Gregg Fraley

I was in London for a meeting last week and due to my “on time” compulsion, arrived quite early. I was killing time window shopping, and I spotted a cool looking linen walking hat on display at a men’s store.  On impulse, I went in and bought it. I had a nice conversation with the clerk at T. Fox & Company. They had some high quality hand-made knit ties — got one of those as well.  I resisted the lovely leather baggage, but was delighted to hear all their goods are made in the UK. Made in the UK means jobs in the UK.  The UK and the USA certainly need more brands like this.  Started me thinking, again, about

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When I’m traveling one of my rituals is to drop by an airport bookstore and pick up something entirely new. I do a quick survey of what’s hot, and poke around for some hidden gems. It’s often quite difficult to pick out a book; there’s just too much to choose from. Last week, under the gun to get to my gate, I begged help from a shop person and, I’ll be damned if she didn’t pick a winner.  ShopClass As Soulcraft is a newish book by Matthew B. Crawford. The subtitle is “an inquiry into the value of work”.  I guess it wasn’t too much of a risk, it’s a “notable” book by the New York Times, and a best

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The big news coming from the World Cup play this weekend was the “howler” score allowed by the English goalie. By all accounts the British team fairly dominated the US team. The USA allowed a goal very early and it appeared as though they might get steamrolled. However, they hung tough, and a fairly weak shot at goal slipped through the fingers of Robert Green. It wasn’t a tough shot to block, it was right to him, he had it, then he lost it. As I watched the replay I could only feel for Green, this is an embarrassing moment he may live with for the rest of his life. It had me thinking about the concept of failure. First

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Walking down a street in North London last week, I spotted this chair in a store window. Ice cream for the eye!  It had me wondering why we “hold back” on color so much.  I’ve often resisted the urge to wear colorful clothes for example.  Why are we sometimes color restrained?  And, what does this chair suggest to us in terms of ways to use color more effectively in everything we do? In our innovation projects? This picture goes into my “forced association” picture deck, so, I can use it as a tool for ideation, but what else? I recall that Motorola once had a huge success with pagers with color. By simply adding color it opened up the consumer

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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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I read with interest a recent article in the New  York Times about the resurgence of interest in hallucinogens. As a child of the 60’s and 70’s it was one of the most common creative myths of all back then — that to be truly creative you had to do drugs. In my social circle of the time, mostly budding artists or film makers, nearly everyone experimented. The myth started even before the 60’s though.  Musicians like Louie Armstrong were doing songs about marijuana as early as the 1920’s.  “Muggles” was recorded by Louie back in 1928 (It’s on iTunes and well worth a listen). Fats Waller recorded “The Reefer Song.” The myth of the link between drugs and creativity

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I got an email just the other day from Emma Taylor.  I have no idea who she is, but she found my blog and sent me a nice note requesting that I mention an article — 25 Talks to Ignite & Unleash Your Creativity. I have no idea who wrote/composed the list, but it’s a darn good list of creativity talks. The article launches from the Accredited Online Colleges website (Kaplan, DeVry, et al).  The list is a bit heavy handedly arts-centric if I can be a bit critical. The idea that creativity springs solely from the arts is a myth, and a pervasive one. Yes, it does spring from the arts, AND, lots of other things.  The list includes

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I’ve been aware of Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts for several years. It’s an amazing two week immersive experience for economically disadvantaged children. I’ve seen video clips (there was a featured piece on MTV some time ago) and it’s incredible what children can accomplish if they are inspired. Two colleagues from the Creative Problem Solving Institute are involved, Donna Luther is the founder of the camp, and Siri Lynn is an active board member. When it comes to inspiring kids, these two are the original “pros from Dover.” I’m writing this post for two reasons.  One is to encourage those of you who have the means to support the camp financially.  Please donate, they need funds to make it happen.  In

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Meals from the Heartland (@MftH) is a charity with a simple purpose: send meals to people who are starving. Volunteers, mostly from Iowa where the charity is based, packaged up 4 million meals last year.  Even before the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti, that troubled country was a primary destination for the packaged meals.  In fact, two million meals were shipped in 2009 to Haiti, and thankfully about half of that shipment is available to Haitians now.  It wasn’t good luck — it was the result of a generous effort that comes from a desire to change the world. Now, MftH is gearing up for a massive push to send more meals to Haiti in its time of greatest need.

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As promised here’s the official link to the TEDx NASA conference.  I was a featured speaker, and, there were a great many excellent people speaking and performing.  I suggest that you link through the TEDx NASA site — it provides some context and it has a nice list of all the speakers with direct video links. I’ve gotten an unprecedented number of unsolicited emails in the last couple weeks — people who’ve seen my video. It’s delightful to receive the feedback — keep those cards and letters coming. http://www.tedx-nasa.org/

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