Erika Jones, CFO, CCTAProfit First Professionals · Certified Fractional CFO and Profit First Professional

🧷 Prompts help employees shine #smallbusinesshacks #brainscience #smallbusinesslife

4 Jun 2024 · 1 min

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In this brief leadership clip, the speaker demonstrates two quick experiments using a paperclip to illustrate how simple prompts can dramatically increase idea generation. In the first experiment, a colleague is asked to list as many uses for a paperclip as possible within a minute, yielding a modest set of ideas. In the second experiment, the same colleague receives specific prompts—such as how a clown, a thief, or a grandmother might use the paperclip—and the response explodes with diverse, creative suggestions. The speaker concludes that effective leaders provide basic, targeted prompts, which act as guidance that unlocks team creativity and performance.

Chapters

Here's an experiment you can do to elevate your leadership. Grab a colleague and grab a paperclip. Give that colleague as much time as they want. But I wouldn't do more than a minute to give you as many unique ideas on how to use a paperclip. Then, in the second experiment, the same colleague give them simple prompts. Say, give me your ideas of how a clown would use this, how would a thief use this? How would my grandmother use this? And you'll notice when given prompts, they have an explosion of ideas. Great leaders give basic prompts, basic guidance, and it elevates the team.