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The Accidental Creative
Protecting Your Team’s Time and Attention
Protecting Your Team’s Time and Attention

Protecting Your Team’s Time and Attention

The two most precious resources you have as a creative pro are your time and attention. They are under a constant onslaught from organizational needs, client demands, and personal anxieties. As a manager, you must commit to protecting these finite resources at all costs. On this episode, we share three principles for doing so from Todd Henry's book Herding Tigers.

The Accidental Creative
The Making Of a Manager (with Julie Zhuo)
The Making Of a Manager (with Julie Zhuo)

The Making Of a Manager (with Julie Zhuo)

When you first step into your role as a manager, your entire work world changes. You are no longer simply responsible for your own work. Now, you are responsible for the work, the culture, the process, and anything else that happens on your team. It can feel overwhelming. On this episode, Julie Zhou (VP of Product Design at Facebook) shares insights for managers from her new book The Making of a Manager.

The Accidental Creative
Know Your Values + Aaron Dignan on Brave New Work
Know Your Values + Aaron Dignan on Brave New Work

Know Your Values + Aaron Dignan on Brave New Work

Do you have a matrix for important decisions in your life? How do you decide which path is correct when you're being pulled in multiple directions? On the first part of this episode, I share some insights from Herding Tigers to help you establish your core decision-making matrix.

Then, Aaron Dignan joins us to talk about his new book Brave New Work. He lays out a framework for re-imagining how organizations function in the accelerating and ever-changing marketplace.

The Accidental Creative
The Big Idea: Herding Tigers
The Big Idea: Herding Tigers

The Big Idea: Herding Tigers

What do highly creative people really need from their leader? Two things, primarily: stability and challenge. On this episode, I dive into the big idea from my latest book Herding Tigers, and explain why these two forces are the key to unlocking performance and brilliance in the team you lead, in your relationships with your clients, and in any complex collaborative relationship.

The Accidental Creative
How To Choose Between Ideas
How To Choose Between Ideas

How To Choose Between Ideas

We've all been there. You have ten great ideas on the whiteboard, and you have to make a decision today about which you're going to work on. How do you know which one is best?

It helps to have a framework for making these decisions. On this episode, I share a simple framework for choosing the best idea, and for making those "from the gut" conversations about creative direction a little less stressful.

The Accidental Creative
Make Maps, Don’t Just Follow Them (with Wes Kao)
Make Maps, Don’t Just Follow Them (with Wes Kao)

Make Maps, Don’t Just Follow Them (with Wes Kao)

As much as we'd all love a simple and easy to follow plan for career success, the reality is that we're all mostly making things up as we go. However, that doesn't stop many people from slipping into comfort mode instead of pushing for creative growth and personal challenge. 

On this episode, marketing consultant Wes Kao shares how to embrace map-making as your core mode of operation, why it's important to have a "spiky" point of view, and how to present your ideas so that others can receive them.

The Accidental Creative
Leading With Emotional Courage (with Peter Bregman)
Leading With Emotional Courage (with Peter Bregman)

Leading With Emotional Courage (with Peter Bregman)

In the uncertainty of today's marketplace, it's a challenge to show up each day with confidence and clarity about who you are and what you're trying to accomplish. On this episode, Peter Bregman helps us understand how to cultivate the emotional courage necessary to do brilliant and brave work, lead with precision, and unleash the best in everyone around us. 

The Accidental Creative
Unsafe Thinking (with Jonah Sachs)
Unsafe Thinking (with Jonah Sachs)

Unsafe Thinking (with Jonah Sachs)

You're probably really skilled at what you do. However, this can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you can take shortcuts that help you create more value faster for your clients or organization. On the other, the more skilled you are the easier it can be to slip into ruts and "safe thinking." On today's episode, Jonah Sachs, author of Unsafe Thinking, will help shake us out of our creative ruts and help us think more boldly.

The Accidental Creative
How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension On Creative Teams
How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension On Creative Teams

How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension On Creative Teams

Many of the e-mails and questions we get at Accidental Creative revolve around one question. Actually, it’s one question asked from two different perspectives: How can I get them to understand me?

The them in the question is either “my manager” or “my creative team” depending on who is asking the question. There is a lot of time spent lobbing shots across the organizational bow, from both sides, but there is often a significant dearth of real communication.

So with that in mind, on this episode I we share a simple way to eliminate 90% of this organizational tension. It begins by understanding the main question being asked by the other person in any given interaction.

The Accidental Creative
The Coaching Habit Revisited (with Michael Bungay Stanier)

The Coaching Habit Revisited (with Michael Bungay Stanier)

When you think of the word "coach", what image comes to mind? Someone standing on the sideline barking orders at everyone? The master strategist standing in an empty room with a whiteboard full of plans? How about this one: the great listener? On today's show, Michael Bungay Stanier returns to share additional insights from his international smash hit book The Coaching Habit. We talk about misunderstandings people often have about coaching, and how we can coach our peers and even our managers to help them unleash their best work every day.