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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Innovation: 5 ways to Improve your Creative Thinking
 by Rafis Abazov
Summer is the time for internships and summer jobs for many students, and it is also a great time to work on your creative thinking and innovation skills so you’ll be in good shape to get that dream job after graduation. 

Everyone says that modern companies – including those which are most popular to work for – highly value innovative thinking and creativity. The problem is, how can you be creative without failing, looking stupid or repeating what others have already suggested a hundred times?

For last few years I have been talking to various startups and have heard many interesting recipes for innovation. Here are six ways to improve your own creative thinking and innovation skills…

1. Create your own “Three Ifs”

Many good innovators take an existing object and ask clever questions to twist the very concept of it and make it new. Steve Jobs didn’t start with the idea of a smartphone. He just took an existing cell phone and asked a very simple question: how can we improve it to make it better – or the best?

Let’s be clear about this – there are no universal recipes for innovation, and each person should develop her or his own approach depending on specialty, interest, type of thinking, or even the type of team s/he is participating in.

That said, I usually suggest my students build creative thinking around three “ifs”:
  1. What would happen if I change it (the object/ system/ social relationship, etc)?  
  2. What would I change or improve about this object if I wanted to use it in 10 years? 
  3. What would I do if I had a one-million-dollar investment to improve it?
These questions can become powerful tools that can help you to think differently. It is important to exercise these skills by repeatedly using the “three ifs” formula (or designing your own set of questions) about all sorts of things. And many new ideas will pop up.

For example, for several semesters I kept asking my students, let us take a bicycle, think about it and ask the “three if” questions, so we can come up with a new idea. Initially the students strongly resisted and were very skeptical. However, after several rounds of discussions and brainstorming they began to come up with many new creative ideas. We narrowed down those innovations into small course projects and my students’ teams won several cash awards to implement their creative ideas.

2. Practice dreaming

The greatest paradox is that creative thinking is not necessarily the product of IQ or enlightenment via the proverbial apple falling on your head. It is a matter of regularly training your imagination, practicing your powers of observation and dreaming, big or small. It sounds so simple, and yet in this era of information overload and highly charged urban life, this important element is often missing from our everyday lives.

All too often we stay focused on the main task at hand, devoting our mental powers to routine actions (including Twitter and SMS – well, I am sometimes guilty of this too), so that at the end of the day the most creative idea we can come up with is just to finally take a break in front of the TV or computer screen. Sound familiar? 

Whatever you’re doing – whether it’s work or leisure – practice spending time applying the “three ifs” formula to anything you see or imagine. This will help you get into the habit of making space in your mind for dreaming – essential for creative thinking and innovation.

3. Make time for cohesive creative thinking

Every textbook on creativity affirms to the importance of setting aside clearly defined time for creative thinking and innovation. For example, Google asks its teams to allocate at least 20% of their time to creative thinking or new projects.  But often, even if we show up ready to innovate, still something doesn’t work and fresh ideas fail to pop up like popcorn. There are two reasons for this stalemate. The first is that we don’t practice dreaming, and the second is we don’t practice focusing on cohesive ideas.

Therefore, the next rule of creative thinking is very simple: allocate time – it might be an hour per day or per week – in which to exercise creative thinking about something specific. A colleague told me that when he was a student many years ago he started musing about mobile phones – what they would be in 10 and 20 years’ time. Already at college his essays on this topic won much praise, and after college he got a cool job designing apps for phones to make them much smarter and attractive for “millennials”.

4. Learn to pitch your ideas (in an elevator)

There is simple truth in the fact that Steve Jobs of Apple was great at exploring and explaining innovations based on existing products – laptops, cell phones, music players. He didn’t invent those products, but he made them better and he was great at explaining why his version was superior to other competing goods.

On many occasions I hear from my students, “But I had that idea first” or “I proposed something like that just recently and nobody listened to me.” In this situation I always highlight the bottom line – probably you did have a wonderful idea, but you didn’t express yourself clearly and excitingly enough to grab people’s attention, or help others to grasp the nature of your innovation or project.

There is an old saying, “If you cannot express your idea in three sentences – you don’t have an idea!” One of the most important innovation skills is the ability to present a very short and clear description of a new idea (two to three sentences – like shouting through the closing door of an elevator) and to make a short presentation (two to three minutes – what is called an “elevator pitch”). Like any other skill, the ability to articulate in this way can only come through much practice.

5. Bounce ideas off others

Even a great innovator needs people around her or him to discuss – or “bounce” – new creative ideas and innovations. What do the major innovative ideas of our time have in common, from Microsoft (well, when it was young) to Google? All of them were created by teams of people who stayed together to conceive the idea, plan their innovative projects, take them to investors and the public, and most importantly jointly brainstorm those innovations within the team – bouncing ideas, questions and improvements until the product was perfected to become the next multi-billion dollar “eureka.”

Therefore, a final important asset to add to your innovation skillset, is the ability to be a valuable team player, capable of bouncing ideas to the next level. For some young people this is very natural, while for others it does not come so easily to be a team player. But it is never too late to train yourself in this mode of interacting.

Source: Top Universities

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TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
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.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley) y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
EMail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411.3532.0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Industria y Servicios,
b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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Thursday, April 27, 2017

Diversity: 5 Tips on Leading Cross-Cultural Teams
by Erin Meyer


Diversity in the workplace offers tremendous advantages.

Studies have shown that socially diverse groups tend to be more innovative than those made up of people from a uniform background.

With today’s increasingly global marketplace, the diversity of a team extends well beyond what background any given individual hails from. More and more often, a team manager in New York may be required to interface with and manage workers across the country or even across an ocean or two. Or perhaps the company is hiring talent from all over the globe and bringing them into one office. In all of these scenarios, leaders of cross-cultural teams need a nuanced mindset.

“While leaders have always had to understand personality differences and manage how people interact with one another, as globalisation transforms the way we work, we now need the ability to decode cultural differences in order to work effectively with clients, suppliers and colleagues around the world,” writes Erin Meyer, Senior Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD.

Here are five tips to enrich cross-cultural working relationships:

  • Be Flexible

 In Meyer’s book, The Culture Map, she identifies scheduling and decision-making as two key workplace values that vary greatly across cultures. Different cultures prioritize either flexibility or a linear time construct on the road to execution.

To better serve a cross-cultural team, it is best to assess how flexible the various cultures on the team might be to timing schedules. She offers the example of China versus Japan in this context. In China, there is often a race to the finish line once a decision is made. In Japan, offices are more likely to make a plan and stick to it. Understanding this key difference can help avoid team frustrations.

  • Give Everyone a Voice

 It might be easy to get everyone talking when the whole team is present and accounted for in a single conference room. This becomes more of a challenge when attempting to gain consensus around the globe through calls or video conferences. As a result, it’s up to the team leader to make sure that every voice is heard. If there are team members stationed across separate locations, be sure to send the agenda well in advance and actively solicit that remote team for their thoughts, updates or opinions.
  • Train Everyone in the Corporate Norms

 “The amount of respect we show to authority is deeply rooted in the culture we are raised in,” Meyer writes. “We begin, as young children, to learn how much deference should be shown to an older sibling, a parent, a teacher – and later, in business, these same ideas impact how we view the ideal relationship with our boss or subordinates.”

If active debate is a part of the company’s process in team meetings, the staff should be trained and equipped to partake in these efforts. When cultural norms in some locations or among certain nationalities discourage this type of discussion, managers should take extra care to explain the importance of this process.

  • Encourage Small Talk

 Office water cooler banter is a lot harder when an ocean separates a team’s water coolers. Down time and social events contribute enormously to team bonding but are virtually impossible to coordinate across distant office locations. But this fact does not give managers a free pass to let these casual interactions go.

When a mix of cultures is trying to come together in a single office, mangers should make every effort to create opportunities for casual interactions. Happy hours, lunch-and-learn events and even birthday parties for employees can help to bond the team.

  • Stop and Listen

 Too often, a team leader will rely on faulty assumptions: the London desk wastes many hours in the morning waiting for the New York team to wake up, the Singapore team doesn’t take direction well, the Paris team is never at the desk when called. These types of biases internal to a corporation can erode trust and prevent effective collaboration. Instead, a manager should pause before acting and attempt to gain a better understanding of why certain locations operate differently. He or she may have no concept of the local cultures, considerations and needs that impact other offices. It would be wise to ask questions and learn as much as possible before attempting to force changes.

“You need to develop the flexibility to manage up and down the cultural scale,” Meyer explains. “Often this means going back to square one. It means watching what makes local leaders successful. It means explaining your style frequently. It may even mean learning to laugh at yourself. But ultimately it means learning to lead in different ways in order to motivate and mobilise groups who follow in different ways from the folks back home.”

Bottom Line

Managing cross-cultural teams is going to be an increasingly important skill in the global marketplace. Developing sensitivity to local customs and priorities can help managers to better unite their teams no matter how many miles are between them. Once effectively managed, cross-cultural teams can bring unparalleled innovation and unique perspectives to new problems and can be far more effective than any one team with a homogenous group of employees.
Source: INSEAD

Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
de las necesidades de su Organización:



Consultas al mail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley) y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
EMail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411.3532.0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Industria y Servicios,
b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The 3 Strategy Questions every CEO should ask regularly
by Andreas De Vries
Strategy, fundamentally, is about consciously deciding where to do business, how to do business there, and how to change the organization accordingly. There can be no doubt that in a competitive business environment strategy is essential for sustainable success.

Only through strategy can an organization establish a lasting competitive advantage that enables it to capture the Big Opportunities ahead of competition, namely.

Whether the strategy will actually achieve this, however, depends on how well it is aligned with the actual business environment, how accurate its change management plan is, and how well this change management plan is executed. This is why it is imperative that CEOs actively engage not only in Strategy Formulation, but also in Strategic Planning and Strategy Execution.

Considering the demands on a CEO’s time, it can be challenging to fit these activities into the CEO calendar. To keep things simple, CEOs should start with regularly asking their organizations the following 3 strategic questions.

“Welcome the identification and communication of threats to plan execution. Don’t criticize managers for fearing the future”.

1. Where are we today?

 Every organization will focus on the things it believes its leader is focusing on. Consequently, if the leader shows no interest in the execution of plans, the organization will not focus on this task either and none of the things that were agreed during strategy will get done.

 For this reason, regularly ask your organization about the progress of Strategy Execution: “Where are we today and how does this compare to the targets we set ourselves?”

2. Are we ready for the next steps?

 Organizations that manage Strategy Execution solely through asking backward-looking questions will always be reactionary. Since “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”, you should also drive a forward-looking mindset in your organization.

 This can be accomplished by regularly asking: “Are we ready to execute the next phase of the strategic plan and what could cause issues?”.

 Key here is to welcome the identification and communication of threats to plan execution. Don’t criticize managers for fearing the future. Criticize them if they are not getting ready for it!

3. Do we still want to take the next steps?

 The global business environment today is characterized by continuous fast-paced and unpredictable change. Every strategy therefore runs the risk of being overtaken by time.

 If the real world does not change in accordance to what was assumed during Strategy Formulation, it is most likely the identified Big Opportunities will never materialize. In such a situation an organization would just be wasting time and effort if it continues focusing on executing the strategic plan.

 Such “strategic tunnel vision” can be avoided if you regularly ask your organization to challenge the strategy it is working under: “Do we still want to take the next steps of the strategic plan, or has the world changed in ways that necessitate a change in strategy?”

With this 3-step strategy, CEOs can very simply stay on top of his or her company’s priorities.

 Source: Chief Executive

Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
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Consultas al mail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley) y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
EMail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411.3532.0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Industria y Servicios,
b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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Thursday, April 20, 2017

7 Ways for CEOs to Successfully Overcome the Unknown
by Julie Benezet
CEOs like their business strategy to be predictable and planned out. But we are living in a time today when the fear of the unknown has never been greater.

This can impede a leader’s ability to focus forward and make progress. To overcome such challenges, here are 7 ways leaders can face the future in a world of divisive politics, shifting expectations and constantly looming unknowns.

1. Your job is to lead your people into the future, not to stay stuck in the present.

 Your focus is not on business as usual, but business as it could be. Look for and create new opportunities in every aspect of organizational life, whether it is a company’s market position, work culture, talent development or new products. Seek and embrace ways to make life better for your employees, your customers and the communities you are engaged in. Learn what your stakeholders really need, and then come up with new, viable and effective ways to meet those needs.

2. Embrace the fear of the unknown.

 Look upon the scary issues as an asset, not a liability. Strive to be a champion and not be faint of heart. The world has never been more ambiguous, scary and full of opportunities than it is today. Be willing to take on the risks of uncertain battles with uncertain outcomes that come with new ideas. With your people, develop new organizational processes that help them adapt to and leverage every new situation as things play out differently from what was anticipated. Rejoice and celebrate with others when a new idea leads to something better for the organization.

3. Define the purpose that will drive your people and organization through the discomfort of not knowing the outcome of new ideas.

 The road to better outcomes is very uncomfortable. Try new ideas knowing and accepting that you will not be able to know what might happen. Allow yourself to be guided by a strong sense of purpose, a good sense of humor and a healthy dose of humility. Identify and embrace the ideals that give you and your people deep personal meaning. Turn these into the energy and power you need to face the challenges and make the best dreams really happen.

4. Accept failure on the way to success.

 Learn from every difficult lesson along the way. Test new ideas and find out whether they will be successful. Experiment with new ideas, technologies, approaches, systems and people. Embrace and celebrate failures, especially when they are risky but laden with great potential. Congratulate and thank your people for their efforts and bravery. Look at bumps along the road as learning opportunities rather than reasons to slash headcount, slow down or abandon the quest. Use them to revise, improve and drive the organization forward. Restore their spirits and galvanize them so they persist in achieving success.

5. Recognize that human beings are messy.

 Learn to work with the difficulties they experience and help them overcome the challenges being faced. Avoiding your people in tough times is not an option. People come with their own set of requirements. Everyone is unique. There is no manual that guides in all circumstances. There is no way to predict what each person will do in any situation. Rise to every challenge and find the courage to connect with others. Humble yourself in a way that allows you to experience and understand them on their terms. Be willing to ask many questions to learn what your people see and seek. Resist being close-minded. Let others lead the conversation to surface the answers needed to create the best plan of action.

6. Be open to new knowledge and be critical of your self-knowledge, knowing that the right information can be hard to attain.

 Connect with new ideas and the people who can help make change happen. Develop and maintain an open channel that allows a free flow of education, uncluttered by fears and prejudices. Learn and explore who you are and how you got here. Separate and let go of the past so you can identify and act on what is relevant to the future.

7. Know when to move forward, even when you realize there is more to know.

 Realize, as a leader, that you can never know everything there is to know. The world changes every second of every day. People change, facts change, situations change and opportunities come and go. Ask yourself—do we know enough to make a decision that is worth risking its unknown outcome? Ask your people to bring ideas forward if they see a risk that should influence or change the decision. Ask them for recommendations that will effectively manage and contain the risks. Decide to make the decision when you feel that the value of going forward is greater than not going forward.

 Source: Chief Executive

Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
de las necesidades de su Organización:



Consultas al mail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley) y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
EMail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411.3532.0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Industria y Servicios,
b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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