Taken For Granted
The other day, I was walking through Toronto's historic Distillery District. This District is a must-see spot for both locals and visitors to Toronto as it features a wide variety of artistic and cult...
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We Must Cast Light On Our Blind Spots
Years ago, I was in a significant car accident. I was changing lanes and I didn't notice another car pull into my blind spot. In our lives we have similar moments when something unperceived quickly emerges and shakes our sense of safety and security. Often, this disruptive force enters from a blind spot
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No Quick Fix
We spend much of our lives confronting problems and challenges. It seems with every passing day or news cycle there are new pressing issues that demand our attention and thought. And yet, how often is...
Creative Inspiration: Tallinn, Estonia
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between organizational strategy and city building (more on that in my next post). I do find it interesting how many cities and countries set...
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Creative Hubs Can Be Drivers Of Innovation For All Society
I was invited to Estonia to speak in its capital at the Tallinn Music Week Creative Impact Conference. That's right - a major Estonian music festival also hosted a concurrent summit on society, creative economies and city building.
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Our Limits Are What We Make Them
Our sense of what is realistic or not might actually limit our own possibility. Consider running a four-minute mile. It was thought to be impossible until Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier in 1954. The record now stands at 3:43 and the mile has been run in under four minutes at least 4,500 times.
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How A Listening Tour Can Change Your Workplace
How well do you listen? In a world increasingly dominated by text and email we are losing our ability to hear the subtlety in spoken word. Have you ever sent a message that was misinterpreted because it lacked proper inflection of voice?
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What Do You Value?
Have you identified the values and assumptions that drive you personally and professionally? What drives your business beyond shareholder expectations? What drives your day-to-day personal life beyond working to pay bills? Are you clear on what matters?
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Good Luck?
In my last Huffington Post piece on Happenstance, I discussed the importance of remaining open to and honouring the role of chance in our lives. While I strongly believe this is true, I also believe i...
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Thinking Beyond The Box On Evolution
While evolution can happen gradually, it seems as if some of the most dynamic evolutionary leaps happen in dramatic spurts. Arguably, we are living in an extremely disruptive time that most likely will result in dramatic evolutionary changes in our lives, societies and environment. While we mostly equate evolution with a forward-moving positive progression, I do think evolution can also be negative or regressive.
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The Role Of Happenstance In Innovation
Are you totally in control of your life? How much of your life resulted from serendipitous events, and how much is the result of deliberate action? How many of those details or interactions did you or...
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Think Big!
Fear and worry is, unfortunately, a part of everyday life. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of our comfortable lives being disrupted, displaced, or disassembled. As Mark Twain famously said, "I've...
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Out Of The Ordinary
I remember reading Phoebe Gilman's award winning children's book "Something from Nothing" to my three children. It is a great book that Gilman herself describes as a story adapted from an old Jewish f...
Are There Downsides To Being A Quick Learner?
In an era in which repetition and computation are increasing dominated by far more intelligent machines, is this at all a true or useful measure of human capacity, value or intellect? In a world facing complex problems and challenges, would we rather have the thoughtful, creative solutions, or the quick, intellectually expedient solution? Perhaps we have erroneously boosted those with computational skills over those with complex problem solving skills in times that increasingly need the latter.
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'Shedding' Our Resistance To Change
Recently, I have been thinking about how we "shed" the old to make room from the new in our lives, organizations and society. I have also been thinking about why we might block, resist or neglect chan...
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Human Intelligence: Everyone's Creative World
For years, I have been captivated by Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences - a theory focused on the many varied ways humans make sense of the world or express intelligence. As presented i...
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The Medium Is The Message
As the famous Canadian media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, suggests "the medium is the message". While we most often apply this quote to communications or technology, I like to think of its application to the design of everything from city streets to textiles. I often wonder about the assumptions buried within various systems we have designed to develop, educate, work and live.
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We Are All Artistic Beings Who Need The Arts
It's interesting to read of developments in the field of genetics where scientists are looking for DNA markers of artistic or creative genius. There has been work done by scientists at the University...
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