New and Improved Innovation Blog Site

How to raise creative children: CNN's take (which is pretty accurate!)

A while back, CNN interviewed the parents of five "creative geniuses" (which they defined in the article as: "highly-talented, self-motivated kids," whose parents have encouraged a "thirst for knowledge, the love of a good challenge, and the idea that anything is possible if you put your mind to it."

While some (myself included) might take issue with their definition of creative genius, the conclusions of the article are still worth taking into account as we walk the balance of trying to raise the best children we can, whether we're parents or adult role models:

- Spark curiosity early in life. Encourage kids to ask "why?" and "what if?"

- Ensure that your child is intellectually stimulated in school -- boredom is not conducive to education, and it's tough to be creative when sleeping through class.

- Encourage and support your child's activities, but don't become too invested in the outcomes.

- Look for opportunities to teach children about something they're interested in, whether it's linking an interest in Football to statistics, or a desire for M&M's to learning about color.

Read more about their take on how to raise creative children at the link below, AND tell us your strategies in the "comments section" (link below right).

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/22/motivation.kids/index.html?hpt=C2

 

The Dangerous Side of Praise and Positive Judgment

When working with teams learning to generate ideas more effectively, we regularly coach participants to defer judgment, both negative and positive.  Why would you avoid positive judgment? Because then the lack of positive judgment becomes negative judgment.  If I tell everyone in the group -- except, say, Bob -- that they're doing a great job, then how will Bob feel? (Hint: not good!)

This simple illustration is informative when it comes to rewards and recognition programs that focus on finding a limited number of "winners," implying that everyone else is a "loser." (For kinesthetic learners: make an "L" with the thumb and forefinger of your right hand and hold it up to your forehead).

Scott Adams's Dilbert beautifully and irreverently illustrates the point very nicely below or at: http://bit.ly/ra373I

(click on cartoon to see third panel...

...and thanks to former N&Ier David Ockey for sharing this!)

Creating a Culture of Innovation: Top 10 Mistakes on the Road to Innovation

Two of our Partners, Jonathan Vehar, and Bob Eckert did an interesting webinar recently about the mistakes (or as they like  to say, the misteaks) organizations make when trying to energize a culture of innovation. It was a fun, informative listen. Check it out, either to stream or download, here:

Creating a Culture of Innovation: Top 10 Mistakes on the Road to Innovation

Laughter Leads to Insight - Insight to Innovation - Innovation to Profit

We often say that we "Take our work seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously."

A short article in the May/June Scientific American Mind written by Elizabeth King Humphrey points to research that backs up our sense that such a frame of mind lends support to our creative problem solving efforts.

Here's a synopsis of the research: Use the challenge of finding a relationship between three seemingly unrelated words as your "test". Show some folks a scary or technical video, and others a funny video (specifically in this case, some Robin Williams stuff). You might guess who did better on the puzzles. Three words:Connections, Laughter, Creates.

Get into some of the deeper science here and here.

Creative thinking, at its very essence, is the connecting of previously unconnected thoughts, which is a big part of how humor works too. Creative thinking can (if it leaves your mind and enters the world in some way) lead to Creativity which can (if you find a way to garner value from that creative thinking) lead to innovation. Every time we lead a creative problem solving session where the client wants to really go for innovation, we bring in trained brains, the best of which are also pretty laughter filled funny folks. This is why there has been a conference focused on Humor and Creativitysince the latte 70's. (Yes, that was originally a typo, but caffeine can help a bit too, so we decided to offer up a latte with the article. Enjoy. Don't burn your tongue)

There is an area of the brain, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex, (ACC) which seems to get active just before breakthroughs in thinking occur. Humor gets it active on an fMRI, and the thinking is that getting this area "warmed up" increases our ability to create well.

So, laugh your way to profitability today. :-)