Category Archives: Innovation

The Leaders: 3 Lessons from the Girl Scouts

January 20, 2012 – 11:40 am

I was walking to get my morning coffee, when I saw them. Huddled together around a table  with icy noses, their girl sashes gave them away: Girl Scouts.
Though their dedication and frozen faces weakened me to buy 3 boxes of thin mints, it also made me think about the leadership lessons we can learn from these little ladies. In honor of the organization’s 100th Anniversary, here are 3 lessons we can learn from the Girl Scouts:
The Leaders: Lessons from the Girl Scouts
View more presentations from Ja-Naé Duane

What other lessons can we learned from this organization? How you ever been a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout? What leadership skills did it instill into you? We would love to hear from you.
Related Posts
How to Recognize Opportunity
How to Read Body Language
50+ Business and Leadership Quotes

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Business Tools, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Revolutionary Change Cycle

January 3, 2012 – 8:56 am
the revolutionary change cycle

We live in a world of constant change. The events of 2011 have exhibited that all too well. As in life, change comes in cycles: birth, growth, death, and renewal. Understanding these cycles can help us thrive in change, rather than fear it. Though change can be painful, it is a source of creativity, innovation and transformation.
While working on my upcoming book, How to Create a Revolution, I created the Revolutionary Change Cycle. Take a Look:

During my research for the book, I found a transformation system developed by family therapist, Virginia Satir. Divided into five segments, her system illustrates how the family unit can transform the status quo into something new. While not related, it strengthens the correlation of change behavior amongst all group dynamics.
Here’s the deal: Feel free to share. Tweet it, Google +, Facebook it, or post it on your own site. I would love your thoughts.

The Revolutionary Change Cycle by Ja-Nae Duane is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Related Posts:
The Power of Vulnerability
How to Breed a Team of Innovators
How to Recognize Opportunity
What Do You Believe In

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Business Tools, Our Revolution! Project, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

25+ Resources for Creative Thinkers

November 8, 2011 – 9:38 am
creative leadership

Have you ever had a project or deadline in which you had to think of a creative idea to build around? My sister, Samantha, had that same exact problem this weekend. She had been pondering for hours what to do her class project on. When I finally talked to her, she was close to tears. This was a huge project that she had yet to begin or know what it might entail.
Here are some resources, I share with her to get her out of a rut. Hope you find them useful:
Spark Creativity
There are times when we get stuck and have trouble coming up with new ideas. For those occasions, there are a few techniques you can use to trigger that creative impulse and get the creative juices flowing. Here are a few:
Carry a Journal. How often do you come up with a great idea only to forget it later?  Well, you can’t really know how often since you forget it.  So get a small notepad and pen and carry them with you wherever you go.  Whenever an interesting thought or idea hits you, write it down.  Take a look at your journal later and you might find something you [...]

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Business Tools, Creativity, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Break the Rules

October 5, 2011 – 9:57 am
break the rules

New adventures and opportunities do not always show up at your door step. Sometimes, you have to break the rules and get out of your comfort zone in order to find them. Here’s how.

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Adventure, Business Tools, Entrepreneurship, Philosophy, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Setting the Example

September 14, 2011 – 8:32 am
how to lead setting the example

Sometimes, it is not always easy to lead a team or turn the other cheek when someone does something to hurt or offend you. I don’t know about you, but my first instinct is to defend and protect myself. However, that does not always solve the issue. Instead, ask yourself the following questions:

How can I best handle this situation?
If I respond by doing X, what will the outcome be?
How do I want this to be resolved?

By taking the time and thinking it through, you may find a resolution that you were not expecting and one that opens up other opportunities.
Related Posts
How to Fail
The Secret to Flexibility
How Leaders Can Make the Best Decisions

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Philosophy, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

How to Succeed

August 23, 2011 – 12:42 pm
how to fail-janae

The English language has made us equate failing with being a failure, when in fact failing is necessary in order to succeed. If we never allow ourselves to fail, then, unless we are born perfect, we’ll never attempt to learn or do anything that risks failure.  When I started my first business, I made many mistakes and “failures” before I got it right.  I didn’t give up or get discouraged because I understood that failing was just a step towards success.  And I was right.
In order to succeed, you must allow yourself to fail.  By embracing failure, you create an environment where mishaps invigorate rather than crush you.  In fact, I would suggest you go so far as to aim to fail.  If you haven’t failed, you haven’t been taking risks or learning anything.  To me, that would be the biggest failure.
You’ve probably heard Edison’s quote about failing 1,000 times while inventing the light bulb, “I have not failed 1,000 times.  I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.”  Great minds like Einstein and Lincoln had the same attitude.
How have you failed? What’s the most [...]

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Creativity, Happiness, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

7 Ways to Help Women in Technology

July 19, 2011 – 11:04 am
women and technology

This weekend, I came across two articles that made me step back for a moment. The first was the Wall Street Journal’s blog post, “Addressing The Lack of Women Leading Tech Start-ups.” In the post, WSJ tries to address the question of “Where are all the women in tech?” They mention that there is no shortage of opinions about the issue but the core of the article isn’t really being addressed. It must be noted overall that equality has come a long way even in the short time that I have been in the professional world. Where the disparity seems to be is why there are so few women in the technology industry.
The next article I came across was a TechCrunch response by Michael Arrington entitled, “ Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men.” In the article, Arrington tries to sympathize with the issue but is fed up with the blame game. Can you blame him? I don’t.
Below is an infograph compiled by Socialcast.com that looks at a number of dimensions in the technology industry comparing male vs female ratios. A few key insights:

According to Dow Jones VentureSource, 11% of U.S. firms with venture-capital backing in 2009 had current or [...]

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Business Tools, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

How to Breed a Team of Innovators

July 13, 2011 – 12:01 pm
innovation-island-building

It’s been several months since the Our Revolution road trip, but the experience has stayed with me and often finds its way into my conversations with others. Although Our Revolution is about promoting social change with revolutionary ideas and actions to change perceptions in lives in communities, my friend Lucas asked me an intriguing question – “How did the experience change you?”
I have to say that in retrospect, one of the most important takeaways I have from the road trip was an improved technique for coming up with innovative solutions. The technique is similar to what Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, says, “We run the company by questions, not answers.”
Innovation does not spring up out of nowhere. Innovative solutions and answers come first by asking the right questions.  The Our Revolution road trip was full of questions that needed answers. How can we improve a situation? And when you ask a question, it stimulates conversation. It is out of these conversations that come innovation. To stimulate innovation within your team, you need to create a culture of questioning. Here’s how:
1. Set an Example – The behavior of team members always gravitates [...]

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Business Tools, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

How to Be Curious

May 18, 2011 – 11:07 am
how to be curious the freelancer ja-nae janae

Do you shy away from the unknown or do you welcome the unexpected? Ever since I was a little girl I have thrived on curiosity and questioning things. However, many colleagues I know in business stick like glue to the familiar. They rely on the routine things that have served them in well in the past, and avoid anything new and different. This attitude can maintain stability, but if you’re not curious you are doomed to the same experiences without ever growing in business or in life.
This article by Donald Latumahina at Lifehack tells of the virtues of curiosity.  Curiosity gives you a fresh perspective, allowing you to discover fresh ideas. Being curious makes you more observant and opens up new worlds and possibilities you wouldn’t otherwise consider while also adding the spice of variety to your life.
Some of my best ideas for projects, as well as some of my best adventures, have come from stepping outside of my comfort zone and following my curious nature.
For these reasons, curiosity should be a quality you cultivate. So here are some things you can do to be more curious in your life:
Do Not Ignore the [...]

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Adventure, Arts, Creativity, Happiness, Marketing, Philosophy, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

How to Receive a College Education Online for Free

May 6, 2011 – 11:55 am
free online education janae the freelancer lifestyle design

Education is what you make of it. We are perpetual students, learning something new everyday. It doesn’t matter if you spend four years in college (and $200K) or time talking to someone in a coffee shop. We are constantly learning.
With college tuition being as costly as it is, I know many people looking for alternative ways to continue to learn and expand their skill set. Look at any entrepreneur or historical figure and you will see that continuous self-education is a major component to their lives.
Here are some free online courses from some of the top universities:
Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative (my alma mater) – No instructors, no credits, no charge. Use these self-guiding Carnegie Mellon materials and activities to learn at your own pace.
MIT OpenCourseWare – MIT OpenCourseWare is a free web-based publication of MIT course materials that has some of the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
MIT Sloan School of Management – As one of the top business schools in the US, this is a great subsection of the larger MIT OpenCourseWare site.
Tufts OpenCourseWare – Tufts OpenCourseWare is part of a new educational movement.
Khan Academy – Over 1200 videos lessons from algebra [...]

By Ja-Naé Duane | Also posted in Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)