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Tuesday, September 13, 2011





WHO KILLED CREATIVITY I just completed an interesting and creative survey about creativity.

 WHO KILLED CREATIVITY? survey If you have missed it (it takes longer than 7 minutes).

 http://www.whokilledcreativity.com/

 and it sparked this weeks (unfortunately delayed ACC) Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2011-37

 Do you think that CREATIVITY has truly been KILLED or is Being KILLED?

 I am encouraging that you complete the survey and share it with all of your colleagues, fellow workers, managers, supervisors, friends, family members. http://www.whokilledcreativity.com/ on that theme

 Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2011-37 Each day this week take time to explore the question Who Killed Creativity?

 MONDAY Do you think your creativity, creativeness, creative thinking were killed in SCHOOL? When? Where? How? Why? By Whom?

 TUESDAY Do you think your creativity, creativeness, creative thinking were killed at WORK? When? Where? How? Why? By Whom?

 WEDNESDAY Do you think your creativity, creativeness, creative thinking were killed at HOME? When? Where? How? Why? By Whom?

 THURSDAY Do you think your creativity, creativeness, creative thinking were killed by YOUR FRIENDS? When? Where? How? Why? By Whom? Neighborhood friends? School friends (K thru 12 thru college)

 FRIDAY Do you think your creativity, creativeness, creative thinking were killed by our leaders, POLITICAL, MILITARY, SPORTS or others? When? Where? How? Why? By Whom?

 What are you doing to revive, reawaken, bring back to life your creativity, creativeness, creative thinking at work, in school at home with friends?

 Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

THINK ABOUT LEADING AND LEADERSHIP EACH DAY FOR AN HOUR


http://www.slideshare.net/mariskavanijzerloo/9-reflections-on-leadership-ppt

One of the learnings I have been sharing through my classes and workshops is that whatever skill or knowledge we truly want to develop or gain we can through simply spending one hour each day reading, listening, writing, thinking about it.

So today think about leadership by watching the slide show from Australia and think about the 9 points made.

Do you agree?

Do you disagree? If so, what do you believe?


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Here is today's ezine from my colleague Mike Brown, Creator of Brainzooming...

Great Leaders – 12 Ways Great Leaders Turn into Bad Leaders
Posted: 30 Aug 2011 02:50 AM PDT


There has been tremendous agonizing over Steve Jobs resigning from Apple and speculation of about what will happen as the company loses the great leader who has shaped the Apple brand so dramatically for so many years. In contrast to Steve Jobs, great leaders can also turn into bad leaders. A leader you’d have followed anywhere because of their confidence, strong communication skills, and self-confidence CAN lose the handle on leadership…in a major way.

Having witnessed leaders undergo this unfortunate unraveling up close, it’s worth sharing twelve ways a great leader turns into a bad leader:

Ignoring the characters of the people you surround yourself with and depend on for leadership.
Making people selections based on the “least bad” choice.

When another business is in trouble, loading up on its cast-off people, thinking you’re upgrading your talent.

Orienting your business decisions toward building your ego & personal wealth.
Seeking out limelight even when it distracts from what matters to your organization.

Overpaying for other companies out of ego, bad strategy, or a fear there won’t be anything you can buy later.

When the people who’ve been smart and served you well in business battles disagree with you, don’t listen.

Thinking a leader can afford to not solicit input and put off making the decisions everyone expects the leader to make.

Overstaying your welcome. (Hint: Ask other people what “over stay” means for you specifically.)
Going beyond the edge of your talents. (Hint: Ask other people where the “edge” is for you specifically.)

Not having incredible people ready to take over when you do hit the edge of your talents.
When the business world views you as defeated, refusing to acknowledge at least a couple of mistakes on the way out the door.

What would you add to the list of ways great leaders turn into bad leaders? – Mike Brown

If you’d like to add an interactive, educationally-stimulating presentation on strategy, innovation, branding, social media or a variety of other topics to your event,

Mike Brown is the answer. Email us at brainzooming@gmail.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how Mike can get your audience members Brainzooming!

Monday, August 29, 2011

LEADERS COME IN MANY TYPES, SHAPES, SIZES

The past week many, many publications: print and electronic are filled with articles about Steve Jobs and his LEADERSHIP STYLE....early Apple, later Apple, return to APPLE about NEXT and Pixar.

If his ICONIC image, approach, presence truly is the reason for Apple's success then many of the pundits, critics will be right and Apple will suffer.

Yet Walt Disney's leadership style appears to have been the same and Disney still remains one of the most successful companies in the world.

Also Tom Edison's leadership style appears to have been much like the micromanaging, complete control style of Steve Jobs and still General Electric still exists as a strong company.

Hmmm? Then there is Henry Ford.

Not all iconic leaders become successful

The key is how to keep a company, organization or government strong after an Iconic leader is gone.

One of the problem with term limits for President of the United States is that if a truly iconic leader got elected president in today's conditions they would never survive for long let alone make much impact in two terms of 4 years alone.

Imagine if a company was run like our government with varying levels of management and leaders having different overlapping finite terms of service.

How would anything get done?

Come to think about it, my reading about many of the Fortune 500 companies has shown that the tenture of a CEO or President tends to be less than 3 years, yet it takes 3 to 5 years to truly make a significant difference.

Leadership then may be actually an impossible task or simply an oxymoron.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Some thoughts for last chapter of Steven Johnson's
WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM
"The Fourth Quadrant"

In Steven Johnson's last chapter of WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM he shares a 4 quadrant grid. Horizontall dimension is individual on the left and network on the right. Vertical dimension is for market driven on the top and non-market driven (sharing) on the bottom

p.229 shows listing of inventions, breakthur ideas from 1800 to present with the largest number being in the 4th quadrant: non-market driven networked.

How might the growth of the Creativity Movement look on such a chart with Edward de Bono in the 1st, and Torrance, Stein, Osborn, Parnes in the 4th?

if you are a creativity consultant where do you fit?

1st individual focused on making money with your ideas

2nd individual focused on sharing ideas

3rd network/collective/company​ sharing your ideas to make money

4th network/collective/associa​tion sharing ideas to help others with no or limited focus on generating money for yourself?

Saturday, June 11, 2011



Founded by creativity pioneer, Dr. E. Paul Torrance, Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) stimulates critical and creative thinking skills, encourages students to develop a vision for the future, and prepares students for leadership roles. FPSPI engages students in creative problem solving within the curriculum and provides competitive opportunities. Future Problem Solving Program International involves thousands of students annually from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, and the United States.

FPSPI Mission: To develop the ability of young people globally to design and promote positive futures using critical, creative thinking.