Tag Archives: creativity in business

Creative Confidence

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The Kelley brothers from IDEO are at it again. After David Kelley has his brush with cancer, he decided to focus on what was most important to him – a wake up call not so gently delivered. The result is this new book on Creativity. Ever since Ken Robinson stated that ‘creativity is as important as literacy‘ – it has become a cause worth promoting and celebrating. I had the pleasure of listening to David Kelley last week talking about design thinking, bringing to the forefront the human element in products and in organizations. Innovation comes from people, and people can enhance their innate creativity. Nothing is more important to economic viability then leveraging creative capital in our people. A message worth repeating over and over again. The piece that many executives seem to miss is that working from this mindset increases employee engagement, reduces turnover, keeps your talent at home and drives profitability. So what is holding us back? A worthwhile read to get you headed in the right direction.

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All

Built on Values

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Interested in creating a corporate culture that outperforms your competition?  Ann Rhoades has shared her experience with companies such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines and reveals how leaders can create a winning environment.

Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition

Most important in my view, not only does this great little book show you how to implement a corporate culture program using the Values Blueprint, it shows you how to measure your culture in order to optimize performance. When you execute on the Values Workout, specifics are both encouraged and examples made available to aid your progress. An example:

Linking behaviours to your values system means consensus on the chosen values. So, if you say you have integrity as an organization, how do you define the meaning? Examples used in the book are:

1. demonstrating honesty, trust and mutual respect
2. never compromising values for short-term results
3. holding yourself and others accountable to actions and outcomes
4. following through on commitment and keeping promises.

Hmmmm – which one to choose? And, what behaviors demonstrate your understanding? Make sure that they are:

1. observable
2. start with an action word
3. assessable
4. trainable
5. hireable
6. rewardable.

Written in easy to understand language, this book is a gem!

Ginger Grant is an expert on corporate culture and a professional keynote speaker. If you are interested in hearing more about how culture can impact the performance in your organization, please contact:

Creativity in Business

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This book is “Dedicated to the Creative Resource within everyone and to those who enjoy making life itself a work of art.”

In the late 1970’s, Michael Ray and Rochelle Meyers pondered the massive amount of information in business and the inability to cut through the growing chaos. Their answer  – to launch a course called Creativity in Business for the Master of Business Administration program at Stanford. Both were dedicated to creative work – Meyers as an artist and musician and through her work as a business consultant through the Meyers Institute for Creative Studies; Ray as a social psychologist and business professor who had worked with creativity in the classroom since the 1960’s.

The course was developed because of the growing concern over the failure of an over-reliance on the analytic approach to business. They found that there was more than just inductive and deductive reasoning in business success – abductive, intuitive processes were also at work.  How to capture this undervalued mode of thought?  And most importantly, how to grow the creative impulse found in all of us to drive business innovation?

The result was the beginning of a movement called ‘Creativity in Business’ that is still alive and well today.  If you want to explore your creative capacity, this is an excellent place to start your journey.

Creativity in Business