Ideas are free, execution is priceless.

Here’s a simple trivia question. How do you open the lid of a paint can? Simple. Grab a screwdriver. Place the flat edge between the lip of the lid and the lip of the can. Once the screwdriver is in its place, carefully push down the handle, and the force you exert will eliminate the air tight seal. Next, move to another part of the lid and wedge the…

Playing trivia doesn’t require someone to have a ton of specific knowledge on sports, history, music and politics, although that certainly helps. What makes a strong player is their ability to engage in divergent thinking, which is thought process by which you explore many different solutions to a potential problem. You give an enthusiastic yes to all answers from all team members at the onset, build a bank of…

According to various personality inventories, my psychological orientation is intuition. That means my artistic, abstract brain is wired to pay the most attention to impressions or the meaning and patterns of the information presented to me. I tend to remember events more as the impression of what it was like, rather than actual facts or details of what happened. Compare that to the opposing orientation, which is sensing. If…

Companies spend millions of dollars every year on customer service education. And it really works. When I was in the corporate training business, many of those organizations hired me to conduct workshops for their staff, and customer service scores almost always increased within a few weeks of the programs. But what amazes me is how little time and energy is focused on the reverse. Nobody really teaches us how…

Travel is humbling, as it reminds us the world is full of things that have nothing to do with us. Traveling gives us perspective, as it allows us to look at our own life from a far. And travel ignites imagination, as it disrupts our routine, introduces novelty to our brain and reactivates reward circuits. But let’s be clear. There is nothing in this world that we can’t turn…