Josh Linkner's Blog, page 7

This Dish Isn’t Very Good

As consumers, we’re besieged with puffery. Brands shout at us, boasting they have New York’s #1 pizza, the world’s best coffee, America’s favorite car, or the best blue jeans in the universe. But these hollow claims fall flat with our exceptionally well-developed BS detectors.

In sharp contrast, one creative restaurateur took the opposite approach. The owner of Aunt Dai’s Chinese Restaurant in Montreal prefers a more brutally honest approach. Listed next to each item on the menu are ‘owner’s com...

What Everyday Innovators Can Learn From Fresh Salsa

Words like ‘innovation’ and ‘disruption’ can feel overwhelming and out of reach. Too often, we think an idea must change the world or have a billion-dollar value in order to count.

Instead of establishing an impossibly high minimum threshold, let’s think of innovation more like fresh, delicious salsa: mild, medium, and spicy. A flavor option for each of us.

Let’s start with the spicy version – INNOVATION (all caps). This is the big stuff, the world-changing inventions we celebrate in the media. ...

Innovation Swapping

Behind only water, concrete is the second-most used material on our planet. It’s low cost, durable, and beneficial in a variety of construction applications. As our population continues to swell, demand is expected to skyrocket. But there’s a problem.

As useful as concrete may be, the production of this sturdy material is responsible for eight percent of the world’s total emissions. To make matters worse, the water needed to make concrete each year is enough to fill a million Olympic-sized swimm...

Boost Results With Rule 105

In our professional lives, our days consist of delivering value in one form or another. Depending on your craft, your deliverables may take the form of a research report, sales presentation, prospecting outreach, email response, customer interaction, financial model or legal brief. Or maybe you build handmade wooden furniture, corned beef sandwiches, or industrial drill presses. Regardless of chosen profession, we’re all in the business of delivering work-product of one kind or another.

With the...

What We Can Learn From The Relics of the Past

I tend to get reflective at the start of each new year. I was thinking how different our lives were just 10 years ago, and those differences were striking:

Ten years ago, we still thought Zoom was a verb. Plastic straws seemed totally fine, and teenagers smoked instead of vaped. There was no DoorDash, Shipt, GrubHub or Instacart; no Uber or Lyft. Alexa was just someone’s name, and a ‘connected’ home meant you lived in a multi-family building. Same-sex marriages were illegal in most states, and s...

Let It Go

Queen Elsa, the lead character in Disney’s smash hit Frozen, was haunted by her past. As the plot unfolds, she gains the courage to let go of her previously held beliefs in order to break free and discover her true self, culminating in one of the movie’s most memorable songs, Let it Go.

As we enter 2021, I can’t think of a better mantra for us all to embrace. 2020 was a time of upheaval, disaster, and crisis. From the pandemic that claimed too many lives and rocked our economy to a level of poli...

The Innovative Connection Between a Children’s Hospital and the Ferrari F-1 Pit Crew

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is one of London’s most respected healthcare institutions. Despite their long history of success, hospital leaders wanted to explore new ways to improve patient safety and decrease medical errors. In their efforts to deliver the best possible outcomes, they turned to a surprising source of inspiration.

It turns out that many healthcare errors occur during transitions, such as transporting a patient into surgery. In rapidly changing, high stakes momen...

A Powerful Lesson from Netflix’s ‘Queen’s Gambit’

One of the few truly great things to come from the Pandemic Age is Netflixs incredible new mini-series, The Queens Gambit. The show tells the story of Beth Harmon (brilliantly portrayed by actress Anya Taylor-Joy), who transforms from orphan to world champion chess master. The binge-worthy show was so gripping that within four weeks, it had been watched by 62 million households, becoming the most-watched scripted mini-series in Netflixs history.

Ive always been fascinated with the game of...

What Yoda Got Wrong

One of the most famous quotations cited ad nauseam by business leaders, parents, and gym teachers happens to be dead wrong. Yoda, the sage Jedi master, professes thoughtful and inspired wisdom and is admired by millions as a limitless source of meaningful insights. In fact, some of his quotations are among my all-time favorites including:

Truly wonder, the mind of a child is.  from Attack of the Clones, 2002
Fear is the path to the dark side fear leads to anger anger leads to hate hate leads...

Getting in Alignment

This past week, I began a four-month endeavor. Regrettably, it isn’t a grand effort to combat climate change or eradicate social injustice. Like millions of others, I decided to use modern technology to align my teeth with the hopes of improving my slightly crooked smile and boosting dental health. The aligner company’s process has me wearing plastic aligners around the clock, except for short breaks when eating. It is a calculated, thoughtful plan designed to get my teeth in proper alignment.

T...