Earlier this week, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. The first post covered a technique called Trading Fours. The second post … Read more
sumo
Beginning today, I’m going to post a weekly summary of some of the coolest creativity ideas, tests, blogs, products, thoughts, and guidelines that I see each week. Enjoy! How creative are you? Are you as creative as you need to be? And what about your workplace? Is that one that fosters original thinking or does … Read more
Earlier this week, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. The first posted covered a technique called Trading Fours. The second post … Read more
Yesterday, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. The first post covered a technique called Trading Fours. Now let’s look at the … Read more
If there was a PhD for creative sparking, jazz musicians would graduate with high distinction. Smoke-filled, late night jazz clubs are hotbeds of spontaneous creativity. I’m going to post a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Having studied jazz improvisation for nearly 30 … Read more
Back in the early 1980’s, Maurice Starr invented the modern Boy Band with New Edition and New Kids on the Block. His Creative Leap generated tens of millions in profits and delighted the world of pre-teen girls. After the success of these groups, however, dozens of others followed suite in a formulaic manner (one was … Read more
We all like agreement. It feels nice when a group of people are all aligned and everyone has the chance to contribute. It is a warm, hugging, campfire-song kind of feeling. It can also kill your creative potency. Imagine you and your team were working to develop a new flavor of ice cream. One person … Read more
At my company, ePrize, we often tell the “Meatloaf Story”: A mother is making meatloaf with her teenage daughter; a ritual they’ve been doing together for years. As part of the tradition, the two chefs cut the ends of each side of the meatloaf before putting it in the oven. One day, the teen asks, … Read more
We’ve all seen the inside of an artist studio – either in person or in the movies. They are never neatly organized with paints all in a row and tables that are clutter-free. In fact, they are just the opposite. They are messy, and appear completely disorganized at first glance. They studio may have half-finished … Read more
All humans have muscle mass. If any of us hit the gym and started pumping iron, our muscle mass would increase. This is a simple fact. We also each also have a natural genetic predisposition of how much muscle we can grow. I, for example, would never end up on the cover of a muscle … Read more