creativity
Tom Peters: Innovation is Easy!
Found this fun video of Tom Peters, from a tweet by @ellennaylor who found it from a blogger, @plish. (Love how that works.) Key messages: Being remarkable is about being original–originally you. Don't follow the pack. Take the lead. Hang out in the fringes if you want fodder for innovation. My take on this: Be…
Read MoreHow Poetry Nourishes Me
Several years ago, I asked my niece, Joanna, who was in a graduate program for poetry, what appealed to her about this form of writing. She replied, "I like the density–how you can convey so much in so few words." Joanna now teaches at a midwestern university, while continuing to be a freelance writer. Recently,…
Read MoreTourist in My Own Town
My sons have tired of summer vacations consisting of long road trips. We’ve seen most of the interesting sights within a day’s drive over the last ten years. And having taken a true vacation to paradise in February, a more extravagant summer vacation didn’t seem called for. Instead we’ve decided to create "Family Friday," days…
Read MoreImprov Wisdom
I’ve fallen in love with a gem of a book, Patricia Ryan Madson’s Improv Wisdom. Madson is a retired professor of drama at Stanford University, with lots of credits in the areas of improv and creativity. Less than 150 pages, the book is a quick read. It is organized by principles of improvisation that, when…
Read MoreWays to Brainstorm: FlickrStorm, The Hub, and TED
How do innovators get their great ideas? Often by being exposed to lots of good material from different worlds. Some good stuff that I’ve found: FlickrStorm is a great tool that provides a collage of Flickr photos based on a theme, for example, "lemon" or "China." It’s a fun way to visually see unrelated things…
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