Creativity and innovation are important elements of all Thermostat Cultures and opportunities to stimulate progress are all around us. Jason Barger chats with New York Times bestselling author, innovation expert, and author of the new book Big Little Breakthroughs, Josh Linkner.
SHOW NOTES
1:47 – Jason introduces Season 4 episode 15 of the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast on corporate culture and leadership and thank you for listening. We engage thought leaders like CEOs, CFOs, managers, VPs, directors, and more for this podcast. We wish to create content that engages your mind and heart and allows you to step back and think and add some positivity to your life. This podcast is a discussion with Josh Linkner, New York Times bestselling author of the new book Big Little Breakthroughs. Learn more about Josh Linkner here.
Follow Josh Linkner on Twitter
2:30 – Please leave a review for the podcast
3:40 – We can’t control everything but what we can control is our response. Still a lot of work to do but wanted to remind the audience what is within our control is the temperature we create in the organizations and teams we work with. If you have a suggestion, please send to info@jasonvbarger.com
4:15 – Jason talks with Josh Linkner. Josh talks about his fourth book, where he spent over 1,000 hours speaking with CEOs, grammy-award winning musicians, and more for this new book. The mission of the book is to help everyday people become everyday innovators with a step-by-step approach to how to do so.
5:31 – Learn the 8 obsessions of everyday innovators as Josh shares a few with this audience in a sneak peek inside the book. One is start before your ready. Start even before you have all the answers. Another interesting one is called don’t forget the dinner mint, which strives to excel at the details. Before you hit send on your email what is that 2% extra to get to 102% or that extra creative edge to make you stand out? A 2 or 3% extra effort can yield 100% better results as said by Linkner based on what he has researched for his book.
There are some common patterns that the best innovators do.
10:15 – Linkner goes into a story from little-known breakthrough person Mat Ishbia in the mortgage industry who is worth $13 billion. The idea is to start quickly and go ahead with an idea now rather than make it perfect and wait. A discussion of perfection vs innovation goes on.
13:40 – Lady Gaga says that her creative process involves her vomiting out ideas on the page for the first 15 minutes and it ain’t pretty. Then, over time, it is refined into something beautiful. Linkner talks about how Big Little Breakthroughs is about normal people being creative and not worrying about massive breakthroughs but instead micro-innovations or little breakthroughs that people can practice to be more creative and flex that muscle.
17:40 – We need new ways of doing things to be creative and make breakthroughs. We are in a time of great innovation and COVID has acted as an accelerant, as said by Linkner, for innovation. To deliver core services to people and keep people safe businesses had to adapt. Now we really have to think of creative solutions and that is what Linkner is promoting, creative thinking to today’s problems.
21:05 – Jason and Josh talk about creativity in the workplace and in organizations and businesses and how to make your organization more creative. Linkner talks about the brown bag lunch story for creativity in an organization. What’s the risk of not being creative? We overestimate the risk of being creative but we underestimate the risk of standing still, says Linkner.
27:30 – Linkner gives some prime examples of using creativity to drive outcomes in business. They talk about using a sense of artistry in sales or your business to drive sales or results.
31:05 – Jason and Linkner talk about the impact of virtual engagements and ask Linkner about his thoughts on sharing virtually. Working virtually allows people to touch more people and share their wisdom with more people but there are limitations vs being in person. This is the new normal and the impacts virtual events have are undeniable to affect more lives.
An artist is the intersection of skill and creativity so we can all be artists. We can be a cleaning artist, a customer service artist, a dental artist.
If you like the podcast, have a question, or just want to share your thoughts about daring to begin please leave a comment below or please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.
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ABOUT THE THERMOSTAT
Conversations and micro-thoughts to engage your mind and heart.
A thermostat is proactive. It sets the temperature in a room. Controls the temperature. Regulates the temperature. But in today’s distracted, fast-paced and digital world, it’s easy for individuals and organizations to act more like thermometers, slipping into reactionary thinking, becoming scattered and inconsistent. The most compelling leaders, teams, organizations, families or collection of humans of any kind operate in thermostat mode. They calibrate their mind and heart to set the temperature for the vision and culture they want to create. Jason Barger, globally celebrated author, keynote speaker, and founder of Step Back Leadership Consulting, is the host of The Thermostat, a podcast journey to discover authentic leadership, create compelling cultures and find clarity of mission, vision, and values.