Gregg Fraley

80% Of Brainstorming Sessions Don’t Work Seven Idea Generation Fails Redefine Brainstorming and Get Better Results I might be getting to old to hold back on saying this about ideation, aka idea generation, aka brainstorming. My inner skeptic and snarky soul wants to scream it. Based on my experience, about 80% of idea generation doesn’t work. It might be worse than that. In spite of the efforts of many people to train others in how it ought to be done, it’s getting worse, not better. The Failure Rate is partly because the game’s changed, again. Also partly because the lessons of how it ought to be done have simply never been learned. As the drawing suggests, please, let’s redefine brainstorming.

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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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Facilitation of Innovation Meetings Requires a Highly Specific Set of Skills, Frameworks, Tools — and Experience Professional Facilitation and/or Training Makes a Difference* Seven Facilitation Fails Innovation projects are about a lot of meetings. Meetings about getting a project mandate, visioning, what to innovate, how to innovate, challenges to take on, jobs to do, experiences to create, research exploration, insights development, problem framing and problem reframing, project road-mapping, concept development, prototyping, pitches, strategy, check-ins, and all the variations. And not necessarily in that order. Meetings take up precious time, and, are dead essential to moving the ball downfield. It’s sad, and, a missed opportunity, that many meetings are outright fails when it comes to measurable results. Do any of the following Seven

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Innovation Training “Innovation Intensive, beyond Design Thinking” Public Course* With Master Trainer Gregg Fraley Comprehensive Immersion Course for: Innovation Project Managers, Teams, Executives, Facilitators Keith House* — Chicago, Friday April 5, 2019 This one day course consistently receives high marks from innovation executives and training professionals. Innovation Intensive, beyond Design Thinking is comprehensive in its approach and provides compelling methods, insights, tools, and stories from master trainer, Gregg Fraley. If you are seeking to enhance innovation culture and jump-start or improve innovation efforts, this is the course to attend. Send new project leaders, managers, facilitators, and essential innovation team members. This public* course is at a significant discount to on-site courses delivered directly to organizations by Gregg Fraley Innovation (GFi). The emphasis of this training

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Do Purpose First, Select a Framework, Then Do Projects Without a Clear Purpose, Innovation Drifts Off Course It may seem obvious but unless you know who you are, and what your purpose is, as an organization you will flounder. Innovation Leaders sometimes get it backwards. This wastes Time and Money. In the innovation space there is endless discussion about frameworks. Which is best? Can I blend frameworks? If everyone else is jumping off the Design Thinking bridge shouldn’t we? Just kidding, Design Thinking can be a good choice, as can Agile, or Lean, or your own blended system. Using a structured innovation framework is a project success factor. There is also a lot of yakking about culture. Nothing wrong with

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Innovation Emergencies Happen Emergent See Innovation from GFi Available February, 2019 I advise pro-active, and continuous, innovation. It’s always easier to work with a challenge when you have time and the leisure to incubate, think, and in general work the clay of research insights, trends, prototypes, paper-based concepts, or a business model canvas. When you are always doing innovation, you have time to fail, time to create small wins, time to learn. Time is what you don’t have in an emergency. And Innovation Emergencies Happen. You’re caught off guard by a market shift, a new competitor, or a technical advancement. Unfortunately, many organizations don’t have a formal innovation program, and so, they wait until the proverbial poop hits the fan. It’s

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Innovation Learning Points From the Great Faucet DIY Fiasco DIY is a Form of Innovation I’m the Abraham Lincoln of home fix-it DIY projects. Like Lincoln, I ultimately win, but painfully fail many, many times before I “git-er done”. (FYI: DIY = Do It Yourself.) As an innovation consultant who is a facilitator, team builder, idea person, and strategist, my need for hands-on engineering skills are minimal. I’m not bad at prototyping and am excellent in concept development, but I’m horrible when it comes to hands-on maker skills. As a home owner, this is really Not Good. But I try. And I learn. So after I finished the bleeding on my latest DIY effort, it strikes me that, on a larger

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Economic Development and the “Home Run” Complex Amazon has finally made a decision about it’s new HQ. I have to say I’m a bit awestruck at how much time and energy was wasted by so many cities and regions around the country, only to have Amazon do the obvious thing and go with the world capitals for corporate HQ’s — New York and Washington. I do understand why those losing regions made the effort, thousands of jobs can transform a community. But in the spirit of an Economic Development “What If…” What If all those other Amazon bidders had put that same energy, and money, into doing innovation projects that are smaller in scale, but, new, different, and clever in

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It’s fall and it’s time to go back to school. If you’re in the Chicago or Denver areas, check out these innovation training course offerings. Gregg Fraley Innovation (GFi) is offering three public courses in late October and early November. Click on the course title to register. Don’t wait to register, these are popular offerings.  Chicago Innovation Intensive, Beyond Design Thinking Friday October 26 at Catalyst Ranch, 8:30 to 4:00 pm CST REGISTER NOW This deep-dive immersive course in innovation could change the direction of your organization – or career. Do you seek sustained growth? A truly innovative culture? How do you get there? This essential training for leaders and project managers provides answers, and from an industry thought leader.

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Innovation is Learning For many years I kept the concepts of innovation and learning in separate boxes. I thought innovation was creating new things of value, and, learning was understanding new things. I always suspected there was a closer connection. I now believe that learning and innovation are joined at the hip. You can’t innovate without an exploratory learning process. It’s a two circle Venn diagram with a large intersection set. Deliberately embracing learning — as part of the innovation process — can lead to better ideas and improved innovation results. It may seem like an obvious connection, but when I made the “innovation is learning” statement at a recent presentation — thinking everyone would agree — I got a

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