Gregg Fraley

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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The Classic Pitfalls of Innovation Mandates, Training, Process, Talent, Conflict, Risk Where Have Your Initiatives Failed? Innovation programs are like a labyrinth designed to have you lose your way — and die! Organizations fail with initiatives for many reasons, with lots of good intentions. I was thinking about an upcoming talk I’m giving on innovation pitfalls — and got bored looking for graphics. So, I drew this, somewhat funky, diagram. It might be the only slide I need. It’s somewhat self-explanatory but let me make a few remarks: The most important bubble is in yellow. Projects are what drive innovation and change cultures. Getting projects going can help you trump all the other pitfalls. Having a mandate might deserve it’s own

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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 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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Basic Innovation Messaging to Operational Employees Keep it Straight Forward and Clear Live Up to Your End & Keep Communicating After doing a recent short video (“Innovation Minute”) on basic innovation training for operational employees, I was asked a number of questions. Leaders asked: Where to start? The next was, how much detail should we provide? And then there was the question of what, exactly, to communicate about innovation. It depends. It depends on your goals as an organization, and on how your innovation program is structured. It also depends on your leadership style, and the current state of your innovation culture. What does not depend is if you should. If you’re a leader and you’re not communicating clearly about innovation, you’re not

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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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The Benefits of Innovation Training for Operational Employees 85% of CEOs put Innovation as a Top Three priority Consider a Brown Bag Innovation Training or Immersion in Innovation Concepts Why is it that organizations don’t invest in training operational employees? It’s an opportunity to improve innovation culture that few are taking up. Imagine the impact that basic training in Creative Problem Solving* and innovation concepts would have — more innovation across the entire value chain of the business. Don’t this large group of employees deserve a Brown Bag Innovation Training? Or better yet a full immersion in Innovation Concepts?  Forbes says innovation training is one of the 12 factors a company needs, to establish a more inventive culture. Companies are investing in innovation

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Brown Bag Innovation “Innovation is everybody’s job.” Gregg Fraley, keynote speech, circa 2006 “Innovation is everybody’s job, but you have to provide smart ways to contribute.” Gregg Fraley, keynote speech, 2019.  I’m excited to talk to you about a new offering, Brown Bag Innovation Training. It’s a lunch & learn workshop for those who are typically not involved in focused innovation efforts. It’s designed to help change cultures. But first, some background… Innovation is everybody’s job, but many employees think the opposite is true. When they hear a message like the first quote above they write it off as a meaningless slogan and ignore it. Why? Because we’ve trained people to ignore things outside their job description. Unless you’re actively involved

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What You Should Be Learning in Innovation Training But you probably are not! Eleven Innovation Bullets to Dodge, in no particular order. Lack of Managment support will effectively kill any innovation program no matter how well conceived. If you don’t have Talent, superior talent, you’ll fail. Design Thinking alone will not guarantee success (or any other framework, Agile, Lean, etc.). Very few organization’s are any good at all at Brainstorming/Idea Generation. If you don’t take calculated risks, and continue to take them, you will fail. Most organization’s don’t have the guts to actually reinvent. Innovation team leaders who avoid conflict are doomed to fail. B to B organization’s need to learn what qualitative research is all about. B to C

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Idea Generation Fails How to Hose Your Next Idea Generation Project* If you want to improve , get the training This post is a self-explanatory graphic for the most part. Those who regularly do Idea Generation don’t need my text below (but don’t be smug, even one of these fails can do you in).  I posted this graphic on LinkedIn a couple days ago it got so much attention I thought I’d do a bit of explaining. These fails — and solutions — are the result of 30+ years of research and hands-on innovation consulting work. And these fails are democratic — they will hose a session or project in any industry, in non-profits, associations, or in economic development. Start-ups

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