Meetings and Events

    Wish Wildly With Abandon

    Blue Sky Visioning is Under-utilized

    Improve Personal or Professional Innovation Roadmaps

    “Be careful what you wish for” is a cliché you hear now and then.

    It occurs to me that innovation teams, often, don’t wish imaginatively enough. This is also true for individuals seeking new and interesting projects for their lives.

    If you want to innovate, solve a big problem, or make a positive change in a business or your life — it starts with wildly imaginative wishing. Some term it Visioning. How can you get what you desire if you don’t have an exciting vision for a highly desired outcome?

    Wildly Imaginative Wishing Take Practice

    Don’t obey the cliche and wish carefully. Wish With Abandon.

    This is not as easy as it sounds. It takes practice, and a skilled facilitator helps.

    We tend to rein in wishes. We think, “that’s a stupid wish because I don’t have the money,” or, the resources, the talent, or the guts to make the wish happen. So we wish practically and list unexciting project ideas. Those projects are not likely to achieve a breakthrough. Visioning takes practice. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Tools and frameworks help.

    That Innovation Project List

    Most Innovation teams have a roadmap of scheduled projects. If not that, at least a list of potential projects to consider for future innovation efforts.

    The lists I’ve reviewed are not visionary enough, and, are populated with obvious projects. Obvious projects address the glaring holes. It might be a missing in the product line. Or a service offering that needs improvement. It might be improving operations. There’s nothing wrong with obvious ideas, they tend to be practical. Every innovation project list should have low risk/high reward practical projects. That said, the first items in any creative list are usually not insightful or surprising. If you don’t push beyond this, you’re in trouble.

    Surprising, Scary, Deeply Insightful Projects

    Without doing the work of imaginative, creative, visioning  there won’t be any game changers.

    That’s a missed opportunity that will plague an organization for years. You’ll get incremental innovation, at best. You need to innovate your project list!

    How often do you (or your team) spend time thinking imaginatively about what innovation projects you might do?

    Idea For Project One: Make An Imaginative List of Innovation Projects 

    Another idea: Call in a professional facilitator to plan the project list meeting (which could be virtual) and get that list made, or refreshed. Who you gonna call? Maybe an uber-experienced facilitator? You need tools and frameworks for:

    • Looking at your current research for fresh insights,
    • Casting a wide net for new possibilities, new ways to innovate,
    • Considering new technology and existing shelved IP

    Get teams thinking of wildly imaginative innovation projects. Projects that, when done, fuel growth for years to come.

    If a session found even one major new vision and project idea would that be of value to your organization?

    Are several fresh project ideas for innovation, and a roadmap of your innovation future, of value?

    Get it done. If you need help, get in touch.

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    The 10 Commandments of Effective Brainstorming

    The Sins That Ruin Idea Generation Redefine Brainstorming If You Want Results   It’s okay to hate Brainstorming. I’ve heard it called BrainWasting, BullStorming, BullShifting, or words I won’t use here. Perhaps the most damning comment is simply “why did we bother?” Well, you bother because you need ideas. I can get you there, see below.  But first…  There have been many studies of brainstorming and articles written. Most (but not all) say it’s a waste of time. Many of these studies start with an outdated notion of what brainstorming is, and usually don’t study real working teams. How you define it (and conduct it) makes a difference. As a person whose facilitated over 1,000 sessions I can tell you

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    Tune-In To Taster Tools On Thursday

    Free Weekly Webinar of Facilitation Tools with Gregg Fraley Every Thursday at 2 pm EST, Master Facilitator Gregg Fraley demonstrates a facilitation tool online. The weekly sessions are FREE. Sessions begin on Thursday March 18th. The 30 minute weekly webinar features demonstrations of various facilitation tools for: strategy, challenge clarification, idea generation (aka brainstorming), problem framing, idea selection, innovation projects, and idea development, etc. Thinking Differently Takes Tools At some point everybody needs to think differently. It might be a really thorny, hairy, awful, complex problem. It might be a juicy opportunity you don’t know how to seize. When you ask your mind to think differently, what happens? Does it come easily? Do new thoughts and ideas spring forth? Or,

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    How to Be Brilliant at Innovation

    Kick Start Ideas That Lead to Growth Accelerate Your Career Dodge the Pitfalls & Establish an Innovation Cycle Three Hour Virtual Training, February 5th, led by Innovation Master Trainer Gregg Fraley Being Brilliant at Innovation is within your grasp, but, it’s a minefield out there. There are more pitfalls in an innovation initiative than the moon has craters. Getting started is challenging because there is a great deal of conflicting advice in the form of books, consultancies, methods, and anecdotal stories. Does one need to take a Stanford course or read 35 books about innovation to get started? No, but, you do need good training in the fundamentals. In fact, you (and your organization) can be brilliant and effective at

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    Creative Flow Challenge

    18 Day Challenge Builds Creativity Create An Amazing 2021 Register now for a transformative experience The Creative Flow Challenge is an 18 day adventure in personal self-expression. The benefits of better access to your creativity AND consistent creative effectiveness are achievable. You’ll create daily, inspired by prompts to get you into flow. Don’t wait for lightning to strike. Join the challenge. Learn how to light your own candle. The challenge starts December 14th and goes through December 31. It requires at least a half hour of daily creative work. Every Day during the challenge. Register now. Benefits of the Creative Flow Challenge Strengthen your belief in, and access to, your creative power Gain fluidity in generating better ideas Get perspective

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    Facilitation Works Miracles

    Skilled Facilitation Makes a Difference Success is Determined Before a Meeting Combining tools & techniques is an art form I recently completed a really difficult and complicated facilitation. It consisted of about three weeks of planning, a very intensive two day session, and a report. Success! Getting to Clarity It was a challenge that took time to understand. The client started by saying he wanted to do a brainstorming session. Several long format conversations were had to clarify what was really desired. It wasn’t brainstorming that was needed. Nothing Is Ever What It Seems As it turns out the session was really more about idea development and elaboration. There is some imaginative thinking inside idea development, but if this session

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    Accelerate Innovation — With Experiential Learning

    Experiential Learning Accelerates Innovation Innovation Session Designs Don’t Engage New Study: Drawing is the Fastest, Most Effective Way to Learn I read with interest an article stating that drawing accelerates learning. It does. Using experiential learning tools like drawing isn’t really new in innovation process. What’s new is the hard proof, and, using tools more deliberately. Sunni Brown, Dave Gray, Dan Roam, and yours truly all use experiential learning tools in innovation projects. In spite of many success stories it’s not done nearly enough. The reason? Most corporate innovators have no training in using experiential tools. They don’t know how to scaffold a learning experience. They go straight to brainstorming without preparing minds, and that’s a big reason sessions fail. The article I reference is in Inc. Magazine by

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    Momentum Team Effectiveness Training

    Accelerating Teams Through Assessment and Training It’s a sad fact of organizational life that only a small percentage of teams achieve high function. Most teams muddle along, and get the essential things done — or not.  Some teams are absolute disaster zones, and are not only ineffective, are actually destructive. Imagine someone pouring crazy glue into your car engine, that’s how a bad team can affect an organization. It doesn’t matter if the team is three people in a small business, or a cross-functional team of 20 at a Fortune 100 company — all teams struggle to excel. And, all teams can improve, with training. Did You Know Diversity = Conflict? It’s a fact that diverse teams are more innovative. They

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    Public Innovation Training, NW Indiana

    Public Training Offering — Getting Innovation Started Attention Michiana, NW Indiana, Chicago Establish Fundamentals and Avoid Pitfalls Gregg Fraley Innovation (GFi) and The Society of Innovators at Purdue Northwest Collaborate on Public Training Seminar FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  August 30, 2019 PORTAGE, Ind. — The Society of Innovators at Purdue University Northwest (PNW) is hosting a public innovation educational seminar from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, at its headquarters located at 6100 Southport Road, Portage, Ind. “Establishing Fundamentals and Avoiding Pitfalls” features innovation expert and author Gregg Fraley of Gregg Fraley Innovation (GFi); La Porte-based innovation practitioner, Earl Miller of Hiler Industries/Accurate Castings; and Sheila Matias, executive director of the Society of Innovators at PNW. The goal

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    The One Question Innovation Culture Assessment

    Are You Having Fun? Innovation Should Be Fun, Joyful, and About Playing With Concepts The One Question Innovation Culture Assessment A lot of fuss is made over innovation culture. I get it — it’s probably the most important fundamental to put in place if you actually want innovation to happen. Organizations spend a great deal of time and energy investing in training, speakers, communications, systems, frameworks, and assessments. All this is fine. And… I have a simple one question assessment leaders and managers can use to take the pulse of their innovation culture. Ready? “Are you having fun?” If the immediate answer isn’t “yes” — you’ve got a culture problem. If you were planning on doing an 80 question quantitative

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