Podcast Themes

Thomas speaks about presented problems versus open-ended problems. He says that there are three types of open-ended problems, something around a pain point, something around a nebulous goal or a solution someone fell in love with. We speak about how we approach some of these tough open-ended problems as we navigate through life.

Ayse speaks about the power of having creative metaphors to help us unearth possibilities. She says that sometimes thinking logically and linearly may not produce the same effect as an “Out of the box” metaphor. We also connect the dots with an insight from Prof Dan Cable where he speaks about how he uses Lego blocks with senior transitioning leaders.

Dorie speaks about how we can experiment in adjacent spaces with 20% of our time like they encourage in Google.

Amy speaks about how companies have to work hard to create a climate of risk taking. She alludes to failure parties at Eli Lilly and the Museum of Failure at Google X to talk about how companies have to work hard to take the stigma of failure away to encourage risk taking. Some of the insights, I guess, are as applicable to families specifically in the context of parenting.

Jennifer speaks about the risk of us going for a compromise and ending up in a “one size fits nobody” situation, as Late Prof Clay Christensen would say. She speaks about why it is important for us to think about disagreement as a means to expanding the solution set and getting to a better place in a complex world.

Matthew speaks about how some of the songs of The Beatles (such as Yesterday and Let it be) were conceived of in Paul McCartney’s dreams. He also speaks about the role of sleep in the context of building complex motor skills (learning an instrument, flying a plane, performing a surgery etc). He says that practice makes it perfect only when it is combined with the right doses of sleep.

Film production is a tricky area where one has to walk the tightrope between creativity (as appreciated by the audience) and commerce. Atul talks about how he thinks about it and also alludes to the evolving consumer mindset where some early opinions could significantly swing the fortunes of the movie one way or the other.

How did a self-published debut author’s books reach the best seller list within a week of launch? Undoubtedly, the book was good but behind the scenes some new, innovative and thoughtful marketing techniques also contributed. As Amish expresses, leadership is not about having the best ideas yourself but being able to pick good ideas when you come across them.