Gregg Fraley

I’ve written an article on Innovation in movies — Inspiring Innovation Films: a Top Ten List.  It’s been published on the Innovation Excellence portal — I’d be most grateful if you’d read it and comment over there. Today’s post is a value add to that article with some ideas on how to use creativity and innovation clips in projects and meetings. If you’re an innovation educator, manager, or team leader you may want to consider using clips as training and/or stimulus tools. I’m a big one for keeping things entertaining no matter what you’re doing. Movie clips are a great way to do that. Here are Ten Ideas on how to integrate film clips into an innovation project: Send out a

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I have a beautiful Martin guitar. It has a wonderful tone and it’s easy to play, it’s a love relationship. It’s a well engineered, and under some conditions, a quite delicate instrument. As the winter weather descends on the midwest I’m remembering I need to keep it moisturized. Yes, moisturized. And yes, your innovation environment needs moisturized in order to make beautiful music. Five years ago I left my prized guitar out of it’s case on a stand in my living room. I had no idea that the very dry air in my apartment would suck all the water out of that rosewood and maple. I got up one morning and started strumming — and it sounded terrible. I flipped

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I’ve been researching an industry (coin operated vending) in preparation for a speech I’m giving.  I make an effort to tailor my keynotes, as much as is practical, in order to deliver more specific value to my audiences. In doing my research some obvious (to me) opportunity areas for innovation have become apparent. Strangely, when I bring up these interesting and potentially lucrative market adjacencies most of the folks I talk to in the industry reject these potential opportunities with barely a pause in the conversation. It’s true that “I don’t know” why these innovation possibilities can’t work. My argument is, for innovation, that can be a real strength. I’m not “in the box” of the people I’m interviewing, I

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I’ve been preparing a new keynote speech on Imagination and it’s been a real challenge to get my thoughts together on such a big and creatively important concept. My focus is usually on Creativity. To be honest I’m enthralled with the concept of imagination, and yet have avoided talking about it directly because it’s so individual and amorphous. That’s why I’m so excited about one aspect of my new talk I wanted to share it with my readers right away, so here it is, my “Johari Window” of Imagination (note to self: need better label). It’s helpful in getting a handle on who imagines and how, and might be helpful to individuals and groups who seek to improve imaginative capacity.

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President Obama made mention in his state of the union address that he wishes to expand the National Netowrk for Manufacturing Innovation concept. I wholly applaud the idea, AND, there might be a more fundamental challenge that needs addressed first. I’ve made the acquaintance of a thought leader with her finger on the pulse of where the nation sits in terms of technological readiness to innovate. Her name is Pamela Menges, and she’s President of a high-tech start up in Cincinnati. She’s also a professor at the University of Cincinnati in their Engineering department. Steve Jobs once challenged Obama to find him 30,000 engineers so he could build a plant in California. That challenge remains a big one, and again,

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As a Michigander I’m always looking for some good vibes on the economy. I found it last night on NBC Nightly News, an inspirational story about Detroit Soup.  It’s not a restaurant, but it does serve soup — and something a lot more precious for down-on-its-luck-Motown — hope. Here’s the concept: Detroit Soup is a monthly dinner to fund creative and entrepreneurial projects. Micro grants are awarded at the dinner. Five dollars ($5.00) is the entry fee and it gets you a simple meal — soup, salad, bread — and a vote. They hold the dinner in an old warehouse. Click over to their site and read their backstory, it’s interesting. Apparently this concept has been happening for over three years.

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Guerilla Innovation Chapter Fourteen Run to the Jungle I’ve written what amounts to a short book on innovation for small business these last couple months. I’ve called it Guerilla Innovation (the starting post is here) and I’ve targeted those who want to create a start-up, or, are internal innovators at companies who have little experience with innovation (and innovation-speak). This is a basic, but I think highly useful, field-guide-like innovation book for small business. Every business starts as a small business, so, I’m not limiting the book to those who don’t have much ambition — I merely wanted to provide a more readable, more practical, approach to innovation without all the “MBA-speak”. In the spirit of providing real value in this

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Guerilla Innovation — Chapter Thirteen Isn’t it weird that this post on small business innovation survival is Chapter Thirteen? I didn’t plan it that way, but folks who go belly up usually didn’t plan that either. One of the most telling statistics about starting a business is that the longer you can hold out the more likely it is you’ll survive and do well. The literature will tell you that many fledgling new companies die due to lack of capital. Fair enough, but the reason behind that reason is that there was not a survival strategy that worked. A start up is a bit like that journey across the desert in Lawrence of Arabia — you know it’s going to

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Guerilla Innovation- Chapter 12 Having a Healthy Money Mindset One major factor that stops people from making the jump into business ownership is their relationship with money. Before I get into ways in which entrepreneurs (aka ‘guerilla innovators’) can get funds, a blurb on the whole money mindset is in order. Money, because of its importance, is deeply entwined with our thinking. It is often an emotional relationship. These emotions about money can inhibit creativity and put a damper on innovation. Before you go out fund raising, think about these statements: Do you have a problem with asking for money? Do you have a fear of rejection? Do you worry you can’t prove or persuade others you and your concept are

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Guerilla Innovation – Chapter 11 Birthing the Baby Until now the focus of this online-blogged-book on small business innovation has been a guerilla innovation mindset. This includes thinking, idea generation, creating, amping, and planning for getting a new business going. I hope by now you’ve got a specific business idea in mind. The thing is, at some point, you actually have to start. You’ve got to pull the trigger, birth the baby, take the leap (add your own cliche here) but you must, jungle plan firmly in hand, get officially started. It’s the first step in creating momentum. It might be the single hardest thing you’ll ever do. I recall the words of the late, great comedienne, Lucille Ball who

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