Gregg Fraley

Innovation Lessons from Improv Shakespeare The Creative Power of High Function Teams is Astonishing, Rare, and, Possible Getting Beyond “Group Think” Takes Training A committee is where good ideas go to die. This is not good news for innovation teams, because, innovation “teams” are often not teams at all. They are in fact, committees. A committee composed of people from different departments, with non-aligned goals, no team training or bonding, and built-in conflicts. They attempt to work together, but usually fail. It shouldn’t be a surprise, they were set up for failure. It doesn’t have to be this way. Teams can create together and be uber effective. It takes training! Proof: Can you imagine a group of eight people creating

Experiential Learning Accelerates Innovation Innovation Session Designs Don’t Engage New Study: Drawing is the Fastest, Most Effective Way to Learn I read with interest an article stating that drawing accelerates learning. It does. Using experiential learning tools like drawing isn’t really new in innovation process. What’s new is the hard proof, and, using tools more deliberately. Sunni Brown, Dave Gray, Dan Roam, and yours truly all use experiential learning tools in innovation projects. In spite of many success stories it’s not done nearly enough. The reason? Most corporate innovators have no training in using experiential tools. They don’t know how to scaffold a learning experience. They go straight to brainstorming without preparing minds, and that’s a big reason sessions fail. The article I reference is in Inc. Magazine by

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

Do You Wish To Accelerate Innovation? Get Training! When I step into a room to facilitate an innovation, strategy, or idea generation session I always find a great deal of energy. What I also often find is inexperience. Inexperience in: the kind of divergent thinking necessary to innovate, in specific meeting behaviors and facilitation skills, and in innovation process, approaches and frameworks Here are details regarding a half day Innovation Intensive course I’m conducting at Workspring in Chicago on October 27th, 2017. Energy, motivation, and inspiration are important factors in getting innovation rolling. But none of them, or all of them together, are enough to overcome untrained thinking, poor session facilitation, and an un-anchored or non-existent innovation approach. Your innovation

A brief post to make sure you know about the upcoming Denver, CO public course in Advanced Innovation Facilitation.  This is a high value training. It’s partially sponsored so the price is much lower than usual. Here’s a page with details. It’s next week Starting Wednesday February 1, continuing on Feb 2, finishing at noon on Feb. 3rd. Essentially this is intensive, hands-on workshop that trains people in innovation frameworks, and tools for strategy, ideation, research, and project management. It’s being held at the Community Research Center and I’m working with CO local Kim Smoyer of Smoyer & Associates. It’s a course for innovation project managers, consultants, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs who want to have more productive strategy, idea generation, and

Invest in Your Innovation Capacity In my various consulting engagements I have learned not to take much for granted. I thought by this year in history (2016) everyone in the business world would have a clue as to how to do ideation (aka brainstorming) properly. Wow, not even close. It’s a glaring missing ingredient in staying competitive. It’s a key to growth and it’s routinely done poorly. The art and science of developing valid business ideas has a formula. There are variations but at the heart of it you have: Problem Framing, Ideation, Idea Development, and Actions. Within each of those areas there are tools and techniques. If you know them, and use them in the context of an innovation

Shake Your Booty The Creativity and Innovation point of this blog takes about three paragraphs to develop, so business readers, let me tell you a brief story to set it up. I was having dinner this week with Gary Schwartz, a fine actor and Improv person who was blowing through Chicago to promote his new children’s book, The King of Average.  Gary studied with a hero of mine, Viola Spolin (he’s the leading expert on her games and methods). As we talked about Improv and I heard some of his stories I was particularly impressed with one story having to do with “getting into the body” of a role. The Story: So Gary was playing the role of a Roman

Five Magic Imagination Guidelines You hear it so often that it becomes one of those things that you really don’t think about it. “Use your imagination” is the phrase or thought that I’m talking about. I believe that many of us actually fear our own imagination. That’s tragic, don’t be afraid. It occurs to me that most people have the desire, deep down, to use their imagination more — but have no idea how. Here’s how. First of all Access your imagination more often. Do it deliberately. If you ask your imagination for ideas or visions once a year it’s a bit like that faucet in the back of the house you never use. When you turn it on, it’s

I revised this “rule of thumb” list for a client and she suggested I re-share it in a blog post. This list is the accumulated wisdom of many years and it includes thinking from colleagues in the innovation space. Its target is the innovation team leader, but there are lessons for all types of team members here. The big change from the previous version is the emphasis on projects. It’s the key to Innovation in my view, from culture change to positive team dynamics to effectiveness of an overall innovation program. It’s the one thing of innovation — doing Projects. So here goes: 21 Rules for Innovation Team Building 1. A strong bold project initiative, with a clear vision for