Gregg Fraley

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 keep a close eye on Grant McCracken’s postings, his insights on culture are always fascinating. Grant is the author of Chief Culture Officer, and I’ve alluded to him here before. He recently made some interesting comments about the fallout of hiring Barbara Lippert as “curator of pop culture” at the ad agency Goodby Silverstein. Reactions to her hiring included several age-ist comments about how a 55 year old woman couldn’t possibly be on top of trends. McCracken pointed out, among other things, that trends are only 20% of culture to start with. In his view age is actually an advantage when it comes to the broader task of culture watching. Do read his very pertinent comments. Lippert did a

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My writing partner in sales literature is a wonderful and talented guy, Tim Dunne. We’ve been colleagues at the CREA Conference (coming up soon, April 13-17) and also CPSI — so we’re both bona fide creativity and innovation types. We share a common history of being bag carrying salesmen. We’ve both thought for ages that bringing applied creativity concepts to the sales world is needed — and we’re working on that.  In the meantime, check out his post today: The When, Why and How of Credibility. Well worth a quick read, and check back with Tim now and again for more thoughts on creative selling. The essence of his post is simply all about how to build enough credibility with

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It occurred to me that as a cultural trend spotter and scanner, I’ve not posted about current trends in my own field of Innovation.  No time like the present!  Like any industry or concept things fall in and out of fashion. This is just my view, but a fairly well informed one. So, here are my 10 thoughts about innovation trends, in no particular order: (see below for more thinking about each item) 10 Trends In Innovation (March 2011) 1. Creativity is getting more lip service but less action. 2. Risk Aversion is still very much part of the big company scene. 3. Lack of Resources is the number one excuse for not innovating. 4. Idea Management Systems and Product

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Communities have creative souls. Some blossom in the spring of harmoniously shared lives, others whither in the cold winds of isolation and fear. The communities that blossom, that “work” in more simple language  — are creative communities — because the collective “team” has chosen to appreciate and even encourage diversity. The bad news/good news about diversity is that there is usually more conflict on diverse teams, but if normalized, those teams are almost always more innovative than homogenous teams. You only have to examine the work of Richard Florida to understand that creative and diverse communities evolve into economically prosperous communities. Case in point: Buckinghamshire, UK. I volunteered as a graphic illustrator yesterday at an extraordinary event. I promised to

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Heads-up! There’s a great creativity post on Mike Brown’s excellent blog, Brainzooming. It’s a listing of 37 articles on ways to be more creative.  I’m kicking myself because I’m not on the list! I realize that even though I’ve written about 300 posts related to creativity, and a book — I haven’t written a piece that explicitly takes on that challenge.  I would argue that my “Magic Jacket of Creative Behavior” post comes darn close!  Well, never mind, no time like the present to make a change — I’ll make the next list with this post! There are a lot of ways to be more creative, in my list below I’ve tried to focus on fundamental Ways of Being that lead to

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My friend Mark Dykeman sent me a new Harvard study on Creativity. It’s a shocker at one level, and at another, it’s really not. The not-finalized study (The Dark Side of Creativity, Original Thinkers Can Be Dishonest, by Francesca Gino and Daniel Ariely) claims, and quite credibly, that creative people can be dishonest — that is, less ethical, than those who are not as creative. In reading through the “working paper” (this means it has been released for comment and discussion, I’ll forward notes).  I note how well researched the piece is, the authors have done a good job of building their case.  They tested the concept no less than five different ways, and all five studies confirm the conclusion.

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I’m busy these days writing a manual for my new company, Kiln.  Writing a technical document is a mixed blessing.  It feels like you’re doing something that will provide value, that feels good, and — it’s often slow going. The manual is for a new innovation process which we’re calling FuseTrail. More about that in future posts, but as part of that effort I had some fresh thoughts about factors that impact innovation. I had all the usual suspects down, things like, respect for ideas, supportive culture, persistence, and talented people. I paused while writing and thought about what was stopping some of the organizations I’ve worked with — and it came to me — the obvious, Courage. This will be

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I read with some interest, and, frankly, surprise that Intel and will.i.am are joining forces. They’ve named the rapper “Director of Creative Innovation.” Read the PR Blurb in Daily Finance for the spin on the story. This is really interesting.  Some quick thoughts: 1. will.i.am is undoubtedly a creative force as an artist. The Black Eyed Peas are monster hit makers and captivating performers. Beyond his hip-hop cred, his song “Yes We Can” used in the video for Obama during the 2008 election was nothing short of inspirational (I just watched it again, tears in my eyes). He’s dabbled in fashion, producing, acting, and more. The man has creative chops, absolutely no doubt. As a symbolic kind of guy for creativity,

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