Kevin SimpsonCPA Web Books · Founder at CPA Web Books

🧷 Prompts help employees shine #smallbusinesshacks #brainscience #smallbusinesslife

4 Jun 2024 · 1 min

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In this brief leadership coaching segment, the speaker demonstrates a two‑part paperclip experiment to illustrate how simple prompts dramatically increase creative output. First, a colleague is asked to generate as many uses for a paperclip as possible within a minute, yielding a modest list. In the second round, the same colleague receives specific, imaginative prompts (e.g., “How would a clown use this?” “How would a thief use this?” “How would my grandmother use this?”). The prompts trigger an “explosion” of ideas, showing that basic guidance can unlock far more creativity. The speaker concludes that great leaders should regularly give their teams clear, simple prompts to elevate performance and innovation.

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.