  • U = Uplifting in Spirit: The process is affirming and energizing, especially when synergies form from within the brainstorming process that simplifies the team’s effort. This uplifting spirit or attitude typically makes everyone feel like their part made a difference in the final solution.
  • N = Narrative for Market: When everyone gives their personal best and brings to the innovation sessions a diverse background of experiences, a new narrative that will drive the innovation forms to solidify the vision for the product or service. The ability to explain in simple terms what the innovation does and how people benefit from it drives internal communications and sets up marketing with the necessary tools to promote the solution.

The atmosphere of play not only generates great solutions, but it also energizes people and gives them a reason to come to work every day. This playfulness relaxes the logical side of the brain and empowers the creative side, giving voice to all involved in the innovation process. And, with numerous minds working together from diverse backgrounds, it will generate some great ideas worth developing further.

Playing the game of business is a lot of fun, especially when your team wins an additional chunk of the market. It’s also enjoyable to trouble-shoot in advance of realized market problems to have a solution at the time the market is ready for it. I also find it fun to catch the competition off-guard from the innovation, forcing them to scramble for a “me too” product.

I think it’s time for you to have fun this week innovating.

© 2019 by CJ Powers

 

 

 

 

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July 15, 2019

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A Creative Approach to Dealing with Email

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We are often flooded with an onslaught of irrelevant data filling our email box. In this day of information overload, we can find ourselves swimming in hundreds of emails that are unrelated to our task at hand. Wading through it not only absorbs our precious time, but it also keeps us from our profitable work that meets our goals and objectives.

A few years ago, I returned from a conference where we had no time allotted to check emails, so I found my mailbox filled with about 1,200 new emails. These were the ones that did not meet the automated filtering system that forwarded most of the mail to other employees while I was out of the office. The stack was deemed to be only answerable by me, but I didn’t have eight hours to properly go through the stack.

I quickly surveyed my associates and asked what they did when there were more emails than time to go through them. One man said to delete them all since the important ones will get a follow-up email. A woman suggested I create a folder, move the emails into it for future consideration, and label the folder with the conference dates. However, she shared how she was still working through the emails from her vacation last year.

The sheer number of unanswered emails was taking a toll on me. The volume of mail increased the number of overwhelming distractions I faced. I could sense that the overload of information was crushing my ability to be creative and come up with simple ideas and solutions. Determining a process for dealing with old emails was mandatory if I wanted my mind freed for important innovative work.

To build the process, I brainstormed the types of emails needing to be addressed:

  1. Irrelevant emails
  2. Project-related emails
  3. Urgent emails
  4. Important emails
  5. Advertisements and advertorials

The most efficient way of handling emails is to only open it once and act on it. The action might be to take steps required by the email, respond to it, review and file it, or delete it. Since taking action is a must when going through emails, I decided to separate the emails before opening.

Delete Ads and Irrelevant Emails

The emails that were clearly an ad or unrelated to my primary function were immediately deleted. I had my mail program reveal the first few lines of each email so I was able to delete items without opening the mail. This allowed me to delete about 300 emails.

File Project Emails

Since the people I work with use a protocol in the email subject line for ease of searching and sorting, I was able to move project files into their appropriate folders for review during my next scheduled project time. Unopened mail that is moved into a folder is still highlighted as not yet having been read, allowing me to know exactly which emails to read first. This action allowed me to schedule about 400 emails to a time slot booked for the project it pertained to.

Take Immediate Action on Urgent Emails

There were about 50 emails requesting my immediate attention, but only seven that actually needed my attentiveness. After taking care of the seven, I made quick decisions on what the remaining required for true next steps. This was important since some people’s urgent matters aren’t my problem. My decisions need to be based on what was urgent for me, not others.

Schedule Important Emails

There were about 100 emails that I’d consider important. I scheduled a handful of 30-minute response blocks of time throughout the week to work on the important items. Some of the emails only required me to assign projects to key players, while others required my time. The goal was to do a little bit every day until all the important items had been handled.

Outside of the above sorting categories, were about 350 emails that needed some action, but may or may not have had any level of importance. I quickly scanned the emails and made immediate decisions on the level of action required. All but about a dozen emails ended up in the trash.

I use the Gmail search engine for my emails because it gives me the most control available. Not only can I search by customer or project, but I can also search by what I don’t want included in the search.

For instance, let’s say I’m searching for legal files under project code TNT, but I don’t want any of Anthony’s emails in the output results. In the search bar, I type: TNT attorney -Anthony. This gives me all coded emails that include the attorney while leaving out all emails with Anthony’s name. The simple use of the minus sign reduced my output results from 1,633 documents down to 5, of which I opened the one I needed.

By maintaining a process for sorting through an overload of emails frees us up to innovate. Instead of eating up hours of our day trying to catch up, we can take relevant action immediately. And, we can open key project emails during project billable times instead of administrative times—making the reading of emails profitable.

© 2019 by CJ Powers

 

 

 

 

 

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July 9, 2019

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New Podcast: The Creative You

This week we launched a new free podcast on creativity in business. The episodes will give practical insights and applications that the audience can practice at home and implement at work. Many of the creative tools shared will also work at home and in your community.

Everyone is creative, even those who don’t think they are. It’s my hope that The Creative You podcast will help people bring balance to their lives and help them develop the right side of their brain to an equal level as the left side of their brain—after all, no one wants to make lopsided decisions.

My host, Rebecca Boskovic, is the CEO and founder of The Fittest Me, a health studio that focuses on building strength for life. We met at a mutual speaking engagement, noticed the similarities between physical and nutritional health, and logical and creative health, and decided to take advantage of our expertise by hosting each other’s podcast.

Here is the first episode for your enjoyment.

If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, it is available on iTunes, iPodcast, Spotify, Libsyn, and numerous other platforms. Please feel free to share it with others.