The Weekly Roundup – April 16, 2010

Creative Intelligence – sometimes it is life or death

Creative approaches to tough problems show up in unexpected places. When the US Special Forces first parachuted into Afghanistan after 9/11, they found themselves adopting some unusual martial techniques to manage the terrain and gain respect in the eyes of the local people. They succeeded because they had been trained to find creative solutions to novel problems. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/aT5efn.

There’s more to innovation than good ideas

It’s not enough to come up with a good idea, especially if you’re the CEO. Sometimes, all you get is an “Air Sandwich.” At Autodesk, the CEO came up with six good ideas, and they all failed. Here’s why: https://bit.ly/9cu5Ut.

Seth Godin Says Ideas That Spread, Win

Seth Godin likes to tell the story of the inventor of sliced bread. Apparently, it failed – for 17 years – until someone else figured out how to market it. That someone was Wonder Bread. See the full story here – and make sure you read the first comment for a different perspective: https://bit.ly/aIhUgL

The Improv Encyclopedia

This may be the coolest encyclopedia ever. It’s stuffed with ice-breakers, creativity games, and exercises designed to increase your team’s creativity. Use the on-line version as a resource, or download it and keep it all to yourself: https://bit.ly/axNTuV

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New Thinking for the New Era of Business

Albert Einstein famously noted, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them.” In our post-COVID world of ...

When an Astronaut Needs a Pen

Ever get stuck on a problem, only to realize you're solving for the wrong thing? That's exactly what happened when the rocket scientists at NASA ...

How Shake Shack Drives Innovation

Do you prefer the crispy mozzarella, tempura watercress, and black garlic mayonnaise cheeseburger or the pumpkin mustard, bacon, cranberries, and sage hot dog? For something ...

Lady Gaga’s Secret to Creativity

Just before she won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, I watched Lady Gaga dazzle the live audience with a pitch perfect performance of ...

Creativity: Does Size Matter?

For some reason, we’ve been taught that for creativity and innovation to count they need to have a magnitude the size of the 1989 San ...

The Lexicon of Creativity

There’s more confusion around the meaning of the word innovation than the chaos at the airline ticket counter after a cancelled flight. Is there a difference between ...

The Brain Science of Becoming More Creative

When we hear stories about iconic leaders like Salesforce.com’s founder Marc Benioff, or widely celebrated virtuosos like Lin-Manuel Miranda for that matter, we immediately think ...

Correct the Overcorrect

When the misguided leaders at Enron, Tyco and Worldcom committed fraud and marred their shareholders with huge losses, the Securities and Exchange Commission rightfully swooped ...

Learning to Color

Fact: Creativity has become the most needed skill in business. It’s gone from a nice-to-have to becoming mission-critical. Fact: Creativity is a learnable skill. All humans have ...