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Have you seen Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk on how schools are killing creativity? Robinson laments an antiquated ethos lingering in our education system which enforces learning by rote. His point is that this yields little value later ‘out in the big wide world’ for our children who will enter adult life in the most unpredictable and volatile time in history.

Today has been coined many things – the age of information, the age of acceleration, the technical revolution, even the second industrial revolution. It all boils down to a pace of change that’s unprecedented. The world is pulsing with newness at ludicrously fast speeds.  Moore’s Law identified in the 60s that the number of a transistors on a chip doubles each year, whilst simultaneously costs of production halve.  That’s what’s at play here.  We’ve been able to get more processing power cheaper. And look at how far we’ve come since the 60s.  No wonder we’re all a buzz.

So where do we see this technological explosion most manifest? Well, in our marketing landscape, obviously, data and digital are omnipresent making campaign evaluation tighter and more optimisable than ever.  We’re engaging with a new breed of consumer who is impatient, discerning, vocal and suffering mass media bombardment, so the necessity of creating meaningful moments is top of every growth agenda.  And then there’s globalisation.  We’re more connected, always on and geographical boundaries have been obliterated for bountiful trade and commerce.  Scale has become the everyday ambition, indeed actuality.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times technology columnist and best-selling author of ‘Thank You For Being late’, asks us not to fear today. To not be afraid of the ever undulating business-scapes we’re navigating.  Conversely, he invites us to step headlong into the mayhem, seizing the opportunity that comes with all this freshness. He states “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

What does this mean for businesses then? It means accepting innovation and adaptability as core cultural imperatives. It means being comfortable with failure. It means ‘intra’preneurialism. Dr Astro Teller, Google X laboratory’s most renowned scientist emphasises how innovation is necessary for businesses to survive and thrive, stating “Innovation is a cycle of experimenting, learning, applying knowledge and then assessing success or failure.  And when the outcome is failure, that’s just a reason to start the cycle again.” He implores us to start working differently today.

It’s not just about working differently however. It’s about thinking differently. It’s about adopting a mindset of curiosity, exploration and continual invention. With knowledge sharing made possible through cloud technologies connecting brains at the blink of 2 blue ticks in a whatsapp feed, the ability to spark new ideas is constant. And these new ideas create new value. And it’s this new value which creates growth.

I see deep fusion between growth in our companies being tightly correlated with growth in each of us individually. When we personally invite collaboration to transcend ‘what is’ with ‘what could be’ we become more powerful and collectively more impactful out in the market. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella illuminated this brilliantly last summer with his acquisition of Github stating “Developers will be at the centre of solving the world’s most pressing challenges. However, the real power comes when every developer can create together, collaborate, share code, and build on each other’s work.” It’s his personal strategy for pre-eminence in the global digital economy.

What about pre-eminence in our own personal economy? Our own personal value? How do we increase our individual impact on the world, our workplaces, our communities? Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn, tells us “Your life and professional career is in permanent beta. We are all works in progress.”  In his book, The Start Up of You, he teaches us that to succeed professionally in today’s world you need to think and act like you’re running a start-up by adopting the strategies of successful entrepreneurs. “You are now operating in a quickly changing and uncertain environment with constraints on resources, information and time…” just like a start up.

So, if we do embrace the network intelligence we have at our fingertips, through the prolific social networks available (often super niche to suit), we have the potential of soaring our impact upwards exponentially. We can access new information when we want it, collaborate immediately to evolve it, then when we combine this with a personal characteristic of bravery we have a formula for extremely valuable contribution. Essentially, we have the potential to harness technology to drive growth across both personal and business realms simultaneously. Now, that is innovation.

I wholeheartedly concur with Robinson, nervous that we’re educating children out of their creative capacities. Innovation unequivocally requires creativity, that and a dash of trial and error. In his words, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Let’s step into failing fast and seize the magnitude of tech-enabled possibilities at our disposal. Let’s bring tomorrow into today.

Author(s)

  • Bianca Best

    Flourish with Bianca Best – writer, entrepreneur and manifestor dedicated to ensuring your life glistens with the work, love and vitality you desire.

    Flourish

    Hey! I'm Bianca! A writer, entrepreneur, mother and unshakeable optimist passionately devoted to ensuring your life glistens with the work, love and vitality you desire. Born with big dreams, a strong work ethic and fervent belief that life holds no limits, I’ve discovered how to unlock human potential.  Through my transformational ESCAPE™ programme, coaching, books, online courses, BB-TV, workshops, keynotes and retreats, I stratospherically catapult gifted individuals like you into the place you’re meant to be. I’m honoured to be a best-selling author and to work with leaders from Amazon to Snapchat, and to have personally learned wisdom first-hand from gurus such as Arianna Huffington. Blessed with abundance, I cherish 4 rapidly growing children, 3 businesses, and 1 English country home which is my creative and spiritual sanctuary. My life’s work represents a chronology of passions explored. From writing, to entrepreneurialism, to corporate leadership, to tech firsts, I’ve experimented, learned, grafted and always savoured the journey as much as the destination. Practice what you want to grow I’m fascinated by neuroplasticity and our ability to build skills that progressively enable us to achieve goals faster and easier. When we respect that life is about choices and consequences and choose concentrated cognitive focus, dreams become reality pretty quickly. Blend awareness of limiting beliefs, value systems, habits and behaviours with a personal definition of success, and you’ll strike gold.  The moment I clarify a goal (and I mean intricately define that tantalising something which has stimulated every cell in my body), and organise my habits, attitude and behaviour to thrust onwards towards it, giving it my unwavering attention, then life clicks into beautiful flow. I want this for you too! First Entrepreneurial Forays Coincided with 4 Baby Bests! After simultaneously blending a freelance writing career with exploratory post-grad advertising agency roles and stints as a presenter, I launched my first business in 2004 taking my creativity and resilience to new heights as I served global customers with a pioneering digital personalised gift company. I enjoyed an exhilarating decade learning that with the right focus, energy and vision anything and everything is possible. By the time I sold this business I’d welcomed 4 mini Bests confidently into the world too, including baby twins. What an unexpected (and time-management!) twist they gave to entrepreneurialism! I definitely live by the mantra “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” (and ironically still reflect on that first year juggling 4 children under 7 whilst expanding my company into an omni-channel franchise one of my most purposeful and joyful ever!)! Corporate Leadership Rigour I see life as a great big, fun experiment and every experience a moment of potential growth. With ‘intra-preneurialism’ now being invited into traditional business realms, I couldn’t resist a global leadership role in a large-scale corporate behemoth fusing my entrepreneurial passions with a legacy world. A truly invigorating opportunity! I’ve thus since set up a third millennium consultancy within WPP partnering with global brands such as Mars, CocaCola, Sony and Uber to accelerate digital transformation agendas amidst the volatility of today’s marketing landscapes. To say I love this work is an understatement, plus the output agendas and relationship dynamics all simultaneously add brilliant new depths to my coaching practice. Escaping the Whirlwind Decades back I suffered immune collapse repeatedly along my undulating, endlessly busy path and in June 2019 the World Health Organisation classified Burnout as a global epidemic. Too many of us have been, or are being, buffeted by life’s whirlwind at the expense of our mental and physical wellbeing. I created my science-based ESCAPE™ programme to combat exactly this. Through six powerful pillars I blend my certifications in coaching, hypnotherapy and NLP with my life experiences to empower ambitious individuals like you to thrive. It is possible to maximise impact without burnout and I show you how to respect your individuality and flourish. Which Brings Me To You Whether you feel stuck in a corporate rut, trapped in an unhappy relationship, constantly exhausted, overwhelmed by the sheer pace of modern life, frustrated by slow business growth, or beguiled by which way to turn next, I can get you moving, shining and smiling again. I’ll share every one of the mistakes I’ve made as I’ve fumbled and grappled and tripped my way through this game called life. Equally, I’ll share the ways I’ve succeeded in realising my own dreams and solving my own problems. It would be my honour to hold your hand through your next chapter and make that vibrant vision I know you hold in your heart a sparkly reality. I’ll give you the confidence to make decisions that are utterly transformational. You will up-level your life and become exactly who you’re meant to be. Let’s have fun together and make now the time you unleash your very best self!! Here’s to your future filled with the love, work and vitality you absolutely deserve! Lovingly yours, Bianca x