Amanda Lang > Quotes

“You have to free your brain to roam to places that are a little impractical, and innovation consultants have come up with some great ways to encourage that. One of my favorites comes from Legrand, who tells people in group brainstorming sessions to try to come up with the WORST possible ideas that they can think of. ... Once you have a list of really, really bad suggestions - and coming up with them does force your brain to work in a different way - you try to flip them over into the positive.”
― Amanda Lang, The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success

“Instead of going back and looking at the question, people tinker with the solution, trying to make it fit."-Claude Legrande..."The consequences of failing to do that [in our personal lives] are the same as those facing businesses - even more dire, perhaps, because what's being squandered isn't just the potential for profits. It's the potential for happiness. We miss opportunities to innovate and to make positive changes in our lives when we aren't willing to question ourselves.”
― Amanda Lang, The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success

“What's fascinating about this list is that ten people with a a slew of medals among them decided that the two most important determinants of mental toughness - believing you can achieve a goal and having the ability to pick yourself up after you fail - have nothing whatsoever to do with performance and everything to do with persevering through doubt, disappointment, and other forms of discomfort.”
― Amanda Lang, The Beauty of Discomfort: How What We Avoid Is What We Need

“A SWOT analysis involves asking, "What are our strengths and weaknesses? What are our opportunities? What are the threats?”
― Amanda Lang, The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success

“...failure promotes success only if you actually take the time to analyze your mistakes.." "Failure has to be separated from fault, and for many people that requires a bit of deprogramming, as we learn early on that they are one and the same." "In this framework, intention is extremely important.”
― Amanda Lang

“His (Claude Legrand's) method is founded in a simple directive: Don't conclude that the problem as it's first presented, or as you first perceive it, is indeed the actual problem. If you do, and you've got it wrong, the solution you produce may also be wrong. The first step to figuring out what your problem is, Legrand says, is to deconstruct it by questioning it.”
― Amanda Lang, The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success