BrightSight Group

2012-03-07T12:19:00.002-08:00

Design Thinking Workshop

2012-03-07T12:15:00.010-08:00

Stanford Professor Robert Sutton and Stanford Associate Consulting Professor Perry Klebahn often work together to lead workshops that combine Sutton’s knowledge of theory and research about innovation with Klebahn’s real-world experience and hands-on approach. Sutton and Klebahn started using this approach (along with other Stanford faculty) in a Stanford Executive Program on Customer-focused Innovation (CFI), and more recently, have applied this blend of academic and experiential learning in design thinking workshops. In doing so they have worked with groups including Arco gas stations, Tesla Motors, Del Monte Foods, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore, and the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi. Sutton and Klebahn’s workshops typically run three hours and highly interactive, resulting in lessons about key elements of innovation and design thinking including leadership, group dynamics, human resource management and, especially, the fundamentals of the design process and hands on learning about how to apply it to a host of business problems. In addition, they work with clients to develop and deliver workshops that are customized to the client’s needs and interests.

Turning Sound Ideas into Action

A variation of this workshop can also be delivered on a solo basis, with either speaker presenting a single, tangible message: That long-term performance depends on having some good ideas and then implementing them. Simple in its premise, yet slippery to practice, they'll explain why companies and managers can have good ideas and still not do it. Even better, Bob or Perry can offer concrete guidance on how to turn this knowledge into effective action. Learn to use the best evidence about real performance to make things happen, rather than the theories most widely believed and used.

Resources & Links

Keynote Profiles: Bob | Perry

d.school Profiles: Bob | Perry

"Bootcamp Bootleg" ^[PDF]: d.school Design Thinking introductory materials

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering and a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford. He is the author of several books, including the best-sellers The No Asshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss.

Perry Klebahn is a founding member of the the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford ("d.school"). He has served as head of sales & marketing for Patagonia, and CEO of Timbuk2.

Peter Diamandis

2012-03-06T12:20:00.003-08:00

Peter Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and launching large incentive prizes to drive radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. Best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight and the $10 million Progressive Automotive X PRIZE for 100 mile-per-gallon equivalent cars, the Foundation is now launching prizes in Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy and Education. Diamandis is also an international leader in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector. As co-Founder & Chairman of the Singularity University, a Silicon Valley based institution partnered with NASA, Google, Autodesk and Nokia, Diamandis counsels the world’s top enterprises on how to utilize exponential technologies and incentivized innovation to dramatically accelerate their business objectives. In his keynote presentations, Diamandis focuses on the importance of innovation and he looks to the future in explaining how exponentially advancing technologies will transform our companies, our industries, our governments and our lives over the next 5 to 10 years. Diamandis is the author of Abundance: The Future Is Better than You Think (Feb. 2012) which shows how exponential technologies, coupled with the DIY movement and the on-line connectivity of the “rising billion” will enable an age of global abundance providing water, energy, food, shelter, education and healthcare in unprecedented availability for humanity.

TOPICS

“Creating an Age of Abundance”

Diamandis has co-authored “Abundance” (Simon & Schuster, Feb’12) in which he lays out how we will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. An antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis.

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing—fast. The authors document how four forces—exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion—are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. Abundance establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

In his keynote address, Diamandis examining human need by category—water, food, energy, healthcare, education, communication and freedom—Diamandis addresses how a range of powerful technologies such as synthetic biology, embedded networks and cloud computer, AI and robotics, biotechnology and medicine are transforming what was once scarce into something abundant.

Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge — this is a Keynote about how we rise to meet it.

“Achieving Innovation & Breakthroughs”

Diamandis is a dynamic inspirational speaker who provides real value to his audience by showing them how to drive and incentivize breakthrough thinking within their company in order to achieve clear, measurable and objective results.

Based on the success of the Ansari X PRIZE (which stimulated the creation of billion-dollar private spaceflight industry) and the success of the $10M Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, Diamandis explains how to incentivize breakthroughs. Diamandis explains how traditional thinking, risk-aversion and incrementalism will cause the demise of companies unable to cope with the coming decades of disruptive innovation.

Through concrete examples and lessons, Diamandis addresses two options:

Internal: How to create a culture of innovation within your company;
External:How to incentivize the outside world to help you solve your biggest problems;

Diamandis explains how the rapid growth of key exponential technologies (Nano, Info, Bio) are empowering individuals and small companies to do what only governments were able to achieve only a few decades ago. Such technologies will drive a period of significant disruption and/or opportunity depending on the company’s mind-set. Diamandis’ ultimate message is that companies cannot remain stagnant. They must evolve or they will die.

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

Providing abundance is humanity's grandest challenge--this is a book about how we rise to meet it. We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. An antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler.

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing--fast. The authors document how four forces--exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion--are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. Abundance establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism... MORE →

Shlomo Breznitz

2012-01-01T12:54:00.006-08:00

TAGS: Personal Improvement, Psychology, Science

Shlomo Breznitz's research focuses on coping with stress, with particular emphasis on issues of denial and hope. He became an internationally known scholar in these areas and was invited to spend significant time at such leading institutions as: UC Berkeley, Stanford, National Institutes of Health, and Rockefeller University.

He published seven books, including an autobiography, "Memory Fields" dealing with his childhood during the Holocaust. The other books, as well as numerous scientific articles deal with issues of stress and cognition.

In 1999, just before retiring, he established CogniFit, a company dedicated to developing scientifically validated computer software for enhancing cognition. The company won numerous awards, including one by the American Society for Aging.

His most recent book, "Maximum Brainpower: Challenging the Brain for Health and Wisdom" is out June 2012.

OFFICIAL BIO^[PDF]

TOPICS

How to protect our brains from cognitive decline

Modern brain research provides clues to the individual differences in cognitive aging. Why do some people experience major problems with attention and memory, while others remain sharp and effective? What can be done, even later in life, in order to enhance our brain health? The presentation will emphasize the scientific evidence for the advantages of challenging our brains, as well as practical suggestions as to how to go about it.

Need for change and fear of change

The human brain has an incredible capacity for learning from experience. This leads to the development of automatic routines that preclude the need for thinking. While fast and effective, these routines reduce out cognitive agility. Research suggests that in order to stay sharp, our brains need constant stimulation and novelty. However, the advantages of change are often outweighed by our fear of it. The presentation will describe the scientific evidence about the impact of change, as well as practical suggestions about how best to navigate this dilemma.

"Use it or lose it": the evidence

There is now a growing body of research on the effects of challenging the brain on brain health. Recently, several fascinating mechanism have been discovered that indicate the advantages of active mental life. The presentation will describe the various mechanisms, including neural growth, as well as their implications for cognitive health.

Maximum Brainpower: Challenging the Brain for Health and Wisdom

We all understand the importance of daily exercise in keeping physically fit. But mental exercise is just as essential to our health and well-being--especially when it comes to defending against forgetfulness, memory loss, and even dementia. These and other age-associated afflictions were once regarded as all but inevitable, but in fact, as this eye-opening, inspiring book shows, there is much we can do to protect ourselves as we grow older. With the right tools, we can all maximize our brainpower and keep our minds sharp, healthy, and cognitively fit throughout life... MORE →

LINKS

Interview: Play with Your Mind

Wikipedia profile

Ira Byock

2012-01-01T12:41:00.000-08:00

TAGS: Healthcare

Ira Byock, MD is Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire and a Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

He has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978, during his residency. At that time he helped found a hospice home care program for the indigent population served by the university hospital and county clinics of Fresno, California. He is a Past President (1997) of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. During the 1990s he was a co-founder and principal investigator for the Missoula Demonstration Project, a community-based organization in Montana dedicated to the research and transformation of end-of-life experience locally, as a demonstration of what is possible nationally. From 1996 through 2006, he served as Director for Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Byock has authored numerous articles on the ethics and practice of hospice, palliative and end-of-life care. His first book, Dying Well, (1997) has become a standard in the field. The Four Things That Matter Most, (2004) is used as a counseling tool widely by palliative care and hospice programs, as well as within pastoral care. His most recent book, The Best Care Possible (March 2012) tackles the crisis that surrounds serious illness and dying in America and his quest to transform care through the end of life.

OFFICIAL BIO^[PDF]

TOPICS

The Best Care Possible

A large majority of Americans still die in hospitals or nursing homes. Many suffer poorly controlled pain or other physical miseries and endure their final days feeling undignified and a burden to others. Few of us can even imagine how things might be different. Therein lies the crux of the problem. Our society and mainstream American culture have never grappled with the fundamental fact of mortality; therefore, we do not know what to expect or what is possible.

Dying Well

In our hearts, we all realize that we are not going to live forever. There are people we love whom we bury. We have a choice as to how to deal with this. We can pretend that it can never happen and hope to be hit by a bus, or we can follow Byock's lead and consider the end of life as potentially full of growth and enlightenment as any other time.

The Four Things That Matter Most

The Four Things are everyday guides for doing the right thing, for reconciling the rifts that divide people, and for cutting through old history—because you just never know.

Powerful real-life stories culled from Dr. Byock’s and other counselors’ patients who used the Four Things in all sorts of life situations show the possibility of interpersonal healing and wholeness, even in the wake of tragedy or the face of death. From a granddaughter’s last days with her ailing grandmother to a teenage girl’s first hour with her estranged father, these stories are “Every Day with Morrie”, enabling readers to imagine how they can use the Four Things in their own lives.

The Best Care Possible: A Physician's Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life

A palliative care doctor on the front lines of hospital care illuminates one of the most important and controversial ethical issues of our time on his quest to transform care through the end of life. It is harder to die in this country than ever before. Statistics show that the vast majority of Americans would prefer to die at home, yet many of us spend our last days fearful and in pain in a healthcare system ruled by high-tech procedures and a philosophy to "fight disease and illness at all cost." Dr. Ira Byock, one of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country, argues that end-of-life care is among the biggest national crises facing us today. In addressing the crisis, politics has trumped reason. Dr. Byock explains that to ensure the best possible care for those we love-and eventually ourselves- we must not only remake our healthcare system, we must also move past our cultural aversion to talking about death and acknowledge the fact of mortality once and for all... MORE →

LINKS

Video: Big Think

Book excerpt: The Atlantic

@IraByock: Follow Ira on Twitter

Liza Mundy

2012-01-01T09:06:00.000-08:00

TAGS: Marketing, Social Commentary, Colleges and Universites, Human Resources

Liza Mundy is an award-winning reporter and New York Times best-selling author of three books, including Michelle, a biography of First Lady Michelle Obama, which was translated into 16 languages. Her new book, The Richer Sex, explores the forces behind women’s rising economic power and the way this impacts marriage, dating, sex and family life. Her book was adapted for the cover of Time magazine and inspired a flurry of media coverage. She has appeared on The Colbert Report, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span, Fox News, Democracy Now, Bloggingheads TV, the Leonard Lopate Show, and National Public Radio shows including Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, the Diane Rehm Show, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, On Point, and numerous other television and radio shows. A longtime reporter for the Washington Post, she is currently a fellow at the New America Foundation, she has written for Slate, Time, the Guardian, the Washington Monthly, Huffington Post, and Lingua Franca, among others, and has received fellowships from the Japan Society, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

OFFICIAL BIO^[PDF]

TOPICS

The Richer Sex

Women are on their way to becoming breadwinners in a majority of American families. Almost 40 percent of working wives out-earn their partners, a number that has been rising for more than two decades. The reasons are myriad: our changing economy favors educated workers, and nearly 60 percent of college students are female. Women take the majority of masters and doctorates. In the workplace, discriminatory barriers are falling. So how will women’s economic power affect their personal lives? How will it impact men? In a provocative talk that draws on statistics, social research and compelling personal stories, Liza Mundy argues that, while there will be growing pains for both men and women, in the end women’s rising economic power bodes well for both sexes, offering a range of new possibilities and more flexible roles. She explores the impact on dating, marriage, sex, children, and family life, with fascinating anecdotes gleaned from interviews around the country, as well as Europe and Asia. She asks provocative questions about how it will all play out: at what point will a majority of working wives out-earn husbands? Will men catch up? Will women back down? Who will feel most unsettled; who will feel most rewarded? Will young women be willing to assume the lifelong role of primary earner? She argues that for women, having supportive partners and stay-at-home husbands may be what it takes to break through the glass ceiling and inhabit the highest reaches of corporate life.

Women’s Spending Power

Women—who as recently as the 19th century were forbidden to own property in marriage, and did not have the right to their own wages—are now an economic force to be reckoned with. A growing number of wives out-earn their husbands, and in most American cities, single, childless women under 30 out-earn their male peers. Young women have higher ambitions and greater expectations of earnings than young men do. The effects are evident everywhere in the consumer marketplace. Look around the next time you go out to a restaurant, and notice how many patrons are women, socializing and spending together, clinking glasses and ordering the filet mignon. The marketplace is responding: financial planners are offering investment courses tailored to women. Retailers are changing the way they market products, offering more information for women shoppers, who like to research before they buy. Developers are designing luxury urban condo dwellings, recognizing that single women now rival married couples as a home-buying market. In this talk, Liza Mundy shows how the consumer marketplace is responding to women’s earning power, and to men’s increasing domestic inclinations. As women are spending less time in the kitchen, men are spending much more. Kitchens are becoming masculinized, filling up with fancy tools like immersion blenders, Japanese sushi knives, even blowtorches. As one celebrity chef put it, “The kitchen is the new garage.” Men, though, may have to ask permission to make these discretionary purchases: studies show that when women are breadwinners, they are more likely to retain control over purchases and investments.

Young Women: A Host of New Choices

Today’s young women are in an unprecedented situation: They are better-educated than the men in their age group. Women now take almost 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees and a majority of master’s and doctorates, which means—among other things—that educated women face a smaller “marriage pool” of similarly educated men. Women are acutely aware of this: in college dorms and over drinks, women discuss whether they would date, or marry, a man who did not go to college. At the same time, a growing body of research shows that men are increasingly on board with women’s education and earning power: men are attracted to women with good earning prospects, and increasingly willing to invest in a partner’s earning potential and make compromises for the sake of a woman’s career. How will young women respond to these unprecedented opportunities? Drawing on extensive interviews, Liza Mundy probes the hopes and anxieties of young men and women—and their coping strategies. Some women will marry “down,” to a man with less education: some women will travel far and wide, hopping on planes to expand their mating pool in search of a man “on their level"; some will benefit from husbands willing to work to put them through graduate school, just as wives used to do for husbands. As a result, this generation of women has an unprecedented opportunity to break through the glass ceiling, with all the accompanying risks and rewards.

Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family

Within a generation, more households will be supported by women than by men. Here, Mundy shows why all the data points in this direction, and how this reality will transform the sexual, dating, marriage, and domestic habits of men and women... MORE →

LINKS

Liza's website: LizaMundy.com

Time Magazine cover story

@lizamundy: Follow Liza on Twitter

Michael Moran

2012-01-01T07:05:00.038-08:00

TAGS: Economics, Politics, World Affair

Over the past 25 years, Michael Moran has reported and analyzed major events for some of the world’s leading intellectual and newsgathering institutions, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the BBC, MSNBC.com and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Today, Moran serves as editor-in-chief of Renaissance Insights, a thought leadership initiative of the investment bank Renaissance Capital and authors The Reckoning blog on Slate magazine, as well as a foreign affairs column on globalpost.com.

His book, The Reckoning: Debt, Democracy, and the Future of American Power, is out now.

OFFICIAL BIO^[PDF]

The Reckoning: Debt, Democracy, and the Future of American Power

The age of American global dominance is ending. In recent years, risky economic and foreign policies have steadily eroded the power structure in place since the Cold War. And now, staggering under a huge burden of debt, the country must make some tough choices - or watch its creditors walk away. In "The Price of Decline," Michael Moran, a leading geostrategy analyst at Roubini Global Economics, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other leading institutions, explores how a variety of forces are converging to challenge U.S. leadership - including unprecedented information technologies, the growing prosperity of countries like China, India, Brazil, and Turkey, and the diminished importance of Wall Street in the face of global markets... MORE →

LINKS

The Reckoning: Slate blog

Global Post columns

@TheUnraveler: Follow Michael on Twitter

2011-01-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

Health & Fitness

2011-01-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

Personal Improvement

2011-01-02T09:04:00.002-08:00

Social Commentary

2011-01-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

Technology

2011-01-02T08:17:00.004-08:00

Sustainability

2011-01-02T08:17:00.003-08:00

World Affairs

2011-01-02T08:17:00.002-08:00

Trends

2011-01-02T08:17:00.001-08:00

Psychology

2011-01-02T08:16:00.005-08:00

Strategy

2011-01-02T08:16:00.004-08:00

Social Media

2011-01-02T08:16:00.002-08:00

Religion

2011-01-02T08:16:00.001-08:00

Science

2011-01-02T08:15:00.004-08:00

Politics

2011-01-02T08:15:00.002-08:00

Motivation

2011-01-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

Marketing

2011-01-02T08:14:00.006-08:00

Leadership

2011-01-02T08:14:00.005-08:00

BrightSight Group

Design Thinking Workshop

Peter Diamandis

Shlomo Breznitz

Ira Byock

Liza Mundy

Michael Moran

More Stories:

Health & Fitness

Personal Improvement

Social Commentary

Technology

Sustainability

World Affairs

Trends

Psychology

Strategy

Social Media

Religion

Science

Politics

Motivation

Marketing

Leadership