During our Mind Tools Expert Interview, the U.S. professor, founder and strategist shared with me stories of how her father instilled a problem-solving attitude in her and her brother. This came to fruition when, with his guidance, the youngsters invented a tidying tool for local diners that was quickly adopted and mass produced.

Marchand told me that that experience – at the tender age of 13 – taught her two things. First, that children are boundlessly creative, and as adults, we can all "tap back" into that spirit. And second, that every successful innovation has to solve a problem that’s a genuine pain point for the customer. 

Be Curious to Innovate

In this clip from our conversation, she offers advice on how to home in on the problems that can lead to great innovations. According to Marchand, it’s all about employing your curiosity, developing observation skills, and asking great questions.

Marchand’s innovation process starts with identifying the "right" problem to solve. Sometimes, a problem may look like it’s caused by one thing when, in fact, something quite different is behind it. Other times, we may think there’s no problem at all. We can get used to long wait times and faulty tech.  

Innovation Begins at Home 

My interviewee said, "The best problems to solve are the ones that you have personal involvement with." A case in point that I’ve noticed in my own life is the variety of ways that publicly funded doctors’ offices try to meet the huge demand for their services here in the U.K. 

Some practices offer patients appointments on a "first come, first served" basis. As each slot fills, availability tightens to the point where patients end up being offered dates that are weeks ahead. But they want action now. 

Other offices run a daily appointment book. Call from 8am and hope to grab one of that day’s slots – along with dozens of other patients scrambling for the same thing. You have to prepare yourself for a long wait on the phone, and when you finally get through, you may be told there’s no space that day. Try again tomorrow. 

Some practices operate a nurse triage system, with nurses talking to patients before any appointment is made. This may weed out time wasters and simple admin. But, by definition, nurses don’t have the same diagnostic training or experience as doctors. What if they make a wrong call? 

I’ve always been impressed by the solution offered by my own healthcare center, which is a mixture of the above. If you want a consultation with a doctor, you can call in the morning and leave your name and number, and a brief description of your issue. Then a senior doctor will call you back quickly, bringing all their authority and medical knowledge to bear. They decide if you need to be seen that day or later, and they can give instant medical advice over the phone as well. 

At first glance, the "pain point" in this scenario appears to be the desire to see a doctor. But it’s actually the desire to know if you need to see a doctor. Face time with a doctor when you don’t need it is a nuisance for everyone. So a short call with a senior doctor before an appointment is even made addresses the "right" problem.  

Step by Step Invention

During my conversation with Marchand, I was reminded of an event I covered a few years ago in central London. It was a "design hackathon" attended by around 100 teenage girls, who were invited there on a Saturday for a fun day of learning. 

The point was to teach them a five-step process to innovation, the first two being researching and defining a suitable problem. Sound familiar? The other steps were: to think through solutions, create a prototype of the best one, and test it with potential users. 

The girls were put into groups, each of which had to come up with an innovation by applying those five steps. During the day, they had access to lots of making materials, from cardboard and glue to feathers, straws and balloons. This was for their prototypes. 

The solutions they came up with were inspiring, ranging from a magnetic levitation hospital bed, through a smart fridge to help people cook nutritious meals, to a teaching app that allowed users to select their preferred level of language complexity. 

Women and Innovation 

I think Marchand would have approved of this event for girls. Women innovators still face unique challenges, and she devotes a whole chapter to this in her book, "The Innovation Mindset," exploring what the sticking points are, why they happen, and how to change things for the better. 

"When we look at the companies that are invested in, still only around two or three percent of founders or co-founders are women," she points out.

Her aim is to help "lift women up and get them to think more strategically, creatively, about being innovators and know that this is something that’s available to them."

For a few dozen young women in London, at least, I’m pretty sure that message has landed. 

8 Ways to Innovate

Mind Tools Club members and Mind Tools for Business licensees can listen to my full 30-minute interview with Lorraine Marchand. It comes with a complete transcript so you can easily review all eight practical steps in her innovation model while being inspired by her encouraging and creative attitude.

If you're not already signed up, join the Mind Tools Club now to gain unlimited access to 2,400+ resources, including our back catalog of 200+ audio Expert Interviews. And to find out more about Mind Tools' enterprise solutions, you can book a demo with one of our team.

Meanwhile, you can read more from me, Rachel Salaman, by searching the Expert Interview blog topic.

Your Turn!

Have you seen a problem that no one else has spotted or knows how to fix? What innovative ideas do you have, and how will you test them? Share your innovation successes and failures in the Comments, below!

The post "Become an Observer Every Day!" Lorraine Marchand on Innovation appeared first on Mind Tools.

When I listened to the latest Expert Voices episode, "How to Be Creative," one person came to my mind again and again. He's a man I got to know well, and whose creativity I witnessed at close quarters many times.

He's also someone who gained international fame for his creativity: the Mind Maps inventor, best-selling author, poet, showman, and all-round creative dynamo, Tony Buzan.

Who Was Tony Buzan?

I first heard about Tony Buzan when I was at school. In a study-skills lesson, our teacher explained Mind Mapping – the creativity tool that Tony had named and popularized.

I took to Mind Mapping immediately. It was a very effective way to explore ideas, stimulate understanding and creative thinking, and boost memory. Mind Maps helped me in my studies, particularly when exams came around. I also used them to solve problems and plan activities in my own time.

I got hold of several other Buzan books, and his tips and techniques played a big part in developing my fascination with thinking and learning.

So I felt quite star-struck when, a few years later, I got to meet the man himself.

Tony Buzan and Me

I'd entered a competition that Tony Buzan had helped to organize, and I spent a whole day watching him charm, amuse, entertain, and impress participants and audience members alike.

I finished the day as a medalist, and suddenly I was being interviewed alongside Tony himself – and then going to a restaurant with him and some of the other winners.

He was a fun and fascinating man to be around. And that was just the first of several dinners we had together, because we stayed in touch and talked, worked and even performed together a number of times after that.

"Mr Creativity"

For me, Tony Buzan was the embodiment of creativity. With a twinkling smile, bright eyes, and flamboyant, fast-moving hands, he shone with creative energy. It allowed him to produce a vast amount of ground-breaking work, and also to promote his ideas passionately – and empower creativity in others. Because he was convinced that everyone should and could be more creative.

That's a big theme in "How to Be Creative." Chris Lewis, founder of one of the largest independent marketing and communications agencies in the world, tells my colleague Rachel Salaman that "… problem solving is something everybody needs to do these days."

In the words of lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Jonathan Fields, "The truth is, we're all creative, we all create on very intense levels throughout our day."

And author Linda Rottenberg says that we need to throw off any worries about doing the wrong thing, and just let our creativity loose. "We can do it! We can zig when everyone else zags!"

Making Creative Connections

Tony certainly loved to challenge convention. He saw Mind Mapping as a way to revolutionize note taking and list making. But it was also as a way to be more challenging, to uncover new possibilities, to think differently. And for him, the key to creative thinking was connectivity.

Mind Maps use connections to improve understanding, but also to allow new ideas to emerge. And Tony was just as interested in personal connections, keen to swap ideas with anyone and everyone.

In the podcast, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg talks about connecting with people from different departments, to "spin off new ideas." "Good ideas tend to come when new worlds meet," he says. That would have made Tony smile. I remember being at a dinner with him once, and seeing him in deep discussion with a waiter about methods for keeping food warm. The next moment he was talking about environmental policy with a member of European royalty.

Creative Inputs

I'm sure that Tony would also have agreed with author and speaker Josh Linkner, who talks to Rachel about "gobbling up creative inputs" to fire his inventiveness. "I'm absorbing the creativity of others to get my juices flowing," he says.

Tony seized every opportunity to widen his experiences and enrich his knowledge. Once, we were traveling together and he dropped a pile of newspapers into my lap. He had his own set, and instructed me to read the sports, showbiz and even the gossip articles as eagerly as those about politics, the environment or the arts.

As Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg says in the podcast, "The second you start learning something that's different from your own world, that's when you start to get inspired."

Lessons From Expert Voices

Mind Tools Expert Voices is the podcast series where we delve into our 200+ Expert Interviews, to explore a particular question or theme.

In episode six, "Be More Creative," host Rachel Salaman hears some of the secrets of highly creative people from experts including Melanie Katzman, Josh Linkner, April Rinne, and Rowan Gibson.

Creativity: Unconventional and Unafraid

For Tony Buzan, it was important to break away from conventional ways of thinking and doing. If the food he fancied wasn't on a restaurant menu, for example, he'd simply invent a dish and explain the ingredients and method to the chef.

Once when were on a radio show together, the presenter explained the format. Tony said, "OK, but why don't we do it like this instead" – then got the host to agree to a completely different – and much better – approach.

Not everything he did worked, but he never let anxiety hold back his creativity. This chimes with what futurist April Rinne tells Rachel about not fearing the worst, and not trying to control everything. If we do that, she says, "We're blinding ourselves. We're leaving opportunities on the table – not seeing all of the amazing things that could happen as well."

Having said that, Tony did need to control some things. He organized his time ruthlessly, and followed several strict routines every day. In the podcast, Jonathan Fields talks about "certainty anchors" – routine actions that free up other parts of your brain for creativity – and Tony was a big believer in these, particularly when he was writing. Several times, when I phoned him, one of his secretaries told me in no uncertain terms that he wasn't to be disturbed. I got to know when he'd be at his familiar desk, with the right stationery, for an agreed length of time – and that he'd only phone back when that particular routine was done.

Healthy, Happy Creativity

Jonathan Fields also tells Rachel about the link between good physical health and high-quality creativity. "Mens sana in corpore sano" – "a healthy mind in a healthy body" – was practically Tony's catchphrase. He loved martial arts, worked with Olympic rowers, and was delighted to hear that I'd taken up running.

As Jonathan Fields says, "There's tremendous research around the impact of movement and meditation on the creative process, on cognitive function, on problem solving, on creativity."

There are descriptions of creativity throughout Expert Voices that could have been written about Tony Buzan. But perhaps the one that chimes most with me is about fun. Chris Lewis calls it "the tragedy of the modern workplace" that so many people don't enjoy what they're doing, when creativity and happiness are so closely linked. And Tony laughed a lot. He loved wordplay, told hilarious stories, and found a funny side to almost any challenge.

Once, when our taxi was stuck in a traffic queue, he joked with the driver about a ridiculous shortcut... which sparked an idea... which got us where we needed to be with seconds to spare!

Creative Inspiration

The message that comes through this podcast is that we can all be more creative. By having the confidence to think unconventionally, the energy to make connections, the commitment to our intellectual and physical development – and by having fun while we're at it – we can boost our creativity, and benefit from it in everything we do.

And in my life, no one has proved that more conclusively than the marvelous and much-missed Tony Buzan.

Listen to the Latest Episode of Mind Tools Expert Voices

Mind Tools Club Members and Corporate Licensees can listen to the full Expert Voices podcast now.

If you're not a Mind Tools member, you can join the Mind Tools Club and gain access to our 2,400+ resources, including a range of audio features. For corporate licensing, ask for a demo with one of our team.

Whose Creativity Do You Celebrate?

Which creative characters have been inspirational in your life? Who best represents creativity to you and what have you learned from them? Please share your examples, experiences and insights, below.

The post "Mr Creativity": My Friend Tony Buzan appeared first on Mind Tools.

The sun was setting behind the majestic, snow-capped peaks. The eagle's wings spread wide and strong as it rode the currents, focused, alert, and master of all it surveyed.

It took me less than a minute to feel energized and ready to write.

The Creative Type

Linkner's new book, "Big Little Breakthroughs," is packed with research and tips like this to boost creativity. Everyone can get better at generating new ideas, Linkner believes, including those who are not "the creative type."

"I always like to say that creativity is like your weight, not your height," he says in our recent interview. "Try as I may, I probably won't grow 12 inches by next week. But, on the other hand, I can change my weight based on how I behave. And your creativity is the same thing – we all can build and expand our skill set with respect to creativity."

Linkner says it doesn't take much to make a difference. Small changes in behavior can spark creativity, which in turn can drive "micro innovations," which ultimately lead to "over-sized results."

And he should know. Linkner founded, led, and then sold five tech companies (for a combined value of over $200 million), and was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year twice. As a venture capitalist, he has invested in over 100 startups. Two of his three previous books made the New York Times best-seller list. And if that weren't qualification enough, he's delivered over 1,000 keynotes around the globe, and is a professional jazz guitarist.

In our podcast, he shares some of his personal tips.

Change the Input

"If you're focusing on things that help you become more expansive in your thinking, generally speaking, that's a good approach," he advises. Think of my eagle, soaring above the mountains.

He tells me about another creativity routine he practices every day, which doesn't take long but packs a big punch.

"In software engineering, they say, 'If you want to change the output, you have to change the input.' So, I spend literally one minute a day just gobbling up creative inputs," he says. "I might watch a live musician play on YouTube, I might look at a painting, I might read a poem. But essentially, I'm absorbing the creativity of others to get my juices flowing."

Then he gives himself a mental challenge, to flex his creativity muscle.

"The challenge might be something like, if I had to take 10,000 ball bearings and market them as a new type of product, what might that be? And the goal isn't to necessarily create [a] tangible work product. It's more to give yourself creative practice in a low-pressure situation."

Get Scrappy

But even thinking up a challenge like that ball bearing one might be a little too – well, creative – for some of us. And what if we don't have the time for these activities, even five minutes a day?

Just do what you can, Linkner says, adding: "We can be very scrappy in our approach to bring creativity forward."

He advises doing "teeny-tiny acts of creativity on a daily basis," including creatively rearranging your life to carve out thinking time from a busy schedule.

"Maybe you move the printer closer to your desk to save a few steps. Maybe you change the exact time that you leave your home to get to the office, to save time on the commute. It's not that tough of a challenge, if you really work at it, to use creativity to save 30 minutes a week.

"If you did that, now you have this incredible gift of 30 minutes, and that becomes your creativity laboratory time to invent other ideas to drive productivity and growth."

Everyday Creativity

This isn't about inventing "the next big thing" or an award-winning ad campaign. Creativity and innovation can improve all aspects of our lives, Linkner believes, from work and business to health, family and community. It can be an everyday experience for everyone, in any situation.

"You don't have to be a good painter or musician or dancer to be creative. You can be creative in your own craft or profession," Linkner asserts. "It's about, how do we use this resource that all of us have but we don't all use regularly, to unlock and achieve the outcomes that we care about the most?"

Listen to My Interview With Josh Linkner

Discover fascinating insights from some of the world's leading business figures with my series of Mind Tools Expert Interviews.

Mind Tools Club Members and Corporate Licensees can listen to my full 30-minute interview with Josh Linkner, behind the paywall.

If you're not a Mind Tools member, you can join the Mind Tools Club and gain access to our 2,400+ resources, including 200+ Expert Interviews. For corporate licensing, ask for a demo with one of our team.

The post Baby Steps to Innovation: My Expert Interview With Josh Linkner appeared first on Mind Tools.

Some of your experiments work, some don't. Some even hurt. But if you learn the right lessons, experimenting is how you grow.

Test the Water, Fight the Fear of Failure

But as adults, experimenting can feel like a much riskier business. Trying out a new approach might make things a bit better. Then again, it might also make them worse. And if something ain't broke… why invite the jeopardy of trying to fix it?

Organizations can't afford to stand still, though – especially in times of crisis and change. So how can we try out new things and ensure that we learn useful lessons, without putting everything on the line?

Ill-Judged Experiments Can Test You

In many of the places I've worked, the approach to innovation has been one of "testing it by doing it."

Like the time I was at a radio station, where the bosses were determined to make big changes. Unfortunately, they decided to do all their experiments at once. So we recorded new jingles, redid our logo, altered show times, and completely revamped the playlist. But the overall feedback was terrible, and audience figures plummeted.

Not all the results were negative, though. It was just that there was no way to unpick the successes and failures from within all the different things we'd done.

And with no means of pulling back on anything, we just kept pushing forward, making even more changes. That was until enough damage had been done. Before long, the whole station had to be dismantled, and the company was back at square one.

More Lessons in How Not to Experiment

There were similar problems when I worked in elementary schools. There, new ideas about assessment systems, support schemes or teaching styles were often based on people's instincts, or the desire to chase trends. Then tested on everyone at once.

We had little hope of understanding the impact. We didn't know how things would have gone if we'd done nothing. And when things didn't work as hoped, we'd usually come so far from our previous ways of operating that it was impossible to find our way back.

But Sometimes Experimentation Works!

So I picked up "Experimentation Works," by Stefan H. Thomke, knowing that workplace experiments, actually, often fail. I found even more examples in Thomke's book of tests that had done more harm than good.

But I also learned about another side to experimenting – and discovered why some of my old teams had been getting it so wrong.

Trying new things will always involve risks. So, plan your experiments carefully – and always with safety in mind. Experiment early, expecting lots of things not to work. Go for small improvements. Keep your tests as contained as possible. And only implement changes for everyone when there's proof that they're right.

In many ways, it's a simpler approach than the hectic, "best guess" one that I'd been used to. But at its heart is a scientific way of thinking that offers rich and reliable results. And it lets you meet complex new challenges with the feeling that you're already a step ahead.

Experimental Proof

In my current job, I've seen successful experiments at first hand. Granted, my industry has advantages when it comes to testing. In online learning, we can trial small changes in controlled conditions – one at a time, and with little or no risk to the business. We can also run our tests on just some of our customers, without damaging their experience.

But I don't think it's just about the industry you're in, or even the processes you use. It's also about your attitude to experimentation.

If you can get away from the idea that only big, leader-led discoveries count, and that everything needs to be tried at once, urgently, on everyone… then I'm convinced that you can make experimenting work. Wherever you work, whatever you want to improve.

Curiosity, Care and Challenge

"Experimentation Works" shows that, instead of throwing every idea into action, successful organizations puzzle out the best way to test each one in turn. They encourage curiosity, but they also help their people to work scientifically. They make big progress through lots of small steps.

And by creating communities of experimenters, they keep challenging what's possible. That lets them roll out enough proven ideas to progress on a grand scale.

An experimental company like Google, for example, can easily run 25,000 tests in a year. That's going to reveal lots of ideas to reject before they do harm. But it will also highlight plenty to adopt with confidence.

Test Right, and You Can't Go Wrong

The more uncertain the world becomes, the more it pays to test things properly before implementing them. "Experimentation Works" warns us that you can't rely on instinct, or on what's worked in the past. And you can't just hope that everything you try will go the way you planned.

It's boosted my confidence that experimentation can work – if you do it right. Your tests may not produce the results you expected. But if you run them properly, they'll always teach you something valuable.

After all, from childhood onward, it's often by learning what doesn't work that we find out what does.

Downloading our "Experimentation Works" Book Insight

We review the best new business books and the tested classics in our monthly Book Insights, available as text or as 15-minute audio downloads.

So, if you're a Mind Tools Premium Club member or corporate user, download or stream the "Experimentation Works" Book Insight review now.

If you haven't already signed up, join the Mind Tools Club and gain access to our 2,400+ resources, including 390+ Book Insights. For corporate licensing, ask for a demo with one of our team.

What's your approach to experimentation at work? Join the discussion below and let us know!

The post In Testing Times, Test Everything! appeared first on Mind Tools.

"That's really where, organizationally, we run into trouble," Staats says. He describes how this problem nagged away at him until he came up with some solutions.

"I'd been in investment banking, in strategic planning, in venture capital, and seen individuals and teams that I thought had the resources, that I thought had the knowledge to do what needed to be done, but really struggled over time," he recalls.

Why We Don't Learn

"I came to appreciate that it was the story of learning. That's what dragged me back to academia. For the last 15 years, I've been trying to understand why we don't learn. Why do we get in our own way?"

Now Professor of Operations at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, Staats has published his conclusions in a new book, "Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself and Thrive." In it, he extols the virtues of being a "dynamic learner," a term that encompasses four parts.

Become a Learning Dynamo

"Think of them as the four Fs," he says. "That you're focused, you're fast, you're frequent and you're flexible."

Collectively, these four elements make it easier for us to learn new skills and ways of working, so we can adapt to the shifting sands of today's business environment and not get stuck.

The Importance of Failure

In his book, Staats presents eight essential elements to achieving this ideal. The first of these involves another F: failure.

"If you talk to people about how important failure is to learning, you'll get the head nodding," he reflects, in our Expert Interview podcast. "But we tend to have a fear of failure. We're afraid for things to go wrong. We tend to focus on the bad outcome, so bad overpowers good."

Staats offers some practical advice to help people cut through the fear and start embracing failure as a great way to learn.

"Part of it is recognizing that failure is a regular part of the process, and the name itself is problematic," he says. "I'm not suggesting we change the language, but we really want to think about how we destigmatize 'failure.'"

Using Data to Measure Failure

And then there's that buzzword, "data," which also has a role to play as we try to learn from our mistakes. Staats cites the success of companies that measure their failures, almost as a badge of honor.

"I've seen some organizations target a failure rate [rather than] a success rate. If our failure rate is too low, then that means we're not pushing the boundaries nearly far enough," he says.

Learning to Ask Questions

Another of Staats's eight essential elements is asking questions, rather than rushing to answers. Like learning from failure, this tip may get experienced learners nodding. Again, understanding the principle doesn't make it any easier to achieve, and Staats explains why.

"When we ask a question, we think it shows that we don't know something, and that people will actually think less of us. What's interesting is the research suggests it's just the opposite, because if we ask a question, it engages us with the party on the other side. It lets them be an expert and share their perspective with us," he points out.

"The other piece is that sometimes we don't realize that we need to ask questions. We become so focused on what we're doing, so convinced that we know the answer, that we end up engaging a number of cognitive biases. So we're asking questions but in a very flawed way that's not going to lead us to better outcomes."

Learning a Falsification Mindset

So, can we improve our questioning, so that we learn more? Staats advises us "to have strong opinions, weakly held." That way we can approach our environment "with the appropriate humility that there are things we know and things we don't."

In addition, it helps to have what he calls "a falsification mindset." This is an idea borrowed from the world of science. "A good scientist has a hypothesis and tries to falsify it. You try to show why it's wrong," he says, and gives a clear example.

"You may want to move the company and set up your operations in India. So you not only want to think about why that's a good idea, but spend a lot of time asking questions around why that might be a bad idea. Why might I be wrong?"

This kind of self-awareness benefits from reflective practice. Not surprisingly, reflection is another essential element in Staats’s learning framework.

In this audio clip from our Expert Interview podcast, he explains why he combines reflection and relaxation in one principle, and how we can do more of both activities.

Listen to the full 30-minute interview in the Mind Tools Club.

What do you do to make sure you keep learning? Join the discussion below!

The post Become a Learning Dynamo and Forget Failure appeared first on Mind Tools.

"Are you kidding? It’s a classic."

"I don’t care, it’s been on FIVE times today already!"

At this point I look away and put my headphones on. Partly to drown out the commotion, but also because I can't stand that song, either. I want to listen to my own music.

I hate working in silence. Always have. I find it distracting listening to people tapping away at their keyboards, or slurping their coffee. Music helps me to get "in the zone."

But could music at work be detrimental to effective teamwork? When I put on my headphones to avoid distraction, am I also avoiding opportunities to collaborate with my colleagues?

Improve Your Office Morale With Music

Music can make the dullest of workspaces feel more warm and welcoming, and it can prompt lively discussion in the office! One co-worker might reminisce about the days of "proper songs," while another pokes fun at his old-fashioned taste.

But what happens when someone keeps putting on the same terrible tunes, or when people begin to avoid certain areas of the office because they find the noise too disruptive?

Is the answer to ban it completely? Perhaps, but no one wants to be known as the "music police." Maybe you just pipe in background songs that can help to lighten the mood without distracting anyone. Chances are, some people will still grumble, so is there an easier way?

Headphones at Work: Yes or No?

One option is to use headphones. No two people are the same, and that goes for their taste in music, too. By using headphones, you can keep yourself happy and motivated without subjecting your colleagues to unwanted noise.

But many bosses don't like headphones. And business journalist Anne Kraemer believes that wearing headphones creates isolation within the workplace, and minimizes career opportunities.

I myself am guilty of increasing the volume on my computer to higher than is strictly necessary. As a result it can be hard for co-workers to get my attention, and even harder for me to recognize when there's an important conversation going on that could benefit from my input.

However, solitude at work isn't always a bad thing. Consider the number of times you just needed a couple hours of deep work, only to be interrupted by colleagues or other distractions. Headphones have become common code for "I'm busy." This simple signal is all your co-workers need to know that you shouldn't be disturbed, because you're "in flow."

Do Employees Work Better With Music?

People may claim that tunes help them to focus, but where's the proof?

Thankfully for music advocates, the facts are in their favor. Studies show that music can improve performance for nine out of 10 workers. It has the ability to evoke strong emotions, which have been proven to stimulate and engage employees. This same research has also shown that certain songs can help to suppress those emotions that damage productivity, such as anxiety and stress.

Some research has even suggested that we should be tailoring our song choices to the type of work we're doing. For example, classical music reportedly improves accuracy when working with numbers, while dance music can speed up proofreading by 20 percent.

Music in the Office

The benefits of music on productivity and morale are seemingly undeniable. But what the data doesn't address is how we should bring it into the workplace. It can be tricky to tread the line between boosting employee performance, and creating a room full of uncommunicative, detached individuals.

The key is to assess the needs of your employees. Does there need to be a constant flow of ideas between colleagues? If so, perhaps headphones are a bad fit for your office culture. Or, do some people struggle to put their heads down and focus, because the hubbub of an open-plan office is too distracting?

I believe that there is a place for music in the workspace, and I certainly don't intend to ditch my tunes altogether. But maybe I'll make an effort to lower the volume.

Do you work better with music, or do you prefer the sound of silence? Let us know your thoughts on music at work in the comments section, below.

The post Should You Play Music at Work? appeared first on Mind Tools.

Before 1995, though, you may have wondered what on earth that phrase meant. That's when psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman published his groundbreaking book, "Emotional Intelligence."

Emotional What?

At the time, he wasn’t at all sure the idea would catch on.

"In fact, I'd already put out a proposal for my next book, because I didn't think this book would do much of anything in particular. So I was astonished," he tells me in our Expert Interview podcast.

"I remember having the thought, before it came out, that if one day I heard two strangers using the phrase ‘emotional intelligence,' and they both knew what it meant, it had become a meme and I would have succeeded in the goal. So it's been a success far beyond my expectations."

More bestselling books followed, most of them related to emotional intelligence or some aspect of it. Goleman’s latest book is a prequel of sorts.

Meditation and Mindfulness

The new book is called "Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body." In it, Goleman shares how he first embraced meditation when he spent two years in India as a Harvard graduate student.

While he was there, he began practicing mindfulness, which he calls "a subcategory of meditation." For him, it's "very interwoven" with emotional intelligence because it helps people to focus – a thread that runs through all four parts of the emotional intelligence model.

"Mindfulness practice, or meditation generally, are essentially practices of self-awareness. That's the first part of emotional intelligence," he says.

"The payoff is not only in being able to monitor what's going on inside you and handle it better, but also in self-management, which is the second part of emotional intelligence. You are better able to manage your upsets, and to stay focused on your goals and marshal a positive attitude," he says.

The Science Behind Mindfulness

"And then there's presence to other people. That's the third part of emotional intelligence. Those three parts are what we combine in our relationship skills [the fourth part]. So I would say that it's a booster across every part of emotional intelligence."

In "Altered Traits" – a play on the phrase "altered states" – Goleman and co-author Richard J. Davidson, PhD, present the scientific argument for meditation and mindfulness, citing dozens of experiments that provide evidence of their benefits.

Goleman welcomes the growth in such studies, and the peer-reviewed articles that endorse them. After all, mainstream recognition of the transformative effects of meditation has been a long time coming.

Early Skepticism Replaced by Acceptance

"When I proposed studying meditation at Harvard, my professors were mostly against it. They thought it was crazy, a waste of time," he recalls.

"That was many decades ago. Now, it makes a lot of sense, because the data clearly shows there are changes in the brain. There are changes at very basic levels of mind, brain and body, and this, of course, means there might be some very practical applications that come out of this research."

As an example, Goleman says that we can see positive results from as little as 10 minutes of mindfulness practice a day.

"We know from the research that your attention becomes stronger. You're able to focus even in the midst of multitasking, which is a very useful skill these days, for sure. You can remember better, you can learn better. Students who do mindfulness actually score better on exams," he reports.

Mindfulness as a Stress Buster

"There's also a real benefit for how you handle stress. You become less reactive, triggered less often, and if you do have an emotional hijack, you recover more quickly. These are results that show up pretty much from the start, but the more you practice, say you have a daily session of mindfulness, the stronger the benefits become."

Because of this, Goleman believes there's a powerful business case for bringing mindfulness into the workplace.

In this audio clip, from our Expert Interview podcast, he reflects on how it might be introduced.

Listen to the full 30-minute interview in the Mind Tools Club.

Would you welcome regular mindfulness practice in your workplace? Join the discussion below!

The post How Mindfulness Leads to Emotional Intelligence appeared first on Mind Tools.

So how did it get to you?

After all, it overcame the odds to get to where it is now. Nine out of 10 startups fail. So what did it do to ensure that it was part of the 10 percent that achieved business success?

Most likely it was a combination of the right idea at the right time, backed by the right people, with the right amount of investment. But for many companies – even super successful ones – it's not always "plain sailing."

Why Do Startups Fail?

The fact is that most startups fail, and even the most successful businesses have mishaps from time to time. Remember Google Glass? What about New Coke?

No? It probably comes as no surprise, then, that the main reason startups fail is because they make products that no one wants. This accounts for 42 percent of startup collapses, according to CB Insights.

Other key reasons startups fail include running out of cash (29 percent) and not having the right team in place (23 percent).

Successful Entrepreneurs Who Didn't Give Up

The road to success, however, is rarely straightforward. Just look at the success stories of some of today's most famous entrepreneurs.

FedEx founder, Fred Smith (whose net worth today tops $5.3 billion), revealed that his college professor labeled his concept for Federal Express “interesting, but not feasible.” And, Walt Disney once got fired from his role as cartoonist at a newspaper because, according to his editor, he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas."

Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple Computer in 1985. But he soon turned his luck around after founding a new firm, NeXT (which eventually merged with Apple) and acquiring The Graphics Group (now Pixar).

Jobs later revealed that being fired pushed him to do more. He said, "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life." At the time of his death, Jobs's net worth was estimated to be $10.2 billion.

Another famous entrepreneur, Elon Musk, narrowly escaped bankruptcy after his electric car firm, Tesla, lost money and his space exploration company, SpaceX, suffered a series of rocket launch failures. He later labeled the year "the worst of my life." Since then, SpaceX has won billion-dollar contracts from NASA. Musk's net worth is now estimated to be $19.7 billion.

And, finally, have you ever heard of the Amazon Fire phone? This massive flop was once touted as being crucial to the company's future. But sales failed to take off, even after Amazon cut its price to just 99 cents! It's proof that even the biggest companies can still make mistakes.

Eventually, CEO Jeff Bezos wrote off his company's $170 million phone business, saying, "If you're going to take bold bets, they're going to be experiments… Experiments are by their very nature prone to failure. But a few big successes compensate for dozens and dozens of things that didn't work."

Female Executives, Entrepreneurs and the Struggle to the Top

There is a distinct lack of highly successful female entrepreneurs out there, with only 14 of the 1,011 self-made billionaires in the world being women.

But in recent years, a greater focus on gender equality on boards, as well as the ongoing #metoo campaign, has helped to shine a light on the difficulties facing business women, and how they can be overcome.

Just look at the success stories of people such as Katrina Lake, Adi Tatarko and Anne Wojcicki. Their example, along with a more concerted effort to increase opportunities for women in the workplace, has undoubtedly contributed to the rise in the number of female, self-made billionaires recorded over the last year.

Eight Steps to Business Success

So, what does it take to achieve business success?

How did Amazon go from an online bookseller to the global e-commerce giant it is today? What did Apple do to become the largest tech company in the world? How did Sergey Brin and Larry Page take Google from a two-man, dorm-room operation to the most-visited website in the world?

There are six things that startups can do to increase their chances of business success:

1. Don't be Afraid to Take That First Step!

If you have a great idea, don't be afraid to take a chance on it. Do some research, explore its potential, and brainstorm the things you'd need to do to get it off the ground.

As Facebook friend, Scanner Joe, explains, "...getting the courage to get started is the biggest challenge an entrepreneur has. Everything else is not easier though, but the first steps seems to be the longest one."

2. Have a Perfect Product

Ultimately, people need to like what you do, and want what you produce. This is what will gain you sales, market share, and a loyal customer base.

But, remember, just because you like your idea, it doesn't mean that others will. You still need to do the groundwork if you want to achieve business success. Get feedback from customers, carry out regular product tests, do market research, and set up focus groups. Most importantly, listen to your customers and use their feedback to change, innovate and perfect your product.

3. Grow, and Grow Fast!

Growth is the only way to get potential investors interested. Being profitable gives you more money to plough back into your product development, manufacturing processes and staff. It also makes you an attractive investment.

But small amounts of growth won't do: you need to achieve double-digit growth. If this doesn't happen early on, chances are it will never happen.

4. Be Versatile

Startup teams must be responsive and resilient. When things go wrong, which they can do very quickly, people need to be able to jump in and deal with problems there and then.

It helps if you're multi-skilled, too. You'll need to be able to turn your hand to product development, marketing, negotiation, compliance, and strategy.

5. Don't Get Overloaded

Trying to get a startup off the ground is no easy feat. There's no doubt that it's going to monopolize much of your brain power. But, immersing yourself in work completely, will likely lead to fatigue, stress and burnout.

As LinkedIn follower and small business owner of New Noise Audio, Stacey Hollis explains, "...make sure you keep your work/life balance in check. Running your own business can consumer a lot of your time and energy, so making sure you schedule in breaks, exercise and also time with friends and family is just as important. If you don't have your health and well-being, you won't have a business at all!"

6. Get a Business Partner

Some of the most powerful companies in the world have co-founders. For example, Google (Sergey Brin and Larry Page), Apple (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs), and Microsoft (Bill Gates and Paul Allen).

When you're at the helm of a budding startup, it can be scary. But, as the old saying goes, "Two heads are better than one." Having a partner can help to ease the pressure and stress that comes with running a business. He or she may have complementary skills, provide emotional support, and be on hand to help out with the day-to-day. And an alternate perspective may help to broaden your vision and avoid the risk of mistakes being overlooked.

7. Know That Failing is Part of Business Success

Sometimes, it doesn't matter how much time, energy or money you throw at a product, it still ends up being a "dud."

Perhaps you launched it at the wrong time (in an economic downturn, for instance), it was too expensive, the marketing campaign was terrible, or customers simply didn't like it. Unless you can see a different route, or you have the funds to change the product significantly, it's probably best to quit while you're ahead.

Product failures can be notoriously expensive and damaging to your brand. Consider Samsung's Galaxy Note 7, for instance. The phone, which launched in 2016, was lauded for its superior storage, design and usability, and may well have been a hit if it weren't for the fact that it occasionally caught fire and exploded. It was soon banned outright from flights, and Samsung had no choice but to recall the entire model. The ordeal reportedly cost the company $1 billion, and a further $17 billion in lost sales.

And Samsung is not alone. Google has had a number of "flops" in the past, too. Its virtual world, Google Lively, lasted just six months before being pulled, and its augmented reality eyewear, Google Glass, was withdrawn from the consumer market in 2015.

8. Persevere

A failure doesn't have to spell the end, though! One thing that all great entrepreneurs have in common is that they have failed multiple times – and they bounced back.

Take Sarah Blakely, founder of shapewear brand Spanx. She credits her business success specifically to her failures. "I'd get kicked out of buildings all day long," she remembered. "People would rip up my business card in my face. It's a humbling business to be in. But I knew I could sell and I knew I wanted to sell something I had created." Spanx is now worth just over $1 billion – not bad for a company that Blakely started with just $5,000.

So, if something doesn't work, try something new. Don't give up, no matter how down on your luck you feel. As Thomas Edison once said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

Do you work in a startup? How do you deal with failure? And, what do you think are the key ingredients to business success?

The post How to Achieve Business Success: Inspirational Stories appeared first on Mind Tools.

On the consumer side, we think of it as shopping with smart devices and social media. On the job side, it is working as a freelance contractor, perhaps using one's own assets such as a car for Uber, an apartment for Airbnb, or selling things on Etsy or Craigslist.

Like anything else, there are pros and cons to consider before joining the gig economy. Happy "giggers" appreciate the independence and flexibility that it can offer. It can give them more control over their lives, for example, and they can often work from home. The downsides include the lack of benefits such as sick leave, vacation pay and health insurance, reduced job security, and potentially higher taxes.

Unsurprisingly, employers like gig workers! Not paying benefits can save them almost 40 percent on staffing costs. But if you're seeking gig work, you don't have to sell yourself cheap. Joe Griston, regional director for Freelancer.com, says, "Forty seven percent of the projects on Freelancer.com are awarded to the median bidder or higher."

Research suggests that, by 2020, 43 percent of the U.S. workforce will be made up of these freelancers. This is not just an American phenomenon. In the U.K., the Office of National Statistics reports that, "The number of self-employed workers in the U.K. rose by 20 percent between 2008 and 2015… Part-time self-employment grew 88 percent from 2001 to 2015, but just 25 percent for full-time workers."

Finding Work in the Gig Economy

Some gigs, such as in retail services, are very much like traditional work, but many are very different from being a corporate employee. Samaschool, a San Francisco-based organization that provides training in finding work in the gig economy, says, "Gig workers must act as micro-entrepreneurs, cultivating their own pipeline of work opportunities, project managing each gig, and maintaining their own finances."

In addition to the skills that a worker applies on the job, a gigger needs to create a strong online personal brand, know how to navigate gig platforms, and provide top-notch service both in person and through digital devices.

Gig economy work is an intentional plan for some but for many, like journalist Lisa Carolin, it just happens. She became a gig worker after losing a full-time job. She said, "At the age of 50, the unimaginable happened. The newspaper I reported for laid off its entire staff."

In the past year, Lisa has taken on six gigs. She's worked as a journalist, a dog walker, retail merchandiser, and babysitter. She's also acted as a patient feigning disease as part of a medical school study, and she's sold her own baked goods at farmers markets.

Lisa's experience as a gig worker is typical. As a conventional employee, things were simple. She had "a single boss, a single HR department, and a single computer system." Describing the challenges of gig working, she said, "It's difficult to find appealing work, and then cobbling together these various jobs to earn a decent living."

Demands of Gig Economy Work

Lisa added, "When it rains it pours, and you have no control over when that happens. There tend to be very fruitful times of the year, where the demand from various contract jobs is overwhelming. Sometimes the balancing act is too difficult.

"That said, there is great joy in the flexibility that contract work can offer for one's schedule. There's also more opportunity to sleep in and take Fido for his midday walk!"

Another journalist-turned-gigger, Farai Chidey, advises would-be giggers to carry out a personal skills audit. She says, "First, write down everything you can do reasonably well, whether it seems professionally relevant [or not]. Second, circle the skills you're willing to do for money. Lastly, star the skills you'd be paid the most for," and then jump in with both feet!

Share your own experiences of gigging and giggers below, in our comment section, and share this blog with your followers to add to the conversation.

The post Is the Gig Economy Right for You? appeared first on Mind Tools.

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer, author and speaker (1940-2015)

About This Week's Chat

I've been training in gyms for many years, and I also worked in the fitness industry for a long time. A few months ago I started training at a new gym.

I knew from the beginning that there was something different about this gym, but I hadn't yet figured out what it was. I soon realized that the owner had solved some standard gym challenges by thinking differently about how certain things should be done.

One of the problems that gyms face is that people often only train for a week or two after they join and then they leave. It usually happens because they don't have clear goals or because they feel awkward and uncomfortable working out in front of others.

But, at this gym, the person who signs you up is a professional fitness consultant who helps you to set goals based on a personalized assessment from the day you join. In other gyms, this task is usually left up to a fitness instructor or to the person who joins. The way this fitness consultant helps you to set goals gives you a reason to want to come back every day and it sets you up for long-term success.

When you go to train for the first time, your fitness consultant introduces you to a "fitness marshall," and he or she makes sure that you meet all the fitness marshalls on duty that day.

The layout of the gym is also different from the norm. There is a central area where the fitness marshalls work from. From this position they can see everyone who enters the gym and they greet everybody by name – yes, really! This means that you don't feel awkward and strange when you walk into the gym for the first few days, which increases the likelihood of you coming back.

The rest of the equipment is set up around this central area and, from there, the fitness marshalls have control over what happens on the fitness floor. They train clients there and create a fun atmosphere where energy and lots of laughter is at the heart of what happens.

The owner is definitely not a "it's always been done that way" kind of guy. He's willing to push the boundaries of what's usually expected of a gym. With some simple changes, he's been able to solve a few classical gym challenges and, in the process, he's helped to improve many people's health and wellbeing.

One of the ways to problem solve creatively is by being willing to ask questions that challenge how things have always been done. You also have to be willing to look at things without making any assumptions that something will only work if it is done in a certain way.

A great way to challenge your thinking is by asking a hypothetical question or stating an "impossible" challenge as your starting point. How about creating a vacuum cleaner that costs only one dollar? Or shoes that you can fold up and put in your wallet?

How to Problem Solve Creatively

Here are the questions and some of the answers from our Twitter chat.

Q1. What do we mean by creativity in problem solving?

@LorenMargolis Creative problem solving means the opportunity to think and act outside the box, without judgment, to resolve business issues.

@Yolande_MT Solving problems creatively is about looking at "old" problems with "new" eyes.

Q2. Why do we need creativity in problem solving? What benefits does it bring?

@JKatzaman Creativity in problem solving is the best antidote to the status quo. No "this is how we've always done it" restraints.

@SayItForwardNow  We need creativity in problem solving because solutions to big problems are generally not obvious, or there would be no problem!

Q3. What makes some people more creative than others?

As we see from the responses, creativity can be both an innate or a learned skill.

@thevijaymahajan Openness, a preference for complexity and ambiguity, the ability to extract from chaos, unconventionality, and willingness to take risks.

@MicheleDD_MT Creative people aren't afraid to challenge the status quo. They are comfortable with risk and moving out of their comfort zone.

@KLC2978 Natural talent! Some people are "open," see things in a "bigger picture" way, and process information differently to rigid thinkers.

Q4. Which mindsets stimulate the most creative problem solving approaches?

A common theme of being willing to grow and change emerged here.

@Midgie_MT Growth mindset, attitude of curiosity, willing to try and if doesn't work, try something else. There is no one right answer.

@PG_pmp It requires imaginative and analytical skills to make use of creative problem solving approaches.

Q5. Which tools do you like to use to generate creative solutions?

@TwisterKW My go-to remains flipchart/white board; no idea is a bad idea, wild ideas are welcome, get juices flowing and jump-start creativity.

@70mq Social media platforms are excellent tools to listen and engage with. They can help you find creative solutions.

Q6. What are your favorite questions that challenge you to think differently about a problem?

@ShereesePubHlth "What is stopping me from solving this quickly?" My favorite question: "What am I really trying to solve here?" Many don't answer this question first.

@social_melanie  As an amateur photographer, I'm constantly asking how to represent something in a new way, e.g. how can my pics stand out?

@famutsvene What is the root cause of this problem? How did it end up being a problem? What lesson do I learn from this?

Q7. What is the most unconventional way you've approached the idea-generating (ideating) stage of problem solving?

@GodaraAR Solving a corporate strategy issue through a motorcycle trip.

@manavlalotra Brought all characters of the problem in one room and made them shout/debate/yell - in the end they came up with the solution themselves.

Q8. Think back to a time when you solved a complex problem - what were you doing when you had your breakthrough?

@jeremypmurphy Sometimes when I'm playing Scrabble, running, playing the piano, walking, or talking with someone creative.

@SayItForwardNow Most of my "breakthrough" solutions come when I am NOT focused on the problem, but rather taking a walk or listening to music.

Q9. A common response to a new idea is, "Well, that won't work!" What do you do?

@SnowinRI Prove them wrong.

@TheGenPeople Seek to understand where they're coming from. They might have valid concerns you can resolve together.

Q10. If you could only say one thing to managers/leaders about creative problem solving, what would it be?

@BrainBlenderTec No one ever disrupted an industry by thinking the same, and you can either be a disruptor or get disrupted - choose wisely.

@NBlairHRDigital Embrace it!

Next time, on #MTtalk...

Cultivating a culture where creativity and innovation is welcome is only one element in creating a happy workplace. There are many others that come into play, and we'd like to know what you think the most important one is. Please cast your vote in our Twitter poll, here.

In our next #MTtalk on Friday, August 4, our topic is "Creating a Happy Workplace," as suggested by one of our regular participants, Akilah Ellison @OrganicLeaderVB. To share your thoughts and ideas, please join us at 1pm EDT/5pm GMT/10:30pm IST.

To participate in our chat about creating a happy workplace, type #MTtalk in the Twitter search function. Then, click on "All Tweets" and you'll be able to follow the live chat feed. To join the conversation, simply include #MTtalk in your tweet and it will show up in the chat feed

Resources

In the meantime, here are some resources that will help you to learn more about solving problems creatively:

• Understanding Creativity
• Practical Innovation
• TRIZ: A Powerful Methodology for Creative Problem Solving
• Beyonder Creativity
• Metaphorical Thinking
• Design Thinking
• Doblin's 10 Types of Innovation
• SCAMPER
• The Reframing Matrix
• Reversal
• Critical Thinking

The post How to Problem Solve Creatively – #MTtalk Roundup appeared first on Mind Tools.