How did you come up with that idea?
Taking long hot showers while talking to myself, pacing back and forth watching the tiles pass under my feet, and asking and answering crazy questions while driving which sometimes degrades into loud arguments with myself.
Confessions of a crazy person? Perhaps.
These are the things I do to get my ‘creative juices flowing’.
From the idea that became career.place, to the story that developed into a Disrupt HR talk, to blog posts like this one, to the novel I am writing – all of them came from one (or more) of those three activities.
Of course, having a great (or crazy) idea is all well and good, but it is just that – an idea. To turn the idea into reality, it takes a ton of hard work and a lot of help. The best outcomes come when I am helped by a large group of diverse, passionate people who are willing to speak their mind. It is those interactions that molds the idea (sometimes through quite a bit of pounding) into something amazing.
By diverse – I mean people who think differently than me with different opinions and experiences. They challenge every assumption, argue every angle, question the markets, the approaches, the tactics, the strategies. They will throw their own crazy ideas on-top of crazy ideas, and then, make a left turn and start again.
Diversity at its best
Luckily, I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by family, friends, colleagues, and associates with passion, strong opinions, and incredible generosity with their ideas and time. It is our differences that allow us to explore every angle and challenge every assumption – different ages, genders, ethnicities, races, nationalities, sexual orientations, educational backgrounds, areas of expertise, political affiliations, religious affiliations, preferred genra’s, favorite movies, hobbies, marital statuses, parental statuses, tech savvy levels, and just about anything else you can think of. And, it is what we have in common that makes it an incredible and enjoyable process which often results in something amazing. This is diversity at its best.
It is that incredible group of diverse people that led me to where I am today – leading a company that is changing how we hire. From humble beginnings as a small seed of an idea during a hot shower, to being pounded into shape through many energetic debates, career.place was born. Together, we are showing the industry and market that hiring can be efficient and compliant, promote diversity, and avoid bias.
My recipe for crazy amazing ideas:
A decent hot water budget, plenty of room to pace, a safe place to talk to myself (which may involve loud arguments at times), and an incredible network of diverse people who are willing to question, challenge, and argue everything.
And to all of you who have lent their ear, voice, passions, and efforts to career.place, or any of my other crazy ideas and turned a seed into something amazing – from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!
So, that is my answer – what is yours? What do you do to come up with your crazy ideas?