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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So, you’d like to be more creative. It’s good news, it’s a giant step beyond “I’m not creative”. If you’re “not creative” — stop saying that to yourself and, boy, do you need the list below! Before the thought and motivation leave you, try to get into action and actually Do Something Creative Now. Something that might become a habit, like smoking, only positive. Many people have the ‘more creative’ impulse and then let it float away on the raft of inaction. 10 Ways to Be More Creative, Right Now: 1. Go out and buy a notebook, a cool one, an easy to carry around one. Then start making lists in it of ideas for your various needs. Have a

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For about three years in the early 80’s I was a stand-up comic. It was a humbling experience. I was bad. Really, bad — particularly at first. I learned how to be a better speaker the hard way. There is nothing quite like “dying” on stage as a stand-up, think the Hindenberg disaster. Multiply by 10 your most humiliating experience — that will give you some idea. Stand-up audiences have a notoriously short fuse for inauthentic, not-funny, boring, stupid, or pretentious comic wanna-be’s. Basically, you have a brief moment to get their attention and hold it. If you haven’t got the attention of a group in the first six seconds — and this is true for any presentation — you

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I’ve recently started to advocate a new theory of creative thinking. Ready? Don’t think, Do. It’s not “Just Do It” — blindly doing something (although that beats inaction).  It’s more like start Doing in order to inform your thinking.  And keep doing to inform your thinking. It’s my view that many of us waste a great deal of time thinking. Thinking is going to happen, what doesn’t happen enough is action. Don’t wait for the perfect idea to get started. Get started, and perfect ideas often emerge. Yes, you need good ideas, and, good ideas often occur to you as a result of kinesthetic or multi-sensory action. If your problem is intellectual, find a way to make it more tangible.

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A holistic approach to innovation is often missing in organizations that can’t create break-through new offerings, or innovate consistently. I’ve rapped about “holistic innovation” before, it’s one of my keynote talks. When audiences ask what I  mean, I explain the “4 P’s” of organizational creativity: People, Process, Product, and “Press” (code for internal culture or environment).  The 4 P’s concept was developed by Mel Rhodes many years ago. If an organization can gets its arms around the 4 P’s they’ve got a pretty good start on holistic innovation. But it’s only a start, there’s more. And many won’t like to hear it, but the additional things required to be more holistically innovative boil down to touchy-feely, artsy, trendy things. Things like

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Here’s a guest post from good friend and colleague Doug Stevenson. A brief note about Doug — he’s probably the most inspirational trained brain to be found on the planet — he’s the ideal “idea man” and if you need someone to give you 100 ideas about Anything, this is the guy. This is his account of his CPSI (Creative Problem Solving Institute) experience. I’d asked him to do a guest post as I couldn’t attend this year. I find it pretty amazing the lengths people will go to to connect with their creativity and the creative community. In challenging times, take Doug’s advice, don’t worry about your brakes — head for the light, and never retreat in your quest for

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“If you’re gonna brainstorm… please do it like it’s 1999″…(sing this to the tune of Prince’s 1999). I’ve been busy lately doing a training course for salespeople called SalesStorming. My course is not rocket science, it’s just applied creativity concepts focused on selling challenges. I’ve been in front of about 50 sales reps in recent weeks and although they are regularly involved in highly complex sales challenges (the kind that are difficult to win, with long sales cycles, and require a team effort) virtually none of these sales professionals had any idea, really, about how to brainstorm. It was fun to bring them into the new century of creative thinking. In two days we were thinking up breakthrough ideas and

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How many of us lose any sense of our creative selves and never recover? Between the schools, soul crushing jobs, and the myths that surround creativity, it’s hard to find your creative self. And there is no lost and found for creativity. Well, maybe there is… I’m thinking about this because The Creative Problem Solving Institute just concluded in Atlanta, Georgia. Also known as CPSI (“sipSee”) it’s an amazing event and it’s been happening for over 55 years. Normally I’d be there but work has conspired to keep me away. CPSI, was my creativity lost and found, really, an inflection point in my life. Trust me, you are creative, and there are lots of ways to “get it back.” In 1987

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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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CPS really works. Entrepreneur’s and Innovators, learn it and prosper. I had the opportunity and pleasure of co-teaching a class this week with Silicon Valley wiz Randy Haykin. We did a Team Problem Solving course for the MBA program at Cambridge’s Judge Business School. It was a dynamic week and mostly due to a clever cadre of international students. The course featured  “CPS” (aka Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process) as the primary method/tool.  Students processed an entrepreneurial challenge using CPS and presented solutions — business plans — on the final day. What amazed me most about the course was how well CPS worked even with inexperienced users, with no neutral facilitator, and in a very compressed time frame. The final presentations

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