Now for some news you can really use...scientists have unlocked the secrets of rock-paper-scissors and victory can be yours. Their advice - start with scissors.

Years ago my husband drove a Toyota Tundra pick-up truck that was painted a rich blue with red tones in it. I believe the paint was called "Midnight Blue," and to my husband's color-blind eyes, it was navy blue. To everyone else, and especially in sunlight, it was purple. This drove him crazy and every car we have owned since then has been black. Don't-argue-with-me-about-the-color-of-the-car black.

Dr. Bertie Kingore is an educator, author, and recognized expert on giftedness. She published an interesting article that contrasted the High Achiever, the Gifted Learner, and the Creative Thinker (complete with an illustrative cartoon, not that I am jealous).


As a child of teachers, an alum of honors programs and a self-described type A, I could see myself in all three columns (and then again, not fitting the pattern exactly).

The insight for me came when they discussed motivation for learning. The gifted learner is drawn by curiousity and asks "What would I like to do?", while the high achiever asks "What do you want me to do to perform well in this class/assignment/project?" On the other end of the spectrum is the creative thinker who isn't motivated at all by what the teacher/professor/authority thinks.

Then you look at the signs for innovative thinking, invention, and creation and you see the following (unscientific) correlation.

So, this is could be the core of our "managing innovation" problem. The folks most likely to innovate in really new ways can't be motivated in traditional carrot-stick methods. Perhaps this is why we so much innovation in start-ups?

As an aside, I wonder how many "Creative Thinkers" are now diagnosed with Attention Deficit because they can't seem to concentrate, when in fact, they are concentrating so intently on creating something new that they can't stay in the present and keep pace.

Bert Decker has published his annual list of the best and worst communicators of 2007. The best, mostly because they have gained fame or recognition, almost exclusively because they could communicate better than others in the field, were Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee, Dr. Mehmet Oz (of You, the User Manual), and good ol' Al Gore (who now can claim to have invented the internet and global warming, but I digress). His top picks for worst communicator was Alberto Gonzales (former Attorney General whose credits include "several controversies" and "allegations of perjury"), Michael Vick (professional athlete, animal lover, and role model - ha!), and Robert Eckert (Mattel chairman caught in toy recall).

I catch a common theme here. I suspect all of the top communicators keep their body language in check, dress the part, and have pleasing tone and pace to their speech. They have credibility in their fields and avoid (at least publicly) reputation disparaging controversies and crimes. But most of all, they have something to say. Something they are passionate about (which is hard to fake in today's media-saturated, cynical world). The ones on the bottom list showed a total lack of empathy for their audience (their customers, fans, voters/taxpayers, employees, etc).

So, as you and I think about our communications for the coming year, perhaps it is better to focus on the things that are worth saying. Develop true convictions about the content of our speech and true empathy for the audiences and individuals to whom we speak, and let the rest take care of itself.

Maybe one of you will top the list next year!

I am back from my winter hibernation and ready to post! In some ways, blogging is an expression that is akin to singing. My voice is rested and I have some things to sing about.

I have enjoyed people's different posts and approaches to New Year's Resolutions for 2008.

• Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, wants you to set goals and enlist others (via his Facebook application, cleverly named "Goal Post") to keep you accountable.


• My friend, Lisa, is determined to focus on 9 or so concepts this year, short enough that she can capture each on a Post-It Note.


• Penelope Trunk, of Brazen Careerist fame, says pick just one goal (and really commit to it).


• Others, like the folks at Andy Wibbels' BlogWild, have suggested picking a theme, instead of a laundry list of resolutions (destined to be ignored come January 7th).


• Ali Edwards, a gifted visual artist and scrapbooker, suggested selecting a word for the year. Her's is "Vitality." Here is everyone else's who responded to her challenge. I, of course, love the custom product tie-in possibilities for a one word resolution!

For myself, I am following the general gist above and selecting fewer things to focus on, making sure they are specific and attainable, and asking for your help.

My resolutions this year are simple. The personal ones including celebrating my 15th wedding anniversary this Summer in some memorable way and some specific ones for my family. The business ones include the successful management of a huge project at work and launching a new offering from Creative Outlet Labs.

However, there are two goals that I'd like to accomplish this year with the help of this community.

1. I'd like to learn how to draw one-frame cartoons. As the cartoon above illustrates, I am a fan of Hugh MacLeod (warning: some of his cartoons are not family-friendly) and wish I had thought about drawing on the back of business cards first, as I think it is brilliant format. Not only that, but I can try out my new Christmas gift from my husband, a Wacom tablet. This year, I want to have some blog posts that are just cartoons that I have drawn.

You can help with this in a number of ways: encouraging my early attempts that I might post here with positive comments/trackbacks and sending me your cartoon ideas (I understand that is how Scott Adams has gotten most of his Dilbert material for years). I will never be a professional cartoonist, but I'd like to be able to find new ways to communicate insights on business, innovation, and life... and cartoon drawing is it.

2. I'd like to make 1 million people smile. I mean be personally responsible for enabling 1 million people to have a positive, encouraging moment in time. I have some specific ideas of how to accomplish this, so stay tuned for more specific requests in the coming weeks.

I hope you are already off to a pulse-racing, mind-blowing new year!

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
- Peter Drucker

If you don't believe that is true, read this article on The Onion and tell me if you don't find yourself sadly relating.

Related to my earlier post about selling statistics, here comes along a new tool that allows you to visualize that data in a new way (and make decisions with it).

The service is called Moody and it is in the category of iTunes enhancers. Using a color-coded tagging system, Moody filters songs according to your mood. You can select our own color indicators to futher personalize the experience.

It is free and you can donate to the developers, if you are in the mood.