People admire complexity. Many attribute it to the work of superior minds, those with the skills or intelligence to wrangle challenging ideas into a workable—if not always comprehensible—whole. This esteem […]

Anti-human business practices deteriorate their charges, and there’s perhaps no greater warning of this end result than the life of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. Nobel invented dynamite in 1867 with […]

What makes something a hit or a flop? Sit and ponder that one, and you’ll find it’s a stumper. At first, the answer seems obvious: popularity. That’s not quite right […]

For many, 2020 will not be remembered as a “best of” much. We don’t need to repeat the reasons here; it’s sufficient to point out that a 100-year pandemic was […]

Quick! There’s a runaway train on the tracks. Some dastardly evildoer has knocked the driver out cold and tied five people to the tracks ahead. The train is barreling down […]

Writers, filmmakers, and mythologizing biographers tend to imagine innovation originates with a lone genius who has “the spark,” that light-bulb moment when the path from inspiration to world-altering invention reveals […]

We love a good heist movie, but our favorite part is not the caper. It’s building the team.  The brilliant thief—just out of jail to do one more job, he […]

Let’s talk about swans. All swans are birds or, more specifically, waterfowl. They are large and sport long, slender necks. They migrate south for the winter, traveling in that eye-catching […]

It doesn’t hurt to be quick, responsive, friendly, efficient, or reliable. But for A. G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, the most important ingredient to making your customers […]

Why should customers buy from you instead of your competitors? That’s the question at the heart of making a sale in a competitive market, says Matt Dixon, Global Head of […]

 “Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.” In her Big Think+ video, “Empower Your People — Conversational Moves for Engaging Your Team in Creative […]

 The way in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes solves even the most challenging of mysteries is more than just dazzling fun. In fact, says Maria Konnikova, author […]

 Have you ever had the experience of giving up on a problem and coming back to it some time later to find its solution suddenly obvious? According to Barbara Oakley, […]

For a startup, growth is a straightforward matter of scaling up: adding employees, setting up distribution channels, and so on. But, says David Butler in his Big Think+ video “Design […]

Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, is a programmer. When he got the idea to begin posting free online classes, he was able to get the basic infrastructure in place […]

 By 2003, General Electric, now better known as GE, had a reputation problem. Its long-time image as a company at the forefront of a sparkling future had been shaken. After […]

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a […]

 Any music lover who subscribes to a streaming-music service such as Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, or the like has entered into a bargain that represents a profound shift in the […]

Ken Segall, the former creative director of advertising at Apple, Inc., says that “there is no such thing as simplicity; there is only the perception of simplicity.” In this video, […]

Entrepreneurs and innovative businesses are always on the lookout for new ways to leverage existing technology or create an entirely new product or service market. In this way, innovation and […]

Innovation is a “creative muscle” that needs to be flexed and exercised regularly to be strong and effective. Anyone can innovate — and some of the best or most creative […]

Design thinking is the art of implementing elements from a “designer’s toolkit” to create innovative solutions and systems. When applied the right way, it can offer considerable benefits.

Design thinking is a process that emphasizes creating human-centric solutions to common business problems. While this general definition explains the primary goal of design thinking, it doesn’t really cover the […]

Every day, you and your coworkers make countless decisions and tackle numerous problems. We know that many of these decisions or problems are so tacit that we don’t even consider […]

A company’s culture can have a strong influence on both current employees and potential hires. With the right company culture, an organization can attract and retain engaged employees who add […]

Many businesses could benefit from applying the principles of design thinking to their work. However, too many businesses focus on the wrong things when they use design thinking, which can […]

Design thinking, or applying the principles of creative design and reasoning to business challenges in a way that focuses on the needs of people, is gaining momentum as the new […]

Design thinking has become a major focus in recent years. As with many innovative thinking and business concepts, design thinking promises companies a chance to become the next Apple or Target.