In the best organizations, love is the real "pixie dust."

Values must be demonstrated through behaviors, but they are truly significant when they represent the beliefs of an entire organization.

Storyboarding is what I call an "idea landscape" - one that can help unleash creativity, improve communication, and identify practical solutions to complex problems. The beauty of storyboarding is that ideas from an entire team are harnessed, not just those from the extroverts or vocal members.

This is great if you know all those "not to do" strategies. Sometimes you learn the "not to do's" by doing. The key is to fail forward fast. Try, fail, learn, and quickly try again.

The best ideas can come from anyone within an organization. Leaders must remember that if they want employees to embrace a new organizational "Dream" or strategy, they need to include them and seek their ideas. Creativity is NOT just for the R&D department.

The two critical questions to ask are: "Who is my customer?" and "What value am I adding?" Unfortunately, many workers cannot answer these questions. They tend to blindly do things, and develop bad habits of doing things over and over for no good reasons.

I would advise any startup to take the time to define their unique culture and work at making it a reality.