Impact = Talent + Character + Motivation

explore, don't conquer. not at first at least

What are you good at?

Think about it.

Some would list items like writing, illustrating, creative direction, visualization, storytelling and so on. Most would even struggle a little before identifying what they’re good at.  According to Rick and the team at Gallup, most of our answers are wrong.

Below are the main takeaways from our 3 hours with Rick, who first did a workshop with those who had taken the Strengthsfinder test, and then spoke to us about his research into the entrepreneurial spirit.

1. In order to be successful:

-       Know what you do welxl

-       Know what you don’t do well and manage it

-       Know what you do well and take it into new areas

2. When you’re doing what you do well:

-       It is energizing

-       It feel easy

-       Time flies, as you’re highly engaged

3. Most times your answers to what you’re good at are not your strengths. They are outputs or results of your strengths.

4. The results of the Strengthsfinder tool are situational themes, not your talents:

-       For example, connectedness, ideation, developer are situational themes that are transferable to any situation

-       The environment draws strengths, i.e. putting yourself in different environments will draw out different themes

5. Talents are not Strengths, not yet:

-       Talents = Potential, Strengths = Performance

-       Talents are what you do without thinking; strengths are what you actively use. It’s like working out

6. Converting talents to strengths requires:

-       Step 1: Awareness and Feedback

-       Step 2: Application and deliberate practice

-       Step 3: Achievement and identification

7. Small changes every day are what is required for any behavioural change

-       Talent migration is being able to move your talents into new areas

8. Exceptional performers do the following:

-       Store information differently, functionally and practically

-       Have multiple models

-       Act situationally

9. The Strengthsfinder tests work based on a cluster theory:

-       As opposed to an exclusionary or compartmentalized personality theory like the Myer-Briggs

-       The results of your top 5 themes can change, and do not represent the totality of who you are

10. Strengths do not determine your job or your role. How well you use them determine your performance.

In short, your strengths do not determine where you should be functionally in life; how well you use them and are aware of them do however determine how exceptional you perform in whatever area you choose. Strengths are the way you see the world. The amount of impact you make, is the result of using your talents to their maximum, applying your character to the situation, and having the right source of motivation.

Impact = Talent + Character + Motivation

 ———————————————————-

And on the entrepreneurial spirit, Rick took us through a comparison between entrepreneurs and military generals, an analogy that increases in aptness the more you think about it:

1. The common trajectory of an entrepreneur and a military strategist:

-       Plan –> Resources –> Objective

2. Lessons from a successful military strategist, Napoleon:

-       Flexibility is key to success

-       Have primary and secondary objectives at least

-       Plan around your resources

-       Have multiple models to do something

-       Know that no model works all the time

3. Explorer vs Conqueror models:

-       Usually, explorers are entrepreneurs, corporations are conquerors

4. The Conqueror mode:

-       Works well with a known market and known product/service

-       Highly directive style of leadership

-       Is where failure is fatal

-       Looks to the past to evaluate what went wrong

5. The Explorer mode:

-       Works well with an unknown market and unknown product/service

-       Flexible style of leadership that is alert to other resources

-       Thinks, how much can I lose instead of how much can I make

-       Creates the market and the future

6. The difference between the Explorer and Conqueror mindset:

-       Is between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset

-       A fixed mindset avoids failure to preserve identity

-       A growth mindset seeks to learn through failure

7. The Explorer/Entrepreneur have these in common:

-       All you have are resources

-       The same principles can be applied to different situations

-       Do not have stereotypes or fixed models

-       Recognise opportunity

-       Have a unique decision making system

-       Have the ability to extrapolate from the past into the future

-       Is about making what you have work for you

8. The key differentiator is in the framework of thinking:

-       The Conqueror thinks linear, the Explorer thinks systemic

-       A linear mode of thinking = proportionate change

-       A systemic mode of thinking = exponential change

Ask yourself, ‘If you were not afraid of failure, what would you do?’ And then, do it.

Think outside the marshmallow box

never say never

Dave took us through a workshop that felt like it was going back to school, with a big part of it being about building the highest possible structure that could sustain a marshmallow.

This one is a little hard to extrapolate learnings applicable to all. You would have to have been there. Below are just a few things we did and learnt:

1. Draw your life story

-       You’d be surprised how you visualize your life until now and your self identity can fit onto an A4 piece of paper

2. The importance of learning

-       Our education is not about learning. Unfortunately, most times its been about putting ourselves into a socially agreed type of box

-       Cue the flying horse example: 99% of adults draw a flying horse the same way, i.e. Pegasus. Kids draw all kinds of flying horses, e.g. a horse on a flying carpet.

-       Our box is the flying horse

3. As your grow up, your neurons grow old

-       The pathway between your neurons are forged when information becomes knowledge

-       Learning goes down as your habits go up

-       One needs to actively go outside one’s established mode of thinking in order to forge new pathways

4. The nature of Innovation 2.0

-       Is nonlinear and about cross-pollination

5. Many things can be learnt from some pasta and a marshmallow:

-       The nature of teams. Watch the TED video: http://marshmallowchallenge.com/TED_Talk.html

-       Start with the end in mind first: prototype, refine, iterate

-       Question the task , break it down and use your own approach

-       A combination of skillful facilitation and specialized skills wins

-       Combine other ideas instead of rejecting them completely

-       Peer leadership and facilitation builds the horizon

6. You have a second brain in your gut.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain

If you’re really interested, find out why we’re coquivores, not omnivores

http://clatl.com/omnivore/archives/2010/10/25/the-munching-second-brain

7. Different people have qualitatively different thinking attributes, which influences their role in a team situation

-       Emergenetics identifies 4: Analytical, Structural, Social, Conceptual

http://www.emergenetics.com/about-us/faq

8. Mindfulness of the team process and one’s own thinking attribute, and the existence of diverse others, greatly increases performance.

The average marshmallow challenge height is about 20inches. We made it.

Idea = P(K+I)

my next big idea is...

It is almost impossible to write a coherent piece on the entire breadth of Fredrik’s workshop. It doesn’t do justice to his ability to hold your attention for three hours straight and to keep you constantly engaged on two levels: on what he’s saying at that point in time, and applying what he said a minute ago to your own life and passions.

And so here we’re going to write just a few bullets of his thinking:

1. Your life is your biggest creative project. Apply your efforts there.

• Write down four things you love/are passionate about/good at
• Figure out how to include them in your life plan
• For e.g… Global travel, writing on a beach, creativity, fishing = Fredrik’s life on Idea Islan

2.  A great idea is something you have to do without question. It’s defined by an imperative. A good idea is just, good.

3. I = P(K+I)

Idea = Person (Knowledge+Information)

• P erson: that’s you
• K nowledge: what you already know
• I nformation:  new stuff that becomes knowledge once processed
• More (K+I) = More creativity. The great masters of creativity always studied everything
• Hone your +. Develop the way you combine knowledge and information.

4. Idea: 2 formerly known things combined in a new way

• There is no such thing as a new idea.
• Everything is a reinvention of an existing idea. Specifically, a combination of 2 ideas.
• The only thing we can do is reinvent the wheel.

5. It’s not so much about the idea but about the creative execution. Making every little thing better. Detail. Improving on a simple idea.

6. Creative people are the most orderly and organized people there are. They find order where there is none.

7. An idea’s power is inversely related to the number of people who have it.

8. Creativity is turning risk into opportunity.

The reason why so many people walked away from Fredrik’s workshop inspired and wow’ed, is not just because he was not an incredibly charismatic speaker and presenter. True, he interlaced lively anecdotes, striking imagery, jokes and serious messaging that enlivened and stimulated your mind. But the main reason people were inspired was because he broke the nebulous word of ‘creativity’ down to principles that you could apply. They were inspired because his workshop was practical, and usable; not just some faraway notion of ‘being different’.

So here are Fredrik’s tips for the creative entrepreneur:

1. Take away the fundamental.

• Strip the assumptions of your industry, i.e. the way things are ‘normally done’.
• E.g. having the author’s name on a management book.

2. What business are you really in?

• Think about it from the user point of view.
• E.g. Beer crates = making it easier to get drunk industry
• E.g. Idea book = giving people the tools to be creative industry

3. Copy from the best.

• Creativity is the ability to copy right.
• Einstein said it’s the ability to hide your sources.

4. Question everything.

• But don’t change everything.

5. Play the What if? game.

• What if someone else does what you are doing.
• You tried a new way of xxx/marketing/packaging/making.
• E.g. Launching a book like a movie, with a trailer.

6. Use your external capital.

• External capital are people who care about your product without being paid. Your spouses and lovers, not the prostitutes.

7. Run global.

• Always think global, even if it’s only a few cities.

We’re visual creatures. Go to our Facebook page for more photos of the event, courtesy of Eric Hargrove, and click here for an incredible infographic created live during the workshop, courtesy of Joshua Teo.