The HiHelloSura Show

Join us for the finale of our three-part series on the importance of human-centered design for innovation and creativity. In this episode, we'll be speaking with Kathryn and David Eastlake, innovators and residents of United Church homes. They will be sharing their unique perspectives on the impact of human-centered design and how it has led to more innovation and creativity in their community. But that's not all! We'll also be exploring the secrets of blue zone living and how to find purpose using the purpose equation. Kathryn and David will share their own experiences and insights on how to live a fulfilling life in retirement. 👉About Kathryn & David Eastlake Kathryn taught 7-12 year olds at public school, in business and technology for over 30 years. David worked for IBM for 38 years as a service technician and sang in the Barbershop Harmony Qurtets for 45 years. They now both sing in the local community chorus and are committed to living out their purpose. ✍️ References on the show Bluezone living : https://www.bluezones.com Discovering and living into your purpose:  https://thepurposeequation.com

In this episode, we'll be exploring what it takes to scale from a team of 10 people to a team of over 300,000. We'll hear from Esteban Garcia, serial entrepreneur who has been through the process and learn about the challenges and lessons he’s acquired along the way. We'll also find out how unexpected life experiences can help us to focus our energy and structure our lives in a way that feels meaningful and successful for us.

About Esteban Garcia

Esteban Garcia is a technology entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the industry.  As of July 1st, Esteban is the CEO of Xpirit USA – a Microsoft Cloud consulting firm helping customers with their Cloud adoption by building Engineering Cultures.

Esteban has been in an entrepreneurial journey since 2007, having been part of several startups, with the most recent being Nebbia Technology, started in  2014, with an exit in 2019 and a second exit in 2020.

Esteban has a passion for helping transform organizations through the use of technology, enabling teams to do amazing things while solving their business problems. He does this through mentoring, training, and working closely with teams to help them realize their potential.

Esteban is a frequent speaker at technical conferences throughout the world, he is a Microsoft Regional Director, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.

You can  follow him on Twitter at @estebanfgarcia.

Strengthen your leadership and innovation skills today with the world's leading practitioners of Arts-Based Experiential Learning, Fred Mandell and Harvey Seifter. The last few years have reshaped the business landscape so profoundly that many corporate leaders are woefully unprepared for the rapidly changing demands of the roles they now occupy, and they know it. The future depends on the ability of organizations and leaders to navigate a landscape shaped by disruption, uncertainty, volatility, and rapidly accelerating change.  In 2019 Fred joined forces with Harvey Seifter, global pioneer in arts-based learning, to form Creating Futures That Work. (www.futuresthatwork.com) https://www.linkedin.com/in/hseifter/ As lead practitioners of Arts-Based Experiential Learning (ABEL), they have discovered this to be an emotionally resonant and transformational system that helps leaders, high potentials, and teams develop the creative, collaborative, and innovation skills they need to win the future.  Discover:  👉How to future-proof your career and your organization  👉 How arts-based experiential learning can help you lead a great company 👉Why leaders need to be well rounded, strong and resilient About  Harvey Seifter, founder and director of Art of Science Learning (www.artofsciencelearning) and Principal Investigator of its two National Science Foundation grants, is one of the world’s leading authorities on organizational creativity and arts‐based learning. Through Seifter Associates (www.seifterassociates.com), the consulting firm he founded in 1995, Harvey has brought arts­‐based approaches to innovation, leadership development, teamwork and cross-­cultural communication to General Electric, IBM, AstraZeneca, Siemens, Real Networks, Johnson & Johnson, Chrysler, Novartis, Morgan Stanley, GlaxoSmithKline, Goldman Sachs, BMW, McGraw‐Hill, Columbia University Graduate School of Business (Senior Executive Faculty 2002 -­‐05), UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, New York University’s Stern School, Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo) and Université de Paris VIII. Fred Mandell is a former award winning senior executive and business model innovator, visual artist, writer, teacher, social entrepreneur and transformation provocateur. He has developed emotionally resonant ways to teach individual and team skills, techniques and processes which accelerate innovative outcomes through arts based learning. His series The Leader as Artist has earned the number one rated course at MIT’s Sloan Innovation Period program.  He is the author of Can Art Save Us? (TGIAL) and Becoming a Life Change Artist; 7 Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Age (Avery/Penguin) with Kathleen Jordan.

In this episode we are joined by Matt Wilcox, author of “the business of choice” where we deep dive into the application of behavioral science to give us critical insights for marketing magic. We break down how the different building blocks that effect human behavior, hopefully shedding a light and giving you a blueprint for creating some persuasion. Spoiler alert our acronym for the chat is LENS! -[L] Perceived fear of Loss -[E] Ease -[N] "Now and Near — how time and physical distance affect our choices”. -[S] Our decisions are effected by what we see other people doing Socially. About Matt: Matthew is is one of the pioneers of the application of behavioral science insights to the practice of marketing. His book, “The Business of Choice” was named M&SB’s “Marketing Book Of The Year and winner of the American Marketing Association’s prestigious Berry Book Prize, and the second edition was a medallist in the 2021 Axion Business Book Awards. He currently runs The Business of Choice, a behavioral insights and choice architecture consultancy that helps organizations make the choices they need people to make align with how people naturally choose.

We’ve all had conversations that feel real, and genuine. We instinctively know when they feel disingenuous and transactional. As a brand, your conversation with your “audience” is no different. How do we the purveyor of value have a real conversation with humans that really connects with them. Dare I say surprises them and gets them caught up in the conversation. Think about when countless hours have passed when you’ve been talking with the perfect stranger. This is our opportunity to design experiences that do just that. Joined by my guest Jamie Shaw, Global Creative Director for experience, creative and brand at experiential agency Cogs & Marvel. We discuss : - The ability to story-tell using all the senses. - How forming a kaleidoscope team is the only way to go. - Jamies unusual background as a poet that informed her alternative approach. - How the best ideas can start from a passion project and emerge to create a powerful movement (That Lady Thing). - How truly injecting an unexpected emotion, made an HR benefits campaign the most raved about experience. - How to tune into your gut to make decisions . - AND there’s more.. so listen. About Jamie Shaw Jamie Shaw is a creative director at global brand experience agency Cogs & Marvel, a live and digital brand experience agency serving some of the world’s most innovative thinkers. She leads creative direction, brand, and experience design. Self proclaimed language obsessive (I’m so nervous about my inevitable typos), strategic brain with creative soul, rock snob, placemaker. Past-life poet. Cogs and Marvel, a Certified Women-Owned Business, inspires and connects people by finding better ways to create meaning through smart storytelling. Their chief value is summed up in the phrase, “Make It Better.” Getting in touch with Jamie Shaw: Www.JamieShaw.net Linkedin Www.CogsandMarvel.com

On this episode, we are exploring how you can partner with future in order to create your future as opposed to feeling uncertain about it. We are joined by Ronni KImm, who helps clients and people in organizations imagine what is possible. We look at the world building, which is often used in gaming and film, and apply some of those principles to future scenario making. In this episode walk away with: The idea of mapping scenarios for your future. How to enter creation in a state of discovery How to partner and dance with your future versus feeling uncertain About our Guest Ronni Kimm is the founder of Collective Future, a design and innovation consultancy based in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on utilizing human-centered design and storytelling to imagine new possibilities for the future. Project outcomes have included everything from strategic directives, digital prototypes, immersive AR/VR experiences, and narrative dinners. Ronni has led future-focused initiatives for Autodesk, Clif Bar, Ford, Nike, and VF, among others. As an educator, her background includes lectureships, and visiting artist/critic roles at the ArtCenter College of Design, California Institute of the Arts, Cal State Long Beach, General Assembly, Otis College of Art & Design, SCI-Arc, UCLA, and USC. As part of her exploration of new meanings and forms, Ronni loves to incite conversations and collaborations with brilliant thinkers and doers whenever possible. Contact our guest Hello@futurecollective.com or at www.futurecollective.com Support by subscribing to the show by visiting www.hihellosura.com/show

Being courageous is leaning into the things that make us afraid, and seeing if you can unlock creativity in that moment. To share one of your ideas, is an act of courage. In this episode we learn how to harness courage, to understand our insurmountable sphere of influence for impact, and from that place how to build an ecosystem and supports our audiacious vision. In this episode we share what it means to be courageous as a leader, team and organization. People have been known to think that creativity happens when everything is right, but the moments when an outcome or transformation happens is usually when we are in a place of great difficulty. To share one of your ideas, is an act of courage Being courageous is leaning into the things that make us afraid, and seeing if you can unlock creativity in that moment. As a leader, we have a sphere of influence that has ripple infinity potential. Knowing how powerful we each are, we get to decide what responsibility that presents and what we are going about it. Companies want to get to the future faster while staying ahead of their competition. However the pieces that need to be present, the pathway to breakthroughs might not seem so obvious. We need to show up at different altitudes in life to move things forward. When we are stuck, we have altitude sickness so a change in perspective gives us the ability to go higher. If you really want to solve a challenge , make your challenge harder, increase the altitude, go up in vision and purpose, rise up into an altitude that you haven’t been before. The five levels of altitude enquiry relate to Core, Enablers, Growth, Bridges & EcoSytem. Get guided access to the altitude questions, as well as a downloadable template, from Kyle at: https://www.becourageousinnovation.com/hihellosura password: hihellosura. You can get in touch with Kyle Hermans at: www.becourageousinnovation.com, as well as on linkedin and instagram. About Kyle Hermans Kyle is the Founder, CEO of Be Courageous, the global growth platform helping leaders and organizations master their future today through courageous breakthroughs in culture, strategy and Innovation. Kyle’s group facilitate Start Up's, Scale Up's and Fortune brands to create, grow and sustain purpose driven cultures and businesses, unlock rapid growth and mindfully impact the future.

In this episode we cover :

The quest for sustainable innovation continues from E1. In this episode you get to understand at a deeper level where your unique creative thinking fits into innovation, how this feeds into the collaboration of the team and organization. Russ Schoen, shares case studies from around the world of how people have used FourSight to turn up the volume on their performance and move out tension into collaboration to solve complex business challenges within the likes of start-ups and Estee Lauder. 

In this episode we unpack deeper how FourSight has been used globally to help teams and organizations solve complex business challenges across industries and company size. 

Understanding our lens for problem solving 

- It helps unlock what your preferred approach and style is when solving a challenge.Do you prefer to solve within the lens of clarifying, ideating , developing, implementing or a combination? All four are needed to create sustainable innovation.

- Russ, shares the highs and lows of each preference type, where they thrive, where they might get stuck, and what to do to make that preference type be happy. 

- The  lows for each type are analysis paralysis (clarifier), project leaping (ideator), perfectionism, (developer), control (implementer). 

- Teams that do not perform as smoothly, are not aligned on what is needed at the moment in the project, as teams tend to be blind to individual preferences when engaging in problem solving. 

- Knowing our preference lets us make sure that each phase in innovation gets the due attention. 

- We are able to short cut conflict when we spend and put the energy in right place.

What shall we do when we do not have all the preferences in a team? 

Our preference is not ability. For those moments we can use tools to make jobs easier, to bolster where we do not currently have a preference. 

What happens when we are not aware of our blind spots?

- Blind spots to preferences have helped explained symptoms in organizations. For example a company started laughing when it was revealed that they were skewed heavy in ideating and implementation. It helped explain why their 30-35 SKUs had failed when they went to market. 

- It also explained conflict and tension within an organization where the leadership were heavy Implenentors and the managers heavy Clarifiers. 

Departmental Preference Skew

- Certain departments have been identified as leaning heavier into certain preferences than others: 

- Marketing - ideator /Implentor 

- Engineer & Accounting - clarifier/ developer 

- Sales - implentors 

How to Outperform Others 

- An independent IBM study showed that teams who were aware of their FourSight profile and had a problem solving process to follow tended to outperform other teams when delivering innovation, as they were aware of their blind spots and were able to ensure that they touched base with each stage integral to delivering innovation.

Who is this for? 

- This is for teams who want to take it up a notch and create higher performance, as well as for teams who are experiencing tension. 

- This can benefit Start-Up organizations to infuse more structure as well as it has been proven with Este Lauder. 

For an even deeper dive into how to unlock the creative potential of your organization, you can get in contact with Russ Schoen at Russ@FourSightonline.com, or myself at www.hihellosura.com. 

Setting bold innovative goals can be a challenge when you have experience in an arena, or when it has never existed before. In this episode you get to jump the belief chasm, accessing the seemingly fantastical, through the power of storytelling. This will enable you to give yourself permission to both create innovative bold goals for your organization and then activating them into reality.

In this episode we unpack why creating bold innovative goals can be challenging. How to overcome the challenge and then from that space harness what you have created into an action plan.

Creating anything new requires a suspension of current reality. Our inner critic is there to protect us in these situations from looking like a fool at work, to share with us what is currently happening in the market place, what has happened before based on experience. 

It’s important to give ourselves permission to create the new and bold otherwise we will be duplicating everything that has preceded. Innovation requires us to live on the fringes. 

In order to do that we need to tap into our child like mindset which is full of curiosity and wonder, uninhibited by reality and gently ask our inner critic to take a seat. 

The challenge is that when we look to set goals, our mind is great at sharing with us all the obstacles that we can ensue. 

But wait there is salvation. If we step into the future and look back telling the stories of all the incredible things that have passed, our mind also accepts it as true. It works in our favor to make it all a reality. 

This tool, is a great short cut to access the met

While the inner critic does that, we cue the Kyle Cease technique for creating goals: 

Step 1: The Three Month Share 

Partner up with someone. Choose who will be person A and person B. 

Person A look at Person B, and say: “You never guess what has happened since we last spoke three months ago. Since three months ago so much has happened. Let me tell you.” Then you will proceed to share with them all the fabulous things that have happened in the last three months. 

Person B your role is to nod, smile and look very positive. Nothing more. Nothing less. Do not ask them about feasibility, reality, budgets. 

Do this for five minutes and then switch roles. 

Step 2: The Six Month Share 

Then do this for 6 months. And switch roles.

Step 3: The One Year Share 

Then do it for 1 year. And then switch roles.

Step 4: The Super Charge Zone 

After this Person B, your role is to take the strands of what has been shared with you by person A and super charge their story. For example, if they talk about wanting to be a thought leader in their field, you might say, well I hear that Forbes and Fast Company are knocking on your door. Or that Oprah has invited you for dinner yet again. 

Super Charge for five minutes and then switch roles.  

Step 5: The Action Plan 

Based on this new story that you get to tell, ask yourself: “what are the three steps that I need to take immediately to lean into this reality?” This is your activation moment for action planning. 

This process is applicable for all aspects of your life including your team and your organization to get them set for creating vision for a project and the future. 

If you would like help creating a Roadmap of the Future for your team, get in touch at hihellosura.com

Sustainable innovation, need not be an illusive unicorn. In this episode you get to understand where your unique creative thinking fits into innovation, where you get stuck and where you can collaborate to get creative solutions out of the door. 

In this episode we unpack how to create sustainable innovation. Whether we are working with creative problem solving, design thinking, lean or sprints, different thinking styles are critical in each phase to get innovation out of the door. 

An independent IBM study shared that those trained in creative thinking styles, an assembly created by FourSight TM.  were more effective at delivering impactful innovation. 

The four creative thinking styles are:

Clarifiers - lets not make assumptions 

Ideators - where are all the possibilities 

Developers - lets create a workable solution 

Implementors - Just do it, lets get this out of the door

Preferences are not indicative of ability, they just show us where we come alive and get energy. 

Knowing what your preferences are lets you know where you can plug into the innovation process and where you have gotten stuck, spinning your wheels.

Understand how to increase collaboration and reduce conflict, by understanding another’s preference. Suddenly that annoying thing they do becomes just the thing you need to get innovative solutions out the door.

FourSight has over 60 years of research and is currently used in 6 continents across industries. 

If you are interested in getting a summary of the dark and light side of your creative thinking preference, get in touch at www.hihellosura.