Gregg Fraley

Anyone whose taken brainstorming training knows you don’t critique ideas as-you-go, you “defer judgment.” This allows for a flow of ideas to emerge. A few years ago Sid Parnes went a step further when giving a talk to a group at the Creative Problem Solving Institute. He said to be more creative, you need to defer judgment — as a way of life. It made sense to me at the time, I thought, getting into the habit of it would make you a better ideator in times of divergence. I still think this is true, but here’s a new insight: Deferral of judgment has a deeper impact. It unlocks your mind and allows for more intuitive thought. This occurred to

Read More..

I live in a new country home in Michigan. I have 10 acres of mature trees and I’ve made a game out of identifying them. I’m not bad — I can get 9 out of 10, but one tall slender tree in a thicket near the house was throwing me. I went through the books and based on the leaves, bark, etc. I came up with a Tupelo. Well, I was wrong. My arborist Chris came by and I pointed out my Tupelo. He smiled and said, “creative identification” which was political correct speak for mistake! Chris told me it was actually an Apple tree. He took a long look upwards and pointed his finger. I looked up and saw

Read More..

I’ve coined a new term today — CAM, an acronym for Consumer Anger Motivates. If the CAM Factor is high, you buy something else! Let me explain… Everybody has consumer nightmare stories. Told afterwards they are often pretty funny. The old adage of “big problems make good stories” does apply. It’s not too funny when it’s happening though! I’ve suffered through a horrendous customer service experience with AT&T in the last few days, including several very frustrating phone calls, long delays on hold, hang-ups by the automated system, multiple transfers within the organization, frustrating attempts to do it myself on the web, and after all that — still not the desired result. A comedy of errors and it really made

Read More..

I don’t mean to be overly provocative with my title. I do mean to raise the question — What is the Innovation culture, if any, of my beloved hometown of Cincinnati? Let me say how much I love Cincy to start with here. I don’t think there is a more beautiful city in the Midwest, and it’s hard to beat Cincinnatians for being friendly. I spent many good years living in Cincinnati and I often wish to return to Mooney Avenue in Hyde Park and spend some time reading novels under a giant oak tree. But I digress, this is not a love letter, it’s about an honest look at the state of innovation in Cincy. I return to my

Read More..

I spent the last week in Sestri Levante, Italy at the fifth annual CREA conference. I’ve only missed one CREA — and the reason is because it’s a remarkable conference. Here’s what’s remarkable about CREA: * Attending are a diverse international group of creativity and/or innovation practitioners, facilitators, and motivated-to-learn participants. The participants are people from many different countries, 23 in all this year. Some are from big corporations, but there are entrepreneur’s, consultants, and governmental types as well. * People talk — there are a lot of friendships made at CREA, and a lot of informal business being done. It would be hard to imagine a better place to find the perfect creativity or innovation consultant for yourself or

Read More..

It occurred to me that I don’t often share my very different thinking and frankly wacky ideas. I have a lot of ideas. I get paid to have them for my clients and because they are in the corporate for-profit context I’m not able to talk about them. However, I have ideas about a lot of things, products, the environment, government, services that just come to me from out of the blue (and observations). Here are a few I’ve been thinking about lately in no particular order. Feel free to send me builds — that’s what blogs are for. 1. Create a Great American Car I heard Bill O’Rielly on the radio a couple days ago and he was talking

Read More..

I’ve been reading a business fable by Steve Farber lately, it’s called the The Radical Leap, a personal lesson in extreme leadership. It’s an interesting book and what resonates with me in particular is the whole idea of love being a central aspect of effective leadership. It’s been politically incorrect to talk about love in a business context as far back as I can remember and I really admire Steve for making the case for it. I believe, as Steve does, that love is essential to leadership, and that it helps create transcendent businesses. I want to take the case for love into the world of creative thinking. I want to state for the record the simple idea that love

Read More..

This is my first blog and I’ve decided to talk about the Creativity & Innovation Industry. It’s a shame that this group doesn’t have more cohesion but in my view it is indeed an “industry.” It consists of a wide range of people and companies. It encompasses everything from venture capitalists to new age aura readers. In the middle of that spectrum are qualitative researchers who provide “ideation” services, companies like What If and Ideas to Go, and a goodly number of single shingle consultants who offer some form of innovation consulting. I’ve heard of Creativity Coaches, one here in Chicago I know, Brendan Sullivan, is getting all the work he can handle. There are also the high-priced marquee types

Read More..