In this podcast, Creativity in the Workplace, Paul Lewis speaks with Adam Kingl, professor and Author of Sparking Success: Why Every Leader Needs to Develop a Creative Mindset. They discuss why the corporate world stifles creativity, what we can learn from creative industries, and how leaders can help address the problem.
In this podcast, you will hear about:
Adam Kingl is a Headspring educator, author and expert on generational paradigms in the workplace, the future of work and capitalism, and fulfilling organisational and personal purposes.
Adam Kingl is a Headspring educator. He also develops executive education at a range of other prestigious institutions, such as London Business School, Hult International Business School, Imperial College Business School, Moller Institute-Churchill College-University of Cambridge, and the UCL School of Management.
Adam Kingl is an authority on generational paradigms in the workplace, the future of work and capitalism, and fulfilling organisational and personal purposes. He is the author of ‘Sparking Success, Why Every Leader Needs to Develop a Creative Mindset’.
Adam is also the author of “The Next Generation Leadership” – a book that explores the character of the emerging workforce and how the nature of leadership and business will change over the next few decades as Gen Y assumes managerial positions.
Learn more about Adam Kingl
Mentioned in your book is the powerful verbal technique to say 'yes, and' when someone comes up with an idea. Can you expand on that? I did an offsite with a mining company several years ago. We covered lots of topics, but one topic really spent about 20 minutes was how shifting your vocabulary from ‘Yes, but’ to ‘Yes, and’, and at the end of the of the week, they said ‘Well, what are the commitments we really are going to make to one another’? and one of them was they were going to say yes and a hell of a lot more. And after about a week, I caught up with some of the people and they said, ‘My God, what have you done to these people? They're completely different. They're so open, empathetic, and friendly now we're having strategic conversations rather than just tactical’ etc, etc. And that was the difference.
You mention the gamma state in your book. Could you explain what it is? Generally, our normal focused alert consciousness is called a beta state. So that's 13 to 30 hertz of brainwave frequency. Because our brain is made up of electrical signals, that's why Hertz is the measurement. But, gamma state, which is a higher level of hertz frequency, 31 to 70 Hertz is the super focused mind increased brain power, peak state of consciousness and performance and inventiveness. And we can't just automatically jump up to gamma and stay there. Why? We need to remember that the brain is a muscle. And that to get up to gamma and stay there requires practice, just as we might say, well, I couldn't possibly do 100 dumbbell curls, maybe not now, but if you work at it for a year, maybe you could the same is true with getting up to this this brain state of gamma. The problem is, our days are so filled with distractions around fulfilling KPIs and answer this email and go to this meeting, that we're constantly in beta.