Three Visionary Scientists Who Embraced Limitations to Have Creative Outbursts

Many procrastinators have claimed that ever-closer deadlines help them focus and enforce creativity. There may be something to that. Not quite the procrastination, but the forced wall of immovability restricting them that gets gears going. For proof, get your hands on a copy of The Five Obstructions, a documentary where experimental Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier inflicts five restrictions on his filmmaking mentor and friend Jørgen Leth, pushing him to make the same short film five times in different ways, driving him to the edge of creativity (and of his sanity).

Janna Levin, professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College at Columbia University and author of Black Hole Blues, believes that it’s the restrictions in science that help scientists get more creative. It’s these limits that give scientists something to work against, or with, and force them to move forward.

Albert Einstein himself, who was recently proven right about gravitational waves after 100 years, had his own limits that aided him in science. Einstein believed that light travels at a certain speed; no faster, no slower. He believed that anything else might change, anything else could be just a theory so long as the speed of light remained the same. Because he had this one constant, the speed of light, he went on to break new ground with the theory of relativity, black holes, and the shape of space. Despite having the restriction of something that could not be changed, Einstein arrived at multiple theorems still being proved true today.

Heisenberg had a similar creative burst from his own uncertainty principle. He said one can’t know exactly where a particle is. This doesn’t really add up to how we typically think about things – we can usually tell where an object is. But a particle’s momentum and the path of its motion are too complicated, especially after we’ve disturbed it. Because of this, he says we just can’t know where the particle is. And with this constant uncertainty, Heisenberg went on to discuss quantum physics in a new way.

Levin’s final example of limitation leading to creativity is Kurt Gödel. Gödel’s theory of limitation was complicated, in that he wanted to prove that not everything can be proven. His theory, considering everything including basic arithmetic, states that not everything can be proven true or false, not everything can be known in the mathematical proven state. But this idea propagated further creativity, including the invention of the computer and artificial intelligence. It was the limitations of the unknown that helped Alan Turing complete the very machines that were the building blocks of the high-tech, cutting-edge device that you’re reading these words on right now. Three cheers for limitations!

3 Tips to Succeed at Business Negotiations from an FBI Hostage Negotiator

Mirroring is a phenomenon frequently observed between two people in conversation. When a person is mirroring who they talk to, mimicking their body language and enthusiasm, it is a signal that the two people are at ease with each other and have taken a similar point of view.

Mirroring starts in infancy as babies learn about the world by imitating the behavior of those around them. This imitative behavior continues through life, from adolescence into adulthood, and if used consciously, mirroring may subconsciously influence others: many artists who claim to be hypnotists or psychics, such as Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo, use mirroring.

Chris Voss, a former FBI Negotiator and current CEO of the Black Swan Group, is an expert on mirroring. If your goal is to better position yourself in a negotiation, mirroring is a technique you can use to choose your language carefully. By repeating the other person’s last few words, just one to three of them, you can indicate that you are listening. Not only that, but it pushes the conversation forward as the person feels free to delve in deeper.

Repeating someone’s last words also gives you time to think about your own place in negotiation. After your short reply repeating them, most people will expand on what they mean. Voss says that the small delay caused by repeating those one to three words can in the long run save much time, and help things to go your way.

Chris Voss's book is Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended On It

How to speak so that people want to listen

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Here's Julian Treasure to help. In this useful talk, the sound expert demonstrates the how-to's of powerful speaking — from some handy vocal exercises to tips on how to speak with empathy. A talk that might help the world sound more beautiful.

Julian Treasure is the chair of the Sound Agency, a firm that advises worldwide businesses -- offices, retailers, hotels -- on how to use sound. He asks us to pay attention to the sounds that surround us. How do they make us feel: productive, stressed, energized, acquisitive?

Treasure is the author of the book Sound Business and keeps a blog by the same name that ruminates on aural matters (and offers a nice day-by-day writeup of TEDGlobal 2009). In the early 1980s, Treasure was the drummer for the Fall-influenced bandTransmitters.

Draw your future - Take control of your life

Patti Dobrowolski

A nationally acclaimed comic performer, high-performance business consultant, speaker, strategic illustrator and newly minted author, Patti Dobrowolski spends her time focused on new neuroscience discoveries that leverage the power of imagination and visuals to actualize a vision of the future. Dobrowolski works with teams and leaders of Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits around the world to inspire them to create new and different strategies while literally capturing the organization’s vision in a 4′ x 8′ illustration.
A veteran change agent, Dobrowolski spent her early consulting years on the front line listening to and inspiring teams to re-engage following a reduction in force or merger and acquisition. After she witnessed an artist drawing a real-time picture of the company’s new direction, she added this powerful visual aspect to her work. She now works as a change agent at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to engage the entire staff in extensive cultural shifts. Dobrowolski received her master’s in psychology with an emphasis in drama therapy from California Institute of Integral Studies. She is a member of the National Speaker’s Association, won the Association of Women in Communications Woman of Achievement award in 2004, and in 2008 her former company, Alchemy: The Art of Transforming Business, became an awardee of the Make Mine a Million $ Business program.

The global business next door "The world is your neighbour"

About this talk: When you think “global company,” what do you imagine? A massive conglomerate? A far-reaching tech corporation? Scott Szwast reveals that our image of the global business is wrong – 98% of US exporters are in fact companies with less than fifty employees. And yet, this only includes 1% of all US businesses. He explains why so many companies hesitate to leap across the border - and why they need to make the jump.

With a palpable passion for the unpredictability of global trade, Scott Szwast has spent the last 25 years supporting international transportation. For 10 of them, he worked with an ocean freight line, helping to import and export goods. The last 15 years he has spent with UPS, deep diving into distribution, transportation, technology, trade compliance, and the countless other aspects of cross-border trade. Today, he is a marketing director for UPS, where he works closely with companies expanding into new markets to understand the particular needs of growing organizations and to develop the solutions to support them.

Arianna Huffington on Brain Maintenance

Arianna Huffington discusses the importance of a well-rested mind and body. Huffington is the author of Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder (http://goo.gl/RXaa5b).

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of fourteen books. Her newest book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder was published by Crown in March 2014 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Since launching in 2005, The Huffington Post has become one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

Huffington has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.

She serves on several boards, including HuffPost’s partners in Spain, the newspaper EL PAÍS and its parent company PRISA; Onex; The Center for Public Integrity; and The Committee to Protect Journalists.

Organizations and the Power of Human Nature

Bestselling author Marcus Buckingham discusses organizations and the power of human nature, and his new book,

Has Apple Lost Its Simplicity without Steve Jobs?

One thing Apple has mastered is the art of simplicity. Few would know how the company achieved this better than Ken Segall, a creative director at Apple for twelve years who was personally responsible for introducing the lowercase-i into Apple's product line: iMac, iPod, iPad, etc. Simplicity permeates all aspects of Apple, perhaps most crucially — for the bottom line, at least — the buyer's shopping experience.

Shopping for a PC can involve going over hundreds of different models while the customer must compare each one to what they want, what they could want, and what all the differences mean for their future use. Choice is a good thing, and having a computer that fits perfectly to your needs is fantastic, but too many choices can give a person what is known as "decision paralysis."

This is where Apple comes in. The iPod had just four different versions, from the Shuffle to the iPod Video. Giving people four choices catered to their needs and made decision making a lot easier in the long run. As a result, people feel that Apple understands them, understands what they want and need. Those wants and needs are shown in these few products, and as people feel more understood by a company, they become loyal to that company.

Ken Segall's newest book is Think Simple: How Smart Leaders Defeat Complexity.

To be sure, Apple is not a perfect company. Indeed it has already had its problems since Steve Jobs passed. Apple Music, for example, has been excoriated by technology critics and annoyed the public with its confusing interface. At heart, however, Apple is still about simplicity, keeping a simple number of products for their customers to enjoy.

Failing in Business Isn't Even Failing — It's Gaining Life Experience

Taking risks in business means that sometimes you will fail, says AOL cofounder Steve Case. Experimentation is the essence of progress, whether it's in the sciences or in business, and most major social achievements are a result of a big ideas realized through countless small experiments. In America's quest to land a man on the moon, for example, committing small mistakes along the way was the only path toward success.

Case gives another example: Babe Ruth. Yes, the Great Bambino is remembered for being the home run king, but he was also the strikeout king. "If you're swinging for the fences," says Case, "you’re going to strike out. But you have to keep at it and if you keep at it you sometimes will have those homeruns. Sometimes you’ll win those games." Thus failing in business isn't really failing at all, but rather gaining life experience, so you'll do better the next time around.

In this video clip, Case discusses some of the roadblocks he encountered as co-founder of AOL, which at one point brought the Internet to half of all Americans going online. Case's book is The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future.

Steve Case is one of America’s most accomplished entrepreneurs—a pioneer who made the Internet part of everyday life and orchestrated the largest merger in the history of business between America Online and Time Warner.  Case’s entrepreneurial career began when he cofounded AOL, which became the top performing company of the 1990s. At its peak, nearly half of Internet users in the United States signed on through AOL. As chairman and CEO of Revolution, a Washington, DC-based investment firm he cofounded in 2005, Case partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build businesses such as Zipcar, LivingSocial, Sweetgreen, and many others. Case was the founding chair of the Startup America Partnership—an effort launched at the White House to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. A member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Case also serves as Chairman of the Case Foundation, which he established with his wife Jean in 1997.

Michael Moritz: The Upside of Obsession

Michael Moritz, chairman of Sequoia Capital, describes seeing the telltale traits of successful entrepreneurs in Lisa Sugar and her husband, Brian, who co-founded the women's interest site Popsugar. Those qualities include a clear sense of product, a strong connection with the audience, and an obsession that drives entrepreneurs to devote everything they have to building their business. Emily Ma, a lecturer in management at Stanford, interviews.

Have a Target Customer and Compelling Product

Kathryn Gould, co-founder of Foundation Capital, talks about how a startup's success relies on two critical factors: identifying a target customer and having a compelling product. Gould, interviewed by tech-industry journalist Mike Malone, also explains that competition for entrepreneurs is more likely the startup that launches after them, and not the incumbent they seek to unseat.

BREAK YOUR BIG GOALS INTO SMALL STEPS

The Psychology of Solitude: Find Meaning, Mental Health in the Beauty of Silence

Echoing the English psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, Scott Barry Kaufman explains that solitude is considered one of the greatest markers of psychological health because it means you are comfortable with you are when you are alone. The silence and easy concentration that accompanies solitude is a gateway to living a deeper, more meaningful life, says Kaufman. And contrary to popular misconception, enjoying being alone does not make one a misanthrope. On the contrary, being alone can help you find and solidify new ideas, which makes working in groups more rewarding: with new ideas you can contribute more to team efforts, and group discussion will yield more fruit when there is a greater diversity of ideas. Solitude provides an essential balance to time with others, says Kaufman, and the interplay of solitude and social time moves in cyclical patterns.

How to Cope With Betrayal So Recovery and Healing Can Begin

Betrayal is part of giving trust, says JetBlue Chairman Joel Peterson. So the odds are you will be betrayed at some point in time. Still, recovery and healing are possible.

Joel Peterson is the Chairman of JetBlue Airways, which was founded in 1999 and is now the fifth largest commercial airline in the United States. He is the Robert L. Joss Consulting Professor of Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he has served on the faculty since 1992, teaching courses in leadership, entrepreneurship, and real estate. A 2005 recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award, he also serves as a Director at Stanford’s Center for Leadership Development and Research, as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Group, and as an Overseer at the Hoover Institution.

In addition, Peterson is chairman of the investment firm he founded in 1995, Peterson Partners, which focuses on providing growth and buyout capital to businesses with strong management teams and a track record of success. He formerly served as Managing Partner, CFO, and CEO of Trammell Crow Company, the world’s largest private real estate development firm, where he was employed for nearly 20 years.

Throughout his distinguished career, Peterson has continually cultivated, called upon, and benefited from high-trust relationships. In his new book, THE 10 LAWS OF TRUST: Building the Bonds That Make a Business Great, he lays out attitudes and behaviors for developing a high-trust organization. “Investing in trust works to create abundance and is far superior to hoarding power, harboring suspicions, or barricading oneself behind gotcha controls,” he attests. “The satisfaction that derives from collaboration, the innovation that flows from interdependent teams, the joy that springs from knowing you can trust those with whom you work—all are well worth the effort required to understand the nature of trust and to internalize and live by its laws.”         

Over the past 35 years, Peterson has served on dozens of public and private boards, including Asurion; Franklin Covey; Ladder Capital Finance, a billion-dollar real estate investment company; and Bonobos, a New York based apparel start-up. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, where he was valedictorian and student body president.Joel Peterson is the father of seven children and a grandfather to more than a dozen.He makes his home in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Diana, his trusted partner for 44 years.   

Richard Branson on entrepreneurship | London Business School

Entrepreneurship, social issues, adventure, the environment and space travel are on the agenda at a Q&A session with Sir Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group.

Innovation QuickWin: Empowerment Rules

What decisions did they make?
Was it comfortable or uncomfortable?
Was there a decision they wanted to make but didn´t?
Do they intend to now take initiative?

BMW (South Africa). Defining innovation.

Source: www.bmw.co.za/innovations. Shot in the Netherlands utilising the moving sculptures of world-renowned artist Theo Jansen, this commercial, entitled "Kinetic Sculptures" forms part of a broader campaign which serves to highlight BMW's market leadership in the fields of technology and innovation. [http://www.bmw.co.za]

Lisa Bodell: Kill the company to save the company

A globally recognized innovation leader and futurist, Lisa founded futurethink in 2003 to provide a simple approach to the otherwise complicated topic of innovation. Working with leading brands such as Starwood, Merck, and Bosch, futurethink has become the largest source of innovation research, tools, and training curricula in the world. She is the author of the provocative culture-change book, Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution, which was named one of the Best Business Books of 2012 by Booz & Co.

The Science of To-Do Lists: Psychology Can Make You More Productive

Are to-do lists about feeling a sense of accomplishment or actually getting things done? The typical way of writing lists can result in feeling good about yourself at the expense of productivity.

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Power of Habit. He is a winner of the National Academies of Sciences, National Journalism, and George Polk awards. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale College, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

The Power of Persuasion

Powerful people aren’t always the best choice for persuading others. Less powerful audiences require warmth and connection.

Social Entrepreneurship is changing the game

Dr Alex Nicholls, Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School discusses the development of social impact bonds.

Bullet to Head - Make decisions that are best for the team