Phil Cooke, Ph.D.

During many years as a media producer and consultant based in Los Angeles, one of the most frustrating challenges I've discovered within business is an overemphasis on loyalty. I know -- we all grew up with the understanding that loyalty was good -- one of the most important virtues. I...

You spend at least a third of your life there. You're there for most waking hours. It's where you work most closely with other people. And yet, it looks plain, uninspiring, and probably outright depressing. Your surroundings have more of an impact on your creativity and productivity than you may...

Over and over I get calls from frustrated nonprofits because they're struggling financially or not getting on the radar of potential supporters. Sometimes they're uncomfortable asking for financial support, but in most cases, they're not actually so afraid to ask. The problem is, they're asking for money, not sharing a...

One of the big hits of Sunday's Superbowl was Chrysler's two minute TV spot, "It's Halftime in America," featuring actor and director Clint Eastwood. While it's taken some heat politically, the spot, created by agency Wieden + Kennedy, generated such an outpouring of emotion across all...

Whatever your creative job, project, or dream, we all have habits that either help us or hurt us. Some of us are highly disorganized -- keeping us from staying on task. Others can't say NO -- so they spend too much time doing what other people think is urgent and...

Whatever you think about the Occupy Wall Street movement, it's instructive to take a look at their strategy. Today, anyone who needs to engage the larger culture to share an important message needs to think seriously about issues like perception, platforms, competition, timing, passion, and more. At our company,

I'm convinced that I'm creative because as a kid I was bored to death at church. My dad was the pastor, so I had to sit with my mom and sister on the front row of the sanctuary every time the church doors were opened. As a little kid, I...

Since George Orwell's novel 1984, we've been concerned about government playing the role of "Big Brother." In the novel, an entire society is under total surveillance by the authorities. The citizens are regularly reminded with the phrase, "Big Brother is watching you." And today, from traffic cameras, to cell phone...

The verdict is in: we're hopelessly addicted to our digital devices -- so much so, in fact, that some psychologists are pushing to have "internet addiction" broadly classified as a clinical disorder. But isn't it really affirmation that we can't get enough of? We want people to acknowledge us, interact...

New York Representative Anthony Weiner, 46 years old, was forced to make a pretty humiliating admission this week -- that he "sexted" numerous explicit body part photos to various young women he'd connected with through social media. You'll remember that at first he denied it, but the momentum was just...

The deadline has passed, the world has survived, and radio preacher Harold Camping was denied his apocalypse. All mainstream, orthodox Christians disagreed (including myself) with Mr. Camping's prediction. We believe that the Bible is right when it says that only the Father knows the day and time of His return....

As Japan begins to rebuild their shattered and devastated country, the first question I'm hearing from international commentators and reporters is "Where do they start?" When entire communities have disappeared, significant infrastructure is destroyed and thousands are dead or missing, where do you begin? What should the first steps be...