Problem Solved: Business Meets Lateral Thinking with Paul Sloane
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2023
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paul Sloane's always been interested in lateral thinking puzzles and has written international best sellers on the subject. He shares how he's translated those methods into solving problems in the business world. A professional who's helped busy executives with creativity and innovation in their companies for over fifteen years, he describes some of his methods to raise the bar for leadership and problem solving. Listen and learn
- How lateral thinking starts with approaching problems from the side,
- Examples of his 12 "great ways to innovate,"
- Why corporate culture provides little incentive to innovate and how he advises to change that, and
- Some of the most interesting puzzles he's faced in the corporate world.
Author, speaker, and innovator Paul Sloane explains his cutting-edge approach to business problems and solutions for listeners with concrete examples and the philosophy behind what he does. It all starts with countering the staid habit of vertical thinking. That's where "you build block on block on block, and that's fine. But lateral means coming at the problem from the side. It means finding a new and fresh and different approach to the problem," says Sloane. He says that's how great leaps, like our modern grocery shopping system, have evolved.
Unfortunately, he says that corporate culture is often works against innovation, mostly at the middle level when goals are geared toward meeting one's numbers rather than risk taking that might not pan out. Sloane has numerous methods to address these, from brainstorming groups to creativity training. "Everyone can be more creative than they think. Everyone started out as creative. Kids are terrifically creative," he says and he discusses how he helps to revive that creativity within corporate walls.
Listen in to find out more about his effective ideas.
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Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Forget frequently asked questions. |
| 0:02.3 | Common sense. |
| 0:03.2 | Common knowledge. |
| 0:04.1 | Or Google. |
| 0:04.8 | How about advice from a real genius? |
| 0:06.9 | 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified in license. |
| 0:11.3 | 5% go above and beyond. |
| 0:13.2 | They become very good at what they do. |
| 0:14.9 | But only 0.1% are real geniuses. |
| 0:18.2 | Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. |
| 0:22.3 | He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field, sleep science, cancer, stem cells, |
| 0:27.1 | ketogenic diets, and more. |
| 0:28.7 | Here come the geniuses. |
| 0:30.3 | This is the Finding Genius podcast with Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:37.3 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius podcast, now part of Jacob's. |
| 0:42.8 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius podcast, now part of the Finding Genius Foundation. |
| 0:45.2 | My guest today is a very interesting person. |
| 0:48.1 | Paul Sloan is an author, a speaker, and an innovator. |
| 0:51.8 | We're going to talk about 12 great ways to innovate and think like an innovator. |
| 0:58.1 | His website is destinationinnovation.com, and there's a hyphen between them, so Destination hyphen Innovation.com. |
| 1:00.3 | And Paul helps busy executives facing, you know, pretty much an impossible challenge to innovate |
| 1:05.3 | their way to improving their organizations. |
... |
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