Gregg Fraley

Here’s a guest post from good friend and colleague Doug Stevenson. A brief note about Doug — he’s probably the most inspirational trained brain to be found on the planet — he’s the ideal “idea man” and if you need someone to give you 100 ideas about Anything, this is the guy. This is his account of his CPSI (Creative Problem Solving Institute) experience. I’d asked him to do a guest post as I couldn’t attend this year. I find it pretty amazing the lengths people will go to to connect with their creativity and the creative community. In challenging times, take Doug’s advice, don’t worry about your brakes — head for the light, and never retreat in your quest for

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Into the stadium he strides, resolute. A raw-boned Scottish man, fire in his eyes — and flaming hair to match. Armed with a gut-strung racket, like William Wallace sword in hand, he’s ready, today, to take his place as champion in the high temple of tennis, Wimbledon. Yes, it’s Wimbledon time and I can’t resist writing a post that revolves around a sports analogy. Forgive me Grantland Rice. I’m a tennis fan. I particularly like watching the big Grand Slam matches. If you follow the game you are aware we are in a kind of golden age of tennis, with two of the best ever at the top of their game, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. One could wax poetic

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It’s a mixed blessing to be a sometime book reviewer.  The good news is people send me books, and I love books. The bad news is I have a stack of books that would make a good start on a new wing at the Tower of London, it’s overwhelming. There are some duds in that stack, but I soldier on. Pardon the windy introduction, but I’ve found a real jewel recently. Let me make a direct statement here: Michael Michalko’s new book Creative Thinkering — is a real gem. Just finished reading my advance copy in one go on a flight across the pond — and it was a mind-bendingly delightful and informative read  — Chicago to London has never

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In my TEDxNASA speech I sought to ‘get back to the very basics’ of innovation — personal creativity. That was November 09 and since then I’ve heard many times that what struck many watching the video was the statement I made that “creativity is the spring, innovation is bottled water.” Not being the kind of person who ever wishes to preach, I must admit that I held back from saying something even more direct. Something which I strongly believe, and that is, innovation has a spiritual component. Okay, now, I’m not talking a religious component, or even an ethical component, although religion and ethics can be inspirational places to come from. What I’m talking about is creativity and it’s connection

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Be a Goofball By Gregg Fraley Everybody’s born a goofball Every kid is a goofball. Goofballs goof around. They goof for the sake of goofing. They goof all the time. Because goofing is fun. It’s the opposite of serious And it’s not mysterious. All you do is make everything a toy, make everybody a cartoon character, make every place interesting… it’s not a bathroom, It’s … the bat cave, It’s not plain Jane Smith from down the street, It’s “Hayne Rodrigo” the Spanish lady who loves to salsa (even if she doesn’t know it, and, this is essential, You Make Her Dance till she laughs). The key is, you don’t do anything normal. You don’t talk normal, Sit normal, Walk

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Communities have creative souls. Some blossom in the spring of harmoniously shared lives, others whither in the cold winds of isolation and fear. The communities that blossom, that “work” in more simple language  — are creative communities — because the collective “team” has chosen to appreciate and even encourage diversity. The bad news/good news about diversity is that there is usually more conflict on diverse teams, but if normalized, those teams are almost always more innovative than homogenous teams. You only have to examine the work of Richard Florida to understand that creative and diverse communities evolve into economically prosperous communities. Case in point: Buckinghamshire, UK. I volunteered as a graphic illustrator yesterday at an extraordinary event. I promised to

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Heads-up! There’s a great creativity post on Mike Brown’s excellent blog, Brainzooming. It’s a listing of 37 articles on ways to be more creative.  I’m kicking myself because I’m not on the list! I realize that even though I’ve written about 300 posts related to creativity, and a book — I haven’t written a piece that explicitly takes on that challenge.  I would argue that my “Magic Jacket of Creative Behavior” post comes darn close!  Well, never mind, no time like the present to make a change — I’ll make the next list with this post! There are a lot of ways to be more creative, in my list below I’ve tried to focus on fundamental Ways of Being that lead to

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My friend Mark Dykeman sent me a new Harvard study on Creativity. It’s a shocker at one level, and at another, it’s really not. The not-finalized study (The Dark Side of Creativity, Original Thinkers Can Be Dishonest, by Francesca Gino and Daniel Ariely) claims, and quite credibly, that creative people can be dishonest — that is, less ethical, than those who are not as creative. In reading through the “working paper” (this means it has been released for comment and discussion, I’ll forward notes).  I note how well researched the piece is, the authors have done a good job of building their case.  They tested the concept no less than five different ways, and all five studies confirm the conclusion.

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I’m busy these days writing a manual for my new company, Kiln.  Writing a technical document is a mixed blessing.  It feels like you’re doing something that will provide value, that feels good, and — it’s often slow going. The manual is for a new innovation process which we’re calling FuseTrail. More about that in future posts, but as part of that effort I had some fresh thoughts about factors that impact innovation. I had all the usual suspects down, things like, respect for ideas, supportive culture, persistence, and talented people. I paused while writing and thought about what was stopping some of the organizations I’ve worked with — and it came to me — the obvious, Courage. This will be

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I just finished reading a wonderful novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. It’s a brisk story told in first person by a young Indian entrepreneur.  I won’t say much more about the story, but it’s a good one, and deserving of the accolades and prizes its received. Perfect airplane reading, and, it has me thinking about how an entrepreneur gets started. Kudos to Adiga for writing a compelling, dark, fascinating examination of poverty, opportunity, and wealth. A White Tiger is a rare breed in the wild, and the metaphor was used in the novel to describe how challenging it is for a young Indian, mired in the mud of deep poverty, to move from virtual slavery to being an

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