Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

Creativity is important regardless of which career you are in today. We all have to come up with creative and applicable solutions to the problems we face on a daily basis. In this article, we learn that drawing, not word, is sometimes the best way of releasing our innate creativity and problem solving skills. — Douglas

What’s the problem with meetings? Yes, many  lack purpose and focus–and most go on too long. But there’s another underlying problem: Everybody talks too much.

Human beings simply aren’t wired to sit around all day in a closed room communicating verbally. Sure, way back when we’d gather around the camp fire at night but that was after a vigorous day chasing woolly mammoths or gathering nuts and berries.

So my idea for transforming meetings is very simple: give participants a chance to draw. Before you dismiss this approach, let me explain

Here’s How to Unleash Creativity at Your Next Meeting via Inc

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Your career doesn’t — and shouldn’t — stand apart from other aspects of your life. Creativity in one area always helps to expand creativity in all area of your life. This article provides 15 great ideas for spurring your creativity in general so it can better be applied to specific aspects of your career — Douglas

We might not have time for big creative projects. But we can usually spare a few minutes per day or per week for a tiny task. Of course, the key is to find something that you enjoy, something that rejuvenates you and inspires you, something you can’t wait to do.

Because connecting to our creativity is a wonderful, important way to care for ourselves.

Last week, in this piece, I shared 15 such tiny projects from the beautiful book Creativity Takes Courage: Dare to Think Differently by Irene Smit and Astrid van der Hulst. Below are 15 more ideas, which I came up with.

Read 15 More Tiny Projects to Start Today via Psych Central

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It’s pretty safe to say, that when you finally come up with your million-dollar idea, nobody is going to understand it at first. They many not laugh in your face outright, but they’ll probably scratch their heads, at least.

Like I wrote in my first book, Ignore Everybody, great ideas have lonely childhoods. Great ideas also change the power balance in relationships, which is the main reason why people initially resist them. People like the status quo, thank you very much.

And then maybe, just maybe, your million-idea isn’t worth a million dollars. Maybe all it’s worth is years of heartbreak, stress and zero money on your end. What Joseph Campbell describes as the golden chalice turning to ashes, the moment the hero steps out of the dark forest. It happens all the time.

But you press on regardless. Why? Because you have no choice. Because win or lose, you really don’t have a better reason for being alive. That to try for a safer, easier route was not what God had planned for you. And nobody wants to try to prove God wrong.

Now if you can only get those naysayer voices inside your head to shut up…

Read Great ideas have lonely childhoods via GapingVoid

Basics: Creativity 7 via Nicholas Bates

1. It all starts with believing that you are creative: ‘I am creative’.
2. As we all are. It’s just some have had more practice and some have had more encouragement and some have had both.
3. Simple tip 1 is to generate quantity of ideas. ’50 ways to disrupt the competition’. Quantity always guarantees some quality.

[…]

Read Basics: Creativity 7 via Nicholas Bates

Kickstart Your Creativity – 30 Tips! via Stage 32

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A recent poll of creatives found that 37% experience the greatest dip in their creativity on Saturday. But not you, right? You’re going to use today to start, continue or shore up that creative project.

Even if that’s not the case, or if you’ve lately found yourself in a creative lull, courtesy of our friends at lifehack.org, here are 30 inspiring and motivational tips to kickstart your creativity.

Enjoy!

1. Surround yourself with creative people.Hang out with writers, musicians, poets and artists. Often, just being in a creative environment will inspire you and refresh your creative mind.
2. Start somewhere.If you create a load of crap for a few pages, whether it’s creative writing in Word or sheet music, the brain loosens up and it’s easier to break through the barrier and come up with ideas.

Read Kickstart Your Creativity – 30 Tips! via Stage 32

I’ll be highlighting books that I am reading (or re-reading) on all sorts of topics this year — Douglas

Reading – The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier – 18 in a series

In my life and I my work, I am often called upon to consult (and console) people who are having issues with their career and more. After writing Career Opportunities for nearly 20 years, the emails I have received have given me an opportunity to assist people all over the world and a wide variety of career issues.

One common occurrence when I am coaching someone is that they ask me for answers to their most pressing problems. Even before I read The Coaching Habit, though, I was already following some of Stanier’s methods. Many times my first response to them was an answer to their problems, but rather a question that might help define their problems further. Often, the problem isn’t what people think it is. It is buried deep within an onion of issues that lead to encompassing nest of smaller, associated issues.

There are times though when, like others, I want to jump right in and “solve” the problem (even though I probably don’t know what that problem is yet.) The Coaching Habit gives me both great reasons and methods for avoiding this consulting trap and bringing real, deep, intimate (and more importantly, self-driven) change to a person. I’ve been consciously employing his methods over the last few weeks and I can see some dramatic shifts in how I approach my consulting my counseling. When I see myself moving into “solution” mode, I now have some tools to help me dig deeper and greater and even bigger impact.

The Coaching Habit is a short and easy read and something you can start putting to work immediately, even before you completed the book. In fact, applying each of the questions as you learn them is a great way to understand them more deeply and integrate them into your life.

From Amazon.com…

In Michael Bungay Stanier’s The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less hard and have more impact.
Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples’ potential. He unpacks sevenessential coaching questions to demonstrate how–by saying less and asking more–you can develop coaching methods that produce great results.

• Get straight to the point in any conversation with The Kickstart Question
• Stay on track during any interaction with The Awe Question
• Save hours of time for yourself with The Lazy Question, and hours of time for others with The Strategic Question
• Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with The Focus Question and The Foundation Question
• Finally ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with The Learning Question

A fresh innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, together with interactive training tools to turnpractical advice into practiced habits. Witty and conversational, The Coaching Habit takes your work–and your workplace–from good to great.

†

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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Previously in (Re)Reading:

• This is Taco! by Andrew Cangelose (Author),‎ Josh Shipley (Artist)
• Toast and Jam by Sarah Owens
• Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser
• The Old-Fashioned: The Story of the World’s First Classic Cocktail, with Recipes and Lore by Robert Simonson
• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
• Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies by by Andrew Degraff and A.D. Jameson
• The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies by by Jason Fagone
• The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Garden: 326 Fast, Easy, Affordable Ways to Transform Your Yard One Project at a Time by Sally Roth
• Raised Bed Revolution: Build It, Fill It, Plant It … Garden Anywhere by Tara Nolan
• Bread Is Gold by Massimo Bottura
• Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Milk Street: The New Home Cooking by Christopher Kimble
• The Wildcrafted Cocktail: Make Your Own Foraged Syrups, Bitters, Infusions, and Garnishes by Ellen Zacho
• 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon by Robert Simonson
• Chemistry: A Novel by Weike Wong
• Back Pocket Pasta by Colu Henry
• Steal like an artist 10 things nobody told you about being creative by Austin Kleon

There is no, one, creativity tool that works for every situation, place or time so it is useful to have a few sites, apps, and books that you can turn to when you need to create and capture your great ideas. This article provides a number of ways to keep your creativity flowing and also turn these ideas into something big! — Douglas

Idea Generation Tools from Starters Code

Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract. Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from innovation, to development, to actualization.

These tools will help you capture you thought better, Organize your brainstorming into successful sections.

Read the entire article and check out all the sites

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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

How to get started learning to program via Opensource.com

Ever wondered, “How can I learn to program?” We provide guidance to help you find the approach that best suits your needs and situation.

There’s a lot of buzz lately about learning to program. Not only is there a shortage of people compared with the open and pending positions in software development, programming is also a career with one of the highest salaries and highest job satisfaction rates. No wonder so many people are looking to break into the industry!

But how, exactly, do you do that? “How can I learn to program?” is a common question. Although I don’t have all the answers, hopefully this article will provide guidance to help you find the approach that best suits your needs and situation.

Read How to get started learning to program via Opensource.com

Learn more about programming with these books

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** Both books are available at the LA Public Library in print and ebook format

The One Thing You Need To Do To Become More Creative via Fast Company

If you want to become more creative, the answer may lie in becoming more courageous. A new class at USC Annenberg called Improvisational Leadership is encouraging students to step outside of their comfort zones and explore new experiences.

“Students fear finding the perfect job the day they graduate,” says Fred Cook, director of the USC Center for Public Relations and professor of professional practice. “They’re under pressure to perform because of student loans and their parents. They’ve taken the classes and done the internships, but they’re often short on life experience.”

Read The One Thing You Need To Do To Become More Creative via Fast Company

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Innovation isn’t just something that happens once or twice and then is forgotten until it is needed again. Innovation is something we need to do every day and in every way in our life and careers. Here are 7 questions that can reenergize your innovation thinking and help you build the best life, businesses and careers possible. — Douglas

At the heart of any successful business is a great idea. But how do some entrepreneurs dream up game-changing idea after game-changing idea while others fade into mediocrity?

Cracking the code on “aha moments” and creative epiphanies is a topic Stanford Start X innovation experts Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack explore in their latest book, The Net and the Butterfly: The Art and Practice of Breakthrough Thinking.

Turns out, it’s not magic — it’s neuroscience.

They say there’s a way to systemically tap cognitive processes that generate insights. It comes down to stimulating associative thinking, a process in which the brain pieces together disparate information to solve problems in unique ways using skills like questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting.

Read 7 Questions That Lead to an ‘Aha Moment’, According to Research via Inc.

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