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    Schools Kill Creativity

    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 on the topic of creativity. If you’ve somehow missed it up to this point, please watch it. It’s the Best TED talk you’ve ever heard, bar none. He’s that good. I use the present tense because in some ways he will never leave us, he’s been that influential, and he leaves a valuable legacy of books and video. Time to revisit this content, and that goes for business leaders who don’t understand the touchy feely quality called creativity.

    Many would say his primary field is education, and that’s a fair point. He told an essential truth — it’s how children are educated that kills their creativity before they’re even out of grade school. Robinson’s knowledge about this, and his subsequent fame, evolved from the work he did in England related to revitalizing the arts in British education.

    It’s Not How Intelligent You Are, It’s How You Are Intelligent

    I had the honor to work with him several years ago on a small project. Behind the scenes he was funnier and smarter than he appears on camera. In person Sir Ken had another quality I admire. He was kind. He had a heart as big as his IQ. His big-heart work included rural Oklahoma; he assisted in boosting that states educational system, and it will have a lasting impact (Oklahoma Creativity Forum is a notable event Ken appeared at several times). We shared an admiration of Elvis! Sir Ken notes that Elvis wasn’t allowed to join the Glee Club in high school — his unique skills were not recognized; they saw him as “different.”

    Sir Ken was born to a working class family in Liverpool. He suffered from Polio as a child — and its crippling effects lingered his entire life. Sir Ken didn’t let it stop him from achieving. In fact, his empathy probably derived from being labeled “different” as a child.

    Creativity is Not a Nice to Have — Business Leaders

    Business people, results oriented leaders, and CEO/C-suite types would be wise to listen to Sir Ken, if they haven’t to this point. Here’s why:

    You can’t get innovation without creativity. People with creative thinking skills make innovation happen.

    And creativity is in short supply because education is geared towards forming adults who are not creative, not risk takers, and not self-expressed. More Testing is making it worse. Schools, and organizations have still not taken Sir Ken’s words to heart. We need to push the reset button on people’s minds to enable great creativity and innovation results.

    So, when you go to hire a new engineer, marketer, or even a top salesperson, you’re going to have a difficult time finding one who is fully creative — and you’ll not get the innovative results you’re looking for. The remedy is creativity and innovation training.

    If you want to encourage creativity in the workplace, or in your own mind and heart, heed the words of Sir Ken Robinson:

    “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

    If you want to push the reset button with your workforce, consider creativity and innovation training from, you guessed it, Gregg Fraley Innovation (GFi).

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    Vote In-Person

    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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    Creatives Build Rural Economies

    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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    Five Ways Incivility Decapitates Innovation

    A Culture of Incivility Harms USA Innovation Five Ways Incivility “Decapitates” Innovation The recent flap around Kathy Griffin’s posting a picture of a fake severed head, of our President, was a sad attempt at humor, but incredibly successful at provocation. It has brought up the discussion, once again, of the civility of our discourse in America. I think Tiffany Quay Tyson does a nice job of summing up how many people are reacting to the Griffin incident, and the subsequent howls of reaction. No matter your political persuasion, civil discourse, and it’s close cousins, politeness, gentility, tolerance, compassion, and good manners have slipped far from where we once were. Those who keep track of civility are in agreement about the

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    Ten Things United Airlines Might Have Done

    Improving Customer Service at United Airlines Requires a Paradigm Shift and Recognizing They Have a Problem Creative Training Would Have Helped 10 Things United Airlines Might Have Done (see below) Once again we have an incident of extremely poor customer service from a major airline. This time it’s United (as it is frequently) who dragged a paying customer off a flight by force. A doctor on a deadline. Incidentally, an Asian man. The video is very hard to watch, it’s sad, degrading, humiliating for the passenger, and an example of brutality visited upon an innocent and trusting consumer. The cops went too far as well, but United made the call and got them involved. United is responsible. Other than beating

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    The Founder, Innovation On Film

    The Founder, Lessons in Innovation The Founder, starring Michael Keaton as McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, is the best film about innovation since Moneyball in 2011. Between the two of them there is enough marvelously illustrated content to teach a masters course in innovation. Unlike Moneyball, which had the surface covering of a baseball story, The Founder is actually about how innovation happens.  In telling Ray Kroc’s story, we see it all: the entrepreneurial mindset, observational research, desire, and, how an idea is taken to the next level. One does not have to be a student of innovation to love this movie. Innovation stories, in both the movie, and in real life are filled with emotion, brilliance, and human frailty. Innovation

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    Trump: Learn to Steal Smart

    Stealing Smart and Stealing Stupid Melania Trump’s speech last evening at the GOP convention, and today’s subsequent media uproar and fiasco, is symbolic of several things in my view. Summarizing my themes here: Competence, Theft, and Ideas (or lack of them). I’ll take flack for writing this post, but understand, this is not about politics. It involves politics — but my comments have more to do with creativity and innovation. As most of you know, my interests are in those areas, so, I’m looking at recent events with that lens. Not as a lefty, not as a righty. I’m looking at this with the green tinted shades of the artist and the black and white lens of a professional innovator.

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    Paying Lip Service to Developing Entrepreneurs

    There is a very frightening trend happening in the USA. We are not growing entrepreneurs. See my “Seven Ways to Grow Entrepreneurs” below! What is it we believe in our capitalist country? Isn’t it something like this: Anybody who works very hard, has a bit of talent and a good idea, can start something, grow it, and do well.  Isn’t that the essence of the entrepreneurial American dream? Yes, there is more to it than that. Yes, you can fail. Yes, it’s a market driven meritocracy — or it should be. I’ve always taken this entrepreneurial spirit for granted – it’s who we are! I’ve always assumed that as the years go by, more and more Americans (and this extends

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    Domain Knowledge Matters Donald Trump

    Call me king of the obvious but I’d like to remind folks about something related to leadership, innovation, and the upcoming election. Domain Knowledge Matters I’m not taking political sides here but I’m going to make a point about Donald Trump’s candidacy. Let’s face it he has captured the attention of a large group of people. This is factual — the polls have him leading the GOP field. My opinion on why he’s doing so well is this: Trump says things that are bold, straightforward, non-PC and they echo the sentiments of many Americans. People love this approach because it’s just not what they’re used to hearing from a politician. I’ll put aside the notions and accusations that he’s racist,

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    The Flaming Lips and Economic Development

    Consider Attending the Creativity World Forum 2015 As many of you know I’ve participated in the annual State of Creativity Forum in Oklahoma for several years. I’ve written here previously about how effective their model is in getting broad-based involvement, participation, and attendance. This is arguably the most successful creativity conference in the world right now. Those interested in the creativity and innovation field should attend Creativity World Forum 2015 if at all possible. It’s affordable, the content is superb, and it’s a great networking opportunity. It’s in just a few weeks, so register, and make plans now to arrive in Oklahoma City for the March 31st one day event. The illustrious Sir Ken Robinson is  returning as a keynoter (he

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