John O'Leary
- 29 years as a management consultant and trainer, working with Peter Senge, Fernando Flores, Werner Erhard and most recently Tom Peters.
- Author of management blog, "Business Lessons from Rock," applying the success qualities of top rock-and-roll bands to mainstream business teams.
- Clients have included: Anglo American, AT&T, Cisco Systems, Commerce Bank, Deloitte & Touche, DHL, Digital Equipment Corporation, Emerson & Cuming, Innovation Associates, Johnson & Johnson, Lincoln Financial Group, Lockheed Martin, MacMillan, Bloedel, Minorco, Pfizer, Schindler, TPI Composites, Teck, Tyler Equipment, US Army, Wellpoint/Anthem, Weyerhaeuser.
- As a musician, singer and songwriter for 18 years before launching business consulting career, shared the stage with more than two dozen Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members and more than 50 other famous rock, pop, blues, folk, or country artists.
- All 7 Best Practices
- Pre-Meeting Discovery Process
- One-on-One Call with Expert
- Meeting Summary Report
- Post-Meeting Engagement
Fostering Creative Teams - Business Lessons From Rock
Defined Terms
- "Serious play"
Playfulness is an important part of creativity and innovation. This includes experimentation, making mistakes and correcting them quickly – also known as “failing fast.” But given what’s at stake, this is also serious business. Smart teams understand the paradox.
- Creating a big game
Unreasonable objectives, disruptive in their scope, can incite teams and organizations to accomplish the extraordinary. Steve Jobs's first Macintosh team declared that they were going to “make a dent in the universe.” The Beatles's John Lennon said that his band would be “bigger than Elvis.” Author Jim Collins refers to this as “having big hairy audacious goals.”
- Creative destruction
Any genuine innovation creates dislocation as the new replaces the old. “The times they are a-changin’,” says Bob Dylan. With the ascendancy of any industry or any new technological paradigm, there are winners and losers. The alternative is to halt progress.
- Thinking like an artist
- Artists and designers embrace style and beauty. They consider the "look and feel" of things. They pay attention to image as well as sensory appeal. Any project team should be aware of the importance of aesthetics. Teams and organizations that have this artistic sensitivity have an advantage over their competitors as Apple has demonstrated over the years with their product line.