On this week’s episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast we take a look at the power of productive thinking. We talk about why the act of thinking can actually be physically demanding, the 6 steps in the productive thinking process, and how to avoid pitfalls like Monkey Mind, Gator Brain, and the Elephant’s Tether.

Tim Hurson, one of the world’s leading experts on corporate innovation, joins us to talk about those topics and more. Tim is the author of Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking and co-author of Never Be Closing: How to Sell Better Without Screwing Your Clients, Your Colleagues, or Yourself. Throughout his career, Tim has helped Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 organizations in the US, Canada, and the UK create innovation, marketing, new product, and workplace transformation programs.

He’s a Founding Partner at ThinkX Intellectual Capital, an innovation consulting firm that teaches Productive Thinking, a core skill for developing new products and processes, new organizational structures, new marketing and business strategies, and solve problems in general.

Here are a few of the highlights from the episode with Tim Hurson:

• We talk about the physiological cause for a stat Tim cites in Productive Thinking: that chess masters sweat out 7-10 pounds of fluid during a 2-hour chess match
• Tim talks about the legend of the space pen in sharing an anecdote about the importance of solving the right problem
• We talk about the need to differentiate between creative thinking and critical thinking, the two elements of productive thinking
• Tim talks about the 6-step Productive Thinking model and why the conventional 3-step problem-solving process of "see the problem, pick a solution, do something" leaves much room for improvement

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Interested in hearing more? Tune in to the full episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast via the SoundCloud embed below.

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