Stoked

Name: Stoked
Address: 1323 6th Avenue North, Nashville, TN, 37208, US
Telephone: +16152749760

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After years of practicing design on innovation projects within our own companies we felt like it was time to offer what we were learning to the world.

Working with organizations worldwide to rekindle their natural ability to see things in new ways, by making human-centered design central to their everyday culture. Like Caine from Kung Fu, we travel the globe spreading human centered design to organizations looking for a new way of working in a rapidly changing world. We absolutely love what we do. Seeing the spark of change in our “students” is the fuel for our fire.

02/05/2024

Apricity.
The joyful sensation of sunshine on a winter’s day.

A dear friend recently gifted me a book that summarizes 100 words that are more descriptive than the word, “good.”

It made me think of the language we use in business; it could use a bit of a make-over.

Language is a way of understanding and interpreting our world. But, it also shapes the way we think. It is both chicken and egg. It allows us to express ourselves and it shapes what we are thinking to begin with. Maybe this is why I’ve come to cherish this book that outlines so many ways to cultivate happiness.

Deploying resources, human capital, war room, giving 110%, core competency, core values... ew.

Let’s take a page from Roots of Happiness and re-humanized (is that word?) our language at work.

I think we’d all be happier.

—

02/02/2024

“Stop protecting leaders from inconvenience.”

I was listening Bob Sutton this morning on ’s podcast and this line made me pause.

I found myself making a mental list of the kinds of inconveniences leaders might face. Some were superficial, like booking travel.

However, many of the “inconveniences” were things that make leaders good at being constant adaptors.
.. A business rhythm that already needs to be adjusted.. A team member did something sh*tty and it needs to be discussed.. A difficult decision has to be made quickly without all the information

The White Stripes guitarist, Jack White, intentionally plays on an old guitar that requires constant re-tuning, keeps extra picks out of immediate reach, and spreads his instruments out on stage. He does this to build inconveniences into his art because it makes him better. (FYI, he’s won 12 Grammy’s)

We are all a work in progress and inconveniences fuel personal growth so let’s not protect one another from experiencing them.

(PS - I can’t wait to read Bob’s new book The Friction Project)

— (CEO of Stoked)

01/30/2024

If there was an Olympics for business tools, I think prototyping would win. 🥇

helps us reduce the risk of failure. It helps us align with one another, work through kinks, story tell, build momentum, get early feedback… you can see why it’d be the gold medal winner.

But, as and I were contemplating motherhood and relationships this morning (she is nearing the end of maternity leave) we were also contemplating how useful it is in our personal lives. A few examples…

- Prototyping moving to a new neighborhood by hanging out there.
- Renting the car you are considering buying.
- Rotating through dating profile pictures to find the right ones.
- Working through a kitchen remodel with cutouts and graph paper.
- Borrowing a friend’s cloths to try on a new style.

Makes me wonder, what should I have prototyped that wasn’t 🤔 — , CEO of Stoked

01/29/2024

Hot off the press! 🗞️ Stoked’s Paperwork newspaper is here. Inspired by our incredible Stoked Collective - the paper chronicles a journey through past work and future strategy that was thoroughly enjoyed by the creators/facilitators.

01/26/2024

During the prototyping phase of (HCD), team members have the freedom to experiment with silly, creative, and even whimsical ideas. Prototyping in HCD requires active listening, negotiation, collaboration, wild curiosity, deep empathy, keen observation, strategy building, anticipating what’s next, and, most importantly, failing.

It’s heartening to see how teams embrace the iterative process and learn from their failures with a theatrical, full-body exclamation of “Ta-Da”!

01/23/2024

Is your first reaction competitive or cooperative? 👇👇👇

When my kids were young, we loved playing cooperative games. We had a stack of them and even the most competitive of the bunch would end up giving high fives at the end.

I think business would benefit from more of this.

Now, I’m not saying everyone should get a participation medal in business or that competition isn’t valuable. I LOVE to win when I’m given a chance to compete. I mean, I WILL win. But, we allow our minds to default to competition in business when I think a more useful default is cooperation.

Let’s say you are passionate about what you do and believe that you are making a powerful, positive impact in the world. Now, there is another company with a similar mindset doing the same thing. Is your first reaction competitive or cooperative?

I think a reaction of competition is often rooted in fear. We are afraid that there isn’t enough or maybe our self-esteem whispers that they are better. Either way, we are afraid we will lose. We can just as easily shift our mind to an alternative track, one of co-creation. Whether it is alongside a co-worker or along-side another company, we can see our similarities and find ways to work together.

This attitude is a way of being and is a personal choice we each get to make. What are you passionate about and where are others who feel the same sense of excitement? Flock to them like a magnet (mixed metaphors but you get the gist :) —

Take the poll 👇 Is your first reaction competitive or cooperative?

01/19/2024

Mid-day contemplation from 👇

Conflict at work is normal but festering is completely unnecessary.

Since we have popularized EQ and IQ, what if we also had FQ? How would that equation be expressed?

FQ = curiosity / self-righteousness?
FQ = meaningful connection / in one’s head?

It seems to me that there are two simple things that diffuse festering... addressing the conflict and assuming positive intent.

Considering that, maybe the equation is closer to FQ = Action + possibility / negativity.

(This is what I do when I’m supposed to be filling out my tax organizer) — Anna

01/18/2024

At Stoked, we design transformative, high-touch experiences for people who want to do inspired and innovative work. This boot camp, led by Susan Newman and Marcus Hollinger, will begin with a crash course in — an exciting and engaging, fast-paced, and experiential overview.

Date: 2/27-2/28

Where: Minneapolis, MN

Learn more and sign-up: stokedproject.com/hcd-bootcamp

01/16/2024

“I think everyone needs this! It would be great specifically for teams that are struggling to make the time for creative problem solving and feel tied to an ever growing backlog of demands.” — Noella

Learn more: stokedproject.com/ideascience

01/13/2024

✨Ways of Being✨

At Stoked, we strongly believe innovation is a by-product of a great culture. For over 10 years, we have been primarily contacted to help teams be more innovative: develop a new product, solution, or engagement model. We’ve learned that a team’s creative output is only as strong as the norms that create it. All too often, strategy accelerates the growth of a team with ill-defined values, or values are laminated on a door somewhere without serving as action-oriented guideposts for what excellent work looks and feels like.

We work with teams to co-create values that feel human, energizing, and actionable (so we call them Ways of Being). By developing a system for teams to take shared ownership of these Ways of Being through consistent practices, every individual is inspired to do their best work and hold one another to a standard the whole system feels proud of. This is the winning recipe for growing a powerful team!

When it comes to supporting team alignment, a few consistent learnings directly fed the development of this approach:

👉 Design unlocks creativity. We leverage human-centered design to develop ‘Ways of Being’ through empathetic research and coach your team on how to experiment their way to successful cultural practices.
👉 Team members have ideas they’d love to try. Often, they haven’t been asked to share and implement them, don’t feel safe in coming forward, or don’t know how. This approach gets right to the action of building and testing ideas to build confidence.
👉 Our job is to facilitate, not take your team’s place. Your team will learn by doing, practicing new tools that can be leveraged for years to come.
👉 The power of play can’t be underestimated! We make serious work fun.

Stoked exists to support teams in feeling like their boldest, most creative selves at work. Reach out if you’d like to talk to a Stoked lead about how refining your ways of being can help your team to do the best work of their lives.

Address

1323 6th Avenue North
Nashville, TN
37208

Telephone

+16152749760

Website

http://stokedproject.com/

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