Gregg Fraley

We Still Can Learn From “The Ken” Sir Ken Robinson Leaves a Legacy That Still Inspires Educators, Creators, and Innovators, Revisit His Work! The creativity and innovation world has lost one of its finest just this last week. Sir Ken Robinson was the most articulate speaker and author in the field of applied creativity we’ve ever known. His insights are profound, and his unique verbal delivery is simply unparalleled. His sense of humor colored his work and is the secret sauce of his success; he had the wit of a natural born comedian and the incisive insights of a brilliant satirist. His original TED talk (“How Schools Kill Creativity) is without a doubt the most influential 18 minutes of video

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Pack a Lunch Mail-in voting is already problematic. Like many Americans I’m appalled at the use of the Post Office to suppress votes. If you don’t agree this is happening, you can skip the rest of what I say here. In my view, the Post Office and Mail-in voting is already compromised, with some exceptions. For those of you who read my blog for innovation, this blog is not about that, I’ll return soon with more writing on creativity and innovation. But the stability of our elections and our government does impact innovation in the long run, and maybe the short run. Too Late To Fix This It would be great if this problem of mail-in voting could be fixed

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Intensive Program Helps Small Business Owners in Indiana Survive and Grow Indiana Business Owners: Sign Up Now, It’s FREE, Starts August 12th. MoshPits, those crazy human-smashing dance scenes at heavy metal concerts are deliberate chaos. Those who participate dive in because they want that wacky experience. They Choose to Dance. What business leaders are going through to survive the economic chaos of Covid19 is a MoshPit nobody really chose to be a part of, but, we’re stuck with the situation. Make no mistake, these are tough times, and they cause business leaders anxiety and fear. But, they can Choose to Take Control. Control means thinking your way out of this crisis. Did you know there’s another kind of “MoshPit” that

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Innovation Lessons from Improv Shakespeare The Creative Power of High Function Teams is Astonishing, Rare, and, Possible Getting Beyond “Group Think” Takes Training A committee is where good ideas go to die. This is not good news for innovation teams, because, innovation “teams” are often not teams at all. They are in fact, committees. A committee composed of people from different departments, with non-aligned goals, no team training or bonding, and built-in conflicts. They attempt to work together, but usually fail. It shouldn’t be a surprise, they were set up for failure. It doesn’t have to be this way. Teams can create together and be uber effective. It takes training! Proof: Can you imagine a group of eight people creating

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Lessons a Forager Can Lend Business Relax, Stay Hopeful, Keep Looking I’m a mushroom hunter. I wander the woods foraging, especially in the fall season. Southwest Michigan has a lot of edible varieties but there is one particular delicacy I love. It’s called a Hen-of-the-Woods. It’s a unique shape, something like a cauliflower, and about that size or larger. Very safe — not one of those “eat once” mushrooms. They are not rare exactly, but one can wander for miles and not find one, even in season. They hide under a brownish leaf-like surface. I have a lesson here for business people. Let me start with this story. Know that “Hens” are simply delicious. A hearty, meaty, solid texture, with a

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Build Innovation From The Ground Up Creative Thinking Can Be Trained Train Creativity First, Innovation Next  It’s mind numbing all the literature I read about innovation. I’m also a bit weary of chasing or developing the latest, greatest, and most sophisticated tool for ideation. Frameworks are fascinating, but have mercy, it’s overwhelming. I think I need the mental equivalent of a shot of wheatgrass. I’m getting back to basics. My new message about innovation is — get back to basics first — and that means the spark of it all, creativity. Yes, I’m an innovation writer, trainer, and consultant, AND, without a creative culture you’re building innovation on a mound of sand. With creativity activated, facilitators like me help others

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Rural Development Hinges On The Creative Class Attracting the Creative Class is About Culture, Tolerance, and Quality of Life Where Creative Workers Locate is Where Innovation and New Businesses Happen, Site Locations Follow Richard Florida is, in my view, the top theorist in the USA with regards to economic development. His seminal book the Rise of the Creative Class should be required reading for anyone with an interest in creating jobs, and attracting companies to locate in a particular region (his other work is also notable). Florida is not without controversy, but I respect his work because it’s data-driven, and, because I’ve seen his theories play out in the real world. The skinny on Florida’s theories is pretty simple: creative

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The Innovators Monologue with profound apologies to William Shakespeare by Gregg Fraley To innovate or not to innovate — that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to stagnate or create while feeling the slings and arrows of peers and loss of fortune or to take up arms against inaction and seek to disrupt or improve and if I fail to find sweet perfection or green fields, I die — no more to market, sell, deliver, enrich, enable — the end of the enterprise, alas rarely mourned but the heartache, the thousand friends who lose jobs and life stations that families, tribes, regions, spirits, depend on. ‘Tis a grand frustration devoutly we pray to avoid, the death, and

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Edition #2 of An Innovation Minute Qualitative Research in B2B With Host, Gregg Fraley The message of this edition of An Innovation Minute is simple: Use of qualitative research techniques in business to business companies (B2B) is woefully under-utilized. Click here to view. The opportunity in using qualitative techniques is more focused innovation. Focus Groups, interviews, ethnographies, and observational research all can provide insights, at a reasonable cost, to feed innovation pipelines. Qualitative techniques are usable within frameworks like Design Thinking, Agile, Lean, and CPS. These insights cannot be gained through use of survey research. Gregg Fraley, CEO of GFi shares his thinking in this short video, the second in an on-going series. An Innovation Minute is a copyright of Gregg

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Hope is a Four Letter Word in Innovation Hope — the cornerstone of innovation culture Hope is inspired by successful projects; the lesson of Washington at Trenton In the innovation space there is a great deal of discussion about mindset. Rightfully so, attitude and thinking patterns have everything to do with setting the table for a productive innovation culture. Leaders and followers with the right mindset have a chance to create and succeed with innovation. There’s a lot to learn about inspiring hope from American history, but before we look at that George Washington “crossing the Delaware” example, let’s examine what mindset means, and let’s see what is systematically left out (hint: it’s hope). When people talk about mindset, they are

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