Don't Forget Your Creativity Sources – Part 1

A comment on Jan Harness’ Creative Instigation blog struck me as interesting: “Creativity is the art of forgetting your sources.” In the age of the remix culture, that’s very true, and I’ve been accused of it in presentations. While I try to credit sources of inspiration, you don’t often get to explain why something inspired you.

Saturday, I did “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” for a great conference audience. Since that presentation is all about creativity, I thought I’d try to RECOGNIZE some of the inspirations behind that material over the next two posts. Here’s part 1 - check these out and see if they can help remove some NOs from your InNOvation efforts.

• Max Utsler - In 2004, Max asked me to talk to his Kansas University class about innovation in marketing communications. That was the start - no Max, no presentation.


• Google Images - Still my favorite source for “found objects” that are a fun (ok, maybe slightly inappropriate) way to liven up a presentation.


• Chuck Dymer – I met Chuck in the mid 1990’s, and he’s been an incredible strategic & innovation mentor to me ever since. He’s a Master Trainer of Edward de Bono (the father of lateral thinking) methods who continually opens my eyes to new ways to think creatively. You name it – trait transformation, themed exercises, using toys, prioritization grids, plus-minus-interesting…I learned it all from Chuck!


• James Lipton – As a collector of great questions, I love James Lipton’s segment on Inside The Actor’s Studio where he asks his guests the same questions about themselves eac show. His references to Bernard Pivot using the questions on French TV prompted some background research. There’s an interesting little history to the questionnaire that highlights that great questions always have a place.
  
• Greenhousing – Chuck Dymer gave me a book from ?What If!, a UK-based innovation company. In it, they address greenhousing ideas, i.e. creating an environment that allows new ideas to grow & develop when they are at their most vulnerable. It’s includes questions to ask about new ideas that are certainly more productive than what I had typically been asking, “Why the *#!% do you want to do that?” Hey, we can all change!
  
• Diet Dr. Pepper – My mom drank Dr. Pepper when I was growing up, setting the stage for me loving Dr. Pepper (now Diet Dr. Pepper). We never knew why, but when I was little, Dr. Pepper bottles were always sticky on the outside. Years later, the economist at work told me that he had previously worked at a Dr. Pepper bottling plant. Their method to control the volume in the bottles was to tap those on the bottling line that had too much liquid so that they would foam over. Mystery Solved! In any event, Diet Dr. Pepper has become my creative catalyst drink of choice.


• "Get Out of the Mental Doldrums NOW!” Card - My Uncle Jerry was the most incredible Monopoly savant that I’ve ever played against. He had the distances memorized between properties, knew all the rents for each number of houses, and frequently bankrupted his competitors within 30 minutes. Suffice it to say, at that rate, we played a lot of Monopoly games over the course of an afternoon. This fueled my love for the game, and when trying to come up with a leave behind for the InNOvation presentation, the Get out of Jail Free card came right to mind.

In part 2, you'll learn more about the creative inspirations behind "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation."