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What stops us from being creative at work?  Unblocking the flow is simpler than you might think, if only people would listen…

A case study by Nancy Kline – President of Time To Think

Read more here – Thinking Caps Off

Difficult Conversations: Authentic Communication Leads to Greater Understanding and Teamwork – by Martha Lasley

Like the Chinese word for crisis, which combines the symbols for danger and opportunity, difficult conversations can lead to either distress or harmony. We usually anticipate distress because difficult conversations often become emotional, leading us to confront, freeze, bolt, or gloss over the issues. But we could choose to expect harmony instead.

Imagine yourself at a tense planning meeting where the financial director reports, “To compete profitably, we need to lay off 20 percent of the workforce.” The marketing director responds, “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. We need to lay you off so we can hire new people who are serious about growing the business.” Are you ready to add fuel to the fire, would you prefer to crawl under your chair, or do you have the skills to facilitate a conversation that could satisfy everyone in the room?

Read more – Authentic Communication – Lasley

When was the last time you sat through a meeting and said to yourself, “This is a complete waste of time!”? Was it yesterday, or even just a few hours ago? Why did that gathering feel so tedious? Perhaps it’s because the leaders posed the wrong questions at the start of the session. Or, worse yet, maybe they didn’t ask any engaging questions, and as a result, the meeting consisted of boring reports-outs or other forms of one way communication that failed to engage people’s interest or curiosity. The usefulness of the knowledge we acquire and the effectiveness of the actions we take depend on the quality of the questions we ask. Questions open the door to dialogue and discovery. They are an invitation to creativity and breakthrough thinking. Questions can lead to movement and action on key issues; by generating creative insights, they can ignite change.

Read more here…Art of Powerful Questions

Eric E Vogt, Juanita Brown & David Isaacs