Michelle Lee, a managing director leading IDEO’s Design for Play team, tells us how to create a magic circle and why removing constraints is so powerful in helping your team come up with wild new ideas. 

This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. 

Listen to the full episode with Michelle and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: ideo.in/well-said-michelle

Well Said: Remove Constraints to Boost Team Creativity

The IDEO U Creative Confidence Podcast hosts candid conversations with some of today’s most inspiring change makers, design thinkers, and creative minds. 

IDEO U Executive Design Director Coe Leta Stafford and Founder Suzanne Gibbs Howard speak with guests about their approach to leadership, creativity, innovation, and growth. Get insight into their success through personal stories and real-world examples, and learn how to bring a human-centered approach to your own work. 

Discover more at IDEOU.com.

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We all want to be great managers. But when it comes to actually working with and leading young people, there’s no clear strategy or playbook for success. Too often it feels like we’re having to decide between two extremes: enforce high standards and risk pushing our mentees away, or take a more gentle approach and withhold criticism, therefore missing out on critical learning moments. Often the end result can be intergenerational misunderstanding. How do we interact with young people so that they feel inspired, enthusiastic, and energized rather than disengaged, outraged, or overwhelmed? 

In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, we speak with David Yeager, author of The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation for Managers, Parents, and Educators. He shares how to cultivate a mentor mindset, the science and research on mentoring young people, applying a growth mindset to cultivate young talent, and key tools and strategies to employ for better mentorship.

Manager Mentorship Strategies: David Yeager

Most of us recognize why curiosity is important. Few of us know how to practice and unleash its full potential. But when leaders embrace curiosity, it becomes a catalyst for transformation, helping leaders challenge their assumptions, connect with people, and build cultures where everyone feels like they matter.

Learn why curiosity is one of the most important skills for leaders today, plus tangible tips and activities that we can practice to build our curiosity muscles, from Scott Shigeoka, curiosity expert and author of the new book, SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World.

https://ideo.in/scott

Why Curiosity is a Business Imperative: Scott Shigeoka

At its worst, friction can be a destructive force in an organization. Friction can undermine productivity and innovation, create inefficiency, and even chip away at our energy and enthusiasm for work. 

But what if friction could be reframed as something positive—something that makes the right things, like joy, productivity, and creative thinking, easier?

Learn how great leaders use friction to make the right things easier and the wrong things harder with Bob Sutton, organizational psychologist and New York Times best selling author.

How Great Leaders Use Friction: Bob Sutton

Learn about how play gives us permission to dream and diverge, think outside the box, and discover solutions to unprecedented problems with Michelle Lee, Managing Director at IDEO and Instructor of our newest Creative Thinking for Complex Solving course.

The Power of Play: Michelle Lee

What makes a good insight? Learn about how to make customer research impactful with Arianna McClain, Head of Research & Insights at Cruise.

Well Said: Remove Constraints to Boost Team Creativity

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