Podcast 605: The Innovator’s Mindset with George Couros

I happen to have been in the Amazon Bookstore in La Jolla, CA.  Yes, literally they have a bookstore.  I intuitively got a hunch about this book that was on an endcap display.  The author is George Couros and the title of the book is “The Innovator’s Mindset-Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity”   I knew when I saw the book that I needed to interview the author, so I reached out to George and he gracefully accepted my invitation.

George is an educator with a passion for helping teachers transform their classrooms into creativity and innovation think tanks.  George believes that we need to prepare our kids for jobs that don’t yet exist, and with that mission he became the Division Principal of Innovative Thinking and Learning.

George understand that we need to shift the young minds from that of a fixed mindset to that of a growth mindset, then to that of the innovator’s mindset.  The innovator’s mindset take the growth mindset a step further by focusing on using one’s ability to learn to play the piano but to create music.  The innovator’s mindset can be defined as the belief that the abilities, intelligence, and the talents are developed so that they lead to the creation of new and better ideas.

This book has not only been written for educators, but for anyone who is attempting to create a culture of innovation and creativity.  I highly recommend reading George’s book “The Innovator’s Mindset“.  If you want to learn more about George and his passions please visit his website by clicking here.  I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with George Couros the author of “The Innovator’s Mindset“.

 

Podcast 429: The Leapyear Project with Victor Saad

Author Victor Saad is one of the most dynamic and interesting young men I have ever had the pleasure of interviewing.  His new book entitled “The Leap Year Project” is the story of his personal journey as a socially responsible entrepreneurs and the journeys of many other young students who took up Victors challenge to join him on this year long journey.

These students choose to take a year out of their lives to ‘experience’ working in different businesses and learn from the experience instead of a textbook.  At the culmination of Victor’s journey, he was given the opportunity to speak before  a TedX conference in Chicago.  His twenty-minute talk absolutely points out the need for more experiential education which gives the learner “real life” experiences not just an MBA but a real life experiences designed to immerse the student in the business challenges.

Through this experience, Victor has gone on to found Experience Institute which is how he is continuing the amazing work that he started.  I hope you will pick up a copy of his book, I know that you will not only learn about the wonderful journey that Victor took on his year long experience, but you will learn what is was like from many others who took the challenge with Victor.

Please watch the TedX talk that Victor gave below, I think you will walk away rethinking how we educate young impressionable minds.