Celebrate Collaborator Differences

Celebrate Collaborator Differences Collaboration can be combustible! There is a magical thing that happens when you pair yourself with others, but how to find the right teammates? It's tempting to want to work with someone similar to you, but why not look for someone with a different skill set than yours? I have been working with two amazing collaborators in different companies this month – both hold internal roles and both have skills that are very different from mine. One of them comes from a Lean background so she is super tactical and routinized. Who knew that would be a perfect match for my ideation and strategy skills? The other is a natural innovator, but doesn’t often get the opportunity to unleash her creative genius.  Both of these collaborations required a little fancy footwork to get our dance steps in sync, but clarifying our team norms (how we wanted to work together) helped make it possible for us to end up dancing with the stars ;-) Here are some norms that helped us: 1.  Mutual Respect When you start from a place of respect and curiosity about your teammates’ skill set, you reap the benefits from it. Ask your partner to tell you about a perfect past collaboration and how it helped them to fine tune their dynamic delivery for winning results. 2.  Clear Communication Sometimes you can brainstorm a bazillion ideas, but if they aren’t fully understood they get easily rejected, or dismissed too early. That can lead to one or the other of you feeling undervalued and creates a kind of unnecessary tension between you. By upping your curiosity and asking a few more questions, you can find some common ground and then begin to choose which of the ideas will work for your desired outcomes. 3.  Make it Fun The best collaborations are fun. So why not start with fun as your main objective. Bring in a few props to kick it off, ask people to do things they wouldn’t normally do, and celebrate small wins with coffee runs, sun breaks and weird toys for rewards. Verbally appreciate your collaborators – this helps keep it fun. We spend such an amazing amount of time working with other people. How we work with them is completely up to how we form those relationship. This week, why not focus on appreciating the differences in the people around you and leveraging each of your strengths to make the experience more amazing? Celebrate the Creative Geniuses around you!

Tip of the Week Take a Second Look First impressions can be way off - everything is worth a second look ;) Watch More Change Genie Change Genie is a card game designed to give you insight into a change you are facing. It will give you a clear picture of what you, your team, or your clients, believes or wants to happen in any kind of change situation you might be facing. $5 off for early adopters! Buy Now #CreativeGenius Fuel Ever find yourself reaching for a cup of coffee when #CreativeGeniusYOU starts to falter? We love coffee so much that we created the perfect #CreativeGenius blend. This dark roast combination will put some activator essentials in your day! Buy Now

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I'm With Us

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I’m With Us Yesterday a woman that I work with mentioned she was starting a group to help bridge the divide between us. Since the government can’t seem to do it, she felt it was up to us to begin the dialogue that will help to bring us together.  “We live in the city of bridges”, she explained, “Doesn’t it make sense to start here?” There would be t-shirts that said, “I’m With Us.” I love her idea. The world around us is so polarised. When we watch the media, everyone appears to be for or against everything.  We avoid dialogue and deliberation and instead, just try to find a forum to shout out our opinions, especially on social media, as if none of us feel heard. The frustration people feel on all sides is palpable. It’s fascinating to me the level of distress and disruption. Many people were shocked by Trump winning, but just as many people were happy. The gaps in who voted for whom were wide in some demographics - race, educational background etc. What does this tell us? Here we can clearly see the width of the divide. And what keeps widening that divide? Fear. Our fear of the other, our desire for a better life without a clear route to get there, our constant comparison to others who have or have not. All this set in a culture of blame and lack of empathy. Right now it feels like a hot mess out there. But we vent and cry and take a deep breath. We pick ourselves back up, we carry on, and we try to shift our perspective. "I’m With Us.” We can choose love over fear. We can choose to look beyond the surface of our beliefs and examine the perceptions we hold of others to imagine what it’s like to stand in their shoes. Why does this new President strike fear into the heart of an immigrant?  Why do mothers of black sons lie sleepless at night?  Why would someone choose this President? Ellen DeGeneres said on her show, “If we take away the labels, we’ll find out just how alike we really are.” We are love at the root. Have compassion for yourself and those around you this week.  Then dig down for the love. You will hear bad news this week. You will hear stories of violence and bigotry. Don't let them scare you. There are bad people out there, but the vast bulk of people (Yes, even Trump supporters) are good people. They are people who are afraid for themselves, and for their families. And yes, they may have voted for a person with disgusting views on women and minorities, but they were scared. Many voted for him despite his views, not because of them. Remember that. And remember we are love. "Good and bad are mixed. If you don’t have both, you don’t belong with us."                                                                                                                        — Rumi Creative Genius COFFEE COMING SOON Ever find yourself reaching for a cup of coffee when #CreativeGeniusYOU starts to falter? You're in good company. 83% of American adults drink coffee every day to relax, to stimulate, to socialize, to awaken, or just because it tastes so darn good! We love coffee so much that we teamed up with master coffee-roaster, Dawn Pinaud to create the perfect #CreativeGenius blend. Our coffee will retail at $16 + shipping for a 12oz bag of whole, or ground beans. Even better, if you sign up now we'll send you a 10% off coupon when it launches. Yay! Get Coupon

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Open the Door & Let You In

Be honest. You want change and yet somehow it never seems to happen... Easy enough. Fast enough. Good enough. Timely enough. Long enough. What if you could change anything in a minute? Would you? I bet 100% of you would say yes. But only 10% of you will actually do something to make that change happen. Become that 10% right now. It only requires two things -  1. Using your imagination, (aka your #creativegenius), and 2. Opening a door. Start here Think of that dream you've been having of something you want to change - where you really want to make a shift. Got it? Now, imagine, out of the blue, the best thing happening to you -  you get the promotion, you drop 20 lbs., your bank account fills with cash. Let go of worrying how you are going to get there or how used to do it or what happened to you in the past and focus on the inner pictures of how you want it to be right now. STAY FOCUSED. Add a little more detail.  What's different in this new picture? How are you different in this picture?  Focus on the best case scenario, and the best you in that scenario. Now smile. Literally smile.  Smiling opens your heart, which opens the door to let in that best self, that best scenario, that goodness that you truly are. This week make a conscious effort to hold the door open for someone else every time you have the opportunity. As you hold that door open, smile. Then remind yourself you are letting in more and more of your best life, your best #leadership, your best partnering ability, your most abundant self, your best #creativegeniusyou. Keep track of what happens and be that 10% who is consciously making change. HIGHLIGHT ON YOU: Here's a note I got this week from someone who watched Draw Your Future  "About one year ago I happened upon your TedX video. Your story and your work has changed my view of the world and how it works, I believe that everything is possible - more and more…" - Naples, Florida  :) When you feel stuck, go back to the basics. Set your dial to "positive", Do Good, Be Good and watch how it opens the door for you. THE GIRL EFFECT DRAWING THEIR FUTURE Now is the time for you to get behind the things you believe in.  Here's one of my things that I'm rolling up my sleeves over. STATS ARE YOU SENDING MIXED MESSAGES AS A LEADER? This week focus your body language. It's not just what you say, it's all of who you bring into the room. Here's proof. SHOUT OUT JULIE RAY Here's one of those draw your picture stories. I needed a project manager. I drew this and when Julie signed up formy graphic recording class, she was a seasoned PM willing to do a trade. Thanks universe!