Treasure 42 – Values, Innovation, Pirates

Nugget #1 is a wonderful podcast about values. Mike Kaiser presents three exercises to find out our personal values. Some of you may be familiar with the exercise of your own eulogy. But I have never read the task so motivating. Writing the speech from three perspectives (someone from the family, a colleague and a friend) creates a round picture. But also the island game is exciting. The perfect episode to think about your own values in the best weekend weather.
015 Self Guidance: Values – incl. 3 Exercises (26 min, audio, german)

Nugget #2 is about innovation again. Unfortunately, many people have a false image of innovation. You neither have to constantly flash of inspiration nor wait for the one magic moment in which the big idea is born. Greg Satell, who was already represented with an article in Treasure 36, presents three characteristics of innovation. It starts with exploration. The children can already do that (and unfortunately we often train it off again). Alexander Fleming wasn’t looking for penicillin, but stumbled over it by exploration. Secondly, iterations are needed. Read the story of the match. It took several people and attempts until it was a decent product. At the end of the day, of course, the best ideas are of no use if they are not brought to product maturity. Execution is therefore property number three.
Innovation Is Never One Thing (Actually It’s 3 Things) (6 min, text, english)

Nugget #3 is about pirates and might as well have come from me. But the corporate rebels beat me to it. Their article perfectly describes the pirate mindset I made the motto of this blog. The merchant ships of the 18th century are synonymous with today’s larger companies and groups. Even then, shareholder value was obviously in the foreground when the interests of shipowners were paramount. The frustrated pirates broke new ground and formed organizations from which today’s companies can learn.
WHAT 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATIONS CAN LEARN FROM 18TH CENTURY PIRATES (5 min, text, English)