I was on the phone last night with Joe Miguez, (an authority on the use of Labyrinth’s as a creative tool).  Joe was pitching an idea at me and it was fun the give and take we  had talking about it. Ultimately, he didn’t sell me on the idea, but as I hung up the phone I was smiling and I had warmth in my heart. Such is the chemistry between some idea people, even when you disagree, you don’t argue so much as you explore possibility.  That’s not so easy to do all the time is it? Is it your experience that some people are great natural, organic idea people?  And some people are totally not?  It sure is

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I’m surprised that Apple has decided not to support Adobe Flash on the iPad. Why would Apple want to cramp its own innovation by not supporting the world’s most popular media player? There’s been a war of words between the two CEO’s, but suffice to say there wouldn’t be so many words if it didn’t matter. My surprise, first blush, has to do with Loyalty. I may have this wrong, but wasn’t it Adobe Photoshop that was a linch pin of the Mac’s survival?  When the vast majority of corporations were going PC, the Mac maintained a strong hold in design and advertising because of its unique abilities to manage art projects. So, I always thought Adobe and Apple were

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A quick post about a blog I’ve been following for some time. Curiously Persistent is a worthwhile blog to check out; it’s chock full of interesting posts about marketing, market research, trends, some book reviews, and other “curious” bits.  It is invariably short, punchy, and fascinating.  It rarely dissapoints; this is fresh material. A nice piece on business cards just this morning. Hats off to Simon Kendricks the jazz hipster who writes and shares his wide ranging musings — they’ve kept me persistently curious. You can follow Simon on Twitter as well — @curiouslyp Bon Soir…or should I say, “just one more question…”

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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 found a compelling book while running to catch the train. Picked up 59 Seconds, think a little Change a lot on the run and have devoured it in just a couple days. The author is a British professor, Richard Wiseman. In the spirt of the book, this will be a 59 second analysis. What this book is all about is untangling the myths around self-help. As a self-helper in my own right I found his research to be thorough, and his insights to be significant. Actually there a goodly number of eye opening insights in 59 Seconds, and delivered in highly digestible, non-academic, bite-size bits. Further, Wiseman provides actions steps that can be done in less than a minute,

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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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The UK Foreign Office is currently bending over backwards to apologize like mad to the Pope. It’s an interesting turn of events given the long and twisted history of anti-Catholicism in the UK. The short version of the story: the Pope is coming to the UK soon for the first official state visit by the Vatican since 1982. In a lower level planning meeting at the Foreign Office, a half dozen people brainstormed ideas regarding how to handle the visit. Some of the ideas were clearly Jokes, and should never have been made public. Some of  the ideas were serious as well, which indicates that the purpose of the brainstorm was not to embarass the goverment. There was a sincere attempt

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The illustrious Post-it note is turning 30 this month. You’ve got to hand it to 3M, what an amazing and long-lived innovative product. I celebrate their success! Post-it notes have a special place in the hearts of innovation facilitators. Offloading the on-going charting of ideas that are coming out fast and furious in brainstorm sessions frees facilitators do do other stimulating things.  I remember standing at a flip chart and trying to keep up with a dynamic group and it is very challenging.  Post-it notes allow for a freer flow of ideation, not bottle-necked through a slow-writing facilitator.  Post-it note Brainstorming was, and is, a huge improvement over facilitator-writing-on-flip-chart Brainstorming. It’s time to turn a new page however, creative facilitators

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I posted recently on creativity conferences, (Creativity Conferences, Valuable or Boondoggle?) and somewhat controversially. I appreciate the feedback I’ve gotten, and thank everyone for their thoughts both online and offline. My basic critique is that most creativity conferences, including CPSI, are more about personal development than professional results. CPSI is the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, it’s the longest running creativity conference in the world. This post is part of a blog tour/party leading up to the CPSI conference (June 21-25 in Buffalo, NY). At the bottom of this post visit the other very interesting and cool bloggers who will share insight on how to make CPSI effective.  And read Jon Vehar’s blog as well, for the smart ass point

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I’m doing a lot of writing these days — working fast and furious on a new book. It’s going well at the moment, but it wasn’t until recently.  What got me back into high gear? Tracking progress every day — whether I make any or not. I created a spread sheet, and started counting words written, chapters edited, ideas explored, stuff like that.  I did that about a month ago and I’ve improved my writing results every week.  The first week was a grind, the second week just a little better, then I hit a groove.  Its incredibly satisfying to see an upward trend, even if it started from a very lousy place.  What is it about human nature that

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