3-bite desserts and the Google diet

According to this colorful infographic published by MSI:

"... Using their internal "People Analytics" program, Google looks at how their employees eat in their free cafeteria and optimizes it so they're healthier, make better eating decisions, and are more productive through that process. Google does this by "nudging" their employees into making the correct eating decisions daily. ..."

The poster captures several easy ideas, the 3-bite dessert among them, to incorporate at home.

Via: MSI

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company

Brooklyn Superhero Supply, Park Slope  4/12/12

On a recent trip to Park Slope, Brooklyn, I walked by this impressive storefront and discovered that behind the superhero front are real heroics in the works.

The storefront is run by 826NYC, the New York City chapter of 826national.org.  They use it as basecamp for their free writing program for kids and young adults, ages 6-18.  Below is the description that appears in the online superhero product catalog:

"826NYC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Our services are structured around our belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. With this in mind we provide drop-in tutoring, field trips, after-school workshops, in-schools tutoring, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications. All of our free programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student's power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in his or her individual voice. "

Learn about other 826 stores in DC, Boston, LA and Michigan

Got innovation potential?

How are you coping with the pressure to "innovate or die"?  Is it motivating or overwhelming you at your core?

Art Markman, PhD, recently penned a wonderful (and succinct) POV on the topic for MonsterThinking. I excerpt below:

[There] are three characteristics that — when found together — are good predictors of someone’s innovation potential. These characteristics are based on the idea that good innovators know a lot about a wide variety of domains and they are good at using that knowledge when faced with a new problem.

• Openness. Openness is one of the five basic personality characteristics. People who are open are willing to try out new experiences and new ideas. ...

• A need for cognition. Need for cognition refers to how much someone really likes to think about things. When combined with openness, the high need for cognition ensures that someone not only considers an idea, but they think it through carefully. ...

• An ability to use analogies to solve problems. As I discuss in my book “Smart Thinking,” analogies allow people who are solving a problem in one area to draw on their knowledge of another area. ...

Art Markman, PhD, is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, and the director of the program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. He has written over 125 research papers on topics related to thinking including reasoning, decision making and motivation. He blogs frequently for Psychology Today, Huffington Post, and Harvard Business Review. His latest book is called “Smart Thinking.”
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View the post on MonsterThinking here.