Josh Linkner's Blog, page 4

The Stone Cutter’s Quest for More

There was once a stonecutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.

One day he passed a wealthy merchant’s house. Through the open gateway, he saw many fine possessions and important visitors. “How powerful that merchant must be!” thought the stone cutter. He became very envious and wished that he could be like the merchant.

To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined, but envied and detested by thos...

There’s Always an Alternative

There are few projects more complex, difficult, and expensive than rebuilding a gate at an existing airport. Inoperable during construction, gate closures create huge losses for airlines. Further, doing the construction work in a live airport setting is especially tricky for the craftspeople working the project. Often toiling away in the middle of the night to avoid passenger crowds, these projects tend to run especially long since they can’t use most of the daylight hours. Upgrading a gate can ...

When Traditions Should Change

I had the great honor to deliver a keynote speech this past Sunday on Northern Michigan’s beautiful Mackinac Island. Sweeping vistas. Historic homes. Unpolluted air. It’s right out of a storybook, but there is one tradition that is long-overdue for a change.

There are no cars on the island, which is pretty darn cool. Fun fact: the island has the only public roads in America where automobiles are forbidden. So what could be wrong with this idyllic picture? The only ground transportation comes fr...

Creating the Perfect Circle (a Zen Proverb)

One day a small boy was playing near the river when he saw an old man with a long beard seated in the sand. The boy moved closer and watched as the old man drew a perfect circle into the sand.

“Hey, old man, how did you draw such a perfect circle?” asked the boy.

The old man looked at the boy and said, “I don’t know, I just tried, and tried again…here, you try.”

The old man handed the stick to the boy and walked away. The boy began drawing circles in the sand. At first his circles came out too w...

Two Danger Traps That Can Derail Your Growth

Whether you run a two-person graphic design shop or a 200,000-person global manufacturing conglomerate, you’re likely craving growth. We all do. Expansion fuels profits, serves customers, drives share price, and impacts the world. Through building five companies of my own and helping at least 100 others scale, I’ve seen two repeating growth traps that have stunted many organizations. Keep an eye out for these obstacles in your organization, in order to accelerate growth and mitigate risk:

1. The...

Duct Tape and a Paperclip

From the time I saw MacGyver use candlesticks, an extension cord, and a rubber mat to create an improvised defibrillator to save a man’s life, I was hooked on the show. Whether it was creating a makeshift bazooka out of a muffler, gear shift knob, seat cushion stuffing, and a cigarette lighter to escape a car chase or the time he used a magnifying lens, watch crystal, and a newspaper to craft a telescope, MacGyver has long been one of my all-time heroes.

Unlike Sylvester Stallone’s aggrieved sol...

Want Fresh Ideas? Try This.

In these competitive and uncertain times, most of us long for that bold, fresh idea that will shake things up and drive meaningful progress. Yet great new ideas can feel harder to find than a five-leaf clover. We stare at the same problem – with the same set of eyes and the same perspective – and then wonder why our ideas fall short.

To shake things up, I love using a simple technique that I simply call The Different Lens. As the name suggests, the tactic involves generating solutions from the p...

A Simple Way to De-Risk Innovation

We know that embracing innovation is the only way to grow and win over the long term, but it sure can feel risky and overwhelming. This is often because we overemphasize idea generation while skipping the most important step in the process: experimentation. Most of us think:

Step 1: Generate an idea

Step 2: Widespread implementation

Step 3: Grit our teeth and hope it works, or horrible stuff will happen

No wonder we’re scared of trying new things when the stakes are that high. If an untested ide...

Three Little Big Ideas

We are unquestionably living in a landscape of overwhelming VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and uncertainty).  In other words, we find ourselves in batshit-crazy times.  The only way to fight back: inventive thinking.  Here are three real-world examples of bold creativity in action, leveraging the hottest tech trends of our day:

(1) LASER BEAM SHOOTING DRONES

Plagued with 125-degree heat, the folks at the National Center of Meteorology in Dubai have discovered a whole new definition ...

WARNING: These 17 Questions Will Result in Dangerously High Levels of Creativity

What is this thing made of?What’s missing?What was the thinking and context that led to its initial creation?Why did this work in the past?What’s different today?How has the customer’s or user’s (internal or external) needs changed since this was originally conceived?What are the core rules, truisms, traditions or beliefs that are currently holding this together that could be challenged?Where else in the world does a similar problem or pattern exist?What technical advances have emerged ...