Briefly noted: Inc. Magazine‘s July/August issue features a blueprint for revitalizing the American economy “Bring on the Entrepreneurs“.  Essentially the plan would have thousands of new companies and millions of new jobs created. Editor Jane Berenston organized a response to an op-ed column by Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times that called for Obama to make job creation the centerpiece of his administration. I commented on that article last January in this blog. The Inc. article was written by Adam Bluestein and Amy Barrett. In it, they identify existing programs that could be expanded, address issues like immigration, education, government impediments to start-ups — bureaucracy, financing, incubators, student loans, taxes, and energy policy.  There’s more, 16 major points

Read More..

This is part two in a series of posts about the Three Oaks Creativity Weekend. I’ve titled this series of posts “Letting Go” because that was the theme that emerged. Generally meetings, events, or conferences decide on a theme and then orchestrate events around it; we did the opposite.  Since it was Not a Conference, we decided to let the group create the theme. We talked about it early on, listed a few options, then it popped up spontaneously through the weekend. Letting Go was mentioned many times, but we could easily have called the weekend, the Sound of Music. At several points, once during an improv session, the group burst into “the Hills are Alive,” and when our campers

Read More..

My wife Caroline and I hosted a private gathering last weekend, specifically to do sharing around the concept of creativity.  It was not a conference.  Only 20 people attended, and that was intentional. I’m going to post a few times about this unique “creativity weekend” so let me give you a bit  of background to start. The original impulse to host a 4 day creativity event was simply to reconnect with a number of creative people, who are also friends. When I say “creative people” I mean people with a specific interest in the topic — not just people who Are Creative. Those attending all had some connection to applied creativity, innovation, facilitation, self-expression, and the arts. The invite list

Read More..

This weekend I’m hosting a group of friends here in Three Oaks.  It’s an interesting group and I’m looking forward to a lot of “new” input. I know that by Monday I’ll have a list of new books to read, new ideas to develop, and newly refreshed friendships.  This is all good! A lot of the focus in innovation facilitation is on tools and techniques to generate new ideas.  This makes sense, after all innovation is about new things, and the tools are helpful in having you think differently. Still, one must know something in the first place. New ideas are rarely “green field”, they are usually a build on a previous idea, or a combination of old things or

Read More..

Those of you who read this blog will know of the recent online debate I had with author Ashley Merryman. Essentially, I was not letting her get away with dismissing brainstorming. Ashley co-wrote a recent Newsweek article titled “Forget Brainstorming.” While I liked the article generally, I hated the title, and disagree and dispute the conclusions she’d drawn from a subset of the research on brainstorming. The debate also highlighted the problem with the term itself; brainstorming can be either an unstructured bull crap session, or a highly structured event, and depending on which one you’re talking about, they are either a waste of time, or a smart thing to do. The exchange got me thinking, again, about when “brainstorming”

Read More..

There is quite a bandwagon rolling right now about Creativity. 5 years ago it seemed that Creativity was a bad word. You could never say it aloud at a corporation because what it meant wasn’t new ideas, it was interpreted as “lack of control” or, even worse, those touchy-feely things that have nothing to do with business. Alright, you could say the word, IF, you coupled it with “…and Innovation.” This is still something you nearly always have to do. When you think about it, it’s kind of silly. Creativity is a bigger concept than innovation, in fact, innovation is a subset. So, saying Creativity AND Innovation is a bit like say, I like Music AND Raggae. Now, every few

Read More..

Off to London today to run an idea generation session with a start-up.  Yes! I’m as jazzed as Charlie Parker on a double expresso. My mind if filled with excitement and my heart is filled with Hope. It occurs to me that those intrepid folks who start new ventures, large and small, sophisticated and simple, all share one thing: Hope. It’s one of the three Christian virtues, along with faith and charity, but you don’t have to be Christian to have, or appreciate Hope. Hope is what sometimes makes life worth living.  Hope is what has the Chicago Cubs (those perennial also-rans) dream of  autumn World Series baseball glory.  Hope is what makes an entrepreneur get up in the morning.

Read More..

If you are a creativity and innovation freak, you probably have already seen the excellent Newsweek article titled “The Creativity Crisis.” It’s rapidly becoming one of the most shared FaceBook links I’ve seen. If you haven’t read it, by all means do, it’s the best piece I’ve seen in recent years related to creativity, education, and it’s impact on the American economy.  For those of us in the field, it’s somewhat old news, we’ve been screaming this for years, but nothing like a major news publication to get it on the radar. The recent research is a real eye opener, especially the part that says creativity scores are a better indicator of eventual success than IQ. Wow — that’s a

Read More..

Something happened to me yesterday that I’m still processing. Think of trying to blend peanut butter and sand –it’s a sticky and abrasive emotional mess. Sparing you the gory details, it has to do with someone not doing what they said they would do.  Now, they said they would do this thing without any pressure, they made a committment.  Well, as we all know, situations and feelings change, and, my friend and associate reneged. I said I understood, and I do, but its left a hole in my project and frankly, in my heart. We’re still friends but now it’s a bit different, sadly. I’ll get over it, people aren’t perfect. I still love my friend. Beyond the emotional upset,

Read More..

Continuing my current trend of writing about personal experiences related to Innovation. I’m currently on a diet and fitness program.  The reason: I’ve let my weight creep up very slowly and now my clothes don’t fit, except for the stretchy waisted “fat” clothes.  I’ve made half-hearted efforts for a few months and decided last week to accelerate progress and quit fooling around.  So, I’m on a regime of daily exercise, no alcohol, and moderate (but not starvation) eating. It’s been challenging, my body is resisting, I’m sore all over, and very tired at the end of the day. As Rocky Balboa once said “I need to call a Taxi to get to the bathroom…” And, what I’ve noticed, after only

Read More..