The deepest possible way to bond with another human being is through meanings you share and both cherish.

In their book “Making Meaning. How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences” Nathan Shedroff and his co-authors argue that a company with its brand should aspire to resonate with meanings that are dear to their customers.

They base on research that shows that among the different cultures on our planet there are 15 meanings, that universally apply to all of us. Nice, isn’t it?

Stop before you go about solving a problem! You're missing a great chance to disrupt, think out-of-the-box, re-invent business.

As an engineer, and I would say also as a manager, we are trained and take great pride in being very fast at assessing a problem and then properly applying a (known!) solution to the problem. In some cases this is exactly the right thing to do.

Design Thinking goes through cycles of divergent thinking to create solutions – and convergent thinking to make solutions. Here’s how to diverge.

No one has a benefit from bulletpoint-loaded slides. Neither you as a presenter or speaker, nor your audience.

Go back a couple of thousand years, to the time before paper (and Powerpoint). Caveman. Fire. Families, a tribe sitting around a fire, shadows cast to the wall, simple drawings, while elders tell stories of the past, pass on their knowledge.

That’s as far back as Storytelling goes. Use it in a business context!