Have you ever read a book because you were looking for specific information? Perhaps information to solve a problem? That's what I did with Gaming to Innovate. I read Gaming to Innovate to get information and to further my knowledge on how to make my products and services more valuable to you.

I've started to charge for my programs and services because I only wanted people like you, who are serious about changing their lives by reading the right books.

You value the things you pay for. It is my responsibility to build a case for why the Knowledge Accelerators, Unleash Your Genius Power, and my membership site, the Art of Learning Leadership Academy ares worth your time investment.

I want to use what I learned from Gaming to Innovate to update the programs and services I offer. So that it’s as valuable as it can be. Based on my two primary goals for reading Gaming to Innovate – get information to improve my Programs and to further my knowledge on the topic – I chose which information to focus on when I was reading the book.

How to Make the Leadership Development Program More Valuable to You

I love reading, and whatever I do professionally, I want reading to be a part of it. With that in mind, I teach a concept called leadership reading, which is reading to learn what you need to know. You read strategically instead of sequentially. You focus on information that's important to you. I even wrote a book on the topic. I created the Art of Learning Leadership Academy to provide senior level executives with Bookish Notes, so they maximize their learning from books while minimizing the time spent reading.

Functional Fixedness: What are the different uses of something? What is the function of the Bookish Notes and the Leadership Reading Programs? What other functions could the programs have: Its function is to:

• Allow you to develop new skills to compete and thrive now and in the future. This will allow you to do things that you cannot now do. And this could translate in offering new products and services.
• Show you how to find big ideas from the different books you read, combine them to form something new, generating that one big idea that has the potential to transform your life. One big idea when acted upon can be a game changer.
• Enable you to complete stretch assignments or other important projects that allow you to apply the newly learned skills. Solving a critical workplace or business can increase your level of status in an organization.
• Allow you to creatively solved problem because the new knowledge helps you to build a body of knowledge. This allows you to solve your own problems. And approach old problems in new ways.
• Give you in-demand skills to help you to to secure a promotion.

How do I make getting continuing education credits a reality? This is something that I have started to research. Would you appreciate getting continuing education credits if you made the time to read the books to learn the skills?

Structural Fixedness: If you look at the thing as a whole, then it’s very difficult for you to innovate. Therefore, if I look at the Program as a whole, I will have blind spots. How can I break the leadership development program into its parts?

Questions I Have Related to Structural Fixedness

1. How do I break out of structural fixedness with the leadership development programs?
2. In what ways can I make the programs less about learning and more about a fun game?
3. What if it was structured like a course with continuing education credits?
4. How can I break down the programs to their basic elements to get rid of fixedness to innovate?
5. In what ways can I transform the leadership development program so it has no competitors?
6. How do I increase engagement when people participate in the Leadership Development Program?
7. Can I use the leadership development program to have an impact on the bottom line? Perhaps a structured approach to idea generation.
8. How will the leadership development programs impact your business and career?

A major outcome of the Leadership Development Programs is that they have to make participants at least 10 times more valuable and marketable.

This is a goal. But how can I have this outcome in a world with constraints – resources, budget, and structural constraints? If you participated in the leadership development programs, read the right books to learn the key skills, you would be more than 10 times more marketable and valuable.

Knowledge is like compound interest. Knowledge builds on knowledge exponentially, and you reap the effects.

Have you read?

Accelerate Your Learning with Bookish Notes and the Art of Learning Leadership Academy

Rewards: Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation: How would I be able to assign points to each person as they progress through the Bookish Notes and Leadership Reading Programs?

• Can I create a leaderboard, so everyone can see their accomplishments?
• Is there a way to do this that’s not too time intensive and expensive?

Extrinsic Motivation: Is a trophy and shout out on social media enough of an extrinsic motivation? Would continuation credits make a difference? I’m not sure because I haven’t tried it yet. It may work, since in some professions, people need the continuing education credits to maintain certification.

Big Ideas

Usefulness, Immediacy and Impact. Is the idea viable? Can we use it now? How much impact will we have? Below is my interpretation for the the leadership development programs.

Monthly Big Ideas Scorecard

Innovation Tools and Techniques That Can Make the Programs Better

Subtraction: Are there essential component that I can take away from the programs? What are the internal components? The internal components are the Bookish Notes included in a course and the books to read in the Knowledge Accelerators.

Questions to Ask if I Subtract a Component

Looking at what’s left:

• “What is it?
• Would you name it and what?
• What would be the benefit?
• Who would benefit from it?
• What target market?”

Multiplication: Which element of the programs can I multiply? Improve onboarding to the programs. For the first week of membership, should it be more about preparing for success and not reading the Bookish Notes? I need to create tools and resources to prepare participants. As I write this, I am thinking that a video may be more appropriate, this is something for me to think about.

Division: Divide production along physical or functional lines. Can step 10 become step three and so on? How would this be relevant to the Leadership Development Programs? Perhaps there could be a separate program that’s career focused? This is worth thinking about.

Task Unification: This is using one component to do the task of another. Assign an additional task to the programs. The reading challenge has been referred to as not for the faint of heart. I have added reading one technology article each week. What am I missing with task unification?

“You make a list of the essential components of the product or process, select a component from the list, and assign it an additional task by using one of the following three methods:

1. Choose an external component and use it to perform a task the product is already accomplishing.

2. You can choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra.

3. Choose an internal component and make it do the function of the external component.”

Attribute Dependency: Remove or create dependency between elements of the Art of Learning Leadership Academy.

• How does this relate to the Art of Learning Academy and the Bookish Notes members get?
• As it stands now, each course is a standalone, although some of them have several sections? What if courses that seem unrelated are somehow connected to each other to help members become expert generalists. And what if there were more courses to teach members in-demand skills. How about switching the components from one course to another would it make the flow of the course smoother?
• The in-demand skills could build on each other because many of them are related. For instance, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and decision making are related skills. They should be in one course

Innovation Tools & Techniques

1. Subtraction
2. Multiplication
3. Division
4. Task Unification
5. Attribute Dependency

Action Steps from Gaming to Innovate

I have a tendency to get on with things, so for the Art of Learning Leadership Academy, I included an onboarding process. To make the Bookish Notes work for participants, there are certain things I recommend they do:

• Members are encourage to work on one Bookish Notes each day.
• Participants choose Bookish Notes based on their goals and objectives.
• Consider having a webinar, so people in the Facebook Group can talk about the Bookish Notes they read and learned from. Get people involved, so it’s not on my shoulders. This will build engagement. I would have to develop a format for others to follow.
• I created the Facebook group, Read Book, Solve a Problem. I'm using it to mobilize professionals to read books to help solve some of the world's toughest problems.

Next Steps

Wondering what to do next, you can do all of:

1. Buy my new book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read

2. If you want to Consult 1:1 about Effective Reading Strategies

3. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

4. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site

5. Download Unlock Your Genius Power Reading Tips Sheet

6. Buy me a cup of coffee!

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.

This post contains affiliate links and The Invisible Mentor® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support! Update: First published March 11, 2021

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