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]]>Well if it were just ten years ago, I would be waiting in line to buy my Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens movie ticket that comes out three months from now. The Internet made it so I could skip
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Hollywood lines for the 1977 opening of the original Star Wars. |
the lines and buy my tickets at a Los Angeles ArcLight Cinemas theater, in my car, on the traffic-snarled 101 freeway. Even then it wasn’t easy as I searched fifteen different shows trying to find an assigned seat not in the first two rows. Mission was accomplished during my 52 minute commute.
Ticket sales were so brisk that it literally broke the internet (or parts of it). The Star Wars trailer is to the Internet what the Death Star is to Alderaan, crashing Fandango and Movietickets.com shortly after tickets were released. A couple of days ago, Imax reported $6.5 million in U.S. and Canadian advance ticket sales. This absolutely crushes box office numbers set by other highly anticipated hit films. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Avengers all raked in about $1 million each in similar sales.
Call me a nerd or a dork or whatever. Opening day for the seventh installment of Star Wars is an epic event (barely surpassing my South Korean movie opening [ha!]).
I’ll be there opening day. And why wouldn’t I? I mean listen to Han Solo (around the 1:11 mark) and the chills start in your ankles and climb up to your neck:
“It’s true.
All of it.
The dark side.
The Jedi.
They’re real.”
All this Star Wars talk and Internet breakage got me wondering about innovation. Innovation for the your life. Innovation for the workplace. Innovation from your staff. Getting your people to contribute more to your organization while simultaneously establishing stronger talent retention must cost a pretty penny, right? Not really, says corporate coach Maxine Attong.
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Want to know more? Buy the book! |
“You don’t necessarily need to add expensive new ingredients to the stew, you just have to know how to use your ingredients better,” she says. “A talented chef – or in this case, corporate or organizational leader – knows how to let an ingredient speak for itself, perhaps with just a touch of seasoning, or guidance.”
What is the guidance – competition or incentives such as bonuses? Not exactly.
“Most employees want to have more input,” says Attong, a certified facilitator and author of Lead Your Team to Win: Achieve Optimal Performance By Providing A Safe Space For Employees. “However, personal issues, fear of being laughed at or anxiety of not getting credit can stymie contributions from a leader’s staff.”
If a leader can engender a real sense of trust, the organization will benefit both from the individual and the team’s ingenuity. A reliable way of establishing a trusting climate is to make team members feel safe, says Attong, who offers five steps for doing so.
“I assume all team members have good intentions and want a positive outcome,” Attong says. “Even though what I am hearing may be contrary to that assumption, I hold on to the thought so that I am able to fully understand what the member is saying before I react.”
When listening this way, the leader delays having a reaction and has time to assess the situation before responding. When the leader has emotionally detached from the situation, he can then ask questions to clarify the situation.
Want your own Star Wars? Buy the book!
Other things I discovered this week…
The death and life of the great British pub
Across the country, pubs are being shuttered at an alarming rate – scooped up by developers and ransacked for profit – changing the face of neighborhoods and turning our beloved locals into estate agents, betting shops, and luxury flats. This is the story of how one pub fought back.
What It’s Like to Vacation in North Korea? Look no further:
THE MANAGERS HAVE BEEN ZAPPED
The New Republic goes inside a radical experiment at Zappos, in Las Vegas, to end the office workplace as we know it.
AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Do You Know What Your Marketing Is Doing? | Adobe Marketing Cloud
What better way to celebrate the success of The Martian than an with the ultimate brand fail set around a space launch commercial?
The brand represented in the “Do You Know What Your Marketing Is Doing?” spot by Adobe Marketing Cloud and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is AstroBoost, an energy drink you’ve never heard of. The spot brilliantly showcases that advertising doesn’t have to be rocket science. Take a peak:
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