Divergent Thinking, Eliminating Judgement, and the Value of a Bad Idea

Our guest today on the podcast is Jeremy Utley, the Director of Executive Education at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. The Stanford d.school.

Our discussion included:

Jeremy talks about ideas. Where they come from, and how to develop skills to generate more. This is the concept that he describes in his book, written with Perry Klebahn, called “Ideaflow”.

There really isn’t such a thing as a new idea. Our ideas come from a combination of existing thoughts and experiences. Therefore we need more of those which Jeremy likens to Lego blocks.

One way to have more Legos is to intentionally create a network of divergent voices, ones from outside your industry and company.

Jeremy talks about who an esports entrepreneur should be listening to in order to broaden their perspective. He mentions the work of Beau Lotto (his content links are below) who talks about how one of the only areas where human beings seek out uncertainty is play.

Jeremy reviews how he approaches learning himself, and how that can fuel his passion. He wanted to talk with women founders as an example to do just that.

“That was a pretty large inflection point for myself. I have to take responsibility for my own learning.”

How can you get more ideas?

Hear his examples from Malcolm Gladwell and others. To think out of the box, you need to get out of the box.

Being an idea generator is key to your success and Jeremy describes how you can create a team around you of who become an idea-generating machine.

The four stages of creativity are discussed, with the realization that they are often taken out of sequence and that incubation is often given less attention than needed.

Learn why efficiency should not be the goal, but instead entrepreneurs should focus on effectiveness. And how sometimes being productive doesn’t actually look like being productive.

The key cultural orientations have to shift:

1. From efficiency to effectiveness
2. From a solution orientation to a problem orientation
3. From a fixation on answers to the approach of discovering problems

And the discussion leads to judgement: how self-judgement and the judgement of others can hinder the idea generating process. 

“There is an orientation towards I am willing to share bad ideas. Bad ideas that see daylight have the potential to trigger something, trigger creativity in someone else. And it’s worth the risk.”

Episode Webpage: https://www.gamerschangelivespodcast.com/divergent-thinking-eliminating-judgement-and-the-value-of-a-bad-idea

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FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:

Jeremy Utley

Jeremy Utley is one of the world's leading experts in innovation. As the Director of Executive Education at Stanford's renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka "the d.school"), his courses have been experienced by nearly a million students of innovation worldwide. He advises corporate leaders on how to imbed the methods and mindsets of design thinking into their organizations, and works with professionals to cultivate a robust personal creative practice.

As co-host of "Stanford's Masters of Creativity," Jeremy shines the spotlight on exemplars of creative practice across disciplinary boundaries, from entrepreneurs like Randy Hetrick (TRX) to authors like Kim Scott (Radical Candor) and Daniel Pink (Drive, To Sell Is Human) to corporate innovation leaders like Astro Teller (Google X).

A self-proclaimed “recovering MBA, spreadsheet junkie, and management consultant,” he now studies innovation in large enterprises and startups. He advises CEOs and senior leadership teams in the United States, Europe, and Asia on growth and innovation strategy, and has led scores of capacity-building initiatives worldwide.

He's a prolific blogger and podcaster, and is co-author (alongside Perry Klebahn) of “Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters,” published by Penguin Portfolio Oct 25th, 2022.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyutley/

Email:  jeremyutley@gmail.com

Website: https://www.jeremyutley.design/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyutley

Also mentioned in this discussion:

Beau Lotto - Prof of Neuroscience | Author | CEO & Founder at Lab of Misfits | CEO & Founder at Ripple Inc. | TED Speaker | Advisor at Clarion Cannabis The Lab of Misfits https://www.labofmisfits.com/ Check out the fun exercises there.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beaulotto/

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PRODUCTION:

Creator and host: Tom Leonard (USA) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomeleonard/

Producer: Reginald Nsowah (Ghana) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginald-nsowah-09352929/ 

ABOUT THE SHOW:

Play Games. Create Jobs. Change Lives.

This is a show about how to build an esports business from literally anywhere in the world where each week we showcase the journey of esports entrepreneurs and others to learn how they solved a particular problem that everyone will ultimately face.

In Season Two our theme is “Follow the Money”.

I am your host, Tom Leonard. I have a background in entertainment marketing. After working with many amazing esports entrepreneurs from emerging markets, they inspired me to create a show to tell their stories so that others can be motivated to create their own esports business. Gaming and esports can create jobs tackling the problem of global youth unemployment. Creating jobs from playing games. What could be better than that?

Thanks for listening to The Gamers Change Lives Podcast!