Zane Safrit

19 Business Experts and Their Solutions for President Obama

We're in the early days of 2012.

And 2012 is an even-numbered year, evenly divided by 4 and with a leap day, February 29, too. Add all that up and we're in campaign season now. Wherever we live, work and play those campaigns are coming to our hometown or radio or tv or website or podcast or favorite social media tool.

We in Iowa just survived the Iowa Circus Caucus.

Like a moth to a flame I am drawn to politics, well political news. A political junkie, maybe.

But I'm recovering. Now I'm in a love hate relationship. I love the stories. They amaze me...On the other hand, they've become so amazing, on a bi-partisan basis, that I hate 'em.

That drove me to wonder:

• Where were the solutions?
• Was anyone talking about the solutions?
• Was anyone in the media pressing candidates and office holders for solutions as opposed to pressing them on their political posturing?

The answers to those questions in order are:

• Nowhere
• No one
• Nope.

Rather than be victimized by that group and its conversations and my flame-loving personality for that group and its conversations....I started to look for solutions.

Outside of politics. Crazy, I know.

Then I thought well, why don't I ask experts what their solutions are for the challenges we face as a country. You see, I interviewed business experts on my radio show. You can listen to these conversations here, read the transcripts of those conversations there.

One show, I finally asked an expert something to the effect of

Let's imagine President Obama invites you to the White House. He's heard our conversation, read your book and wants to learn more. What are three things you could tell him to fix x or solve y or improve z.

Asking that question is tricky, sadly. Asking business experts to share their ideas on how to fix national problems.

Each guest ventured forth with their ideas and perspectives. All were great. But with each one I noticed a hesitancy, a nervousness. That's sad, I understand it.

But it's discouraging to hear anyone be reluctant to share their ideas on how to make our country better. We have betrayed our selves and our families and neighbors when we delegate that conversation to professional politicians of any stripe. We relegate ourselves to being victims when we refuse to volunteer any ideas or engage in conversation on how to solve our nation's challenges.

Sure, these conversations can get...uncomfortable. But that's because we're so out of practice. The result is, that for our convenience....those  conversations to discover and refine solutions, solutions that can unite us in moving forward, have been co-opted by those whose voices are loudest, whose reactions are the most abrasive or abusive, and whose solutions represent their quest for a public forum, a stage, a base of power or a money from speaking or being a media personality.

Back to the point. Below is a list of those experts where I asked the above question and where they shared their thoughts. The link takes you to my post where I transcribed just this question and their answers. And with each such post is a link to the radio show and the complete transcripts of our conversation.

Check them out. See if these solutions make sense. So far, they all did for me. Think about your own solutions. Talk about them with others. Listen to theirs. Share your thoughts here or there or somewhere. See if a year from now we all have better skills to discuss and debate ideas from the basis of seeking a solution for our shared challenges.

Jim Clifton, author of The Coming Jobs War

Julie Steelman, author of The Effortless Yes! Demystify the selling process and discover: Your selling archetype,your natural asking style and your bankability

Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It

Jeffrey Phillips, co-author of A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd-Sourcing: Advice from Leading Experts

Richard R. Troxell, author of Looking up at the Bottomline: The Struggle for the Living Wage

Dr. Hal Gregerson, co-author of The Innovator's DNA - Mastering the 5 Skills of Disruptive Innovators

Sam Harrison, author of IdeaSelling: Successfully pitch your creative ideas to bosses, clients and other decision makers

Rajeev Peshawaria, author of Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader

Elizabeth Doty, author of The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul

Peter Sheahan, author of Making It Happen: Turning Good Ideas into Great Results.

Josh Linkner, author of Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity

Sybil Stershic, author of Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care

Doug Mitchell, author of The Multi Thread Marketer: How to Hire One or Better Yet Be One 

Scott Gerber, author of Never Get a "Real" Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke

Joan Koerber-Walker, CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association

Paul R. Williams, author of The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference

Bill Davidow, author of Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet

Derek Irvine, co-author of Winning with A Culture of Recognition: Recognition Strategies at the World's Most Admired Companies

Brad Szollose, author of Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia - Multigenerational Management Ideas That Are Changing the Way We Run Things

 

President Obama: 3 Steps to Win the War on Jobs...Before It's a War.

Jim Clifton, CEO of The Gallup Organization and author of The Coming Jobs War, joined the show recently.  

From the book's website comes this truth, obvious for a growing number of adults around the world:

What everyone in the world wants is a good job.

In a provocative book for business and government leaders, Gallup Chairman Jim Clifton describes how this undeniable fact will affect all leadership decisions as countries wage war to produce the best jobs.

You can listen to our conversation here.

You can our transcripts of our conversation here:

• Part One

• Part Two

• Part Three

I thought he would be a good person to ask how do we create jobs, achieve victory before war in this case. I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama has some interest in creating jobs now. And it's an interest he may pursue with some conviction in the face of resistance. He picks up his Blackberry and calls you.

Jim, he says, because he's the President.

Some of us here in DC have heard that there may be an unemployment problem here in the US, outside the Beltway. And some of us see job creation as a key aspect of our national security. But we still have this problem.

We want to hear your thoughts, maybe 3 things that we as a nation can do to avert the danger that has not yet come, win this war now before it becomes a war, and create good jobs on a sustainable basis for the next 30 years.

What do you tell him?

And he answered:

Well, I’d say he’s got to focus every decision, every policy he makes, on small to medium-sized businesses. I’m going to call them ‘business builders’. Now, we’ve got a lot of people that need to be taken care of from the aging to unemployed to union workers and all that kind of thing. If he doesn’t consider business builders in every decision that he makes and he doesn’t lighten their saddle rather than make it heavier, we have no chance at all. We will not have sustainable growth with ‘shovel jobs’ or by propping the place up.

We have to have organic job creation that comes from startups and shootups. Or we will not retain our leadership of the free world. That’s first.

The 2nd thing is that the emphasis has gotta be put on entrepreneurship not innovation. And we’ve got to develop all of those sciences. Put your billions into that not innovation. We’ve got enough innovation. We’ve got innovation on the shelves all over this country.

But, the 3rd thing is we gotta make it intentional that cities are the places where these chicks can hatch because that’s where all the variation is.

Those would be the three things right now that would come out of our conversation.

And I appreciate this conversation very much.

Thank you for that. Your answer was very concise. And it’s music to my ears when you talk about the role of small business in creating jobs andcommunities and sustainable economies.

Want more from Jim Clifton?

Visit the Gallup Organization's website. Their researchers, authors and Mr. Clifton, all speak from the same page.

Buy his book.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.  That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Steps to Get the Sales We Want & Need to Grow this Economy

Julie Steelman joined the show this week. Julie's the author of The Effortless Yes! Demystify the selling process and discover:

• Your selling archetype
• Your natural asking style
• Your bankability

Julie Steelman’s credits read like a Who’s Who of big-name corporate giants with Apple, Microsoft, Toyota, CBS, Sony Studios and Universal Pictures in her rolodex. She has generated over $100+ million in sales during her 30 year sales career. Julie is known as The Entrepreneur’s Selling Mentor.

Now retired to her personal paradise in Hawaii, living debt-free, Julie developed the easy-to-master “Effortless YES! Selling System”™. She spends her time helping business owners overcome their aversion to selling in an honest, transformational and interactive style.

You can listen to our conversation here.

You can read your conversation here:

• Part One

• Part Two

• Part Three

It made sense to me to ask her how our country could generate more sales. You see, sales are the driver of our economy and the source for new jobs. So, I asked her:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama has a few moments. He’s found your book. He picks up his Blackberry and calls you.

Julie, he says because he's the President.

We can't seem to get companies to say, effortlessly or not, to buying into our economy.

And they're not getting customers to say yes, in any way, to buying. What do I need to do to entice you to leave Eden and come to DC, an eden of its own sort, I guess.

We want to hear your thoughts, maybe 3 things that we as a nation can take to find a way to demystify our selling process, find our selling archetype and get the sale we want, we need and grow our economy as fast as we'll ever need.

What do you say to him?

And she generously answered:

Well, there’s no big question there!

I’m actually going to refer to something you said Mr. Obama that was in your inaugural speech. You said:

Our society was founded on the idea that our products and services as businesses would serve the common good.

And what I’m going to tell you Mr. Obama is we have forgotten about that.

The first thing we could do to fix it is to shift from putting profit over purpose. And instead put purpose over profit.

You’re going to make your profit. Don’t worry.

The companies are going to grow. Don’t worry.

But what we’ve done is create a society of overly skeptical consumers and they’re not willing to buy and do business with companies that they don’t trust any more.

That’s the first thing.

The 2nd thing is we need to find a way to have CEOs paid really well, but no longer take salaries and have golden parachutes when companies are not making a profit. That cant be the way it works anymore. Sorry, everybody. Do you trust a CEO that does that? I don’t think so.

The 3rd thing we need to do is invest in putting our workforce back to work. The whole crux around the 3 things I’m going to tell you to do Mr. Obama are instilling trust back in corporate America because there isn’t any. Financially, products or services or customer service. I’d rather buy a Mercedes than Cadillac. You’ve got to get our products back up to snuff.

We need to put, I think we’ve sold off too much of our industrial abilities and we need to bring it back here.

That was too much. I know I gave you more than 3 things. But, that would be my answer, Mr. Obama.

Thank you. I love all of them. Thank you for the 4th one, too.

Want more from Julie Steelman?

• Follow her on Twitter.

• Read her blog.

• By her book.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Things To Break The Fear Barrier

Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It, joined the show recently.

• You can listen to our conversation here

You can read the interview here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

From Tom's profile page at Gallup:

Mr. Rieger is a Senior Practice Expert for Gallup, has pioneered the study and science of organizational barriers. Rieger is an expert in applying behavioral economic principles to uncover how complex systems self-destruct -- and how to correct those problems. Through this work, he has become a recognized leader in developing methods and frameworks to identify and remove barriers to organizational and societal success.

Rieger joined Gallup in 1994. In addition to his work as the leader and chief architect of Gallup's consulting on organizational barriers, he is an expert in international research and polling methods and developing and applying statistical models to complex organizational issues.

Tom's book is imminently readable and includes imminently doable tips and steps you can take within your own organization to reverse this rising tide of fear that only serves to threaten your organization's sustainability. He's pulled the company's global research across a dozen countries spanning six continents to identify the "fear barrier" and to show how and why fear destroys companies. The book explains how to transform a fear-plagued organization into one that is courageous and unstoppable.

Fear seems to grip our country right now, particularly in businesses and jobs and the economy. So, it made sense to ask him how can we address this problem. I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. It's not that big a leap. Fear is an emotional response to a perceived, often imaginary, threat. Let's imagine President Obama is on line two in your office. He’s on vacation, but he’s listening in. He leaves you a message.

Tom, he says. This is President Obama. I think our national conversation is dominated by fear and its manifestations. What are three things we as a nation can do to break the fear barrier? Can you come up to the White House or over to Martha’s Vineyard and share your thoughts?

What do you say to him?

He answered:

Well, first of all I’d say:

“Yeah I would love that opportunity to come. I’m essentially a patriot at heart so anything I can do to help my country I’d love to do."

But to answer that question...

First I’d say we need a mission to rally around. We need a place to plant a flag in the ground and stand behind. You look back at the ’60’s and the space race. Look at what happened in this country. You had industry of all different types and people all around all working together trying to achieve something important.

The side benefits of that were huge. If you look at the innovations and the manufacturing, especially in the world of micro-processing and computers. But, the sleeping giant needs to be awoken; it needs to be focused on accomplishing something. This country can accomplish absolutely incredible things when it’s aligned with and around something and we’re all on the same page.

That’s number one.

Secondly, I think we need to shift the paradigm. We need to start thinking about:

“Well, how can we remove the barriers that exist to job creation. “

Every job you create creates more and more people paying into the system rather than draining it. When that happens you have a lower deficit, you have a more prosperous nation, without having to just focus on who’s giving up what to whom. And that, I think, is what leads us to the 3rd thing.

There’s way too much focus on that. We gotta stop acting like a couple of dogs fighting over a bone trying to think about well who’s going to have to give up something. If you look at the whole concept of fear of loss, there’s some great work by a Nobel Prize winner named Daniel Kahneman that showed there’s twice as much pain with loss than trying to gain. What that means is people will fight twice as hard to avoid a loss even if that means forgoing a gain because there’s so much pain in that perception. If all we focus on is what we’re giving up and nothing else, then that fear of loss, I guarantee you will lead to barriers and those barriers will bring any hope of progress right down to a screeching halt.

So, if we can align around the mission, focus on removing barriers to job creation, both for private companies and public sector, and then stop focusing so much on who has to give up and what and instead on what we can achieve together, then I think we can actually make some progress here.

 Want more from Tom Reiger?

Follow him on Twitter.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

 

President Obama: 3 Ways Open Innovation Returns Us To #1 Innovator

Jeffrey Phillips joined the show recently. You can listen to our conversation here. You can read parts one, two and three of our interview.

Jeffrey is VP of Marketing and a lead consultant with OVO Innovation. Jeffrey’s led innovation projects for Fortune 5000 firms, academic institutions and non-profits all based on OVO Innovation’s trademarked Innovate on Purpose method.

He was one of the 34 innovation experts who contributed a chapter for the excellent book A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd-Sourcing: Advice from Leading Experts. Jeffrey’s chapter is Open Innovation Typology.

And after reading Jeffrey's chapter it's clear there is a type of innovation that can fit any organization, for-profit or not, global giant or mom-and-pop brick-and-mortar and as importantly a type that fits anyone's budget.

It made sense to ask him how Open Innovation and the right type of Open Innovation would help us with this pressing problem of innovation, our economy and jobs.

I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama had a few moments this week. He finds your book, reads your chapter. And calls you.

Jeffrey, he says because he's the President. At this point in our declining ratings as a nation of innovators any type of open innovation will work. The challenge for us is to find one and move forward.

What if you came up to the White House and met with myself and Vice-President Biden. We want to hear your thoughts, maybe 3 things that we as a nation can do to identify the type of open innovation that can return us to being number one, generate some new businesses with new jobs.

What do you tell him?

And, he answered:

Let say the first thing, I didn’t know you were going to ask me this question specifically. I write a blog called Innovate on Purpose. Yesterday, I wrote a blog post called Innovate Anywhere and I riffed off the poem of The Ancient Mariner. You know:

Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink.

We live in a society and a time when we are literally awash in a time of ideas. And the interesting thing is our government is really dead-locked. And it seems stagnant. At a time when there are so many good ideas out there it seems it’s really more about having the political will to change perspectives and adopt or at least ask people for their ideas as opposed to trying the same tired solutoins over and over again.

I’ll direct your listeners to my blog.

But I think there would be three things.

First, the government can’t just be willing to listen to these ideas. They have to be willing to adopt those ideas and to demonstrate that:

“We listened and here’s the results from that action.”

So, the first one I would suggest are philanthropic contests. Can we create a contest much like BP had with the oil spill. What’s one thing you would change in the Department of Commerce. And if you recommended it how would, what would it change and how would it change people’s every day lives in creating jobs. And I use the Department of Commerce as an example. It could be any of the departments.

But, what we should be able to do is suggest very specific ideas that might drive jobs or help the government spend more money effectively or ways to cut costs or abuse and those kinds of things. And be very specific about ways with each agency of allowing people to make ideas.

The government has already started this with Challenge.Gov. But it needs to go a lot further. And it needs to demonstrate it through lots of small experiments. So, as we get these ideas we start kicking off very small experiments.

2nd idea you asked about was If President Obama asked me...was clearly here in the US we’re pretty smart. But we don’t have a lock on the best ideas. Are there places in other countries, other companies, other non-profits, where a problem we’re facing is solved better some place else. This would allow other people, other organizations, other countries, other companies, to submit ideas to the government:

“We see you have this problem. We think we have a better solution than you have.”

That would mean we would have to open up our minds and our political processes to be willing to listen and look at other ideas and accept those ideas.

The 3rd thing I would tell from an open-innovation perspective would be to merely opening up to new voices. I think that our government may be just a bit locked into 535 members of Congress and maybe I don’t know 15 or 20,000 lobbyists on Capitol Hill. That means those are the voices that get heard. There’s 300 million of the rest of us whose voices aren’t getting heard. Are their ways we can begin to compound our voices and get behind specific initiatives and ideas that can then be communicated to our government agencies.

What we’re really talking about is true democracy is true open innovation. If you think about it, it’s people with great ideas trying to press their will on the majority that eventually hopefully many in the majority will accept and it becomes a law.

I think we’ve lost a little bit of our democratic process in allowing ideas to bubble up. And it would be interesting to see if there were different ways to allow open innovation platforms or purely democratic platforms, democratic with a small d, to allow us to bubble ideas back up, bubble legislation, as well into the federal government.

So, those are 3 things. All those are pie-in-the-sky. We’re in the imagination phase as you said. I can be a bit imaginative and hope for the best.

Want more from Jeffrey Phillips?

Follow him on Twitter at OVOInnovation

Read his blog: Innovate on Purpose.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Tips to Bring a Sustainable End to Homelessness

Richard R. Troxell is President of House the Homeless, an educational and advocacy group that was founded in Austin, TX in 1989. Their mission is education and advocacy surrounding all issues of homelessness.

He’s the author of Looking up at the Bottomline: The Struggle for the Living Wage, an intense personal, political, and educational guide through the last 30 years of homelessness in America. According to the US Conference of Mayors, a person working 40 hours a week, at a minimum wage of $7.25, doesn't have enough money to afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.

You can listen to our radio interview here.

You can read notes from our conversation here.

It made sense to me to ask him a hypothetical question. I asked him:

We’ve reached the imagination moment in our show. Let’s imagine Melissa Weiner at Stray Dog Media has just been called by President Obama. After a few gasps, she hears him invite you to the White House. He wants you to meet with him and the First Lady and share your three steps to bring a sustainable end to homelessness here in the US. What would those three steps be?

And with hesitation he answered:

Yeah, I can tell you without hesitation what those three steps would be. I would say very clearly these are the three things we need to do. And without them we will not resolve this concern.

• Affordable Healthcare.  

• Affordable Housing.  

• Livable Incomes.

And livable incomes breaks down in fixing the SSI, or supplemental social income, for those who can’t work. And it means creating an Universal Living Wage for those who can work.

Want More from Richard Troxell?

• Visit his website.

• Follow him on Twitter.

• Buy his book: Looking up at the Bottomline: The Struggle for the Living Wage.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

;

President Obama: 3 Tips to Move from One Idea to Its Impact, Again and Again

Dr. Hal Gregersen, co-author of The Innovator's DNA - Mastering the 5 Skills of Disruptive Innovators, was a guest on my radio show recently. You can listen here.

I published notes from our conversation in three parts:

• Part One here

• Part Two here

• Part Three here

The Innovator's DNA - Mastering the 5 Skills of Disruptive Innovators was the result of an 8-year study to uncover the origins of innovative—and often disruptive— business ideas. They interviewed nearly a hundred inventors of revolutionary products and services, as well as founders and CEOs of game-changing companies built on innovative business ideas. In the process they identified five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers:

• Associating
• Questioning
• Observing
• Networking
• Experimenting

We, as a nation, seem to have challenges moving from one idea to its impact, again and again. You know? Innovating on a sustainable basis.

I asked Dr. Gregersen:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama has a few moments this week. He finds your book. . He picks up his Blackberry and calls you.

Hal, he says. He gets all personal because he is the President. We're facing some disruption these days. But, we're not finding a way to move progressively from one idea to its impact. Again and again.

What if you and your two co-authors join up with myself and Vice-President Biden. We want to hear your thoughts, maybe 3 things that we as a nation can do to move progressively from one idea to its impact. Again and again.

What would those three things be?

And he answered with all the clarity and precision you would expect:

I would tell you the following if I was talking to him.

I would say:

“Look. When we look at innovative companies it starts at the top. Every one of these companies who create sustainable ideas that make a difference they are led by CEOs and senior managers who actually innovate themselves. They engage these skills in an every day way. And so, if I were to look at a country it would be the same thing.

Here’s the challenge. But, let me step back for just a moment to me being a teenager again. When I was a teenager I wanted to be the President. I pursued it enough that I actually ended up working later in college, I worked a couple of times in Washington DC for two senators. What I learned working on the staffs of those two senators was when you work in Washington D.C. and you live within the Beltway you end up living within those buildings that are around the capital and the White House. And what then happens is it becomes extremely easy not have a silo built in your world and your way of working with the world that is not extremely incestuous. And that comes from talking to people who look like you and think like you even if they are on the other side of the political spectrum. They still are politicians.

My suggestion is I would get every single policy make out of their offices and into the field where people are facing these challenges. I don’t mean promotional opportunity to get votes for the next election.

I wonder how many people who are stuck in this budgetary grid-lock, how many of them have spent two days not pitching their views or their party, but how many of them have spent two days maybe living with a family that is struggling with the burdens of living in this economy for the past two years? I would be hard pressed to find even a handful of politicians making these policy decisions who have a good grip on what it’s like right now for people that they are making the decisions for.

It’s easy for me to step back and say this. I don’t have the answer but. But I look back to the financial crisis in 2009 and wonder how many of the CEOs and executives of the major banks in the world ever took the time to get out of their offices to walk down to their home loan making office and just watch the process of how these loans were being made?

I bet if they had they would have sniffed something ugly really fast. And they would have done something.

For me, the first recommendation is get policy-makers out of their offices and into the real world and using these observational and other skills of being an innovator to generate some better solutions.

2nd policy suggestion? Do everything we possibly can to invest in the next generation of innovation leaders. These are the kids and the young people who are growing up who are not just going to solve today’s problems but they are going to be the solvers of tomorrow’s problems that will probably be bigger than the ones we’re facing today.

And what I mean by investing in them is on one level creating educational learning experiences that foster these skills. And another investment and again I would ask those policy-makers to pay attention to the world around them. Look in your neighborhood, identify some families that you will foster their innovation skills so that some day they might be the next president and they might be better at solving the problems we face tomorrow.

Want More from Dr. Gregersen?

• Visit the book's website 

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy the book: The Innovator's DNA - Mastering the 5 Skills of Disruptive Innovators

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Tips to Give Our Students the Skills to Pitch Ideas

Sam Harrison is the author of a fabulous book titled: IdeaSelling: Successfully pitch your creative ideas to bosses, clients and other decision makers.

He joined the show recently. You can listen here. You can read notes from our conversation here.

It made sense them for me to ask him what we, as a country, could do to develop those presentation skills in upcoming leaders. And who better to ask, right, than our President.

I asked him:

Let’s say President Obama brought you to the WH. And he realized our ability to grow as a nation is dependent on the ability to communicate and collaborate, share ideas and find new ways to implement them.

And, he’s walking you through the Rose Garden, got his arm around your shoulder and turns to you and says:

Sam, what are the skills we’re not providing our students in order to pitch creative ideas and what are three thing we can do today to give them the skills to successfully pitch ideas.

What would you say?

And he answered, well, right to the point.

First of all I’d have to ask what happened to your presentation skills?

He was so powerful as a candidate. He made the best talks. Unfortunately he put that aside. I would have loved to have seen him show the leadership and make those talks he made as a candidate.

We’re doing a good job teaching students what to think, but not how to think.
Second I think...we need to do a better job of interpersonal skills. Awareness, perception, ethos. A lot of team projects with guide or mentor would help.
Help students improve their public speaking skills. Just simple training on how to speak, how to present and give them opportunities to present in the classroom.

Want More from Sam Harrison?

• Visit his website.

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his book: IdeaSelling: Successfully pitch your creative ideas to bosses, clients and other decision makers.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.  That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

 

President Obama: 3 Steps to Create a Culture of Extraordinary Leaders

Rajeev Peshawaria was a guest on my radio show recently. You can listen here.

Rajeev Peshawaria is currently CEO of the ICLIF Leadership & Governance Centre based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which provides executive education and advisory services to organizations in Asia, Middle East and Africa. 

Prior to joining ICLIF in April 2010, Rajeev worked at AMEX, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Coca-Cola where he headed headed Coca-Cola University and at Morgan Stanley, where he founded Morgan Stanley University.

We wanted to talk about his new book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

An exceptional leader is, he writes:

one who not only runs the company but creates a cadre of supporters who understand the company’s goals and missions and work to embody them every day.

Leadership, can neither be learned in a classroom, nor automatically acquired by accepting a big title or position of authority. Leadership needs to be discovered, and there is no shortcut to the discovery process.

I think President Obama faces all of those two paragraphs every day since he chose to run for President...back in that day. It made sense to ask Mr. Peshawaria for his ideas on how President Obama could create a culture of extraordinary leaders...

a cadre of supporters who understand [ our country's] goals and missions and work to embody them every day.

I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine that our President Obama is calling you after this call.

Rajeev, he says, could you come to the WH or at least join a secure conference call with myself and Vice-President Joe Biden. We seem to be drowning here in DC from too many bosses and too few leaders. What are three things our country can do to create a culture of extraordinary leaders?

What would you tell him?

I thought his answer was beautiful in its clarity and how he picked up themes from other guests who have answered this same question:

Well, I think when he ran for President a couple of years ago he painted the picture of a better future. And that’s what won him the presidency.

Most of us related to his purpose and his values and voted for him. So, to continue to use the terminology from the book:

“We like the brain of his campaign and the promises he made.”

However, I think we’ve fallen just a little bit in the Bones and Nerve section. To take just one example, and this is just my view, many people liked his opposition to the Iraq War and that’s why he appealed to a lot of people. Now a lot of the same people are questioning his support for the struggle in Libya.

So, my humble advice would be to lead by example and stick to your values. It is impossible to say what are the three things the country can do to create a culture of leadership. In many ways America already has a culture of leadership. So, if Obama and Biden can re-articulate a vision and lead with values and keep the courage to do the right thing I think they will inspire a whole generation to do the same thing.

Let history judge their actions. For now, they should lead with values rather than their position of power.

Those would be my two cents.

Want more from Rajeev Peshawaria?

• Read his blog

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

 **********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

 

President Obama: Three Things We Can Do to Create Healthy Compromise

Elizabeth Doty joined the show recently. I hope you listen as we talk about her work with WorkLore and her inspiring and useable book: The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul.

Elizabeth co-founded WorkLore which works with corporate clients in helping their leaders and teams make their missions real, increasing the engagement, integrity and alignment that make their work bigger than a game.

Compromise and how to do-it, what it entails, what happens in a democracy when you...do not understand its role has been a lively topic this summer and continues now.

It made sense to ask Elizabeth about what could we as a nation do to embrace healthy compromise. I asked her:

We’ve reached the imagination moment in our show. Let’s imagine for a moment, that your assistant waves frantically at you right now. You wave her off...can’t you see I’m on the phone style. But she persists. And she mouthes...It’s President Obama!

Sure enough President Obama has called. And when you speak to him he says:

Elizabeth, you’re spot on. Our nation is engulfed in an unhealthy compromise. We’ve struck too many faustian bargains. What can we do? What are three things we can do right now to transform our choices into healthy compromise?

What do you tell him?

She answered as you would expect anyone to answer who is as clear in her understanding of the answer as Elizabeth is. She answered:

The first one, that may surprise you, is an important stance for us and that’s to ask:

“How are you holding up? How you doing in the midst of all this?”

It’s such a comfort to know that there are leaders bearing up these responsibilities and dilemmas and we get to point out when they’re not doing it.

But that’s the problem. We need to share in the responsibility. And I appreciate the way Obama reframes the conversation to:

“We all have a shared interest in this. We need a budget together. "

That would be the first one, to offer support for him and all the other leaders who are bearing up under these things and stop projecting onto politicians the worst in human nature.

The 2nd is to encourage him and the rest of us to keep redefining the conversation to what do we want to create as a country. What is our worth-enough win as a country.

I’m hearing on both sides, the left and the right, a lot of similar values: personal responsibility, liberty and freedom. There are differences in how we get there.

But what is it we stand for, that is joint, that is that worthy enough win to create together.

And in particular, I would encourage him and the press to experiment in ways of reporting that talks in terms of that worthy-enough win and talks in terms of contributions from each side as opposed to vetting out which side should win. Cause that forces all the dialogue into a polarizing frame.

The last thing I would do is invite citizens to participate and weigh these tradeoffs instead of having to project them on to leaders. So that we have to face these very hard choices. We can point out to other people the very unhealthy compromises but when we deeper into the costs and the realities we’ll be much more aligned when we have to wrestle with these issues ourselves.

I’m very excited by the participative democracy movement that has us doing that, not just voting. Really chewing on budgets and priorities for city councils. We need more of that.

We need keep re-anchoring this conversation to these priorities. And then we can use data to get to the best ‘how’s’.

Good advice for us all as we face these tough choices and find the need to listen, to collaborate and to compromise in a healthy manner.

Want More from Elizabeth Doty?

Read her blog

Follow her on Twitter

Buy her book: The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Things For Making It (Full Employment) Happen

Peter Sheahan is founder and CEO of ChangeLabs™, a global consultancy delivering large-scale behavioral change projects for clients such as Apple and IBM, Peter Sheahan has worked with some of the world’s leading brands in the area of innovation and change.

He joined us to talk about his latest, maybe greatest, book: Making It Happen: Turning Good Ideas into Great Results.

You can listen at this link.

You can read the transcripts here.

Peter knows how to make it happen. So...it made sense for me to ask him how to make it, full employment, happen. I asked him:

We have reached the imagination moment in our show. Your book is about turning ideas into great results. So this next question should be easy for you to answer. Let's imagine President Obama is calling Jessica Krakowski right now as he listens to the show. He wants to set up a meet with you in the Oval Office. The VP will be there. He leaves Jessica with this message:

Peter. Loved your book. Loved hearing your ideas. Would you come to the White House and talk about how to make it happen with our economy? In particular, what are three things we can do right now to make it, that's full employment, happen?

What would you tell him?

And Peter answered as you would expect: clearly, concisely, constructively.

Thanks. That’s a really simple question. There are nobel laureates trying to answer that question successfully, much less me.

Look. I’d have a couple of pieces of advice.

Number one: Pick your battles. What are the areas where you’re going to have the longest impact.

I’m Australian; I don’t get to vote. I’m on neither side of the political spectrum.

But if you look at the history of the US, it’s when they invested in infrastructure for the next 20 years that they had the greatest success. Now. Infrastructure is different depending on your era. When Eisenhower talked about it he was talking about freeways. When it was 20 years ago you were talking about building technology infrastructure and the web.

The big question I would ask is where will the world be in the next 20 years. And let’s make our investments there. It might not get us to full employment by the next election cycle; but that’s the nature of the beast. But it may well leave this country with the foundation we need to be successful.

I travel the world. I work in 25 different countries, a lot them in Asia, a lot of them in Europe. It’s funny to hear the anti-China rhetoric, at the moment. The way to beat China is not to protect us, not to build walls or shut down trade. The way to make sure we dominate the world’s economy is to:

‘Be what’s next.’

Just do the next big thing better than anybody else. We should stop freaking out about the trade issues and things like that and instead just start innovating.

So, that would be my first piece of advice. What’s the infrastructure that’s needed in the next 20 years and let’s invest in that because that will create the innovations that will let us be successful.

Number two: You’ve got to allow the big companies who now have most of their money and most of their training overseas, the big companies don’t make most of their money in America, they make it overseas. End of story.
Let’s stop thinking that the world stops at the Pacific and the Atlantic on either side of the US. And let’s see if we can allow some of these companies to repatriot some of those profits from around the world. Many of these companies are in very heated debates with the government, it’s the IRS really, to bring back large sums of money.

Right now, there’s a trillion dollars in international retained profits right now. Could you imagine if those companies could bring that money back at a much more appropriate tax rate when compared to the rest of the world.
I think they could create jobs, make bigger investments locally in the American economy. All this talk about middle-class tax rates and rich tax rates, the big money is in the big end of town.

That would be my two bits of advice. I don’t know what my third one is.

Want More from Peter Sheahan?

Read his blog. 

Follow him on Twitter.  

Buy his book: Making It Happen: Turning Good Ideas into Great Results.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.  That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

 

President Obama: 3 Tips to Grow Disciplined Dreaming in the U.S.

Josh Linkner is on a mission. His mission is to make the world more creative.

You can listen to our conversation here.

Josh is the Founder, Chairman and former CEO of the largest interactive promotion agency in the world, ePrize. Josh led the firm from inception to being ranked the #1 fastest growing and #3 overall promotion agency by PROMO Magazine.

Recently, Josh launched the venture capital firm Detroit Venture Partners,actively investing in early-stage techn companies looking to rebuild the Detroit region through entrepreneurship.

He's written a fabulous manual to do just that: Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity.

After Josh described the ROI companies could expect for growing disciplined dreaming within their walls, it made sense to ask how could we scale it? How could we increase disciplined creativity?

It made sense to ask him his thought on how we, as a nation could grow disciplined dreaming.

I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine your assistant is waving madly at you right now. They’re mouthing the words:

It’s President Obama!

And they’re pointing at the light blinking on the phone. After that brief panic, they collect themselves and drop the president in your voice mail.

And President Obama says:

Josh. Look. Your point is well-taken. We need more creativity, and a more disciplined approach to developing it, in order to create the jobs to grow our economy.

Would you come up here to the White House. Let's have coffee with the Vice President in the Oval Office. We'd like to hear your thoughts on three ways we can create a more disciplined approach to developing creativity among our citizens?

What would be those three ways?

And, Josh answers for precisely:

Gosh, I would love that opportunity. I hope Obama’s listening. I’d tell him a couple of things.

First thing I’d tell him is Number One we need to prioritize creativity and innovation much more than we do. For some reason in our society we celebrate left-brain and precision thinking much more than we celebrate imagination. Even in our sayings...did you ever hear the saying:

“It’s not rocket-science or you don’t have to be a brain surgeon.”

Those are difficult tasks and require precision and accuracy.

But, you don’t hear people say:

“Gee. It isn’t like writing a symphony.”

And I would argue that in our society we need to celebrate imagination more.

By the way, and I’m not making a political statement, but Obama did say that in his State of the Union Address. He really talked about how innovation is the key to making an economic recovery.

Step Number 2. I think we need to attack the problem head on in our school systems. We’re taught right now to:

* follow the rules
* guess what the teacher knows
* there’s only one right answer
* don’t make mistakes
* teach the test

I think these things are very poisonous. And we’re going to have some long-term, very negative, impact from teaching our kids this type of rigid follow the rules behavior as opposed to nurturing the imagination. I would really encourage him to inject a much more robust creativity approach in the school system.

The third thing I’d recommend is we offer up some tools and demystify the creative process. We realize it isn’t some brilliant guy in a beret who goes off in the distant and comes back with amazing, fully-baked, ideas.

Creativity is a process. Just like weight-lifters can build their muscles, people can build their creative muscles. If we give people that permission to explore, that it’s ok to make mistakes, try new things ad use your imagination then I think we can apply a methodology, then you’re going to see a lot of things happen in our society.

* more entrepreneurs
* more success stories
* more competitive advantage

That’s going to drive a lot of good in our country all around.

Want more from Josh Linkner?

• Read his blog

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his book!

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree.

As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests often hidden and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with valid vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Tips to Take Care of the People Who Matter the Most

Sybil Stershic is the author of the excellent book Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care.

Sybil is President of Quality Service Marketing, a marketing & organizational advisor with more than 30 years experience helping service providers strengthen relationships with customers and employees. She’s a leading authority on engaging employees through internal marketing, helping build Human Resources connect with Marketing for bottom-line success. She is a frequent conference and business speaker on how managers can maintain a 'high touch' approach in today's 'high tech' workplace.

She was a guest earlier this year on my radio show. You can listen to our conversation here.

Employee engagement, or its lack, is a national problem. And employee engagement, or its lack, has been a national problem for a long time. So, it made sense then to ask Sybil, a solutions-provider for companies seeking solutions to increase employee engagement, this question:

We’ve reached the point in the show called Imagination Moment. Let’s imagine for a moment waiting for you right now is an email from President Obama, sent from his Blackberry. Personal. And he says:

Sybil, he gets all personal because he’s the president and he can, Sybil, our economy reflects our failure to take care of the people that matter the most. I want you to come to the Oval Office and present your three ideas to reverse this trend, nationally.

What would you say to him in that meeting?

And Sybil answered:

Before I respond, I gotta tell you for all the interviews I’ve done I’ve never had a question like this. Wow. How do you put it together?

“What an honor, Mr. President. I suggest that business and industry associations and academia partner with each other.

Collect examples of effective customer care and employee care. They have members and they can collect this information. Get everybody to collect these examples.

The 2nd thing this partnership can do is create awareness...among their members about the positive relationship between engagement and the bottomline.

The 3rd thing and the most important is provide education and training on how to engage their employees and customers."

The lack of management training is cut the first thing in a recession. They are not soft at all. It’s crystal clear they make a bottomline impact.

1. Gather the examples.
2. Make people aware of their importance.
3. Provide training in their skills.

See? Answers like this are what make Sybil a much sought-after solutions provider for companies who recognize two things:

1. the power of engaged employees;

2. they can raise their level of employee engagement;

3. they're willing to ask for help.

Want More from Sybil Stershic?

• Read her blog

• Follow her on Twitter

• Buy her book!

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree.

As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests often hidden and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with valid vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Steps to Instill Strong Communication Skills in Students

Doug Mitchell, author, successful entrepreneur, geo-arbitrageur and author of the just-published The Multi Thread Marketer: How to Hire One or Better Yet Be One was guest on my radio show recently. You can listen here.

Doug currently is VP of Marketing at BirdDogJobs, an innovative 14 year old company who recently received venture funding to rebrand, relaunch, and dominate.

Doug spoke well and spoke passionately on the power of communication and collaboration in the workplace. And he spoke on the need for better communication skills being developed in our students now. I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama has been listening. And he's calling you right after the show.

Doug, he says on your answering machine. Look, thank you for profiling Mr. Siroker and his success in my 2008 campaign. Another area we might have overlap is our understanding the need for stronger communication skills among our students. You write that your two favorite courses were typing and debating. They developed your strong communication skills that have served you well.

What if you and wife came out to the WH and met with Michelle and I. We'd want to hear your 3 ways we can instill the same strong communication skills in our students today.

What would be those 3 things?

And Doug offered 3 great ideas:

First of all I’d probably have to have it over cheeseburgers. I think the President likes cheeseburgers. So, we’d have some common ground there.

I probably have to say I’d take a little different approach on this one.

Let’s figure out a plan how to get out of the way and let states innovate 100% in education. Forgetting partisan stuff I think we have a big education problem and the feds aren’t going to solve it. That’s number one.

Number two and number three, I’d say just repeat number one. Here’s why. Nobody knows what really is happening at the state level and they can’t move quick enough for me here in the state of Iowa. If there’s anything I’d magically transform I’d take it down to the current Governor here in Iowa and say

Make your administration about education. Get a group of people who are doing, executing. Not thinking and writing academically and trying to make decisions for everybody. And then let’s run with it.

At the end of the day our kids are so much smarter than we give them credit for, right? My kids could do 100x more than the classes are teaching him. It’s not the classroom’s fault. It’s the system. But I think it’s our responsibility as parents and concerned citizens to create greatness in our economy and children.

We have to dismantle our system and learn how to create and think. So, if I had to craft a list of three, I’d probably have to say:

Here’s my book. I think these are the skills that people need to compete today. I don’t even touch on the things like innovation and creativity. There are hundreds of books on that.

I’d say let’s share the cheeseburger. And get out of the way of the state and see what we can do.

Want More from Doug Mitchell?

Follow him on Twitter at MitchGroup

Read his blog

Buy his book!

Read transcripts from our conversation here.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Steps for A More Favorable Environment for Entrepreneurs

Scott Gerber is a syndicated columnist (WSJ, Entrepreneur, Inc.), a serial entrepreneur, author of Never Get a "Real" Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke, and founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, an advocacy group made up of many of the world’s top young entrepreneurs that works to help young people overcome the devastating effects of youth unemployment and underemployment by teaching them how to build businesses.

He recently shared an hour of his time on my radio show. We talked about his book  (great book!) and his thoughts on entrepreneurs and startups and the challenges faced for their success. You can listen here.

I asked him, during the show,  his thoughts on what steps could be taken to create a more favorable environment for entrepreneurs and startups. I asked him:

Imagination plays a big role with entrepreneurs. And we've reached the imagination moment in the show. President Obama's on line 2 for you now. He's leaving you a message inviting you to the White House. He wants your list of three things he can do right now to create a more favorable environment for entrepreneurs and startups and the jobs they create. What do you tell him?

And, as you'd expect, he offered a great answer:

I think number one is the ability to ramp up not just high growth entrepreneurship exercises but also small business exercises. You know, we talked a lot about building the next billion-dollar business which of course is going to have a tremendous effect if we can move the amount of billion-dollar enterprises in the US from where it is now to 3 to 4 times that....However, when you look at what is creating the most jobs is the top creator is in fact small businesses that hire 1 - 10 employees or 1 - 50 employees. So, we need to incentivize them more.

We need to stop bailing out big business and bailing out small business which unfortunately now is a big cliche, but it’s the truth.

The 2nd thing I’d say is we need to invest more time and resources into backing incubators and other startup accelerator programs. I think it’s time we put government dollars into real innovation and not just simply buzzwords like clean-tech. While clean-tech represents a massive opportunity, it can’t be the only thing just because it’s a hot word. I think you need to always be experimenting with many different pots and putting money into many different areas. I think that it’s time we figure out a way for government to support that level of entrepreneurship acceleration.

The last thing I would say is regardless of what’s going on right now in terms of budget cuts and obviously right now we’re facing deficits that are just insane... but, entrepreneurship education is truly something that I belive should not just be an afterthought. It can’t be just some one-liner in a speech. It has to be something that is real, something that is added to curriculum, something that the Department of Education is not only condoning but is bringing in top experts and figuring out how to replicate successful programs. We need to figure out how to teach people not just how to be employees but to rather teach them how to make a choice. On the college level we need to be sure that people are very much understanding that the paradigm shift we are seeing is here to stay and if we don’t educate properly we don’t begin to support people properly. Even on the kindergarten to grade 12 level we’re in for a long, long, haul that will not be pretty and will not make the US the greatest country in the world when it comes to innovation.

Want More from Scott Gerber?

Follow him on Twitter at AskGerber

Read the posts at Young Entrepreneur Council

Buy his book!

Read transcripts from our conversation here.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Steps to Reclaim Our Spot as Global Innovation Leader

Joan Koerber - Walker was a recent guest on my radio show.

Joan has recently been appointed as the CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association whose purpose is promoting the growth of Arizona bioscience companies.

You can listen to our conversation here.

Her role as CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association and as founder of COREPurpose, a business consulting firm, puts her in an unique position. She is in the frontlines bringing innovation best-practices to businesses and she is a leader at the local, state and national level for innovation and its role in bringing success to our companies, jobs and quality of living to our communities and a resumption of growth for our economy.

I asked for her thoughts on the challenges we face as a nation on re-igniting our innovation talents and reclaiming our spot as the number one nation for innovation.

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama has been listening. And he's calling you right now during the show.

Joan. he says on your answering machine. May I call you Joan? Look, you and I both know our country needs some help in innovation. I'm locked inside the Beltway and I need to hear directly from innovation experts like you. What if you came up to the White House, met with Joe Biden and I, and talked about innovation. We'd like to hear your thoughts on three things our country can do right now to reverse this slide in our global innovation rankings. Could you do that?

What would you tell him?

And Joan answered as she always does with a crisp, clear and concise answer:

If I was going to look at the three things we could do on a national or global level, as a country I would say that:

Let industry and the community be the focus for innovation and for the government to get out of the way. As we start looking for new opportunities we need a way to create clear pathways. Government needs to enable, not do. Just as a leader I need to enable, not do. The way government enables is to fully fund and support organizations like the national institute of health, the national cancer institute, the department of energy, who are taking dollars and allowing them to be applied into commercial and research applications so that the industry can move that forward. The industry is going to be able to do that much more effectively

We have got to focus on protecting the innovations that we are creating. That means that the work that is being done at the USPTO, the US Patent and Trademark Office, needs to continue to be best-in-class organization on a global basis. Part of it is to stop raiding the coffers at the USPTO and putting their funds into the general funds. What happens is if we keep pulling resources out of the USPTO, then we don’t have the resources to move those patents forward faster. And if we’re not moving them forward faster then it is harder for those companies to get investment dollars.

Continue to focus on the key national resources we have that will inspire the next generation of innovators. You look at NASA. NASA is one of our crown jewels. There is a tremendous amount of work going on, not just in the biosciences, but in engineering and multiple areas that is happening at NASA. Taking the focus of science and technology and spreading that further around the world and to our young people, just to inspire them, as when I was a little girl. I grew up when we were in a race to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely by the end of that decade. We need another challenge like that. And that’s something that President Obama might want to think about issuing. And then fully funding it.

Want More from Joan Koerber - Walker?

You can find out more on Joan's background of leadership, success and innovation here.

Follow her on Twitter at

AZBioCEO

JKWINNOVATION

COREPurpose

Read transcripts from our most recent conversation here.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Steps to Regain Our #1 Position for Innovation

Paul R. Williams is the founder of the American Institute for Innovation Excellence.

He also writes the Think for a Change blog.

And, he has authored  2 excellent books on innovation and its execution.

• The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference

• The Innovation Manager's Playbook

He spoke with me last year about his books, his passion for innovation, and the institute he founded: American Institute for Innovation Excellence.

I asked him what thoughts would he offer to President Obama that would help us regain our position as the global leader of innovation.

Ok, so you’ve written some about the importance of imagination in the process of innovation. Let’s imagine...tonight you get a phone call from the 202 area code. It catches you on a good night; you’re willing to be patient with a telemarketer. You answer. It’s President Obama. He saw your site, heard you here on the show. And he’s kinda busy. So he wants your 3 tips, your 3 steps, for America to take to bring us back to being the number one country for innovation. And creating a few jobs along the way might help too.

What do you tell him?

And he returned with an excellent answer:

That’s a good one.

I think number we have to figure out a way to release the money stranglehold and move some money around. That’s really what’s holding the economy back. Businesses aren’t investing any money because the customer is not buying; the customer is not buying because they’re worried about their jobs.

Somehow you have to make the entrepreneur focus on creating and free them from punitive taxation, excessive regulation. Just bring some stability back to the financial system, maybe the political system and take a step back from the quarterly focus.

Ok. There’s stability here. I can make some longer term investments for the future.

We really need to start teaching STEM again in the schools. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. I talk to a lot of people at IBM and GE and they’re in a panic over the lack of qualified replacements for their retiring engineers.

We need to push kids into these scientific type disciplines. We’re really starting to fall behind in that. We need to get past the touchy-feely type stuff taught in schools.

We really need that national BHAG or Big Hairy Audacious Goal from the Collins model. What’s our 21st century moonshot? What’s the thing that gets the nation all behind the innovation and experimentation and challenges to technology. There’s really nothing out there right now we could all get behind and focus our energy and resources. That would be a big step.

Want More from Paul R. Williams?

You can find out more of Paul R. Williams' thoughts on innovation when we spoke recently.

• Read transcripts from our conversation here.

• Listen to our conversation here.

• Read his blog

• Follow him on Twitter

Buy his books

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests.

And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

President Obama: 3 Tips to Avoid The Dangers of Being Overconnected

Bill Davidow has been a high-technology industry executive and a venture investor for more than 30 years. He continues to act as an active advisor to Mohr Davidow Ventures, a venture capital firm

In his latest book, Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet , he explains how the almost miraculous success of the Internet has also engendered a unique set of hazards and challenges for government, social institutions, business, and economies.

In Overconnected, Davidow meticulously — and counter-intuitively — anatomizes how overconnectivity can create systems with excessive amounts of positive feedback, making those systems extremely volatile, accident prone, and subject to contagion.

I loved the book. I found his presentation was...meticulous, concise loaded with examples of companies and even countries who suffered from excessive amounts of positive feedback...And while I initially disagreed with his premise, by the end of our conversation he showed me our common ground.

I asked him about the power and threat of being overconnected and its role in our nation's current challenges.

We’ve reached the imagination moment in the show. Being a venture capitalist you have been exposed to imaginative enterprises, so this may be the best part of the show.

Let's imagine President Obama calls you right after we finish. He says:

David, I'm sorry I missed you at my dinner out in Silicon Valley a few weeks ago. Mark and Steve are so pushy, I had to give them those seats next to me. But look, I got elected from the power of connections. But now in power, I'm a little ambivalent. Still, we're a fractured country. How do we realize the promise of the internet in being connected and avoid the dangers of being overconnected.

What are three things our country can do and come on up to DC and I'll take you to dinner next time your in DC.

And Bill answers:

I’m afraid President Obama wouldn’t like my answers. One of the things I would point out to him is that the internet enables you to arbitrage everything.

And of course that’s an exaggeration.

But a slight difference in wages and you can arbitrage it. A slight difference in policy and you can arbitrage it or taxes and you can arbitrage it. I don’t like the financial regulation in the US and I’ll go operate where they don’t have those regulations. I don’t like the labor laws in Iowa, I’ll go elsewhere.

I would say to President Obama that:

Suddenly we’ve gotten into a world where we have to be competitive in everything we do.

We cannot tolerate any inefficiencies whether it’s in government or business or education.

We can’t afford to run a grade-school system and then have the high-school act as a backup.

And connectivity is forcing us into an extremely competitive world where we’re all having to do our best every single day.

And, I don’t think the US has faced up to that today.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run.

And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

Want More from Bill Davidow?

• Read transcripts of our conversation here.

• Listen to our conversation here.

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his books.

President Obama: 3 Ways to Create a Culture of Recognition

Derek Irvine is the co-author of Winning with A Culture of Recognition: Recognition Strategies at the World's Most Admired Companies. He is also VP - Client Strategy and Consulting at Globoforce who delivers truly global strategic employee recognition and reward programs guaranteed to increase employee engagement by double digits.

I asked him what his thoughts would be if President Obama called and asked for his thoughts on what could be done to create a culture of recognition here in the U.S.

I asked him:

We’ve reached the Imagination moment in the show. Let’s imagine President Obama is on line 3 at your office right. He’s calling you in Dublin. He’s holding. He’s holding because he sees if we’re to reclaim our leadership role in innovation, make this the year of small business, we need to create a culture of recognition within our country. He invites you up to the White House. You and Eric. You sit down in the Oval Office. And he asks you:

Guys, what are three things we can do now to create a culture of recognition in this country? Move us so far out in front, no one will ever touch us.

What do you tell him?

And Derek answered:

Well, that’s certainly an imaginative question. President Obama ringing me would be an exciting thing.

You said three things.

First of all I’d ask what does a winning culture look like? Let’s establish those values.

Then once we’ve got that set up, then let’s communicate those values. Let’s ask every American employee to spot those values. Describe when they see those values when they see them being done. Let’s have the employees celebrate those values when they see them being done. Then when they see those values celebrated then they tend to do more of them.

The third thing we have to do to complete the loop is let’s report on how we’re doing. Let’s have a White House Executive Dashboard. That’s something we typically do for a client. Let’s see which part of America are living out those values. And which part might need some more help. Which part can be exemplary centers for us to learn.

Let’s define the values we want to find.

Let’s communicate them and encourage every American to celebrate them.

Let’s report on them. See the metric. The metric signals throughout the country how we’re living those values.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

Want More from Derek Irvine?

• Read more transcripts from our conversation here.

• Listen to our conversation here.

• Read his blog.

• Follow him on Twitter.

• Buy the book.

President Obama: 3 Tips to Become a Liquid Leader

Brad Szollose has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience. That makes Brad no stranger to the Boardroom – during the Dot Com Era of the early 90′s, Brad co-founded K2 Design, Inc. which later raised over $7 million through private placement and an IPO. Brad’s tenure at K2 was explosive – the company experienced 425% growth for 5 straight years, expanded from 2 business partners to 4$26 million. and expanded to 60+ employees and offices worldwide.

Over the past 15 years, Brad observed a startling change in corporate America.augmented reality. This 24/7 connected, early adopter to anything technology driven has created a whole new divide, in which more and more young people are growing up as Digital Natives – comfortable using technology as their primary resource to do business – while the established older generation of Baby Boomers are using technology as their secondary resource.

And he authored a wonderful, inspiring, insightful response on this challenge of leadership today.

That book is Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia - Multigenerational Management Ideas That Are Changing the Way We Run Things

He generously agreed to spend an hour talking about his book, his insights and his solutions. As a country we see a bit of turmoil among our institutions and the leadership models they embrace.

I asked him:

Ok, so now is the imagination part of the show. Let’s imagine...an email from President Obama awaits you. And it includes an invitation to the Oval Office...He’s read your book. President Obama wants you to help him become a more liquid leader. What are three things he can do before his next State of the Union address to be a more liquid leader?

And Brad answered:

He needs to realize he is about to go down in history as either the greatest president in our history or the worst.

One of the principles of liquid leadership is you have to tell the truth. Mr. President you have to stop trying to make everybody happy and tell the truth. The system needs to be upgraded and reinvented.

The 2nd thing is he has to tell people that the model we have been working with for the past 150 years doesn’t work. We can no longer work for the 20th century. We’re in the 21st century where things move much more dynamically. You can’t expect one group to pay for everybody.

The 3rd thing is he has to lead with strength and determination and the sense of re-invention; he has to wear it instead of giving it lip service. Now, we have to see the example. We’re waiting.

If things don’t change, then Gen-Y will be the first generation to march to Washington DC and opt out of social security. They will tell the President "it is a ponzi scheme. We are the first generation to say we don’t want anything to do with it."

What do you think?

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.  That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

Want More from Brad Szollose?

• Read transcripts of our conversation here.

• Listen to our conversation here.

• Read his blog.

• Follow him on Twitter.

• Buy his book.