Who is on the show:

In this episode, we host Dave Gray. He is the founder of XPLANE and author of multiple books including Liminal Thinking.

Why is he on the show:

He is a visual artist and uses agile, iterative techniques like Visual Thinking, Culture Mapping, and Gamestorming to get people engaged and involved in co-creating clear, unique and executable business strategies. His latest book - Liminal Thinking, talks about a core practice for connected leaders in a complex world.

What do we talk about:

In a free-wheeling conversation, we speak about

• How did he come about writing his book "Game-storming" with Sunni Brown and James Macanufo and his experience of writing the book
• Empathy Map and he shares a story about a session where he used the map and how it impacts people
• Why is it so difficult for people to empathise with others?
• How did his book "Connected Company" come about and what it was all about (Digital Transformation), which led to the question about how to make the transformation?
• How this led him to his latest book - "Liminal Thinking"
• The entire conversation around belief and how critical it is for internal transformation
• What are some of the most simple of things that if done can have significant impact on our lives?
• The ability to sit back and observe oneself as a third person is a meta ability that can help us bring about significant changes in our own lives. How could one go about developing this ability?
• Is there a connection between being in the moment and visual thinking?
• Something that was surprising and interesting while researching for the book - "Liminal thinking".
• Who does he considers the most inspiring person and why?
• What is it that you see in the world that blows his mind?
• What is the biggest limitation of humanity? Why?
• What does his creative process looks like? What are his routines that support his creativity?
• What gives him joy or how does he rejuvenate himself?
• Where does he get creative ideas from ?
• What is his learning habits? How does he continue to evolve and grow as a person?
• Book Recommendation:
  • History of Illuminated Manuscripts
  • Making Meetings work
• What he thinks is obvious but people miss all the time (The answer will definitely surprise you).
• What is one thing he wants you to do as soon as you finish listening to this conversation?

Liminal thinking talks about learning six principles and nine practices. These nine practices of liminal thinking can be summarised as three simple precepts:

1. Get in touch with your ignorance.
2. Seek understanding.
3. Do something different.

Here is a video where Dave explains the Pyramid of Beliefs from his book and you can find a summary of his book here.

How can you connect with him:

You can follow him on twitter @DaveGray and his website is http://www.xplaner.com.