Who is on the show:

In this episode, we host Bernadette Jiwa. She is a best selling author of multiple books and writes one of the most popular marketing and branding blogs - The Story of Telling. Smart Company named as the top business blog in Australia of 2016. Seth Godin listed it as one of the marketing blogs he reads.

Why is she on the show:

She just released her most recent book - Hunch. The book talks about how we can turn our everyday insights into the next big thing.

What do we talk about:

In this episode, we talk about how this particular book came about. She shares her insight about how entrepreneurs - small and large are getting deluded in the barrage of data and using it as a crutch to not decide and work on their hunches. She shares some very interesting stories about how Richard Turere (all of 12 years old) helped save his cows from Lions and in the process invented the "Lion Lights". She also shares the story of how one doctor (Dr. Ravenell) leveraged the popularity and the sense of community in a barber shop - Denny Moe's to change the lives of thousands of black men by converging healthcare and haircare.

She defines Hunch as below:

Hunch = Insights + Foresights

Simple yet elegant way to define something extremely complicated, I must say. She also talks about the fact that in order to get these hunches, we need to look at the intersection of three things.

Hunches are formed at the intersection of Curiosity, Imagination and Empathy.

There are opportunities all around us if only we stop and notice them. She shares her way of getting these inspiring stories from the everyday walk of life. She says that these stories are all around us, if only we can stop and look for them, if we find them, slow down and think about them.

We also discuss how important boredom is and how crucial having distraction free time for us to think about stuff that we have learnt and allow it to sink in and come up with our own perspective and a lot more. She shares how Sara Blakely founded Spanx with 5000 USD and she takes the long route to work, so that she can get some quite reflection time for herself almost everyday. 

This is a short episode but one filled with a lot of insights and learnings.

How can you connect with her:

I strongly recommend that you buy her book - Hunch. The book is packed with a lot of such stories and also has a lot of prompts that can nudge us to practice all the three things that she talks about (curiosity, imagination and empathy) that are important for coming up with our own hunches. Also,  subscribe to her blog. She blogs every single day. Her blogs are an oasis in the middle of a barrage of blogs that dont speak to you. They are short but insightful. They speak to us in a way not many blogs do. You can also follow her on twitter @bernadetteJiwa.

PS: You can watch the TED Talks by Richard & Dr. Rayenell.

Who is on the show:

In this episode, we host Dave Gray. He is the founder of XPLANE and author of multiple books including Liminal Thinking.

Why is he on the show:

He is a visual artist and uses agile, iterative techniques like Visual Thinking, Culture Mapping, and Gamestorming to get people engaged and involved in co-creating clear, unique and executable business strategies. His latest book - Liminal Thinking, talks about a core practice for connected leaders in a complex world.

What do we talk about:

In a free-wheeling conversation, we speak about

• How did he come about writing his book "Game-storming" with Sunni Brown and James Macanufo and his experience of writing the book
• Empathy Map and he shares a story about a session where he used the map and how it impacts people
• Why is it so difficult for people to empathise with others?
• How did his book "Connected Company" come about and what it was all about (Digital Transformation), which led to the question about how to make the transformation?
• How this led him to his latest book - "Liminal Thinking"
• The entire conversation around belief and how critical it is for internal transformation
• What are some of the most simple of things that if done can have significant impact on our lives?
• The ability to sit back and observe oneself as a third person is a meta ability that can help us bring about significant changes in our own lives. How could one go about developing this ability?
• Is there a connection between being in the moment and visual thinking?
• Something that was surprising and interesting while researching for the book - "Liminal thinking".
• Who does he considers the most inspiring person and why?
• What is it that you see in the world that blows his mind?
• What is the biggest limitation of humanity? Why?
• What does his creative process looks like? What are his routines that support his creativity?
• What gives him joy or how does he rejuvenate himself?
• Where does he get creative ideas from ?
• What is his learning habits? How does he continue to evolve and grow as a person?
• Book Recommendation:
  • History of Illuminated Manuscripts
  • Making Meetings work
• What he thinks is obvious but people miss all the time (The answer will definitely surprise you).
• What is one thing he wants you to do as soon as you finish listening to this conversation?

Liminal thinking talks about learning six principles and nine practices. These nine practices of liminal thinking can be summarised as three simple precepts:

1. Get in touch with your ignorance.
2. Seek understanding.
3. Do something different.

Here is a video where Dave explains the Pyramid of Beliefs from his book and you can find a summary of his book here.

How can you connect with him:

You can follow him on twitter @DaveGray and his website is http://www.xplaner.com.