Better Ideas Arise From Gathering New Dots, Not Harder Thinking
Everybody always talks about creativity being a process of connecting the dots. But where, actually, do you get those dots to connect? You can’t connect dots you never collect. And here’s the part most people miss: our expertise makes us blind. The deeper we go in one field, the more we default to the same patterns, the same inputs, the same answers. Which means if we don’t intentionally collect new dots… we keep recreating the same ideas. I was talking about this with Frankie Russo Russo on his podcast, and it kept coming back to this... 👉 Better ideas don’t come from thinking harder. 👉 They come from seeing more. So ask: What dots are we collecting? And where are we refusing to look? #creativity #innovation #speaker
Uneven Chocolate Bars Symbolize Cocoa Industry Inequality
I'm in Brussels maneuvering between people as I meander down the aisles of booths at the conference tradeshow. I'd just had coffee with someone who caught me as I stepped off stage. That's when I bumped up against the Tony's...
Mercedes‑Teams Partnership Clashes on Brand Coherence
Mercedes is integrating Microsoft Teams into the 2026 all-new CLA Coupe. Let’s set aside the obvious safety question of video meetings while driving for a second. Here’s the thing that makes me scratch my head... Mercedes is a luxury performance...
AI Amplifies Your Thinking, Not Just Answers
The creative advantage of AI isn’t the tool, it’s the thinking behind it. People who get the most out of AI don’t treat it like an answer machine. They use it to question assumptions, explore alternatives, and reflect on their...
AI Steals Tasks, Frees Us for Creativity
Love, LOVED having this conversation with Erik Martinez on the Digital Velocity Agency podcast. Will AI take work away from us? Absolutely. But it will also free up space so we can do what we are inherently wired to do...
Innovation Thrives on Iteration, Not One‑off Ideas
Most big companies get innovation all wrong. They think it’s about chasing the next big idea. But IBM’s top software leader, Rob Thomas, points out, what really drives innovation isn’t ideation, it’s iteration. Too many teams treat innovation like a...
Old Farmhouse, New Reflections on Engineering Roots
I'm sitting across the table in our old farm house listening to my brother reminisce about his college engineering internship. At the John Deere assembly plant in Iowa, the team was struggling with something simple but costly—communication. "When a workstation...
Your Success Can Stagnate Sales—Keep Rewriting Playbooks
The biggest threat to your sales strategy isn’t the competition, it’s your own success. When something works, we cling to it. We systematize it. We build playbooks around it. And over time, we slip into our comfort zone with it....