Gregg Fraley

I’m stealing the title of Stephen Shapiro’s new book to do a short post — about his new book, Best Practices Are Stupid. It’s launching today and I wanted to post about it in case you’re one of those innovation book junkies. This is not a review, although I plan to do that with my Kiln partner Kate Hammer. My new company Kiln is on the cutting edge of innovation practice, so, we’ll be reviewing the book and possibly suggesting “and one better” ideas on some of his. This pseudo-review is more about the book concept — and about Stephen Shapiro. Given the title Best Practices Are Stupid — we have a good idea of where he’s going with this

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It’s a mixed blessing to be a sometime book reviewer.  The good news is people send me books, and I love books. The bad news is I have a stack of books that would make a good start on a new wing at the Tower of London, it’s overwhelming. There are some duds in that stack, but I soldier on. Pardon the windy introduction, but I’ve found a real jewel recently. Let me make a direct statement here: Michael Michalko’s new book Creative Thinkering — is a real gem. Just finished reading my advance copy in one go on a flight across the pond — and it was a mind-bendingly delightful and informative read  — Chicago to London has never

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As I suspected would happen a lot of additional information has come in regarding creativity conferences. Here are a few more, with very little data, but to add to the list: The Australian entry: The Amplify Festival — Sydney, Australia, June 6 – 10 Looks interesting!  Follow them on Twitter at @AMPlifyFest — Can we give this conference the award for actually having a creative name?  Would somebody hire me in Australia so I can go? The Idea Festival, Louisville, Kentucky, September 21 – 24, 2011 I’ve heard good things about The Idea Festival, my friend Doug Stevenson has been and he reports an interesting mix of content, and, a real sense of fun. This would appear to be more

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Spring, Summer and Fall are the seasons for creativity AND innovation conferences. The guide I’m posting here isn’t meant to be comprehensive — but a quick glance at what’s on and why or why not you might want to go. Everybody has different criteria, so, take my thoughts with a grain of salt. And if you have additions, please comment and let everyone know. Guide to what’s happening in 2011: CREA 2011, Sestri Levante, Italy, (April 13-17, 2011) For those with the shekels and the time, a trip to Italy for the 9th annual CREA Conference might be in order. Imagine if you will a creativity conference with good food. In a hotel that is really an old seaside castle.

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I watched a wonderful HBO movie last evening, Temple Grandin.  It’s been out in the USA, the illustrious, talented, and ever-refreshing Claire Danes won an Emmy for her role. She was fabulous in the part, you made it live Claire  — but enough already — this is not that kind of review, look for more Danes plaudits elsewhere.  For me, this program was about lessons in personal and industrial innovation. Do watch this film if you get the chance, and view with an eye towards opening your own doors of perception. Temple Grandin is real, this is a true story of a “high functioning” autistic person.  Grandin grew up with loving support and overcame her disadvantages, achieving a great deal.

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I’ve had the pleasure over the last week to devour a new novel from British writer, Gary William Murning.  Murning is the author of If I Never, a fine book, a thriller, I reviewed here last year. The new offering is essentially a fictionalized memoir titled Children of the Resolution. To say the least, Murning has upped his already fine game in his second major work of fiction. He did it by reaching into his past — and his heart.  The only thing I don’t like about this book is the cover art. Quite aside from the content of the book, Murning has decided to self-publish, a gutsy move, and a brilliant one in my view. His publisher (Legend Press) passed,

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I just finished reading a wonderful novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. It’s a brisk story told in first person by a young Indian entrepreneur.  I won’t say much more about the story, but it’s a good one, and deserving of the accolades and prizes its received. Perfect airplane reading, and, it has me thinking about how an entrepreneur gets started. Kudos to Adiga for writing a compelling, dark, fascinating examination of poverty, opportunity, and wealth. A White Tiger is a rare breed in the wild, and the metaphor was used in the novel to describe how challenging it is for a young Indian, mired in the mud of deep poverty, to move from virtual slavery to being an

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I’m not the best promoter in the world. I’m not the worst either. As a writer, I often feel like a doctor who complains that all the paperwork “isn’t practicing medicine.” Promoting my book is like that for me, it doesn’t feel like what I do, or what I should be doing. In spite of what I feel, however, I would be wrong.  As an author it is part of the gig to promote, flog, expose, market, and sell the living hell out of your own books. For those of you who aspire to publish a book — and make lots of money — let me tell you some hard truth’s about the writing game. But first, please, go to

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There’s a new wave of poker madness about to start.  I’m not talking Texas Hold-em.  I’m talking about Stephen M. Shapiro’s new book, Personality Poker, the playing card tool for driving high performance teamwork and innovation. Personality Poker is being released on Thursday, October 28th, 2010. This book is innovative in several ways.  First, it’s a truly novel way to assess yourself, teams, and companies. The built in assessment reveals your personality preferences, but perhaps more importantly, it’s been designed to tell how your traits fit into the innovation process. Second, it’s not just a book, it’s also a deck of cards, a card game, which comes packaged with the book.  I’ve never seen this kind of packaging done before

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I’ve been a professional facilitator, of some sort, for the better part of the last 15 years. I’ve taken, and given, a good deal of training related to tools, techniques, and methods for idea generation and meeting facilitation. I’m regarded as one of the best.  I say all this not to toot my own horn (toot toot) but as a preface to a review on possibly the best book written about the subject in many years, GameStorming, a Playbook for Inovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. I know a lot of tools, but these guys put them all (nearly all) in a great book! There are a number of books out there on idea generation (and meeting facilitation) methods. What’s I’ve found

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