Inside Out Thinking: Catching Ideas Coming In and Going Out

Filed Under Idea Bank, Motivation/Inspiration, Outside the Box, Successful Blog, Writing | 13 Comments

Everyone Has Endless Ideas

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

Ideas.

Can’t write without one. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.

If you’re reading this, you probably know that. So let’s move around that dead, old horse.

What’s an idea anyway? A thought, a stimuli, a catalyst.

Everyone has endless ideas in our brains every minute that we’re alive.

We can get to them two ways — from the inside or from the out.

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5 + 1 Habits that Make Good Things Happen for You

Filed Under Branding, Motivation/Inspiration, Outside the Box, Successful Blog | 25 Comments

Make Things Happen

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

Some people say “It’s smart to be lucky.”

My favorite boss used to say, “I’d rather be lucky to be smart.”

I’ve always said, “You don’t need luck, if you can make good things happen.”

Everyone hears about someone who has “all the luck.” That person who is “in the right place at the right time — almost all of the darn time.” How does that someone do that?

It’s not fate. It’s not an accident. It’s not even a lucky star.

That someone knows how to make good things happen.

It’s not hard — change some things and it could be you.

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Great Find for the Mind: A New Measure of Intelligence?

Filed Under Business Life, Great Finds, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog, Trends | 2 Comments

As I Charge My Brain

Business schools are all looking for ways to add innovations and right-brain thinking to their curriculums. Tufts University is looking for a new way to gauge intelligence.

Great Find: Toward a New Measure of Intelligence

Permalink: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2006/id20060803_891819.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_the+creative+corporation

Audience/Topic: Anyone with an interest with innovation trends in business

Content: Robert Sternberg at Tufts University is looking for a new way to measure intelligence. In this BusinessWeekonline article by Romy Drucker, we find out the details of just what that means. Here’s a quick look.

BETTER PREDICTOR. Sternberg defines intelligence as mental activity devoted to “purposive adaptation to, selection, and shaping of real-world environments relevant to one’s life.” It is no wonder, then, that he believes the university should think about education “in terms of skills that matter.”

His research indicates that when applicants’ creative and practical intelligence are quantified and considered together, there is a substantial increase in the admissions committee’s ability to predict academic success in the first year of college.

He also thinks that the modifications in the Tufts rating system will have the effect of admitting more students who reflect the institution’s values of civic engagement. Given the research correlating test scores with socioeconomic status, the reforms should also help admit a more diverse class

To check out the whole article click the title shot below.

Toward a New Measure of Intelligence

I’m off today working with clients on creativity and innovation. We’ll see whether that helps my own intelligence factor!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Great Find: 9 Things Every Blogger Should Understand

Filed Under Great Finds, Marketing, Successful Blog | 23 Comments

Good Advice Is Always Good

I came across this piece by Another Blogger in early July. I’ve been saving it. Today seemed like a good day to share it.

Great Find: 9 Things Every Blogger Should Understand by Another Blogger
Permalink: http://anotherblogger.com/2006/07/06/9-things-every-blogger-should-understand/

Audience/Topic: Every blogger

Content: Ever read a book and thought, “I knew that!”? This list of nine points is the blogging experience clarified. Read it. Print it. Put it on your wall. Then read it again. Click the title shot to get the post.

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Thanks, Another Blogger. I couldn’t have said it better.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Can’t Write? Improve Your Skill Set to Improve Your Job Security

Filed Under Branding, Content, Marketing, Successful Blog, Writing | 31 Comments

Improving Your Writing Skills Is an Investment

power writing at work

Straight talk on business writing is a crucial need in the 21st century. We do business with people we don’t meet. It doesn’t matter whether we work at home or in a Fortune 500 environment, being able to communicate effectively in writing affects our ability to get work; it affects our place in society.

Do you want that job as a police officer, designer, detective, cook,or landscaper? Do you need to write a deal memo or a letter of complaint? You have to express yourself well and clearly, and to know the form and style that best suits the information you’re presenting, or you won’t be heard.

“With the fast pace of today’s electronic communications, one might think that the value of fundamental writing skills has diminished in the workplace,” said Joseph M. Tucci, president and CEO of EMC Corporation and chairman of the Business Roundtable’s Education and the Workforce Task Force. “Actually, the need to write clearly and quickly has never been more important than in today’s highly competitive, technology-driven global economy.”

The National Commission on Writing also found that American corporations have been spending $3.1 BILLION annually on improving employee deficits in writing.

This fact alone has lead many companies to look on people lacking writing skills as unfit for hire and unlikely to last long enough for promotion.

“In most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in . . . or it could be your ticket out,” said one respondent.

How we write is how we are judged by others. It is often the only picture of us they see. Certainly many of the key people in our lives see more of our words than they see of us.

So I’m going to spend this series looking at communication in all of its forms as we interact with businesses — getting and giving work and talking about the work we do together — why it works and why it doesn’t. We’ll talk about targeting your audience, sounding professional and easy to work with, how to delegate properly, emails, deal memos, proposals, conversation, and when things should be in person, on the phone, and in text.

I’m interested in what else you think this series should include.It’s all about business communication. No one is perfect at that.

So comment away on the problems you see and I’ll add them to the list of what’s covered. Improving this single skill set is the quickest way to ensure job security.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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