Why Your Team Needs You To Be Precise
If you want your team to do bold, creative work, you must take the first risk by giving them clear, precise direction. Here are a few ways to do so.
How To Release Control Of Your Team’s Work
Let your team do what you hired them to do.
Moving From Control To Influence
Your job as a manager is to unleash the brilliance of your team, not to showcase your own.
Turning Time Sinks Into Time Warps
Re-claim critical moments to set yourself up for greater daily productivity.
Starting: An Interview With Bryn Mooth
How do you know when it’s time to start something new?
Getting The Questions Right
Gaining creative traction is often about asking the right questions.
Balance Is A Function Of Focus
Balance is often a result of mindset, which leads to enhanced focus.
Is The “Second Wall” Keeping You From Your Best Work?
Are you abandoning your creative process just before you experience a breakthrough?
Toxic: Dealing With A Culture Of Blame
How to prevent a culture of blame from eroding trust and causing sub-par work.
Paying Attention To Life Clues
How listening to the subtle clues around you can open the door to unexplored opportunities.
5 Timeless Productivity Habits Worth Reviewing and Remembering
You owe it to yourself to structure your time in a way that facilitates your best work.
The Benefits of Mastering Your Craft
The pursuit of mastery of your craft is a path to growth and discovery.
The Pressure To Produce More
How to keep the pressure to do great work from infiltrating every area of your life.
Platforms Give You Pounceability
How to build platforms today that help you pounce on opportunities tomorrow.
The People Factor: It’s All About Energy
Surrounding yourself with the right people can help you do your best creative work.
You Are Not A Machine
How to avoid the trap of becoming a creativity-cranking, efficiency obsessed machine.
4 Ways To Trigger Creative Ideas
Need an insight now, but the juices aren't flowing? Here are a few ways to trigger creative accidents when needed.
Are You Limited By False Assumptions?
False assumptions can squash your creative mojo as you attempt to do great work.
It Can Be Anything You Want
Derek Sivers has written a gem of a book on how to survive as a creative entrepreneur.
Everything I Need To Know About Productivity I Learned On Dagobah
Master Yoda offers up some wise words for those who want to do great work.
Aaron Goldfarb on How To Fail
I connected with Aaron Goldfarb over e-mail a few months back and was immediately hooked by the ingenious promotional strategy he used to get the word out about his novel How To Fail: A Self-Hurt Guide. I caught up with Aaron to ask how he took his idea from an...
How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension Between Creatives and Managers
Diffusing the struggle between possibilities and pragmatics.
How To Change The World (In About 10 Minutes)
There's much discussion these days about changing the world. But why, and how?
Doing What You Love & Loving What You Do
Why do you do what you do? Is it for the perks, the attention or the paycheck? Probably at least somewhat. But what about the process itself? If you knew that you were going to spend the rest of your life doing your work and there would be no recognition, no public...
Why We Need To Develop An Effectiveness Obsession
Don't leave brilliance on the table by confusing efficiency with effectiveness.
The Art of Possibility Thinking
I gave my Possibility Thinking talk at a conference yesterday. It's always fun meeting new people, especially in industries I don't frequent or have much opportunity to engage with, and hearing the challenges and opportunities they're facing. Surprisingly (or...
The Weight of What’s Undone
You're creative, right? You've got great ideas. You're doing great work and gaining traction. Then suddenly, it seems like you can't get moving on your work. Ideas aren't flowing like they once were, and there is little movement on your projects. Have you just...
Being “Accidentally” Creative
Over the years, we’ve had more than a few questions about the name Accidental Creative. Usually the responses go one of two ways: "What do you mean accidental? I’m very purposeful about what I do. I’m insulted and I shun anything else you have to say"…or "Hmm....
“Them” and The Tyranny of Chasing Cool
I have lately encountered many people who feel - for lack of a better term - frustrated and like they're under-performing. But the thing is, in many of these cases the cause - the root - of the issue isn't some workplace dynamic, lack of resources or lack of...
Friction, Traction and Vectors
There is a point at which staring at a problem and simply cranking away yields diminishing returns. The solution isn't to continue to knuckle-down and hope to dig out of the hole using the same methods that created it. It's to establish traction, and hopefully...
Chasing “The Thing”
Do you remember the old episodes of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to tear out of bed on Saturday morning, pour a giant bowl of cereal and watch in anticipation of the coyote actually catching him. Then it happened. One...
Rules, Limits & Creative Brilliance
Jonathan Robert Willis, a photographer friend of mine, sent a link to a personal exploration project he recently released called Wind. While I love (LOVE!) the finished product, what I enjoyed most was hearing his rationale for the highly-directed approach he took...
Do You Really Need More Time?
The single biggest "push back" I get from people when I share about how building practices into their life can unleash new ideas and help them be more productive goes something like this: "Yeah, that's great, but I really just don't have the time." After collecting...
“Be a Laser Not a Lighthouse” & Other Creative Leadership Essentials
A few weeks ago I was privileged to hop a plane to St. Louis to spend some time with a great group of creatives wrestling through organizational growth and how to establish new systems to deal with it. After a morning session with the large group, I had the chance...
5 Brilliant Books For Creative Pros
Here's a "5 pack" of brilliant books for creatives that will help you do brilliant work. Each deals with a different aspect of creative and organizational life, but is relevant and immediately applicable to anyone trying to thrive in the create-on-demand world.
The Fly In The Middle Of The Room
When everyone is responsible for something, no one is. Creative teams need to make sure that there are specific goals, metrics and accountability for creative work. Don't fall prey to the "fly in the middle of the room" mindset.
The Safety Matrix
There's something that's been eating at me lately and I'm trying to work my way to the bottom of it. There's a lot of buzz within organizations that perceive themselves as creative-friendly about fostering a "safe environment" for ideas to flourish. I agree, and...
VIDEO: Clip From the David Allen Interview
Here's a clip from the upcoming AC podcast interview with David Allen, author of Getting Things Done. I had a GREAT time chatting with David, and the interview is full of advice for creatives about how to be more effective in life and work. The full audio recording...