Gregg Fraley

Sometimes you really haven’t got much to say, in which cases, the best thing to do is say nothing.

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A lot of innovators take time off to recharge their batteries, and that’s a good idea. Especially if you’re working on challenges that are really vexing you.  Fresh experiences and time for incubation often lead to breakthroughs. However, now, it’s fall and it’s time to put away the beach towels and get back to more deliberate work. Still, it’s not wrong to wax wistful about the good times we’ve had. Here’s a drawing that captures the feeling for me, take a look and have your own moment to savor the summer one last time. Then, get to work, it will be the holidays before we know it and if you want to get anything done this year you’d better do

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There is an awful lot of sanctimonious crap that gets handed down with regard to creativity. The “truth” of what matters with regard to creativity (and personal innovation) is much harder to arrive at because, really, self-expression is very different for all of us.  Real wisdom about creativity, the truth so to speak, is hard to come by.  After all this is a world that sells millions of copies of The Secret, which says wishing and believing is all it takes to achieve your dreams. I believe it takes wishing and believing, but it also takes structure, hard work, and good choices to leverage one’s creativity.  Everyone is creative, but not everyone knows how to be creative. I just finished

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Another foray into London yesterday and happened upon the pub sign for The Old Red Cow. What lesson in creativity and innovation does this simple and creative sign provide us? Combination’s!  The simplest way forward to something new is to combine two or more old things. In this sign they’ve taken the image of the cow and combined it with human effects.  The bowler, the monocle, and the pipe.  Very English!  The contrast in the combinations is what makes this a successful sign. Of course it’s incongruous to see a cow smoking a pipe! That’s what gets our attention. So, if you want to create a new product or service, look around at the elements you have, or can get,

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Spotted an Amy Winehouse pretender on the train yesterday. She was a bit half-hearted though. Amy is nothing if not full-out creative.  She may be psycho, but she doesn’t pull any punches does she?  If you really want to create something…don’t hold back.

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It’s nice when people fall asleep on the train. When they hold still it makes it a bit easier to capture a sketch. This guy fell asleep with his mouth open. It was not pretty, but it occured to me he might not be sleeping at all but simply incubating some ideas. If nothing else, I can imagine he was. Sleep is a great time to solve problems. Go to sleep with something on your mind, a question, and inevitably you wake up with an answer. Try it.

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The guidelines of brainstorming include the famous concept of “deferring judgment.” This is suggested so all ideas can be expressed without fear of criticism. It allows for a flow of divergent thinking to get established. It’s a great guideline, and when it’s followed, it helps get results. It’s interesting though that we usually only defer judgment during a brainstorm. It’s open season outside of a brainstorm to cut an idea to shreds, and often, we cut people to shreds right along with it. The best innovation teams make a real habit of deferring judgment, they do it all the time, not just during a brainstorming session. Basically this “open-ness” allows ideas to live. It’s polite to listen isn’t it? It

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It’s the most aggravating cliche of the innovation world…thinking “out-of-the-box.”  Once upon a time it meant something. And in truth, it resonates because “constraints” often has us feel like we are brainstorming inside a straight jacket.  However, what I’ve found is that 90% of the time people don’t really want out-of-the-box ideas, they want inside-the-box ideas. Perhaps the compromise is Across-the-box” ideas (stay tuned.) Sure, we all want fresh perspectives, even on “close in” challenges.  Those kinds of out-of-the-box thoughts are always welcome.  However, in a corporate sense, most “out” ideas are expensive and risky.  They come up in ideation sessions — and are ruled out almost immediately.  Taking a risk on a high potential “out” idea is something that

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I occasionally post a few drawings to this site — here are a few, just for fun.

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