Constraints as Tools of Creation
April 23, 2018
Hosted by Whitney Johnson
[Download MP3] [itunes] [Bookmark Episode]
Guest Information
Episode Description
Constraints are a tool of creation and innovation and successful disruptors embrace constraint as an ally, rather than battling limitation as an enemy. Nobody needs to be creative more than someone who plies their trade in the arts. Award-winning novelist, poet and playwright Orson Scott Card joins Whitney Johnson to discuss the writer’s craft, its constraints, and how those constraints can be a spur to greater creativity. Orson is a prolific writer, but most famous for Ender’s Game, sequel Speaker for the Dead—and the rest of the Enders series—both of which won Hugo and Nebula Awards and made Orson Scott Card the only author to ever win both in two consecutive years. From word counts to publisher demands to the desire and need to make a living from creative work, Whitney and Orson will peel back the myth about constraint’s power to derail us and expose the truth about how restrictions can be an innovative disruptor’s best friends.
Disrupt Yourself Live
Archives Available on VoiceAmerica Business Channel
Change is necessary, even desirable, but when it happens so fast, it feels like it is happening to you, not for you. That’s scary. But it shouldn’t need to feel this way.
What Whitney Johnson has learned, having been an analyst on Wall Street, and co-founding an investment firm with Harvard’s Clayton Christensen, is that the framework of disruptive innovation, that we apply to companies, is, at a high level, a framework for managing change, beginning with the individual.
She’s spent the last five years researching and codifying a framework of personal disruption, so that whether you are scaling a business, trying to get your people to be more innovative, or just trying to manage your career you have a structure for doing this.
Tune in to Disrupt Yourself Live with Whitney Johnson on VoiceAmerica Business for stories from the front lines and practical tips on how to not only cope with but harness and ride the waves of change.
Whitney Johnson
Whitney Johnson was named one of the world's thirty most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50 in 2017. She is the author of Build an A Team (Harvard Business Press, 2018) and the critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work (2015). Publisher's Weekly described it as "savvy, often counter-intuitive, superb" while the Boston Globe called it the "What Color is Your Parachute?” career guide for the entrepreneurial age.
Through writing, speaking, consulting and coaching, Whitney works with leaders to effectively lead through change. She formerly was the co-founder of the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard's Clayton Christensen. She was involved in fund formation, capital raising, and the development of the fund's strategy. During her tenure, the CAGR of the Fund was 11.98 percent v. 1.22 percent for the S and P 500.
She is also formerly an award-winning Wall Street analyst. She was an Institutional Investor-ranked equity research analyst for eight consecutive years and was rated by Starmine as a superior stock-picker.
Whitney is a frequent contributor for the Harvard Business Review, she has over 1.2 million followers on Linkedin, and her LinkedIn course The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has 1 million plus views. She is a member of the original cohort of Marshall Goldsmith's top 100 coaches.
Episode Directory
April 2018
- 4/30/2018: Bootstrapping Your Way to Success Listen Now
- 4/23/2018: Constraints as Tools of Creation Listen Now
- 4/16/2018: Leadership and The Importance Of Playing To Your Strengths Listen Now
- 4/9/2018: Play Where Others Aren't Playing - Embrace Market Risk Listen Now
- 4/2/2018: Thriving Through Change With the Disrupt Yourself Framework Listen Now
