Gregg Fraley

I posted an idea yesterday about having Steve Jobs create a series of videos targeted towards educating and inspiring young people. A day later, I’m modifying the idea — I think Ken Burns should do it. If Ken takes the project on Steve needs only to cooperate. As it turns out there is a lot of historical footage of Jobs — which might supply a good percentage of the content. The SmartBrief on Leadership newsletter published a link this morning to a series of videos on a Washington Post site. Interviews with Jobs in the early 90’s included. The original material was part of a PBS special “Triumph of the Nerds.” Another clip is from PBS’s Wall Street Week with

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A great deal is going to be written about Steve Jobs in the near future. There are already several biographies and so many articles dissecting him you could wallpaper the Taj Mahal. This brief post is about an idea I have for him. Steve, now that you’re done with being CEO of Apple, I’d like to make a humble request on behalf of very young people. One of the things you could do for them, and future generations, is to simply share, in simple terms, about your life and how to be an entrepreneur. You’ve inspired a lot of people in your time, myself included. Your courage, brilliance, and effectiveness are remarkable. Why not add further glow to your amazing

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I listen to the radio when I’m in Michigan. Thank goodness because I’ve got no cable here and my web connection is pokey. It’s sort of a self-imposed news blackout. Radio is my one solid connection, so, I had NPR in the background yesterday when I heard a show that had Everything to do with Innovation — This American Life. Ira Glass hosts this eclectic show, and as many times as I’ve heard it in the past, and enjoyed it, I’ve never really thought of him as even remotely concerned with business.  So all the more amazing when his program was an Innovation business mind-blower. Listen to it: it has to do with “Patent Trolls” and their huge negative impact

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Into the stadium he strides, resolute. A raw-boned Scottish man, fire in his eyes — and flaming hair to match. Armed with a gut-strung racket, like William Wallace sword in hand, he’s ready, today, to take his place as champion in the high temple of tennis, Wimbledon. Yes, it’s Wimbledon time and I can’t resist writing a post that revolves around a sports analogy. Forgive me Grantland Rice. I’m a tennis fan. I particularly like watching the big Grand Slam matches. If you follow the game you are aware we are in a kind of golden age of tennis, with two of the best ever at the top of their game, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. One could wax poetic

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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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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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I don’t pay any attention to business school rankings. It’s one of those vague bits I gloss over because I’m not shopping for a school. I’ve always assumed that the rankings were some kind of measure that indicated “success”.  Not really! Only one kind of success is measured. I’ve recently discovered that the rankings are heavily weighted to favor starting salaries, and, the opinions of top recruiters. So, a school that graduates a lot of young brilliant people who start businesses actually gets a lower ranking than one whose graduates opt for safe, high-paying corporate jobs. There is no factorial for those who graduate students who do start-ups or help grow small companies. Not everybody gets an MBA to enable

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The Front End of Innovation 2011 conference was last week in Boston. A few comments and impressions for your consideration. * It would be hard to imagine a more serious group with regard to innovation. This is probably the most concentrated group of pure corporate innovators you’ll find. These are the folks who are working hard to make innovation happen at the biggest organisations in the world. And they are desperate to find ways to improve. I don’t have a count on numbers, but it’s not Mac World, it was a focused group. In a way, this group is almost an ad hoc innovation industry association. * Which is not to say these folks are “too serious” — there were

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Okay, I know, leave it to a blogger (and an American living in Britain at that) to pounce on the current topic, to ride coat tails, or in this case, to float on a bride’s veil. Yes, forgive me, I’ll be making the somewhat unlikely connection between the royal wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William and — don’t swallow your Pimm’s too quickly — Innovation. Throw me in the Tower of London dungeon if you will, but I insist, the more you think about it, the biggest challenge the lovely pair have is to Innovate. All due respect, but can Will and Kate innovate? I hope they can, I do, sincerely, wish them well. I see three big things

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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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