00:00:05
sometimes I'm standing and looking at a
00:00:07
group I think about all the different
00:00:09
body parts that are in the room and no
00:00:13
really it's kind of crazy but I'm just
00:00:17
thinking today how many hands are in
00:00:19
this room maybe 300
00:00:22
no no not 300 maybe 400 how many hearts
00:00:26
beating some faster than others not
00:00:30
myself and how many brains no your brain
00:00:36
actually has over a hundred billion
00:00:39
cells I'm not a neuroscientist so bear
00:00:43
with me a little I think it's about a
00:00:45
hundred billion and each one of those
00:00:47
cells have connections with a thousand
00:00:50
more cells so that means you have a
00:00:51
hundred thousand billion cells which I
00:00:55
think might be like two trillion but I'm
00:00:56
not sure but the big thing is Normand
00:00:59
cousin tells us that our human brain has
00:01:01
more potential than most of the galaxies
00:01:03
that we even know of so if we have that
00:01:07
much brain power and that many hearts we
00:01:10
have potential for a lot of love and
00:01:11
that many hands we have a potential for
00:01:13
a whole lot of stuff to do so but just
00:01:15
thinking about the brain if you will to
00:01:18
do just a second turn to the person next
00:01:21
to you and look right look at them in
00:01:22
the eye
00:01:23
okay let's do that and think about that
00:01:26
brain that's in their head you might not
00:01:27
have thought of that when you sat down
00:01:29
but just take five seconds and just
00:01:32
think of the potential that's in sitting
00:01:34
next to you five seconds
00:01:40
okay were you as impressed when you
00:01:43
first sat down that you are now and now
00:01:46
let's do something else let's think
00:01:48
about your own brain you might not have
00:01:50
thought about that for a while but I'm
00:01:52
told that it's kind of amazing that we
00:01:54
can even think about our brain so I
00:01:56
guess a dog doesn't do that but just
00:01:59
think for five seconds about your own
00:02:01
brain and ask yourself this all that
00:02:03
potential and am i tapping into my
00:02:06
creativity okay five seconds think about
00:02:08
your own mind okay your brains are
00:02:15
activated so when we have all this
00:02:17
potential we have to ask yourself the
00:02:19
question why are so many people working
00:02:23
in jobs that they just live for the
00:02:25
weekend why are so many students in
00:02:28
majors that don't like their passion and
00:02:31
why are so many organizations limping
00:02:34
along and not being creative why do we
00:02:38
settle that was the question I asked
00:02:41
myself as Kurt walked out of my office
00:02:43
for the last time Kurt was a student
00:02:46
from the West Coast he was six - and his
00:02:48
dad was a road sign maker I never really
00:02:52
thought about road signs except
00:02:54
following them that someone actually
00:02:55
makes them but his father was a road
00:02:57
sign maker and I'd also didn't realize
00:02:59
how lucrative making road signs were
00:03:01
because when his dad brought him to
00:03:03
school he paid cash for all four years
00:03:06
wrote a check and Kurt wanted to be a
00:03:10
businessman like his dad so when his dad
00:03:12
left I happened to be their registration
00:03:14
and I'm he said okay actually I think
00:03:17
I'm gonna enroll in nursing pre-nursing
00:03:20
I said oh I thought you want to be a
00:03:21
business person my dad's gone I'm a
00:03:24
little nervous on ever be as good a
00:03:26
businessman as him I think I'll go into
00:03:28
nursing so um he actually went into
00:03:31
nursing til he realized that the sight
00:03:33
of blood made him throw up and then I
00:03:35
saw I saw him a little later he says oh
00:03:37
no I've decided to be an archaeologist I
00:03:41
said okay he's I've dug a lot of dishes
00:03:43
just for my dad I said okay but he said
00:03:47
now that I'm in it I don't really dig it
00:03:49
he said that
00:03:51
I said he said did you get my joke I
00:03:54
said yes he said well what do you think
00:03:56
I should do now and I actually said it
00:03:58
was kind of mean I said don't be a
00:03:59
comedian don't go into the field of
00:04:01
comedy and he then I didn't see him for
00:04:04
a while then he was in my office that
00:04:06
day and he said I was an education major
00:04:11
and then I thought what am i doing I
00:04:12
spent my whole life trying to get out of
00:04:14
the classroom and I'm taking a
00:04:16
profession that would put me in the
00:04:17
classroom I'm done I'm leaving mrs.
00:04:19
Hillstrom
00:04:20
out I said Kurt what happened your dream
00:04:23
about being a business person no I'm
00:04:26
going back home working for my dad
00:04:28
it'll be okay wasn't my dream but I'm
00:04:30
gonna do it and he left and I sat there
00:04:34
and said how many times as an
00:04:36
educational psychologist I'd sat there
00:04:38
when other students friends students
00:04:41
teachers staff faculty parents friends
00:04:46
of parents had said something to me like
00:04:48
that yeah it's not what I wanted I
00:04:51
thought of something else I wish I could
00:04:53
do this I'm just doing this job so I can
00:04:55
get and I thought there's something I
00:04:58
need more of the tools that we have are
00:05:00
not adequate for them for the big issue
00:05:02
that people face that they don't align
00:05:04
with their passion so I said there has
00:05:06
to be something but I didn't know what
00:05:08
but I said I'm gonna find out and then
00:05:10
one day I was in Chicago attending a
00:05:14
lecture by the great DeWitt Jones
00:05:15
National Geographic author or
00:05:18
photographer and filmmaker and he was
00:05:20
telling us it wasn't a huge auditorium I
00:05:23
was all the way up at the back in fact I
00:05:26
was so far back I was resting my head on
00:05:27
the wall and he um he know that's just a
00:05:31
little side effect
00:05:33
he told us these fantastic stories of
00:05:37
his life perched in a tree waiting for a
00:05:40
lion in the perfect photo or crouching
00:05:42
down in a canoe waiting for a photo of a
00:05:45
NACA dial or sitting in a island in
00:05:48
Indonesia waiting for the largest flower
00:05:51
in the world to bloom and it only
00:05:53
bloomed for an hour and they didn't know
00:05:55
when it was going to bloom so he sat
00:05:56
there for days and he said he loved it
00:05:58
the mosquito bites the Sun burns the the
00:06:01
sand in issues he
00:06:03
was his passion I wanted to take
00:06:05
pictures for people to see the world in
00:06:07
his beauty he said and he went on and
00:06:10
told all kinds of stories he said I
00:06:11
lived a life that I identified and I
00:06:14
connected to my own creative capacity
00:06:17
and every day was a joy for me and then
00:06:20
he asked the audience thousands of
00:06:22
people if someone could show you how to
00:06:27
connect to your creative capacity and
00:06:29
teach you how to live your passion would
00:06:31
you do it
00:06:32
he said if so stand up and remember I'm
00:06:35
in the back all the way the back at all
00:06:36
thousands of people just jumped to their
00:06:38
feet and just erupted in applause and at
00:06:41
that moment I knew what I had to do it
00:06:43
was so powerful seeing all those people
00:06:44
I said that's it
00:06:47
I have to figure out learn and
00:06:49
understand the creative process so I can
00:06:52
create a space or teach people if they
00:06:54
wanted to learn how to connect with
00:06:56
their creative capacity so they could
00:06:57
also be on fire so I rushed out of the
00:07:00
auditorium called my husband said Dan I
00:07:02
found what I think I found my answer and
00:07:04
so I didn't know what I was gonna do I
00:07:06
didn't know how I was gonna do it and
00:07:08
then I'd learned if a doctoral program I
00:07:10
could get into and it was a leadership
00:07:13
program but the whole program was
00:07:16
understanding creative thinking creative
00:07:19
process and how that affects change and
00:07:21
ignites potential so I enrolled in the
00:07:24
program and it was so amazing when just
00:07:27
different places around the world
00:07:28
learned about creative spaces creative
00:07:29
different gurus who are in the
00:07:31
creativity and then when I was working
00:07:34
on my dissertation I got a call from
00:07:37
executive at Florida Hospital very large
00:07:39
hospital system in the United States
00:07:41
mostly in hot in Florida there's 22
00:07:44
campuses and he said I heard you know
00:07:47
you're working on this dissertation and
00:07:48
studying creativity and you know
00:07:50
healthcare is falling down around us
00:07:53
I've got to get a way to really activate
00:07:56
the the talent of the whole system and
00:07:59
people don't want to talk and we're so
00:08:01
stratified we have so much hierarchy and
00:08:03
he said I've now been asked to be the
00:08:06
innovation chief innovation officer I
00:08:08
don't even know what to do and so as we
00:08:11
talked I said well I've been studying
00:08:14
about innovation spaces and labs and we
00:08:16
could try something and he said I need
00:08:19
it to activate everybody within the
00:08:21
system because if we don't do this we
00:08:23
aren't going to fail and so as we talked
00:08:26
we said let's create a space that
00:08:28
actually creates better solutions for
00:08:30
healthcare that'd be a start
00:08:32
and then also I said well why don't we
00:08:35
also create it so that people coming in
00:08:37
would become learn how to become design
00:08:39
thinkers and learn how to foster culture
00:08:42
of innovation so when they created do
00:08:43
things they actually learned how to be
00:08:46
more creative
00:08:46
therefore connecting with their creative
00:08:48
capacity so he said let's do it I said I
00:08:52
have the theory sort of but I don't
00:08:55
really know that I don't come from
00:08:56
healthcare so I don't understand the
00:08:57
culture of healthcare he said oh I
00:08:59
couldn't solve that so he sent out an
00:09:01
email to hundreds of people within the
00:09:04
system and asked if anybody wanted to
00:09:06
help create an innovation space email
00:09:08
him and he got hundreds of responses and
00:09:10
they said how he picked twelve I'm not
00:09:12
sure how but I got the twelve people
00:09:14
then we decided to meet at this
00:09:17
beautiful garden cafe and he sat there
00:09:21
hadn't eaten the food yet and he said
00:09:23
thanks you thank you so much for signing
00:09:25
up for this and what you're going to do
00:09:27
is transform this institution and you're
00:09:31
going to ignite that creative talent
00:09:35
within the organization now I hadn't
00:09:37
quite explained it that way to the
00:09:38
people and they were sitting and tables
00:09:40
and I saw their faces going a little
00:09:41
white in their mouth dropping open and
00:09:43
he said I brought Karen here and we're
00:09:47
going to make this organization into a
00:09:50
whole creative organization have a great
00:09:52
meal I'll be touching back with you as
00:09:54
the months go by good luck and so um he
00:09:59
left and I didn't really know these
00:10:01
people and one lady said um I thought we
00:10:06
were signing up to create a room with
00:10:08
whiteboards and maybe some inspired
00:10:10
inspiring sayings and maybe a bouncy
00:10:13
ball and another that he said oh yeah
00:10:16
did he just say we're gonna get
00:10:17
frontline workers connecting with
00:10:19
executives and they're gonna listen and
00:10:22
another person said you know that means
00:10:24
doctors and nurses of nurses telling
00:10:27
doctors collaborating and then what I
00:10:29
loved is
00:10:30
the overhear said what planet did you
00:10:31
come from Karen I said well for a moment
00:10:36
I said okay this is where theory and
00:10:38
reality meet and collide I said well
00:10:42
here's the thing do you realize how
00:10:45
almost every institution is failing in
00:10:47
the United States the disruptions
00:10:50
happening everywhere and if and this is
00:10:51
an opportunity if we don't create a
00:10:53
space that activates the collective
00:10:55
intelligence and creative capacity and
00:10:58
leadership potential if everybody within
00:10:59
the system this isn't gonna work and
00:11:01
then I told him about Kurt I said this
00:11:03
is important to me because I've seen
00:11:06
people fail I've seen people as a
00:11:08
psychologist says settle it's good
00:11:11
enough I said we have an opportunity to
00:11:13
create something that doesn't exist
00:11:15
there's no hospital right now that I
00:11:17
have to design thinking lab we could
00:11:19
show we could light the way for people
00:11:22
and I said but I don't understand the
00:11:24
culture so I have some theory and you
00:11:26
have something you understand culture
00:11:27
maybe together we can create it and I
00:11:29
don't have all the answers we'll do it
00:11:31
together and so they started we started
00:11:35
working and the weeks went by and they
00:11:38
said you know one thing we're gonna have
00:11:39
to do is we're gonna have to get past
00:11:41
the badge if you've been in a hospital
00:11:44
you see they always have badges the bad
00:11:46
just say a lot which I've learned I
00:11:48
didn't know that when I went into this
00:11:50
little adventure but the badge says MD
00:11:53
or executive or x-ray tech or it
00:11:57
classifies them even if they don't want
00:12:00
to admit it it does and this group said
00:12:03
we're gonna have to do something to get
00:12:05
the badges off if we want to create a
00:12:07
culture where everyone is there that
00:12:09
it's inclusive for everybody from the
00:12:12
janitor to the executive and and the
00:12:15
executive wanted to have everyone within
00:12:17
the system come into this space and
00:12:19
create and so one person said well then
00:12:22
let's take the badges off and one lady
00:12:24
said maybe we can hang them on the wall
00:12:25
and then one of the people said let's
00:12:28
create a badge tree okay that sounds
00:12:31
like a good thing and so we hired a
00:12:34
local artist to create a badge tree and
00:12:36
we told her what we were doing and she
00:12:38
said okay I'm going to create something
00:12:38
really inspiring for you guys so
00:12:42
week passed she brought in this tree
00:12:44
that we attach to the ball but she said
00:12:47
it's a it's a bamboo tree bamboo is all
00:12:49
about creation and renewal but as I
00:12:51
looked at it I said not that I knew from
00:12:53
experience that looks like a marijuana
00:12:54
plant and then the Ganesha
00:12:59
one of the guys said oh that's a good
00:13:00
omen let's leave it it'll be so so we
00:13:03
said so we started our bad street and
00:13:07
then we said okay the bad street we
00:13:10
needed to create bridges in for people
00:13:12
and so they had come in and put their
00:13:13
badges on the bad Street and then we
00:13:15
said okay we haven't changed any
00:13:16
behavior they hang their badge on the
00:13:17
badge tree but what well one of the
00:13:22
ladies had been studying had a good
00:13:25
friend who was a pilot and learned all
00:13:26
about the pilots checklist manifesto and
00:13:28
she said well they go through quite a
00:13:30
checklist and they check into things and
00:13:33
as hey maybe we could create a space
00:13:34
where they check into things check into
00:13:36
the space and so we were spending a
00:13:38
little more and we said okay let's have
00:13:40
a check-in they hang their badge em and
00:13:42
they check in and what about if they
00:13:44
check in to their own creativity they
00:13:47
believe in their own creativity and what
00:13:49
have they checked into a yes and
00:13:50
attitude and practicing precise
00:13:54
observation and becoming apathetic to of
00:13:57
the people they were trying to create
00:13:58
solutions for and what have they checked
00:14:00
in then - asking burning questions
00:14:02
because we know we don't really ask
00:14:03
questions and hierarchy not freely
00:14:07
anyway and so they said ok that's what
00:14:10
we'll have them check into so that's
00:14:12
really the tenants of from creativity
00:14:14
believe in your own creative self
00:14:16
suspend negative judgment say yes and
00:14:19
observe and ask questions so we created
00:14:22
this check-in process and then we did a
00:14:25
few other things and got the room ready
00:14:27
and then we launched the projects so we
00:14:29
had 12 actually we only had 11 now
00:14:31
because executives said Karen I gave you
00:14:33
12 because I thought this would be like
00:14:35
a spiritual journey and Jesus had 12 and
00:14:37
lost one so I thought we probably lose
00:14:39
one I said okay well that one kind of
00:14:43
betrayed that as I recall said well okay
00:14:47
she was gone
00:14:48
and so we
00:14:51
we started the projects we divided the
00:14:54
group into three groups of four four and
00:14:56
three and they started running approach
00:14:59
different projects the design thinking
00:15:01
process that I taught them and that we
00:15:03
were learning actually we were learning
00:15:04
as we go
00:15:04
and so the executive said you know I
00:15:07
think we're gonna have to really
00:15:07
advertise when they're done because
00:15:09
people won't know about the projects or
00:15:11
they won't know about the lab but
00:15:13
surprisingly to us the word got out as
00:15:16
we had different people involved in
00:15:18
these projects when the project's ended
00:15:19
we had a list of people I want to come
00:15:21
in or we had people I want to bring a
00:15:23
project in I can't believe I have worked
00:15:25
here for 20 years and I'm able to do
00:15:26
something like this and so as we've
00:15:29
launched projects we had a mandate from
00:15:32
the executive that we would align all
00:15:34
projects from front with the hospital
00:15:36
priorities and get an executive that
00:15:39
would sponsor it and then let any
00:15:40
project go and if they failed it was
00:15:42
okay and if they if it was successful it
00:15:44
was okay the idea was everything was
00:15:46
grist for the mill we were going to
00:15:48
experiment did people tap into their
00:15:51
creative capacity and healthcare
00:15:52
organization or project started running
00:15:54
and people the excitement was running
00:15:56
high and we did say no to any projects
00:16:01
except one
00:16:02
there was a department that came in and
00:16:04
they were all excited and they said we
00:16:07
want to redesign our work experience in
00:16:09
our department I said okay and we're
00:16:11
kind of trying to figure out what
00:16:12
they're doing but as we dug a little
00:16:14
deeper what they really were doing was
00:16:15
how they might create a very innovative
00:16:18
way to get their boss fired and so we
00:16:21
said okay well maybe you better go to HR
00:16:23
not to us not here and then we had
00:16:27
doctors started coming in and nurses and
00:16:29
we were learning more we were started to
00:16:31
teach more aggressively Design Thinking
00:16:33
and one day we had a group of
00:16:36
neurosurgeons brain surgeons and then
00:16:37
they're in the room have you ever been
00:16:39
in a room with brain surgeons really
00:16:41
you'd never even seen him but we had
00:16:43
four of them in there and so I got to
00:16:45
wondering I said you know when things
00:16:46
are not hard and we think they're hard
00:16:48
we say you know this is a brain surgery
00:16:50
and so I said do you think no we say
00:16:52
that and so I said you know there's a
00:16:55
saying goes around and then I started
00:16:57
thinking they probably don't say that
00:16:59
when something's easy for them and I
00:17:00
said okay they say something so I said
00:17:03
what do you guys say and they said
00:17:04
well we say it's not like talking to
00:17:07
women and I I thought so I had done my
00:17:12
heart went out to the brain I thought
00:17:13
these guys aren't good these are true
00:17:15
blue guys and so then we started hearing
00:17:19
reports we started getting outcomes
00:17:22
employee engagement started to raise now
00:17:25
I don't think the Florida Hospital
00:17:27
innovation lab what we call Phil can
00:17:30
take all the credit for raised
00:17:31
employment but the exactly the
00:17:33
executives that know this has something
00:17:35
to do with it the metrics started to
00:17:37
improve if you'd only think about health
00:17:38
care there's a target and you go from if
00:17:41
you're in the black that's not good if
00:17:42
you're in the green that is good
00:17:43
they went from black areas to green
00:17:45
areas and people started sharing what
00:17:49
they were learning we ran a survey and
00:17:50
we found out that 28 I mean 87 percent
00:17:54
of the people that came into Phil were
00:17:55
applying what they learned both
00:17:57
professionally and personally that was
00:17:59
very thrilling to me people started
00:18:01
calling us from the community too large
00:18:04
the University in the college
00:18:06
institution started calling companies
00:18:09
started calling and the most we won't
00:18:14
actually want a few awards to but that
00:18:17
wasn't as important to me as when people
00:18:19
would see me in the hallway or people
00:18:20
would see me somewhere or some of our
00:18:22
team members and they'd say thank you we
00:18:25
really learned something it really made
00:18:27
a difference I've become a little more
00:18:29
popular in my department since I've
00:18:30
learned how to say yes and and he said
00:18:32
you know I've learned more about empathy
00:18:34
and to actually go and experience what
00:18:36
the end user is experiencing and going
00:18:38
actually it's not my idea it's their
00:18:40
idea or what needs to happen not what I
00:18:43
think needs to happen we're we're a
00:18:45
little learning a lot things are getting
00:18:46
better for us and one day was at a
00:18:48
restaurant that lady came up she said I
00:18:50
don't think you need to know me but I
00:18:52
went was in a project and I had always
00:18:55
wanted four years to start a home health
00:18:57
business and after eyeing that project
00:19:00
she said I actually realized I could do
00:19:01
it and I said that's fantastic so what
00:19:05
I've learned after four years having
00:19:07
Phil open for years more than 400
00:19:11
innovation projects involving more than
00:19:13
4,000 people
00:19:15
that everybody is creative and when
00:19:18
we're acting on a creative capacity we
00:19:21
become leaders and I have seen it over
00:19:24
and over again so what I want to leave
00:19:27
with you today is every one of you here
00:19:30
has creative potential and leadership
00:19:33
ability and when you tap into your
00:19:35
passion and your talent you change the
00:19:39
world and here's the most powerful thing
00:19:41
about that if you don't do it nobody can
00:19:46
do it for you and the world will be lost
00:19:48
to your talent forever
00:19:49
so remember embrace your creativity
00:19:53
suspend judgment be observant and ask
00:19:56
questions and when you do that you get
00:19:58
into an open space and that open space
00:20:02
was something like this remember the
00:20:05
hands heart and head an open mind brain
00:20:08
rejects the voice of judgment an open
00:20:10
heart rejects the voice of cynicism and
00:20:13
open will which is hands and actions
00:20:15
rejoice reject the voice a voice of fear
00:20:18
so today I want to challenge you to tap
00:20:23
into your creative capacity because the
00:20:27
world is waiting
