April 19, 2024
TEAM LEADERS: Communicate Your Responsibilities to Your Team!

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If you are a Team Leader, one of the first things you will need to do is let your team know the full scope of your roles and responsibilities.

You may think they know, but it's very likely that they don't -- at least not at the level of specificity that a high performing team requires.

And if team members don't understand what you actually DO -- and WHY you do it -- chances are good that they will resist, rebel, or reject your efforts to play your role.

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1. HOW TO PROCEED: As soon as possible, meet with your team and explain the scope of your role. If you happen to be a new team leader (and your team is doubtful of your skills, leadership ability, or authority),let them know, who, specifically, in your organization, has empowered you to BE the Team Leader and that you take your responsibility very seriously.

Be sure to mention that one of your main roles is to be a helpful resource for team members -- to be there for them to help ensure that they enjoy their job, learn, grow, collaborate, and accomplish their ambitious performance goals for the year.

NOTE: Some members of your team probably perceive you as the person who is going to judge, evaluate, correct, criticize, intimidate, and hassle them. Paranoia alert! This is old school thinking. Or more like pre-school thinking.

A savvy team leader will quickly dispel this bogus notion. The faster you can let your team know that the essence of your role is be of of major support to them, the better.

2. BE SPECIFIC ABOUT YOUR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: The term "Team Leader" will mean different things to different people. Unless you explain precisely what your role is (and what it's not), you will be at the mercy of your team members' wide range of concepts, assumptions, and projections.

The best way to minimize this kind of background noise is to clearly and confidently describe, one by one, your Team Leader roles and responsibilities.

Towards that end, take a look at the list of your possible roles and responsibilities below. Note the ones that accurately describe your job and add whatever items may be missing.

-- Help your team articulate and fulfill its mission statement
-- Listen non-judgmentally
-- Share your expectations for the year
-- Establish and uphold standards of excellence
-- Facilitate the process of establishing team agreements

-- Work with team members to set performance goals
-- Observe and evaluate performance on-the-job
-- Give useful, humane, and timely feedback
-- Coach and mentor
-- Clarify team members' roles and responsibilities

-- Hold people accountable for results
-- Identify, clarify, and communicate team processes
-- Facilitate team meetings
-- Secure resources for the team
-- Ensure that team members create their Learning Plans for the year

-- Promote the teams' successes to Senior Leadership
-- Establish a simple, inspiring ideation process
-- Conduct performance reviews
-- Acknowledge individual and team progress
-- Address team challenges, conflicts, and breakdowns
-- Do everything possible to ensure the team's well-being

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Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2023
The Awesome Power of Immersion

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"If I had an hour to solve a problem," explained Albert Einstein, "I'd spend the first 55 minutes thinking about the problem, and the last five solving it."

Translation? One of the secrets to having a big breakthrough is immersion -- "the state of being deeply engaged, involved, or absorbed."

Immersion is the ocean in which our fabulous insights, ideas, and illuminations are swimming. That's why Yogis seek out caves, embryos gestate, and writers go on retreat.

And that's why my business partner, Steven McHugh, and I rented a townhouse in Boulder, Colorado for 30 days and 30 nights when it was time for us to start up Idea Champions. We knew we had a great idea for a business, but we also knew that ideas were a dime a dozen and that unless we really immersed we'd end up with nothing much more than a charming story to tell at cocktail parties -- the idea for a business, but not the business itself.

Armed with little more than a flip chart, a few marking pens, and a burning desire to create something new, we unplugged from all our other commitments and jumped in with both feet.

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We talked. We walked. We walked our talk. We noodled. We conjured. We brainstormed, blue-skied, dialogued, role played, invented, read, sang, stretched, drank coffee, wine, the crisp Colorado air, and whatever else it took to free ourselves from the gravity of what we already knew. If this was Rocky 1, our townhouse was the Gym, Adrienne nowhere in sight.

And every night before we went to bed, blissed out of our trees, we'd remind each other to remember our dreams and speak them aloud the first thing in the morning.

CLUES. We were looking for clues, hints, perfumed handkerchiefs dropped by our muse while we slept and anything else that bubbled to the surface of the imaginal stew we found ourselves now swimming in.

Crackpots? No. More like crockpots, simmering in our own creative juices, unimpaired by the almost infinite amount of distractions we had grown accustomed to calling our life.

Immersed. We were completely immersed -- two eggs submerged in the boiling water of creation, heat turned up, lid on, timer off.

Our walls? The walls of our abode? Covered with paper, sketches, scribbles, post-its, quotes, pictures, lists, charts, diagrams, questions, and take out menus -- the barely decipherable hieroglyphics of our journey into who knows where.

The floors? Our mothers would have had a heart attack, littered as they were with anything we didn't have a place for. Rube Goldberg meets Fellini. Yin meets Yang meets Jung -- the flora and fauna of two aspiring entrepreneurs on fire with possibility.

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But our immersion went far beyond the four walls of our abode. It was a state of mind, not a geographical location. It didn't really matter where we were. Walking by the creek or sitting in a bar was all the same to us, ruled as we were by our shared fascination, random silken threads of conversation with complete strangers, and the increasingly apparent sense that we were on to something big.

And then, on the morning of the 19th day, very much at ease in our townhouse abode, there was a knock on the door -- a loud and insistent knock, a knock both of us found rather odd since nobody knew where we lived -- or so we thought.

"It's open," Steven shouted from across the room. "Go ahead and let yourself in."

And there, at the threshold, stood a woman neither of us knew, a woman boldly announcing that, for the past three days, she'd been hearing about "these two creativity guys" and she just had to meet us, her business now on the cusp of either breaking through or breaking down.

I don't remember a single thing of we said, but whatever it was hit the nail on the head.

The next day, there was another knock on the door. Apparently, someone else had heard about our whereabouts. This guy had a business, too, or was trying to have a business. He spoke. We listened. He spoke some more. We listened some more, occasionally asking a question or two and sharing some insight. He too, got what he needed.

On the third day, Jesus did not rise from the grave, but, yes, there was another knock on the door -- just enough proof to the logical part of our minds that the previous two visits were not random events, but part of some kind of emerging pattern -- what fans of Rupert Sheldrake might refer to as manifestations of the morphogenetic field, or what less metaphysical folks might describe as our very own "field of dreams."

Steven and I had done nothing at all to draw these people to us -- no ads in the paper, no posters on poles, no calls, no emails, no flyers, no social marketing campaigns. The only thing we'd done was immerse -- dig deeply into our own highly charged process of creating something new.

But this "nothing at all" wasn't nothing at all. It was something -- something grand and glorious. Something extraordinarily attractive.

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Is a mother hen sitting on her egg doing nothing at all? Is she slacking? Is her seeming disappearance from the poultry marketplace a sign of irresponsibility?

To the casual observer, maybe that's what it looks like, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sitting is exactly what the mother hen needs to do in order to bring new life into the world. Stillness, not action, is her path.

Did Steven and I accomplish what we set out to do during our 30 days of immersion? Yes, we did. In spades. Beyond the inspiration, collaboration, and good feelings we experienced, we emerged with the design of our first product -- a creative thinking training we ended up licensing to AT&T just two years later for a truck load of money.

Was our immersion time all fun and games? No way. Chaos and confusion were our housemates, but the rent they paid sparked a ton of learning, creativity, discovery, and a new found willingness to make friends with the unknown -- what Henry Miller was referring to when he defined confusion as "simply a word we've invented for an order that is not yet understood."

In today's business world, immersion is a very rare commodity. ADD rules the day. Time is sliced and diced. We don't have time. Time has us. We tweet, we delete, we tap our feet, but all too often nothing much beyond the status quo ever really happens. Downtime has become an anathema -- the province of "B list" players. Busy-ness and business have become synonymous.

The assumption? The more we do and the faster we do it, the more success we'll have. Boil an egg? Ha! We microwave it -- even if it tastes like shit. Dive in? No way. We hydroplane.

But it doesn't have to be that way. It really doesn't.

Slowing down and going deep trumps speeding up and going crazy. Immersion trumps diversion. It's possible. Yes, it is. I have proof. And so do YOU, if only you would pause long enough to remember those extraordinary times when you unplugged, tuned in, and dove into your own process of creating something new and wonderful.

A QUESTION FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:

What can you do, this week, month, or quarter, to unplug from the daily grind and give yourself the luxury of immersion? Where will you go? When? And who will you invite to accompany you, if anyone?

Excerpted from my forthcoming book: WISDOM AT WORK: How Moments of Truth on the Job Reveal the Real Business of Life.

Excerpted from Storytelling at Work
MitchDitkoff.com
IdeaChampions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

July 04, 2021
Six Rules to Simplify Business

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June 20, 2018
How to Spark Innovation in Your Company in 10 Minutes Per Week

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Do you work in an organization that is trying to raise the bar for innovation, teamwork, storytelling, and leadership, but doesn't have the budget to pay for trainings, keynotes, and workshops? Here's an alternative -- Idea Champions' Micro-Learning for Innovators service. It all happens online. At your own pace.

The price? YOU decide on the value of our service and make us an offer. 95% of the time we go with what our prospective clients suggest. 5% of the time we decline. Interested? mitch@ideachampions.com

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2018
MICRO-LEARNING for Innovators (in just 15 minutes per week)

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Innovation is a huge topic in organizations these days. Every company is looking for new and better ways to do more with less, differentiate themselves from the competition, and unlock the hidden genius of their workforce.

At the same time, many organizations are budget-constrained. Flying in an outside consultant to lead a workshop or training can sometimes be cost prohibitive. This I understand.

Which is precisely why my company, Idea Champions, is now offering Micro-Learning for Innovators, a cost-effective way to stir the innovation soup -- a virtual, self-organizing, just-in-time way to increase everyone's ability to be a proactive innovator on-the-job. And it only takes 15 minutes per week.

TOPICS INCLUDE: Mindset, Culture of Innovation, Creative Thinking, Idea Generation, Brainstorm Facilitation, Storytelling, Leadership, Teamwork/Collaboration, Listening/Feedback, Problem Solving

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HOW IT WORKS:

1. You and I have a 20-minute phone conversation about WHY you want to raise the bar for innovation and creativity in your organization.

2. Based on your needs, I create a year-long, customized Micro-Learning for Innovators curriculum for you -- a landing page of links to 52 engaging articles and videos of mine on the topic (curated from more than 1,200 I have produced).

3. Each week (or month), for the next year, you forward selected links to your team (or whatever part of your workforce is participating in the program.)

4. Participants read/view the link(s) in preparation for their meeting (real-time or virtual) that you or one of your surrogates facilitates. All you need to reserve on your agenda is 10 minutes for the innovation topic. NOTE: This is micro-learning, not head-banging.

5. You (or your designated meeting moderator) facilitates the innovation-topic-of-the week conversation. This deepens learning, quickens the sharing of best practices, sparks creative thinking, ensures accountability, and establishes a robust, intrinsically motivated learning community.

OPTION #1: I send you a simple "Moderator's Guide" that helps ensure your weekly innovation-sparking conversations are as effective as possible.

OPTION #2: I participate on your launch call to help you set the context, inspire participation, and answer any questions your people might have about the value, purpose, and process of the program.

OPTION #3: At TBD intervals, throughout the year, you invite me to facilitate one of your online meetings/trainings.

FEE: Name your own price for an annual license. (In other words, you quantify the value of my service to your organization and make me an offer. If it's "in the zone," I will say YES. If your offer is below what I consider fair, we will talk and see if we can come to an agreement.

WHO CREATED THE PROGRAM? Mitch Ditkoff, Co-Founder of Idea Champions, Author of the two award-winning winning books on innovation and storytelling. Creator of a wide variety of storytelling workshops and keynotes. Innovation Blogger of the Year, two years running. Master storyteller. His clients.

Interested? email Mitch today: mitch@ideachampions.com

Our clients
What they say
Our workshops and trainings
One of our micro-learning partners

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2017
Launching a Powerful Project in the World is a Team Sport

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For the moment, let's say you are on the cusp of launching a bold new project in the world -- one that not only inspires you, but is the first thing you talk about whenever people ask you what you're up to these days. You know: Your life's work. Your calling. What moves you.

Congratulations! I am super happy for you, especially since all of us need meaningful projects we can throw our whole selves into. Well done! Awesome! Rock on!

That being said, there is one thing I urge you to keep in mind as your project unfolds. Innovation is a team sport.

While the origination of a powerful new idea or initiative is often an individual experience, implementing that idea requires a truckload of collaboration. Maybe two truckloads. Or three. And that, unfortunately, is where a lot of wonderful, new projects break down -- especially projects that require committed, responsible volunteers.

The reasons are many, but they fundamentally boil down to this:

1) Lack of a clear vision by the idea originator: 2) Inability to communicate that vision to others; 3) Lack of a clear strategy/game plan; 4) Relationship/control issues; 5) Lack of a clear decision-making process; 6) Unclear roles and responsibilities; 7) Funky communication (including poorly facilitated meetings).

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Knowing you have precious little time to read my rant, I am going to cut to the chase and list ten key "best practices" for you to consider employing as you move forward with your beautiful, inspired, much-needed project. Ready?

1. Get super clear about your vision and be able to communicate it in 60 seconds or less.

2. Attract a core team of trusted collaborators to you -- your so-called "inner circle" who you can jam with, vent to, and get honest feedback from.

3. Do a deep dive with your core team, so you get everything on the table, i.e. WHY each person wants to participate, what skills they bring to the project, your expectations -- and theirs -- of their participation, the specific roles you are inviting people to take on, and what your team's operating agreements will be.

4. Allow your original BIG IDEA to morph, via the input of your core team and other people who will be attracted to your project. HINT: Even though YOU started it, everyone involved needs to treat it like their own. If not, they will end up feeling disengaged or disempowered.

5. Get early feedback on your idea from a diverse group of people. It is easy to get so intoxicated with our ideas that we become blind to their flaws.

6. In collaboration your core team, conjure up a Version 1.0 of a game plan -- a not-yet-cut-in-stone strategy for moving forward. This will inform your need for volunteers, funding, and resources. It will also lower your stress.

7. Define the roles and responsibilities that need to be filled by still-to-be enrolled volunteers. And, when you invite people to participate, make sure you give them a written description of the roles you are asking them to play.

8. Find ways to keep everyone, on the team, updated, informed, and acknowledged for all the efforts they are making.

9. Clear the air quickly, whenever there is a breakdown with anyone on the team.

10. Make sure your meetings are well-designed and facilitated. Always begin with some "personal check in" time and some soulful conversation about WHY this project has the potential to make a huge difference.

Launching Project Teams
Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2017
Unresolved Conflict at the Top Produces Chaos in the Middle and the Bottom

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A guest post by Idea Champions' newest leadership development consultant, Dr. Barry Gruenberg.

When those in senior leadership positions avoid conflict among themselves, the unresolved conflict ripples throughout the organization and paralyzes action at every level. Key issues go unresolved and the tension at the top pervades the organization. Followers of each of the powerful protagonists must constantly demonstrate their loyalty to their sponsors in their words and deeds; they must scrutinize all that they do to ensure that they are not seen as violating the party line.

Lower level employees are often enlisted to participate in task forces or committees to deal with the various by-products of the unresolved issues.

These efforts are virtually guaranteed to fail since any recommendations for resolution will compromise at least one of the contending senior managers who will usually use their power to veto the idea, leaving the task force frustrated and progress hindered.

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This is ironic because the members of the task force will have attempted to remain loyal to their constituency throughout the proceedings and will usually feel that they have salvaged the most important interests of their group in the negotiation process. But the senior managers, who have delegated their conflict, will generally take an all or nothing posture on the outcome.

The only true resolution to this phenomenon requires the direct participation of the protagonists -- their committed effort to resolve their differences before the symptoms of their misalignment irrevocably muddies the organizational waters.

Idea Champions
Becoming an Adaptive Leader
Listening With Impact

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2016
Why Your Organization Needs to Create a Culture of Storytelling

Why create a culture of storytelling?
Storytelling videos, interviews and articles
Sparking innovation via storytelling
Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2016
BETTER THAN THERAPY: What Stressed Business Partners Can Learn From the Police Reunion Tour

Making great music together isn't always easy, no matter how famous your band is. Nor is it easy being business partners, collaborators, teammates, or "significant others". If you want to make some serious music together, "creative dissonance" is inevitable. Count on it. The question isn't whether or not band mates or business partners will experience breakdowns. They will. The question is how committed are they to breaking through and coming out the other side.



Idea Champions

Bridging the Gulf
Becoming an Adaptive Leader
Our clients, past and present

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2016
Here Is the Graphic Design Help You Have Been Looking For

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See that good looking guy to your left? That is Jesse Ditkoff, my soon-to-graduate-Hampshire-College son -- a Digital Media major who will soon be launching his free lance design career.

His services? Graphic design in the following arenas: websites, brochures, posters, ads, logos, business cards, and photoshop.

This brilliant young man is creative, honest, kind, flexible, funny, persevering, easy to work with, and honors his commitments. Here's his website.

And this is the website he created for my company. (NOTE: I've gotten a bunch of new business because of it).

Contact Jesse here

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2016
How Storytelling Shapes Culture and Humanizes the Workplace

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More goes on in the modern-day workplace than meets the eye. Indeed, it's often the stuff that meets the ear that makes all the difference. Click here to listen to Mitch Ditkoff's 60-minute VoiceAmerica interview on the power of personal storytelling in the workplace.

THE BOOK: Storytelling at Work
THE KEYNOTE: Storytelling at Work
THE BLOG: Storytelling at Work

Photo by Jesse Ditkoff

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:50 AM | Comments (2)

January 24, 2015
Radio Woodstock in the House!

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We just received this very nice piece of feedback from the President of Radio Woodstock, Gary Chetkof.

"Idea Champions was a true partner in helping us untangle some of the issues we were struggling with. They were very easy to work with and the processes used were fun and creative and they worked splendidly. We were able to find out what the major obstacles were and our entire team worked together to find solutions. Everyone participated fully, and everyone now has much more clarity about how to better work together. We even have our new mission statement that you can see on our Facebook page! I wholeheartedly recommend Idea Champions to any business that wants to problem solve, brainstorm, or get their employees to work more harmoniously together."

Our teambuilding offerings
Yes, Idea Champions is based in Woodstock!

And this just in from Richard Fusco, Radio Woodstock's General Manager:

"As a small company where everyone wears many hats, being organized and all pulling in the same direction is key. Strangely, as a communications company, our internal communications were off. Val Vadeboncoeur of Idea Champions helped us with all three. His sessions were focused and fun. We all came away with a new unified working spirit."

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2014
Win a Subscription to Free the Genie

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In an effort to ho, ho, ho the ground for innovation in 2015 (and in gratitude for YOU being a reader of Heart of Innovation), Idea Champions will be giving away five annual subscriptions to our Free the Genie creative thinking app. If you want to enter the raffle, simply send an email to info@ideachampions.com by 12/26 and include one New Year's resolution you are making for the coming year. If your name is selected, we'll send you the link to your free subscription on 12/31. Go for it! And happy holidays to you!

FreeTheGenie.com
Five ways to use Free the Genie
The non-virtual version

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2014
THE SEED OF INNOVATION MOMENT: A 3-Minute Video Tutorial

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If you are trying to spark a renaissance of innovation in your company by launching some kind of "innovation initiative", consider the fact that the seed of innovation is already available in every conversation that people are having. This 3-minute video tutorial dives in deeper.

The Seed of Innovation keynote
Create change agents
A more structured way to do this

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2014
Is Peace the Innovation We Need the Most?

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"Innovation" continues to be a hot topic in corporate circles these days -- a "competitive edge" organizations are increasingly attempting to hone so they can not only differentiate themselves from the competition, but survive in today's topsy turvy economy.

That being said, there are some forward thinking organizations out there who are going beyond the status quo and seriously asking themselves what they can do differently to not only be "socially responsible", but use their corporate clout to help various peace-themed global causes truly impact positive change.

If that describes your organization, please contact us. Idea Champions, in 2015, will be launching a new innovation-sparking service to help corporations, world wide, figure out HOW they can leverage their resources, bandwidth, and brainpower to foster peace and well-being in the world -- and still make a profit.

International Day of Peace in the Huffington Post
Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2014
Unleashing Business Brilliance

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That's what we do. And below are five ways we do it.

Conducting Genius

Engaging Innovation
Ingenious Leadership
What's the Problem?
Team Innovation
What our clients say

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2014
That Big Beautiful Idea of Yours

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What big, beautiful idea of yours needs just the right touch of collaboration, support, and immersion to see the light of day? Your next step? And when will you take it?

One way to get rolling
Brainstorm facilitation training
Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2014
How to Open the Door to Innovation

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There is no magic pill, but there is a key. And the key has a lot to do with creating a critical mass of savvy innovation catalysts and change agents who know how to open doors (and minds).

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2013
Infusing Your Workplace with Humanity

62% of all Americans are dissatisfied with their work. 85% of the general public don't trust business leaders to tell the truth when confronted with difficult issues. If YOUR organization wants to explore practical ways of raising the quality of the workplace experience and engaging employees in ways that are humane and sustainable, here's your starter kit. You may also be interested in our Humanizing the Workplace keynotes, town meetings, and workshops.

What our clients say about us

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2013
Looking for a Savvy Website Designer?

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If you are looking for a web savvy graphic designer you can trust to create your new website, I recommend Aliza Corrado, Founder of Studio Motif. Aliza is creative, dedicated, collaborative, honest, and delivers exactly what she promises -- and all for a fair price.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2013
The Humanize the Workplace Poll

If you work for an organization that needs to become a more benevolent and humane workplace, I invite you to respond to Idea Champions' new Humanizing the Workplace poll.

Not only will it jump start your thinking about simple changes that can be made on the job, it will also provide us with the vital input we need to really tune into the issues.

You'll need about five minutes.

We'll be posting the results of the poll here in a few weeks, but if you'd like us to email the results to you directly, just note your email address in the comments box or send a message to info@ideachampions.com

You can read more about this topic in my latest Huffington Post article.

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2013
How to Humanize the Workplace

A recent poll has revealed that 62% of Americans are dissatisified with their work.

While there are a lot of contributing factors, one BIG factor is that most workplace environments are not wired to bring out the best in people. Quite the contrary.

That's what my newly published article in the Huffington Post is all about.

It doesn't just name the problem, however. It also provides a simple "starter kit" for how each and everyone of us can begin to humanize our workplace environments.

Click here to weigh in on the topic by responding to my Humanizing the Workplace poll. If you want to register for my April 4th Telesummit on this topic, click here. It's free.

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2013
Collaborate to Innovate!

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During the past 25 years of consulting with some of the most forward thinking organizations in the world, I've noticed a curious trend. My clients' efforts to innovate, no matter how sincere or well-funded, usually undervalue one of the key drivers of innovation -- and that is the ability of their workforce to successfully collaborate with each other.

In their singular rush to accomplish the extraordinary, they have forgotten that innovation is a team sport.

While the ideas that spark innovation may originate in the fertile imagination of a few creative thinkers, the act of translating those ideas into products, services, and breakthrough ways of doing business requires a set of interpersonal skills that has become all too rare in today's corporate environment.

The reasons for this can be distilled down to an outdated mindset that continues to subvert even the best designed "innovation process" -- a mindset that promotes competition over collaboration.

One need look no further than the average corporate landscape for proof: silos, turf wars, and territoriality rule the day.

Time and again, aspiring innovators, project teams, change agents, and internal sponsors run into time-wasting roadblocks that can be traced to the same root cause -- the inability of a diverse group of people, working for the same company, to navigate the highly charged process of working together instead of against each other.

Sound familiar? What can you do, this week, to radically increase the odds of your team or department becoming more collaborative?

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:10 PM | Comments (2)

Who Are We?

Idea Champions is a consulting and training company dedicated to awakening and nurturing the spirit of innovation. We help individuals, teams and entire organizations tap into their innate ability to create, develop and implement ideas that make a difference.

MitchDitkoff.com
Click here for the simplest, most direct way, to learn more about Idea Champions' semi-fearless leader, Mitch Ditkoff. Info on his keynotes, workshops, conferences, and more.
Storytelling for the Revolution
Storytelling for the Revolution is Mitch Ditkoff's newly published book about the power of personal storytelling to elevate the conversation on planet Earth. Provocative. Evocative. And fun. YOU have stories to tell. This book will help you tell them.
Storytelling at Work
"The world is not made of atoms," wrote the poet, Muriel Rukeyser. "It's made of stories." Learn how to discover, honor, and unpack the stories of yours that show up "on the job" in Mitch Ditkoff's award-winning 2015 book, Storytelling at Work.
Top 5 Speaker
Mitch Ditkoff, the Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions, has recently been voted a top 5 speaker in the field of innovation and creativity by Speakers Platform, a leading speaker's bureau.
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Workshops & Trainings
Highly engaging learning experiences that increase each participant's ability to become a creative force for positive change
Brainstorm Facilitation
High impact certification training that teaches committed change agents how to lead groundbreaking ideation sessions
Cultivating Innovation
Your "best and brightest" are the future leaders of your company, but unless they know how to foster a culture of innovation, their impact will be limited. A one-day workshop with us is all they need to begin this journey.
Our Blog Cabin
Our Heart of Innovation blog is a daily destination for movers and shakers everywhere — gleefully produced by our President, Mitch Ditkoff, voted "best innovation blogger in the world" two years running.
Team Innovation
Innovation is a team sport. Brilliant ideas go nowhere unless your people are aligned, collaborative, and team-oriented. That doesn't happen automatically, however. It takes intention, clarity, selflessness, and a new way of operating.
Awake at the Wheel, Book about big ideas If you're looking for a powerful way to jump start innovation and get your creative juices flowing, Awake at the Wheel is for you. Written by Mitch Ditkoff, Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions.
Face the Music Blues Band The world's first interactive business blues band. A great way to help your workforce go beyond complaint.

"In tune with corporate America." — CNN
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