The Deliberate Creative

The average employee experiences 56 interruptions each day and consequently loses two hours of productivity each day. In the episode, learn about the myths of multitasking and how it impacts the culture of teams. Darcy Luoma shares stories and experiences from her life and her clients about how multitasking can hurt teams. It decreases creativity, effectiveness, and productivity. Learn how to shift your focus and be more creative.

What You’ll Learn

* The harms of multi-tasking, in particular how multitasking might be ruining your relationships

* How multitasking impacts teams

* Three ways to decrease multitasking and increase productivity

The average employee experiences 56 interruptions each day and consequently loses two hours of productivity each day. In the episode, learn about the myths of multitasking and how it impacts the culture of teams. Darcy Luoma shares stories and experiences from her life and her clients about how multitasking can hurt teams. It decreases creativity, effectiveness, and productivity. Learn how to shift your focus and be more creative.

What You'll Learn

• The harms of multi-tasking, in particular how multitasking might be ruining your relationships
• How multitasking impacts teams
• Three ways to decrease multitasking and increase productivity

About Darcy Luoma

Darcy Luoma, certified professional life coach, dynamic facilitator, fun and engaging public speaker, has expertise in leadership, team development, emotional intelligence and personal effectiveness. Her optimistic attitude, playful and intuitive style has helped hundreds of clients achieve remarkable results, including greater work/life balance, a clearer vision, and enhanced leadership.

Her master's thesis (MSOD, Pepperdine University) showed profound results that life coaching significantly increases overall life satisfaction and improves personal and professional growth. Darcy recently completed 12 years as the Director of U.S. Senator Herb Kohl's office and is now a full-time leadership coach and organization development specialist. Along with balancing being a mom of two daughters, she enjoys spicy Chai lattes, boot camp, hot yoga, adventure travel, competing in triathlons, and afternoon naps. Darcy brings passion and practical ideas for action to her highly engaging presentations! To learn more visit DarcyLuoma.com.

Resources

• Darcy Luoma's website
• Book: The Myth of Multitasking by Dave Crenshaw

The Weekly Challenge Turn off your sounds notifications on your phone for one week. Notice the impact? Notice how present it allows you to be. Be conscious of when you check emails and shift to setting certain times each day to check. Listen to the episode to learn why this can be so effective.

People want and need feedback, particularly Millennials. However, telling someone “nice job” is not effective feedback. In this episode, communications strategist Lee Caraher explains how to give feedback that results in real change. After a series of hiring failures she researched Millennials and became an expert, even writing a book called Millennials and Management. Several chapters focus on feedback because it is so critical, not just for Millennials, but for every generation. Listen to learn how you can help your team be more successful by giving effective feedback.

What You’ll Learn

* Three tips to giving better feedback

* How to improve brainstorming results when working with introverts

* Forget the Golden Rule – live by the Platinum Rule

People want and need feedback, particularly Millennials. However, telling someone "nice job" is not effective feedback. In this episode, communications strategist Lee Caraher explains how to give feedback that results in real change. After a series of hiring failures she researched Millennials and became an expert, even writing a book called Millennials and Management. Several chapters focus on feedback because it is so critical, not just for Millennials, but for every generation. Listen to learn how you can help your team be more successful by giving effective feedback.

What You'll Learn

• Three tips to giving better feedback
• How to improve brainstorming results when working with introverts
• Forget the Golden Rule - live by the Platinum Rule

About Lee Caraher

Lee Caraher is a CEO and acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She started Double Forte in 2002 to work with good people, doing great work for good companies. Her clients span well-loved Bay Area brands including Clif Bar and CamelBak, hot Silicon Valley start-ups, financial service companies and wine and spirits companies. This is not her first rodeo, and she's learned a lot along the way that she shares freely with others in the hopes that everyone can reduce the drama in the workplace. Now her friends and colleagues call her "The Millennial Whisperer."

After struggling with how to work well with Millennial clients and now staffers (more than half of Lee's staff is under 35) and then working to figure out how to make that work, Lee has written a positive and practical book about the topic, "Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making it Work at Work."

Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high producing teams who get a lot done well and have fun at the same time. She is a straight talker who doesn't hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humor have gotten her out of a lot of trouble.

She started her career in communications in Boston and then moved to California to work with well-known PR firm The Bohle Group and then Manning, Selvage & Lee. She moved to the Bay Area in 1995 to serve as the Vice President of Corporate and Consumer Communications at the $1.6 Billion SEGA of America. She then served as Executive Vice President of The Weber Group and Founder and President of Red Whistle Communications, both Interpublic companies.

Lee is active in the community and currently serves on the Board of KQED Public Media, Grace Cathedral's Board of Trustees, and on the Board of Trustees of Menlo College, Atherton. Previously Lee served on the Board of Directors of The Marine Mammal Center, was the Chair of the Board for Community Gatepath, San Mateo County's largest organization serving the needs of people with developmental disabilities, and was the founding Chair of the Board for the St. Paul's Choir School. She consults with other non-profits on effective board organization and practices.

A graduate of Carleton College, with a degree in Medieval History, which she finds useful every day, Lee lives on the Peninsula with her husband, two sons, and their blind cat Al.

Resources

• Lee Caraher's book - Millennials & Mangement: The Essential Guide to Making It Work at Work
• Lee Caraher's website
• Lee Caraher's firm Double Forte

The Weekly Challenge Notice when you say the word "but," then switch with the word "and." Set up a process so you interupt yourself and start changing how you communicate. Those small three letter words can be powerful and switching them out can lead to impressive results.

Creative synergy is the interactions amongst team members where the collective creative results are greater than the sum of their individual efforts. When teams achieve creative synergy they have the potential to be more creative and innovative. This podcast shares my brand new research about creative synergy in teams, including the three components of creativity synergy and details about the new Creative Synergy Scale.

What You'll Learn

• Which variables that have the greatest impact on team creativity.
• The three components of creative synergy.
• How to use the Creative Synergy Scale to increase creativity in your team

Resources

• Episode 33: The Difference Between Teams and Working Groups
• Episode 3: The Creative Problem Solving Process
• Book: The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenbach and Smith

The Weekly Challenge Which of the three elements of creative synergy do you think your teams need to develop? Talk with your teammates and get their opinion.

Getting an idea is just the beginning. The next step is nurturing and developing that idea from a tiny seed into a something worthwhile. This episode share three important steps to build and nurture your ideas so you can use them to change the world.

What You'll Learn

• How ideas are like sunflowers and why that matters to you
• How showering, driving, and sleeping can help you develop your ideas into rich plans
• How to push your ideas further so you can begin to take action

Resources

• Episode 7: Creative Problem Solving - Implementation
• Episode 26: The Imposter Syndrome
• Episode 45: How to Say No to Your Inner Critic
• Episode 46: How to Take Action Against Your Inner Critic

The Weekly Challenge Take one of your ideas and build and nurture it for a full week. What do you need to do to take it that next step? Make it public! Share in the comments your idea and how you are nurturing and building it.

Very few teams reach high-performing status. Those that do all have six things in common. This episode reveals the research on high performing teams and explains the six basics every team needs to become high-performing. A free slide deck accompanies this episode.

What You’ll Learn

* Six basics of high performing teams

* Three types of teams

Very few teams reach high-performing status. Those that do all have six things in common. This episode reveals the research on high performing teams and explains the six basics every team needs to become high-performing. A free slide deck accompanies this episode.

What You'll Learn

• Six basics of high performing teams
• Three types of teams

Resources to Help You Overcome Your Inner Critic

• Free set of slides to accompany the episode!
• Book: The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenbach & Smith
• Episode 33: The Difference Between Teams and Working Groups

The Weekly Challenge

Listen to the six basics of high-performing teams. Identify one area your team has a gap. Have a conversation with your team about that gap. What can you do to improve in that area? Share comments or questions below in the show notes. Would love to hear from you!

Companies lose billions in the U.S. alone due to low employee engagement. In this episode Dr. Sharon Livingston explains how to engage team leaders and provides tips on how to coach the leaders to lead their team towards more creativity and innovation.

What You’ll Learn

* Why team leaders need to identify their passion

* How leaders can identify their passion and bring out their team’s passion

* The power and impact of being employee focused

Companies lose billions in the U.S. alone due to low employee engagement. In this episode Dr. Sharon Livingston explains how to engage team leaders and provides tips on how to coach the leaders to lead their team towards more creativity and innovation.

What You'll Learn

• Why team leaders need to identify their passion
• How leaders can identify their passion and bring out their team's passion
• The power and impact of being employee focused

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Sharon's book Get Lost Girlfriend
• International Coach Certification Alliance (ICCA)
• Contact Sharon - (603) 505-5000 or drsharonlivingston at gmail dot com

The Weekly Challenge

Think about a time in your life (recent or many years ago) when you felt real and alive. Tell yourself a story about it. What do you notice? Then, see if there any connections between that and your work life, personal life, or relationships. To take it a step farther, ask that same question to a friend, spouse, colleagues, or your team. What do you learn? What alignment (or misalignment) do you find between your passion and your life? Share your reaction in the comments.