I was very pleasantly surprised to see so many companies re-engage in expressing their sense of humor this April 1st, after a 2-year pause.  

For your amusement, here are some of the best humorous campaigns that were unveiled:

https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/april-fools-day-2022-butterfinger-mayo-invisible-earbuds-and-other-jokes/

And here is T-Mobile’s prank, which has consistently been a leading April Fools activists:

https://www.androidpolice.com/t-mobile-april-fools-new-magenta/

Beyond making you smile, such humor has serious, strategic benefits.  Often the seeds of break-through ideas are hidden in humor.  Therefore, as you browse through these examples, ask yourself:  

What 'absurd' ideas do they trigger for expanding your customer’s experience to a whole new level of relevance and enrichment?

#humor #aprilfools #leadership #businesstransformation #creativity

One of the core tenets of the Slingshot Framework is taking advantage of the Innovation Shortcut. The shortcut enables us to seek out and forge new combinations of traditionally separate components, thereby creating unprecedented customer value while minimizing resource needs. This approach is especially important in time of crisis, when resources are more scarce.

Do you want a great example? Look no further than the Media Nuns. Sisters Orianne Pietra René, 31, and Danielle Lussier, 38 are nuns in the convent of the Daughters of St Paul in Boston. They also happen to be popular TikTok personalities, their posts having generated over 22 million views. Say what?

Yes, indeed. And the secret of their success is disarmingly blending religious content with mirth and frolic. The result is a refreshing, amusing take on convent life and spiritual education. It is also a fresh, highly cost-effective way to leverage social media for introducing religion to young generations. Combining the amplification power of new technology with the message of an ancient institution. Fusing together humor with religion to make it relevant and current. The innovation shortcut in action.

https://www.tiktok.com/tag/medianuns?lang=en

#humor #innovation #creativity #religion #medianuns

I am looking forward to being part of the Dubai Knowledge Summit again, taking place this week. The 2022 theme is ‘Protecting Humanity and the Planet’, and I am pleased to be doing the kick-off virtual session on Wednesday, March 16.

The session will be a high-energy discussion around the topic of “Effective leadership during Crisis: Transforming cultures and driving innovation.”, with Rima Najjar - Al Arabiya, John Metselaar – The Conference Board, and Dan Wong – MTR Corp.

Event details: https://mbrf.ae/knowledgesummit/en/about-the-summit

#Dubai #DubaiKnowledgeSummit #Leadership #Innovation #Transformation

I am looking forward to speaking at Holocon 2022 @Holos Change next week, among a great assembly of leadership experts: https://adobe.ly/3hkfME7. 

The theme of the conference is Leadership in a World of Disruption, and my topic will be ‘Mastering Creating Transformation – Finding Your Blue Waters’.

If you are a leadership development professional looking to be inspired, enhance your knowledge and be a part of a great conversation, I invite you to join us.

For more details: https://holoschange.com/events/holocon2022/

#holocon2022 #disruption #transformation #leadership #innovation #creativity

Here’s a mental exercise in unconventional thinking. Let your mind wander to the most absurd frontiers of your future strategic options. Then gradually reel them back until they are just within the realm of possible. Finally, think about how to actually accomplish them.

As a comic example of re-imagining boundaries, seizing the absurd, and seeing opportunity where others see limitations, consider the story of a famous Hungarian writer who was living in Paris in the early 1900’s in typical artistic poverty. One day he saw a petition from a wealthy French businessman looking to learn Cantonese. Without speaking a word of Cantonese but able to convincingly fake it, he got the job. In the process, he bravely overstepped his own glaring limitation, which was his inability to speak the very language his client desired to learn.

During two years of intensive tutoring that followed, a complete, made-up language was fabricated by the writer and perfected between the two of them, thereby creating the least spoken tongue in linguistic history. After the second year, confident of having mastered the language, the Frenchman finally left for an extended business trip to China. His arrival and initial conversations there must have been quite interesting.

#unconventionalthinking #strategy #businesstransformation #innovation #disruption