Arthur Miller created the archetype of the insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman in his Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Death of a Salesman. I have my own Willy Loman story.
When I was in high school, I earned extra money by lugging around a sample case of candles and selling door to door. There were, of course, the easy marks; my parents and the next-door neighbors. Beyond the comfortable confines of my immediate neighborhood, it ...
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Everyone was confident that A Charlie Brown Christmas was going to be a hit, right?
Not CBS in 1965. Network executives were not at all keen on several aspects of the show, forcing Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and producer/director Bill Melendez, to fight to preserve their vision.
CBS did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke; the network orthodoxy of the time ...
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Smart companies and organizations keep asking themselves the important core questions. What business are we really in? Who are our customers? How might we become more innovative? How do we grow our business?
The challenge is when the answers don’t change. What was new and insightful becomes numbingly familiar. There’s no return on questions. Chances are it’s time to ask some cage-rattling questions.
In their book, 75 Cage-rattling Questions to Change The ...
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You’ve just been to a meeting where Excel spreadsheets are projected on a screen. Next, you’re invited to participate in another meeting for a brainstorming session.
Chances are you need a mental reset button.
So how do you warm up your creative, divergent thinking brain? I call them Inotivities – any activity that’s a catalyst for innovation and creativity. One I use often is called Impossible Thinking.
I use this technique often and ...
Continue Reading ?So what’s an Inotivity? It’s any activity that helps you become more creative and innovative. Here’s one that was inspired by David Sherwin, Senior Interaction Designer at frog design. The challenge is to create a typeface that will be composed of found elements right around you. In an Inotivity workshop I only have participants create A-E. 
But if you want to go for the whole 26 –kudos to ...
When I was in high school, I heard a story on the radio, which has stayed with me for over twenty years. The short version is that a young man from the country went to Cornell to get his degree in agriculture. When he returned home, he saw a neighbor hard at work on his farm. The young man said to the older farmer, “You know I can show you smarter ways to improve your yield and rotate crops for ...
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Recently, Dan wrote Flip — 16 Counter Intuitive Ideas About Motivation, Innovation and Leadership. At the end of this blog, I will show you how you can get a copy from Dan’s Website.
Dan collected and refined this manifesto ...
Continue Reading ?Ideo does it. Apple does it. Innovative companies from around the world do it.
They get unstuck by finding and using the right tools. At IDEO, it may be simply asking “Why?” Then, again “Why?” And then three more “Whys” until you get the core of a problem.
The great Dick Orkin used to begin radio creativity sessions by letting everyone tell a story related to the client’s problem or product. The stories became fodder for radio commercials.
The DNA ...
A few years ago, I led a creative session and I opened with an old Japanese Proverb, “None of us are as smart as all of us.”
I told the group that when I first heard this bromide at an innovation seminar in Chicago, I didn’t have the expected reaction. I said, have you watched C-span lately? Have you been ever been on a committee? Have you listened to talk radio?
Creative collaboration isn’t just a two-edged sword, it’s one of those ...
Continue Reading ?Inotivity has been on an extended road trip. Less Hunter Thompson and more Thomas Edison.
Our team has traveled to Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Nashville and Chicago working with organizations and companies on boosting their creativity and innovation. In Chicago, we helped a client generate 750 ideas in less than 30 minutes.
In DC, my partner company (Seriously Creative) and I met with government officials on how to develop an innovation mindset as they work and develop initiatives for the coming year.
In Nashville, ...
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