Gregg Fraley

I grew up drinking beer.  I always took nips from my Dad’s quart bottle when he wasn’t looking.  Taste develops that way. Wine  entered my life in high school. Boone’s Farm Apple Wine I am sad to report (nice label). I thought I was moving up in the world when I started drinking Mateus from that stone-like bottle a couple years later (the bottle felt “old world” to me). As a young adult I often drank “wine from a box” usually at family gatherings (those boxes never seemed to run out). As I write this I only imagine the horror my French wife will experience knowing the sour grape juice passing for wine that has passed through my uneducated lips.  Over

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When IBM says it you have to listen — Creativity is the new management Kool-Aid. In a study just released they  say that the “creative” management style — which is marked by taking calculated risks and communicating in new ways — will lead to more success as companies struggle to find their way in an increasingly complex world. The study, titled Capitalizing on Complexity is a synthesis of interviews from 1,500 CEO’s and senior public sector leaders.  This is what these CEO folks now believe — that creativity is more important as a skill, now, than it has ever been before.  Creativity is Now More Important than other qualitites like management discipline, rigor, or operational acumen. Personally, I think this

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The Clay Christensen school of innovation has been saying this for some time and have published scholarly papers about it — we’re under investing in innovation.  In a previous post I talked about the studies that have proven financial models that indicate how much to invest are based on false assumptions.  Now, new analysis further supports the argument, see this study from HP Enterprise Business. People, do we need more proof? Aren’t eminent Harvard professors and a stalwart of the technology industry, Hewlett Packard, enough?  The Harvard study is enterprise wide, while the HP study focuses on IT investment.  Suggestion: print out both of the studies and distribute them to the executive team of your organization, and schedule a brown

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I was on the phone last night with Joe Miguez, (an authority on the use of Labyrinth’s as a creative tool).  Joe was pitching an idea at me and it was fun the give and take we  had talking about it. Ultimately, he didn’t sell me on the idea, but as I hung up the phone I was smiling and I had warmth in my heart. Such is the chemistry between some idea people, even when you disagree, you don’t argue so much as you explore possibility.  That’s not so easy to do all the time is it? Is it your experience that some people are great natural, organic idea people?  And some people are totally not?  It sure is

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I’m surprised that Apple has decided not to support Adobe Flash on the iPad. Why would Apple want to cramp its own innovation by not supporting the world’s most popular media player? There’s been a war of words between the two CEO’s, but suffice to say there wouldn’t be so many words if it didn’t matter. My surprise, first blush, has to do with Loyalty. I may have this wrong, but wasn’t it Adobe Photoshop that was a linch pin of the Mac’s survival?  When the vast majority of corporations were going PC, the Mac maintained a strong hold in design and advertising because of its unique abilities to manage art projects. So, I always thought Adobe and Apple were

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I tweeted this morning that I had the don’t-have-an-idea-for-a-blog-post-blues.  It’s true.  Mr. Creativity himself does occasionally run dry!  (Note to self: see if Peter Lloyd might write a song with that title). I got some humorous ideas and encouragement tweeted back at me. Gary Murning (author of If I Never, @GaryMurning) suggests an author interview.  I’ll take him up on that, but not today. @ReetaLuthra suggests that the aforementioned blues are a topic in of itself.  Yes, but a bit “movie within a movie” — not today! Mark Abrahams (@Mark_Abrahams) pushes my own advice back at me and advises me to put on my Creative Coat (see my TEDx talk). Ding! That’s it, I’ll post about The Creative Coat Concept

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The UK Foreign Office is currently bending over backwards to apologize like mad to the Pope. It’s an interesting turn of events given the long and twisted history of anti-Catholicism in the UK. The short version of the story: the Pope is coming to the UK soon for the first official state visit by the Vatican since 1982. In a lower level planning meeting at the Foreign Office, a half dozen people brainstormed ideas regarding how to handle the visit. Some of the ideas were clearly Jokes, and should never have been made public. Some of  the ideas were serious as well, which indicates that the purpose of the brainstorm was not to embarass the goverment. There was a sincere attempt

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The illustrious Post-it note is turning 30 this month. You’ve got to hand it to 3M, what an amazing and long-lived innovative product. I celebrate their success! Post-it notes have a special place in the hearts of innovation facilitators. Offloading the on-going charting of ideas that are coming out fast and furious in brainstorm sessions frees facilitators do do other stimulating things.  I remember standing at a flip chart and trying to keep up with a dynamic group and it is very challenging.  Post-it notes allow for a freer flow of ideation, not bottle-necked through a slow-writing facilitator.  Post-it note Brainstorming was, and is, a huge improvement over facilitator-writing-on-flip-chart Brainstorming. It’s time to turn a new page however, creative facilitators

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I posted recently on creativity conferences, (Creativity Conferences, Valuable or Boondoggle?) and somewhat controversially. I appreciate the feedback I’ve gotten, and thank everyone for their thoughts both online and offline. My basic critique is that most creativity conferences, including CPSI, are more about personal development than professional results. CPSI is the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, it’s the longest running creativity conference in the world. This post is part of a blog tour/party leading up to the CPSI conference (June 21-25 in Buffalo, NY). At the bottom of this post visit the other very interesting and cool bloggers who will share insight on how to make CPSI effective.  And read Jon Vehar’s blog as well, for the smart ass point

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I’m doing a lot of writing these days — working fast and furious on a new book. It’s going well at the moment, but it wasn’t until recently.  What got me back into high gear? Tracking progress every day — whether I make any or not. I created a spread sheet, and started counting words written, chapters edited, ideas explored, stuff like that.  I did that about a month ago and I’ve improved my writing results every week.  The first week was a grind, the second week just a little better, then I hit a groove.  Its incredibly satisfying to see an upward trend, even if it started from a very lousy place.  What is it about human nature that

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