Posts by Valerie Patrick
To Facilitate or Not to Facilitate Innovation
To facilitate or not to facilitate innovation goes beyond the want or need for innovation. Facilitation is about a content-neutral process to support innovation. This blog post was inspired by Fulcrum Connection’s Science of Success podcast interview with sustainability guru Andrew Winston (sign up for Fulcrum Connection’s Quadrant II Newsletter at www.fulcrumconnection.com to find out…
Read MoreThe Learning-Creativity-Innovation Continuum
This blog post was inspired by Fulcrum Connection’s Science of Success podcast interview with creativity guru Dr. Keith Sawyer (sign up for Fulcrum’s newsletter to find out when the podcast will be posted and see Creativity Guru Blog). The podcast explores the importance of collaboration to the type of creativity that leads to innovation. From…
Read MoreWhat’s Learn Gots to do with Leverage
Sadly, “What’s Learn Gots to do with Leverage” is not as good as a title as I first thought because I am going to have to explain it. Let’s start with the word leverage. Leverage is supposed to refer to both group creativity and collaboration. This is because both group creativity and collaboration are about…
Read MoreHow Emotions Can Pack a Powerful Punch
How emotions can pack a powerful punch may sound like a post about anger. This post is actually about how emotions, and, in particular, positive emotions, can be amplified through connection and collaboration to produce all kinds of benefits. In the United States, we tend to equate positive emotions with positive thinking. What’s more, we…
Read MoreWho Is the Competent Collaborator?
Ever since the late 1980’s, when people started turning to the Internet as a source of information, the sheer amount of information available has come into sharper focus. When I was in grade school, some time before the 1980’s, people still used physical libraries to find information – yes that is how old I am…
Read MoreSimplicity Is As Simplicity Does in Communication
Simplicity is as simplicity does in communication means that it is about what simplicity can accomplish in communication not simplicity because it looks good. I got interested in how simplicity relates to communication from Skip Prichard’s comment that ‘simplicity….is actually not a simple subject’ in his post ‘The Power of the Simple’ (http://www.skipprichard.com/the-power-of-the-simple/). Simplicity in…
Read MoreReinvigorating Your Brain When Disengaged
Reinvigorating your brain is the solution to being disengaged. This is because disengagement is emotional detachment and the brain is the body’s emotional and cognitive control center. I got interested in the topic of disengagement from GaIlup’s report that in 2014 less than one-third (31.5%) of U.S. employees were engaged in their work (see: http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx)…
Read MoreHarmony and Diversity Lessons from Fused Glass
I recently visited really good friends in Long Island and learned some harmony and diversity lessons from a fused glass experience. My friend and I both identify ourselves as artistic – not as a profession – but as a hobby. We both like handmade jewelry in addition to hand-blown glass objects. We also have been…
Read MoreContradiction and Creativity Make Good Bedfellows
The ‘good bedfellow’ relationship between contradiction and creativity can be gleaned from recent neuroscience findings. I got interested in neuroscience after attending the ‘science of learning’ track at the annual Association for Talent Development (ATD) meeting in Orlando Florida last month (http://www.atdconference.org/). I was impressed with the overall high quality of the neuroscience presentations at…
Read MoreFollowership from Social Intelligence
This week I thought about followership from social intelligence because of my reaction to two sermons with different tones. Two weeks ago, the sermon had an accusatory tone suggesting church members were not good followers. A week ago, the sermon had an inclusive tone encouraging us all to tap into the divine energies of growth…
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