Apple’s Steve Jobs Genius And Pioneer

Steve Jobs genius, there’s no other way to describe it. 60 Minutes featured an episode named “Inside Apple” where they described everything from Steve Jobs’ vision to how they created their future products. CEO Tim Cook was interviewed on the show and described Steve Jobs as someone who saw around the curve, a perfectionist, and a visionary who created products before people knew they wanted them. Jobs always reminded employees that their products “should not be great but insanely great.”

This mindset remains at the forefront of Apple today, even though he passed on a couple of years ago. Expectations that products expand their usage beyond their first-generation drive the profit margins to 40%, making the company worth over $600 Billion.

A prime example Cook illustrates in the interview regards their iPhones.

Now 12,000 times more potent than the first ones created. Apple’s tireless drive and commitment have helped them sell over 1 billion phones worldwide. Several color schemes and other meticulous details continually redesign new prototypes that force Apple products to compete. Having internal competition creates more sales rather than rivaling other competitors’ products. Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, Dan Riccio reiterated this notion when he identified that the MacBook’s solid construction maximizes the computer, so every one-tenth of a millimeter is optimized.

Having a group of talented individuals with the leeway to develop,

incubate, and team with other Apple employees remains a key ingredient in their unrelenting success. Chief Design Officer Jony Ive proudly stated that their 22 design team members handle most of the work behind the scenes, and only two have left this department in fifteen years.

Although extraordinary but not impossible, Apple continues to pave the way for innovation. Rather than telling their customers to change, they instinctively built these notions into their vision.

Too often, many would ride the wave of success rather than reflect on how to improve their products for employees. This notion sets up a disaster and a once-promising future. It becomes shrouded in failure because often, people think that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Whether you are a CEO, principal, dean, or another leader, we must be like Steve Jobs Genius.

Plan, anticipate and change, similar to what Jobs described and did at Apple, anchor a growth mindset. Those on the other side of this discussion have a fixed mindset that transpires negativity and a “can’t be done” attitude.

Think about what would happen if a company channeled on a growth mindset. The possibilities would be endless. If someone embedded STEM in an organization that centers on the growth mindset, the takeaways would be epic.

Believe it or not, making students and employees ready for any endeavor. Their face makes them more apt for the position.

However, transitioning someone from conventional thinking and average ability to a highly skilled and developed employee does not happen overnight. It must be well-defined and planned to replicate the same training in the same school, department, or company.

These steps listed below will assist schools and organizations in supporting their students or employees to transform into a growth mindset focused on STEM.

FUSING A GROWTH MINDSET WITH A FOCUS ON STEM

• Identify the exact weaknesses in each department and create a short and long-range plan. The best approach to initiate growth mindset centers on identifying specific inadequacies. while supplying a short and long-term strategy to correct them.
• Solutions to weaknesses become a primary focal point in the vision. Should the concept and the weakness plan not be merged, fragmentation appears, and total buy-in will not occur.
• Team-building takes place consistently. Most buildings conduct team-building activities once a year if that happens. Team building must frequently occur so trust and a positive rapport is established. Center the activities around both personal and work issues.

• High-level and low-level employees must work side by side. It considers all perspectives and helps share uniformity.
• Save the drama for your mama. Leaving the drama and gossiping at the door makes for a better workplace leading to better production. Otherwise, the focus shifts from the task to wasted time and energy, often kindling a firestorm of negativity.
• Never toss out an idea. Instead, keep a board with all views in each category posted so the ideas can resonate.

• Break the rear-view mirror. Yes, you heard it from me. Continuing to look back slows one from working to the employee’s fullest potential. Learn from the past. Just don’t dwell on it.
• Mandate inter-department work. The best work comes when others pair up to resolve a problem. Look at how Google approaches innovation.  They spend at least 20% of their time working on other areas, like product improvement with different team members that eventually end up for the greater good.

• Laser-focused feedback. When providing feedback on a project, task, or yearly evaluation, pinpoint excellent marks and areas for a follow-up item. Don’t just say “good” or “that’s great.” Instead, try an approach like, “this is a creative model you have developed to streamline the delivery process. Can you try this and adjust it to your model?”
• Reverse the mentor-mentee role. We rely on our mentors to guide us in day-to-day problems; unfortunately, several mentors can also have a pessimistic attitude that inadvertently conveys it to the mentees. I challenge you to reverse the role. Why? Because our youth will take more risks and have an open minds. Timpacts how the mentor sees things in the company or school can lead to more tremendous success.
•  Looking at how others see the same dilemma often helps paint a clearer picture as it reflects in multiple ways.

This is what the future of work is about – being open-minded, flexible, and adaptive to new ideas and concepts.

I keep iterating about how much of a genius Steve Jobs was in our time. He saw what others didn’t and went after it.

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