Creative Confidence Podcast

Learn about how play gives us permission to dream and diverge, think outside the box, and discover solutions to unprecedented problems with Michelle Lee, Managing Director at IDEO and Instructor of our newest Creative Thinking for Complex Solving course.

What makes a good insight? Learn about how to make customer research impactful with Arianna McClain, Head of Research & Insights at Cruise.

Learn about what makes a good strategy with Roger Martin, strategy advisor and bestselling author. https://ideo.in/roger

Learn design tools for testing value propositions, how to understand willingness to pay, and how to uncover insights to help finetune your value proposition. View the full recap at: ideo.in/angel-annunciacao

Learn how to create a remote influence plan from Sacha Connor, Founder of Virtual Work Insider. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/sacha

Learn how to use data to uncover opportunities for innovation and better understand people and problems from Bo Peng, Senior Portfolio Director of Data Science at IDEO. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/bo

Why leading change always starts with people, and tools you can try to make people the catalysts for change. View the full recap at https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration

Learn a framework for identifying bias, prejudice and bullying and choosing a response; tools leaders can use to disrupt bias; and ways to be an upstander at work. View the show notes, transcript and recap at https://ideo.in/kimscott

The 3 foundational elements of belonging, and the tools and levers of design you can use to foster it. View the visuals and resources discussed in this episode at https://ideo.in/susie

How organizations can shift toward more customer centricity, and why it starts with employee health. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/leslie

Tips for how leaders can tap into creativity to solve today's biggest challenges from IDEO Co-Chair Tim Brown. View the full recap at https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration

Insights on creating inspiring educational experiences from Kai Frazier, Founder and CEO of edtech startup Kai XR. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/kai

Why workplace friendships are important, tips for making friends at work, and how to deepen connections with better conversations. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog

Lessons on different types of motivators, what behavioral science can teach us about motivation, and the importance of intrinsic motivators in the workplace. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/beworks

Tips on designing for uncomfortable conversation topics like sex, mental health, personal finance, and addiction from women's health entrepreneur Kerry O'Connor. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

IDEO U's Nusrat Ahmed and Coe Leta Stafford share 4 inclusive design mindsets and why they're an important part of any designer's toolkit. View the full recap at https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-to-get-started-with-inclusive-design

Strategy is often portrayed as a thinking exercise—a set of decisions and plans made by a small group. But strategy is brought to life by the people in every part of an organization every day. Engaging the people critical to both creating and activating your strategy is an element missing from most strategy approaches. In our new course, Activating Strategy, you'll learn how to make more informed choices by getting tangible and running small tests, assess your resources and readiness to ensure your strategy is actionable, and scale and sustain your organization's ability to support strategy across functions, departments, and teams. No matter where you sit in your organization or what strategy frameworks or processes you use—this course can help you ensure your teams have the shared understanding, alignment, and conditions they need to move confidently from strategy to action.

Jennifer Riel, IDEO's Global Director of Strategy, shares the 7 common strategy myths and how to make your strategy more actionable. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/jennifer

In times of turbulence, uncertainty or stress, it can be difficult to tap into the creativity needed to do your best work. SYPartners and kyu Collective Founder Keith Yamashita says those are the times it's most impactful to have a reservoir of inspiration to pull from. In this conversation with Keith, we talk about rituals and tactics you can try to find inspiration individually, in duos and in teams. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Erica Keswin, author of Rituals Roadmap, shares the business case for rituals in the workplace and the key elements behind a ritual. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/erica

Tara Tan, General Partner and Investor at IDEO Creative Capital, joined us to share three themes she's seeing emerge in the world of web3 and how to apply those ideas to your business, whether you're in the digital space or not. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/tara

You've got tons of compelling data to prove out your strategic choices. Now, the challenge is how to go from boring charts and numbers to a story that will move your stakeholders and build alignment around a way forward. IDEO Partner and Executive Director Justin Massa shares how the combination of data and storytelling can overcome strategic roadblocks, with stories from IDEO's work in the healthcare, automobile, and finance industries. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

IDEO Senior Portfolio Director Katie Soven shares why orienting your team around outcomes is more effective than checking off a list of tasks. This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. Listen to the full episode with Katie and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: ideo.in/well-said-katie

Wonderschool CEO and Co-founder Chris Bennett talks about giving his team the freedom and support to approach problems in their own way. This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. Listen to the full episode with Chris and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-chris

Michelle Lee, a managing director leading IDEO's Design for Play team, tells us how to create a magic circle and why removing constraints is so powerful in helping your team come up with wild new ideas. This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. Listen to the full episode with Michelle and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: ideo.in/well-said-michelle

Serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Brit Morin shares advice for inspiring a team by nurturing individual needs, creating psychological safety, and giving people meaningful work. This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. Listen to the full episode with Brit and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: ideo.in/well-said-brit

IDEO Senior Portfolio Director Dwayne Edwards shares an activity leaders can try to encourage their team to tap into the power of intuition. This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. Listen to the full episode with Dwayne and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: ideo.in/well-said-dwayne

Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei and IDEO Senior Design Director Lauren Collins share advice for inclusive leadership, encouraging participation, and giving attribution. This episode revisits one of our favorite moments on the Creative Confidence Podcast around the theme of enabling leaders to bring out the best in their team. Listen to the full episode with Frances and Lauren and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: ideo.in/well-said-lauren-and-frances

IDEO's Steve Schwall and Jan Rod share stories of projects in the transportation and mobility world, techniques they rely on to create future-forward products and experiences, and how low-fidelity prototyping unlocks new ideas in highly complex industries. View the full recap at ideo.in/steve-and-jan

Why it's good for business to bring emotions into the workplace, and skills and mindsets to manage our most difficult emotions. View the full recap at ideo.in/lizandmollie

Learn what businesses can do to address climate change with Maria Fujihara, Founder & CEO of SINAI Technologies, and Gabe Kleinman, Head of Portfolio Services at Obvious Ventures. View the full recap at https://ideo.in/maria-and-gabe.

Learn how to use sprints to work smart and upskill with Isabela Sa Glaister, Senior Director of Product Design at IDEO U. View the full recap at ideo.in/isabela.

In our 5-week online course, Human-Centered Systems Thinking, you'll: - Gain techniques for mapping complex systems and identifying the root causes of a problem. - Establish a shared view of the system and reframe problems from different perspectives to uncover new solutions. - Find the right problems to solve and pick the best solutions to experiment with. - Deepen your understanding of your organizational systems by taking an iterative approach to testing solutions and gaining insights. Learn more: ideou.com/systems

We talked with Dabney Hailey, founder and principal of Hailey Group, about the Visual Thinking Strategies (or VTS) method, why it works, how to bring elements of it into your daily practice, and why leaders should shift to the facilitative leadership style this method teaches. Read the recap at ideou.com/blog.

Human-centered systems thinking is an approach to problem solving that helps you see the interconnectedness of things while also staying grounded in the needs of your stakeholders. Deirdre Cerminaro, IDEO senior director and IDEO U instructor, shares IDEO's approach to systems thinking. Get tools, mindsets and examples you can apply to your own work to help you surface more impactful solutions. View the full recap at ideo.in/deirdre.

Learn how being a generalist can lead to career success with David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Learn how to incorporate improv techniques into your presentations for greater impact and engagement in this conversation with Caricia Catalani, Senior Design Director at Pear Therapeutics. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Google Group Creative Director Brandon Viney shares how to use what inspires you to find your creative identity. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

What creative muscle do you want to flex this year? Work toward your goals with one of eight IDEO U courses starting in January. Listen for a gift to apply to your purchase.

Chris Wilson, social entrepreneur and author of The Master Plan, shares the importance of believing yourself. This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast. Listen to the full episode with Chris and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-chris

Designing Strategy instructor and best-selling author Roger Martin explains how your strategic choices shape where your organization is now and where you'll end up down the road. This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast. Listen to the full episode with Roger and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-roger

Sacha Connor, founder and CEO of consultancy Virtual Work Insider, argues that snacks are not culture. She says values and behaviors shape culture, especially in a remote world. This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast. Listen to the full episode with Sacha and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-sacha

Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of The Aesthetics of Joy, helps us connect with physical feelings of joy in this 2-minute exercise. This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast. Listen to the full episode with Ingrid and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-ingrid

Michelle Lee, a managing director in IDEO's Play Lab, embraces how mixed influences led her down a winding, joyful career path. This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast. Listen to the full episode with Michelle and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-michelle

In this episode, IDEO's Lauren Collins and Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei discuss how to level up your leadership practice by honing the skills and mindsets needed to empower your team and organization. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

How did Wonderschool CEO and Co-founder Chris Bennett go from a spark of an idea to a venture-backed business? In this episode, Chris takes us inside his human-centered process for building a business. Chris shares about building empathy with his customers, prototyping the business model, finding the right sales channels, guiding a team, and staying inspired and connected to the mission. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Mentor Moment is a series where we help a listener with a work challenge. In this episode, Heather Currier Hunt, IDEO's executive talent director and global head of learning and development, gives Kahtleen some ideas for ways she can onboard several new team members and set the stage for a collaborative and successful team dynamic. Learn more about Heather at https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-currier-hunt-b114833a/. Are you struggling with a work challenge and wish you could get some words of wisdom from someone who's been there? We'd love to help! Go to ideou.com/podcast and find details on how to share your story in the show notes for this episode.

Joe Brown, Executive Director at IDEO, explains how to use three different frameworks to approach change in your organization.

In order to maintain momentum and reach their goals, teams need to shift gears several times throughout a project. Project leaders are responsible for sensing the team's need to shift and guiding them through these moments. Katie Soven, senior portfolio director at IDEO, shares how to maintain team momentum through complexity by shifting modes, the cycle of inhale and exhale in project work, and a framework for project leaders to know when and how to make a shift. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

If you're wondering where to start with strategic planning, pause for a minute before getting into tactical ideas or writing a hundred-page strategic plan of action. Focus on identifying your strategic problem first. Strategy advisor Roger Martin shares common mistakes people make in the early stages of strategic planning and how to avoid them, ways to think creatively about your strategic problem, and how to frame a question to guide your thinking. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

With 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur and CEO, Brit Morin has learned a lot about what it takes to get an idea off the ground and how to inspire and lead a team. In this episode, she shares stories from the early days of her startup Selfmade, lessons on human-centered leadership, ways women are uniquely suited to excel as entrepreneurs, and skills she says are often under-valued but closely tied to entrepreneurial success. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog