Posts by Jeffrey Baumgartner
Seven Things the Competent Innovation Manager Should Know
If you have recently been promoted — or perhaps demoted — to the position of innovation manager, your first action has probably been to do a bit of research.
Read MoreA Word About Assumptions: Part Two
In addition to building creative visions for specific transcendental situations, it is also useful to pose generic creative challenges to yourself and perhaps your team, this is particularly true in business. Let’s look at a few generic creative challenges for businesses
Read MoreA Word About Assumptions: Part One
Reality is basically a series of assumptions we make about the world around us. Most of those assumptions are safe and sensible. Indeed, if you were to question every assumption all day long, you’d soon go mad. However, some assumptions are not reliable, either because they are based on misunderstandings or because the bases of those assumptions have changed. For instance..
Read MoreBuilding a Creative Vision
It has often been said that ideas are a dime a dozen. As a creative person, you know that is not true. Ideas are worth far less than that! Indeed, if I could exchange a dozen ideas for a dime, I would be filthy rich now.
Read MoreEveryone Loves a Creative Idea – Unless It Applies to Them
Some time ago, I wrote an article inspired by a research paper that demonstrated that people seem to have a bias against creative ideas. This is probably the single biggest hindrance to your innovation initiative.
Read MoreDoes Your Innovation Initiative Deliver the Results You Expect?
More and more companies are devising and implementing serious innovation initiatives designed to capture ideas and drive their development. Most innovation initiatives fail to achieve the expected results. In my experience, this is because..
Read MoreFeeling the Creative Sizzle
There’s a saying in marketing, “It’s not the steak, it’s the sizzle.” In other words, people do not really buy a product. Rather, they buy the emotions and feelings associated with the product. Steak is not bought because it’s a chunk of beef. But, because if it is well cooked, it will taste delicious (if you are not a vegetarian, anyway!)
Read MoreCreativity of the Artist: Continually Try New Ideas
Artists love to experiment by trying out new techniques, tools and media. No artist wishes to paint the same thing, the same way again and again. Sometimes a new technique works. Sometimes it does not.
Read MoreCreativity of the Artist: Observe
Welcome to the first in a series of articles about the creativity of the artist. In the series, we will look at how artists use creativity in order to create original art and we’ll look at how you can apply the creativity of the artist in your work and life.
Read MoreThe State of Business Innovation Today
Let’s face it. Innovation has been over-hyped these past few years, forcing CEOs to proclaim it was and may still be critical to their companies. Middle managers have been assigned to be innovation managers and to innovate or else face the consequences. Idea management software has been bought, brains have been stormed dry and consultants of dubious nature have sold useless innovation advice..
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