Brainstorm with the best of them today...

brainstorming

/ˈbrānˌstôrmiNG/

noun

1.     group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems.

"brainstorming can generate some wonderful ideas"

 

·      The best inventions usually come out of a group process.

·      Don’t think you have to dream up things yourself.

 

I don’t know about you, but some of the best things I came up with during my active career were made immeasurably better by collaborating with others. One thought leads to other’s reactions that lead to refined ideas that then have a chance of getting done. Or not. Sounds simple, but it’s not. Because you must slow down to collaborate – communicating, listening, discussing, reflecting, adapting, and adopting are deliberative and take time. All that precedes the planning process to produce and implement an idea – another giant opportunity for collaboration with all the same process elements. That’s usually how innovation happens. Even the biggest visionaries – Edison, Disney, Jobs, Musk – they don’t do this alone. I’m not diminishing the importance of vision – just saying that it’s a lot of people between someone’s vision and its realization. In the gaming business (where I played), it was Jay Sarno, Kirk Kirkorian, Benny Binion, and Steve Wynn – and I can say from personal experience that my front row seat was connected to countless others. Think of it this way: when a better way is needed, it takes a team to find it. If you’re in one of those seats, buckle your seatbelt and start looking and brainstorming. That’s how innovation will happen today.

 

Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931): American inventor (the phonograph, motion pictures, the electric light bulb) and businessman (General Electric). He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

Teach your peeps to have good habits...

·      Companies want their employees to be great.

·      That usually requires training, practice and support.

 

As a recruiter, I often had discussions with our hiring managers about the knowledge, skill levels, and length of time in the job they wanted applicants to have – interestingly, length of time is the least important factor in that list. Knowledge comes from training, so I tell them to ask about the kinds of training they’ve had in the past; without training they may have poor skills and habits borne of unsupervised trial and error. Skill levels are gained through practice and coaching, so I tell them to ask how much time they were given to develop their skills and the environment in which they practiced; if there was no coaching included then again, their skills and habits might be mostly self-learned, again through trial and error. And length of time can be irrelevant – if they came up through a system of supervised training and practice, and had coaches and mentors to help guide them, then their skills will be good. And, not for nothing, sometimes a lengthy tenure may also lead to habits that may be hard to break. Excellent skills are gained by training and habituation (which is a fancy term for learning by doing). In this case, I’m suggesting that be gained by supervised training, practice, and coaching). Make sure your employees are given adequate time and support to learn about being as good as they can be today.

 

Aristotle (384–322 BC): Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts.

Don't be afraid to peer through the looking glass...

·      I believe optimism is the attitude to look for when hiring someone.

·      Optimists generally believe that anything is possible.

 

Anyone who tries to do something new or extraordinary usually believes that anything is possible; if they didn’t, they wouldn’t even try. Everyone working on the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Beau Rivage, Wynn Las Vegas, and Wynn Macau projects felt that way. We felt like Alice peering through the looking glass – wondrous opportunities awaited us and all we had to do was believe. Volcanos, pirate ships, dancing waters, and more challenged our creativity, ingenuity, and drive. Out there on the bleeding edge of creativity can be scary – nobody’s tried it before, it’s unproven, and failure isn’t an option. So, you work harder, more collaboratively, smarter, and with purpose as you step through your own unknown version of that looking glass. You must have thick skin because doubt is all around – it’s easy to doubt yourself; that’s when you must believe that what you’re doing is possible.  To help others believe too. But if like a carpenter, you figuratively measure everything twice before cutting, your patience and diligence will pay off. And remind yourself every night that the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible. Repeat that over and over today.

 

Charles Kingsleigh is a character created for Tim Burton's film, Alice in Wonderland. He is Alice's beloved father. Charles is played by the New Zealand actor Marton Csokas.

Look inward if you want to leap forward...

im·prove·ment

/imˈpro͞ovmənt/

1.

o the action of improving or being improved.

"there's still room for improvement"

o a thing that makes something better or is better than something else.

"home improvements"

 

I often tell people that writing these messages is like a daily ritual in self-reflection and redemption, thinking about being better today than I was yesterday. No matter how hard we work at these things, there is always room for improvement. Organized religion, business academies, and the self-help industry combine to convince us to strive to be better. But you don’t need all that – just look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. Reading stuff that’s readily available, thinking through new concepts, learning new techniques, being a little healthier, listening more and saying less, being curious and open, and adapting and adjusting along the way. If you stop, you’ll either get run over by the forces of change or get stuck in a place that you ultimately won’t like. So, you’ve got to keep going and growing if you want to keep up or excel. You’ll never be any more than you are unless you try. And the greatest obstacle to that is your natural resistance to change – look that beast in the eye and declare yourself alive and kicking today.

 

Helmut Schmidt (1918 – 2015): German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.

Kick it into a higher gear...

·      There’s doing just what’s expected.

·      And then there’s always doing your best.

 

The difference between those two is that little extra. Think about your average day – how many ordinary versus extraordinary things do you accomplish. Were there opportunities to do a little extra with any that would have made them something to remember, to tell someone about? 

·      It’s fun when those opportunities arise and you do them automatically, without thinking. In the gaming business it can be something as basic as pushing in a slot stool when walking across the casino floor, or seeing someone who looks like they need something and inquiring before they ask. Be on the lookout for opportunities like these and highlight them for your coworkers. 

·      But some opportunities are longer term – like knowing what you need to be able to be your best and being responsible for inquiring about them. Technical or soft skills training. Volunteering your time for worthwhile things – for yourself or representing the company. Taking the lead in this is a little something extra.

Big or little, everything benefits when you give that little bit extra. Find opportunities to do some of that today.

 

James William “Jimmy” Johnson (born 1943): American sports analyst (Fox News) and former college (OSU, Miami) and professional (Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins) football coach.

Don't settle for the same old same old..

ad·ven·ture

/ədˈven(t)SHər/

noun

·       an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.

o   "Her recent adventures in Italy"

 

Work is often more of the same every day, and sometimes it may even be an adventure, but it should never be treated as routine. Once someone gets into a rut when doing their job, their behavior and demeanor often seems like they’re just going thru the motions. Co-workers and customers feel it and as a manager you’re responsible for correcting that. Meaning you must be engaged in the operations you’re responsible for, and the people working for you. When you see something like this, and you should, step in and turn it around. Discuss performance and expectations with the employee, listen to learn why they feel that way, ask what’s needed for them to get more engaged and be more engaging, and coach them so they discover how to be more positive and focused on doing their job well. Treating work like it’s just a routine often is lethal to customer satisfaction, co-worker perceptions, and overall performance. Managers can and must control that – talk to your employees regularly, ask for their input on how things are done, and take responsibility for making work interesting, challenging, fulfilling, and even adventurous. Then see how engaged they are in doing great things today.

 

Paulo Coelho de Souza (born 1947): Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His 1988 novel The Alchemist was an international best-seller.

Get it going...

1.    How many things can you do (and do well) at the same time? 

2.   Are you an expert about each of the things you deal with daily?

3.   What do you do when you don’t know enough?

 

1.    Do one thing at a time – focus on it entirely and do it well.

2.   You can’t and aren’t supposed to know everything.

3. If you don’t have people and networks to refer to and rely upon, you’re missing out on being as good as you could and should be.

 

You’re paid to be effective. Meaning you’d better learn to organize your work and how you approach it. Meaning it’s bigger than you, so learn to work collaboratively. It often starts with being on the lookout for when you use ‘I’ – if you examine who really is attributable, you’ll most often discover it’s ‘We’. Wynn Resorts took this to the next level: employees were encouraged to think in terms of ‘We’ more than ‘I’. and that WE stood for Wynn Employees. A useful and purposeful (and fortunate) play on words. The whole point here is that, like two heads being better than one, ‘We’ multiplies the power (and effectiveness) of ‘I’. We should always look for ways to play well with others, collaborate, share ideas, learn, and realize the benefits of working together with others. When everyone gets it going, there’s almost nothing better than working with others – it’s exciting, challenging and rewarding. Be part of ‘We’ today.

 

Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel: this is the first time that any of the quotes I’ve uncovered and used in the past 3900+/- daily Arte of Motivation messages have an author with no discoverable history. I might have mistaken this for “anonymous”, but there are more that 180 quotes online attributable to this individual. If anyone knows more about him, please let me know (arte808@gmail.com). Bottom line: I’m attracted to the quote more than to whom it’s attributable.