171: Sparking Success | Adam Kingl

The Leadership Enigma

Adam Kingl is a global educator, keynote speaker and author of 'Sparking Success - Why every leader needs to develop a creative mindset.'
Adam highlights that as technology evolves exponentially, management and leadership has been fairly stagnant for decades. People require their leaders to be a force for good in the world and all leaders are work in progress.
About 5 years ago Adam saw 2 independent pieces of research. One (from BCG) which stated that CEO's of top 200 global companies listed the need for innovation and creativity as one of their top 3 priorities 79% of the time. However, another piece of research (McKinsey) studied the rank and file and asked how good their organisations were at innovation and creativity and 94% stated that they were awful at it. As a result, Adam asked himself a question. 'Is there a larger gap in corporate life today between aspiration and reality? This began the birth of 'Sparking Success!
Adam's research began by exploring neuroscience in order to understand behaviour change. The brain is the most energy using component of our body and has different brain states from deep sleep to hyper focus and each of those states are measured in hertz and so Adam explains what it means for us to be 'in flow.' In order for us to be creative and innovative we have to train the brain and practice the skillset on a regular basis, just as we would train our muscles.
Sparking Success focuses predominantly on a number of creative industries which reflects Adam's original career and passion for theatre.
He explored Jazz and quotes Thelonious Monk who said 'there are no wrong notes' which is an excellent metaphor for our historic fear of failure in organisations. Leaders who are good at creativity explained to Adam that all their original ideas originated from bad ideas which as they explored and developed it became the good idea. Adam also discovered that Jazz musicians biochemically tended to shut down two parts of their brain whilst performing; self judging and social judging so they were in a complete state of acceptance and exploration. This is also why improv teams use 'Yes,And' instead of 'Yes, But.'
Adam also explores the realm of writing and he spoke to the writers of 'Friends.' In the US, a typical sitcom season is 24 episodes and the writers only write a few episodes and then rely on writing simultaneously as the previous episode is aired. One of the Executive producers of 'Friends' ran a team of 12 writers and said that they need 20 mediocre ideas for one good idea to make it into an episode of Friends. His goal was therefore not to pressure the team for a singe good idea but encourage everyone to come up with ideas whatever the quality. He also let others go first to avoid the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) syndrome.
Another area explored was culinary arts as Adam collects cook books. He looked at highly successful chefs who are always trying to create the highest quality but also create the latest and newest culinary innovation. Here is where Adam describes the three C's which corresponds to the investment of time and energy to invent.
Another area of focus for Adam was art and imagery in which the ability to explore new realities is an incredible transferable skills for the corporate leader.
It's time for all leaders to uncover and rediscover humility and curiosity. When working with your teams for new ideas remember to separate out the three tasks of Ideation, Evaluation and Selection.
This episode is packed full of incredible research, insight and learning.
www.adamkingl.com
www.amazon.co.uk/Sparking-Success-Develop-Creative-Mindset/dp/1398609587/
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www.leadersenigma.com

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