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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How many of us lose any sense of our creative selves and never recover? Between the schools, soul crushing jobs, and the myths that surround creativity, it’s hard to find your creative self. And there is no lost and found for creativity. Well, maybe there is… I’m thinking about this because The Creative Problem Solving Institute just concluded in Atlanta, Georgia. Also known as CPSI (“sipSee”) it’s an amazing event and it’s been happening for over 55 years. Normally I’d be there but work has conspired to keep me away. CPSI, was my creativity lost and found, really, an inflection point in my life. Trust me, you are creative, and there are lots of ways to “get it back.” In 1987

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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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CPS really works. Entrepreneur’s and Innovators, learn it and prosper. I had the opportunity and pleasure of co-teaching a class this week with Silicon Valley wiz Randy Haykin. We did a Team Problem Solving course for the MBA program at Cambridge’s Judge Business School. It was a dynamic week and mostly due to a clever cadre of international students. The course featured  “CPS” (aka Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process) as the primary method/tool.  Students processed an entrepreneurial challenge using CPS and presented solutions — business plans — on the final day. What amazed me most about the course was how well CPS worked even with inexperienced users, with no neutral facilitator, and in a very compressed time frame. The final presentations

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I don’t pay any attention to business school rankings. It’s one of those vague bits I gloss over because I’m not shopping for a school. I’ve always assumed that the rankings were some kind of measure that indicated “success”.  Not really! Only one kind of success is measured. I’ve recently discovered that the rankings are heavily weighted to favor starting salaries, and, the opinions of top recruiters. So, a school that graduates a lot of young brilliant people who start businesses actually gets a lower ranking than one whose graduates opt for safe, high-paying corporate jobs. There is no factorial for those who graduate students who do start-ups or help grow small companies. Not everybody gets an MBA to enable

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The Front End of Innovation 2011 conference was last week in Boston. A few comments and impressions for your consideration. * It would be hard to imagine a more serious group with regard to innovation. This is probably the most concentrated group of pure corporate innovators you’ll find. These are the folks who are working hard to make innovation happen at the biggest organisations in the world. And they are desperate to find ways to improve. I don’t have a count on numbers, but it’s not Mac World, it was a focused group. In a way, this group is almost an ad hoc innovation industry association. * Which is not to say these folks are “too serious” — there were

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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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Who remembers “Happenings?”  I’m not referring to the Supreme’s song, or to the TV show, but actual… Happenings.   Before Tweet-ups, before flash mobs, before raves, before disco, there were Happenings. A cultural trend of note, highly innovative at the time, and worth revisiting. I’m creating a new version of a Happening in Boston next week, but more on that later. Why am I posting about this? Because there is something to learn from the old trend, and that is, we learn best through interaction with cultural stimuli. Back to history — the first Happenings were hosted by high level artists in the New York City area (such as George Segal and Allan Kaprow) in the early 60’s.  Characterised as “the

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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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Okay, I know, leave it to a blogger (and an American living in Britain at that) to pounce on the current topic, to ride coat tails, or in this case, to float on a bride’s veil. Yes, forgive me, I’ll be making the somewhat unlikely connection between the royal wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William and — don’t swallow your Pimm’s too quickly — Innovation. Throw me in the Tower of London dungeon if you will, but I insist, the more you think about it, the biggest challenge the lovely pair have is to Innovate. All due respect, but can Will and Kate innovate? I hope they can, I do, sincerely, wish them well. I see three big things

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