Posts Tagged: creativity

Do You Need a Whack on the Side of Your Head?

More specifically, do you need help embracing your creativity? I can hear some of you saying right now, “what creativity”? Relax, you’ve got it. Even if you don’t think you use it often, it’s there. Let’s figure out how to brush it off a bit. Ready? If you haven’t read the book referenced in thisRead… Read more »

Lessons From the Upside Down Fire

In the middle of cold winter days, what could be better than making a roaring fire? But you’ve probably been building an inefficient fire. It’s probably hard to start. You have to keep adding logs and moving them around to get good burn. The edges of the logs don’t burn. It takes a long timeRead… Read more »

One Simple Strategy to Break Bureaucracy and Drive Creativity

I’ve been taking a course on innovation on Lynda.com, an online training and learning community. The course, Business Innovation Fundamentals with Drew Boyd, focuses on how to innovate using Systematic Inventive Thinking, a method based on several techniques to innovate on demand. It has been an interesting course, and one of the elements really caughtRead… Read more »

So You’re Stuck…Now What? Ways to Get Out of a Rut

Returning from long holiday weekends and vacation get-a-ways can often remind us of the places in our lives we feel stuck: in a job, a community or a relationship. Are you feeling like this little turtle? A few month’s ago, a dear friend and I were walking along a lake shore when we stumbled uponRead… Read more »

Why Teamwork is Overrated

There’s No “I” in Team – But There is a “ME”! Why Teamwork is Overrated Let’s all work together! Sounds great, right? Well, sometimes it is. But if you want to create an environment where creativity, imaginative problem solving, and attention to detail flourishes, you may need to let some of your team members workRead… Read more »

Standardizing Innovation

Originally posted at www.cpsrenewal.ca. Voices have been asking how government could take advantage of interesting models such as gamification, crowdsourcing, nudges, etc., looking for opportunities to innovate. I’ve tended to think that, if there is value in such approaches, the better question would be “Why are we not already using them?” And there’s a reasonableRead… Read more »

The Crippling Effect of Over Thinking. Everything.

Part of my regular reading includes posts written by Matt Cheuvront. He’s the founder of Proofbranding based out of Nashville. Matt has a blog, Life Without Pants, and also writes on Medium.com. You’ll likely see me reference some of his posts here on #govlife. He recently wrote a new piece recently called The Crippling EffectRead… Read more »

What Consumers Want: 4 Principles of Design Thinking

Participants in the breakout session presented by Peer Insight had the opportunity to focus on a dominate theme of the Next Generation of Government Training Summit: using creativity to improve job performance. Natalie Foley and Jessica Dugan from Peer Insight, a consulting firm that creates impact and growth using design thinking, explained that while designRead… Read more »