🥁 The OffBeat #80: Lead Sheet | Leadership Digest
Something to read, something to think about, something else
This is The OffBeat, from jazz drummer, two-decade marketing leader, and mom of two Allison Stadd: music-inspired answers for your leadership challenges, like six ways to use music to motivate your team.
Lead Sheet is The OffBeat’s every-other-week roundup of links, recs, and quotes. Like a lead sheet in music (just the essentials: melody, harmony, lyrics), it always has something to read, something to think about, and something else—all within the themes of leadership cues from music, cultural curiosity, and personal/professional balance.
Everyone's lonely but no one can hang out ()
Why does everything look infantilized? ()
Luddite teens don’t want your likes (NY Times)
The “sad beige” lawsuit (People)
Millennials reimagine retirement (CNBC)
Low-energy habits that improved my mental health ()
I never wanted to be a writer (NY Times)
“Persistence isn't just pushing harder—it's having energy that demands new ideas. Think of a founder solving a problem. Someone with just determination keeps trying the same approach. But a truly persistent founder has a restless energy that demands new solutions. When one approach fails, their energy compels them to imagine new ones. This cycle—energy demanding imagination, imagination feeding energy—is rare.
Energy without imagination is force. Energy with imagination is persistence.”
— Shane Parrish
When struggling to get out of tiny thinking, I’m a big fan of *extreme* brainstorming questions.
Here are some of my favorites to prompt fresh, transformative ideas no matter your industry:
⁉️ If you were forced to increase your prices by 10X, what would you have to do to justify it?
⁉️ If you weren't allowed to have a website, how would you keep growing your business?
⁉️ What would be the most FUN initiative for your team to launch?
⁉️ What if you were forced to charge customers in a completely different manner? (E.g. one-time purchase ➡️ subscription)
⁉️ What if you held no more synchronous meetings, ever again?
⁉️ What would you do if your team had unlimited resources for one year?
⁉️ How would you explain what you do to someone from the year 1800?
⁉️ If you had to launch your business from scratch today, what would you do differently?
⁉️ What’s an unspoken rule in your industry that your team could break?
⁉️ What if you had to make your product or service accessible to every human on Earth?
What's your favorite question to ignite innovative thinking??
For double the reading recommendations, including the best corners of Reddit and Virginia Woolf’s thoughts on how to read a book, plus some things to listen to / watch, keep reading.