Creativity Inside the Box: Recent Episodes
Drew Boyd
Drew Boyd is a global leader in creativity and innovation, international public speaker, award-winning author and innovation blogger, and university professor who has worked with clients such as GE Aviation, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Stryker, Danaher, Kaiser Permanente, Eli Lilly, Underwriters Lab, Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati Bell, and Toyota. He teaches teams, businesses and governments how to solve tough problems to create a culture of innovation and a flowing pipeline. Drew reframes the innovation process in a way that makes people more—not less—creative.
Creativity Inside the Box features structured creativity and innovation strategies for leaders who want to think differently, be more innovative, implement change and, grow. The conversations you'll hear will help you apply innovation methods to services and processes, overcome resistance to ideas, and create a culture of innovation.
“Think outside the box.” We’ve all heard this phrase, been told to follow its advice, and probably even instructed others to do so.
However, thinking outside the box is, in all actuality, a myth. It’s one of those things that’s been passed down throughout the years and repeated over and over again but that’s really a misguided idea. In this episode, I’m going to explain why.
Tune in to learn what’s wrong with the phrase, “think outside the box” and what you can do instead to become a more creative person.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- How Dr. JP Guilford spearheaded the study of creativity.
- What the nine dots puzzle is.
- How using this puzzle in a study lead Dr. Guilford to coin the phrase, “think outside the box.”
- How Clark Burnham and Ken Davis replicated that study and the results they got.
- What it really means to think outside the box.
- Why thinking inside the box leads to more creative solutions.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Without even realizing it, you’ve used the creativity technique of division before. In fact, you’ve probably used it many times. When it comes down to it, division is simply taking a big problem, chopping it up, and solving each little individual part of it.
It’s basically the application of the common phrase, “Let’s cut our problems down to size.”
In this episode, I want to get into some of the details of the division technique. I’ll explain some of the deeper complexities of it that you won’t find by just “cutting a problem down to size.” Afterward, you'll be able to use this technique more systematically and improve your creativity skills.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- How powerful the division technique is.
- What the division technique is and how to use it.
- What the preserving approach is.
- How you can rearrange something through time.
- Practical examples of the division technique in everyday life.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
How many times have you found yourself fumbling for the best way to describe something? Perhaps you’ve felt that no matter how clearly you’ve explained your subject, your description just doesn’t match the emotions you felt when witnessing it.
I’m here to tell you that creative writing doesn’t have to be your expertise in order to write compelling descriptions.
Today’s episode will walk you through a tip I discovered when writing my most recent book. As I was writing, I found it challenging to find interesting, unique ways to describe the subject matter I was writing about.
Since creative writing is not my strongest skill, I realized I would have to try something a little different.
The strategy I discovered involves creating lists of words grouped by specific domains and matching them together to create new ideas and associations. The best part is that this tip can be used in many different forms of writing and can be easily tailored to your specific writing needs. I will even show you how easily you could use this method to create powerful descriptors right off the cuff for a purpose completely different from my original idea.
Simple, structured tips like this can set you on the path to writing—and thinking-–more creatively. In this episode you’ll hear:
- How to create creative new descriptors through domain-specific word matching
- Why random word association isn’t always the best way to generate creativity
- Suggestions on how to make this technique work for you
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Have you ever wondered if certain creativity techniques are better to use in certain situations? If so, this episode is for you.
As you know by now, creativity is a skill that anyone can learn. It is a structured process and involves using structured techniques. These techniques are patterns that mankind has used for thousands of years to create new solutions without consciously realizing it. They are embedded into the products and services we use and see around us every day.
In this episode, I’ll share some general guidelines on how to use each of these five techniques. I’ll teach you some tips that I take into account every time I use one of them and how to apply them in real life.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- A quick rundown and example of each of the five techniques.
- General rules of thumb on when to use each technique.
- How the techniques work together.
- Which technique helps break structural fixedness the best.
- Examples of each technique in the real world.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Let me ask you: which is more important, curiosity or creativity?
Well, the truth is, that’s a trick question. As I’ve spent years studying the world of creativity, I’ve learned over and over again that curiosity is really a precursor to the creative act. The two go hand in hand.
Throughout today’s show, I’m going to explain why this is. I’ll share why I’m learning to appreciate curiosity more than ever before and how it’s connected to creativity so intricately. Then, I’ll give you some ideas on what you can do about this.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- Curiosity can be trained just like creativity.
- The three elements that lead to innovation.
- How a curious mindset leads to a creative act.
- Innovation is applied creativity.
- Techniques to help you start thinking more curiously.
- How to apply this.
Resources from this episode: "The Driving Mindsets of Innovation: Curiosity, Creativity and Clarity" from The Journal of Business Strategy
Global Curiosity Institute
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
What can doctors teach us about creativity?
People in the medical field actually have a lot of knowledge and experience around innovation. Why? Because they deal with uncertainty daily.
Doctors often take risks and make decisions all in the face of uncertainty. To simply get their jobs done, they’ve got to get creative. In fact, uncertainty forces you to be creative.
Today, I want to share some of my experiences from the medical device industry with you. I’ll explain some things I witnessed doctors, nurses, and the like doing that demonstrated great creative ability.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- The constraints in the medical field that lead to creative solutions.
- The many uncertainties doctors must deal with.
- A story that demonstrates how systematic creativity impacts the way we think about the world and address it creatively.
- What the task unification technique is and how we all use it naturally.
- How task unification has been used in the medical field to solve chronic conditions.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Imagine taking an exam that tests you on your creative skills.
Then imagine your final grade in a graduate course rides on how well you do on that exam.
That’s what my students at the University of Cincinnati have to go through every semester. I teach a course called “Innovation Tools” and teach my students a variety of methods for becoming more creative thinkers. I also teach them the same SIT method that I teach here on the podcast.
Tune in to put yourself in my student’s shoes, take on their pressure, and hear all about the final exam they must take.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- The surprise aspects of my students’ final exam.
- The part of the exam where my students apply each of the five SIT techniques to a product.
- The five criteria my students are graded on.
- Why I like grading these finals.
- A challenge for you to practice your creative skills this week.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Are you as creative in the virtual world as you are in person?
This is an important question to be asking right now. The virtual world is taking over. More and more companies are going remote. You may even be working fully remote! We need to know if our creative output can remain the same online.
An article recently came out that says it can’t. It asserts that your innovation abilities and creative skills decrease when you’re virtual. Today, I want to discuss this article and its applications. What does it means for you as you lead your creative lifestyle online and offline? Let’s dig in!
In this episode you’ll hear:
- Why this topic of virtual communication is so important.
- A summary of the study recently done on this.
- My problem with the study.
- Why multitasking is so detrimental.
- Why brainstorming gets in the way of innovation.
- How good creativity techniques overcome the limitations of the virtual world.
- Why technique is more important than modality.
Resources from this episode: "Collaborating Over Videoconference Makes You Both Less Creative” blog post
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
We know that creativity is, simply put, the sudden collision of two previously unrelated things. However, have you ever stopped to think about what would happen if you combined two related things?
It just so happens that that is a fun little tool called fusion.
Fusion is used by marketers, designers, artists, and all other kinds of creative people around the world. When you combine two related things, it turns out that something remarkable can result.
Today, let’s talk all about fusion and how it’s useful.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- Where you can find fusion in the world.
- How fusion helps you be a more effective communicator.
- Products that utilized fusion to be creative.
- Different ways to do fusion.
- Why practicing fusion is important.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
As a professor, I’ve worked with people of various backgrounds and majors and given them career coaching. I’ve taught them what to think about as they leave college and enter their career.
Today, I want to do the same for all of you listeners.
Whether you’re graduating college, new to the workforce, or changing careers, creativity is your best friend. So, in this episode, I’m giving you three pieces of advice on how to think about creativity and innovation when at this particular transition in life. Tune in to get started!
In this episode you’ll hear:
- Why creativity is so important.
- How to develop a creative disposition in any job.
- Why you need to see creativity as a skill.
- Why brainstorming doesn’t work.
- How creativity and resistance go hand in hand.
- How to change your mindset around resistance.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Attribute dependency is one of the most challenging creativity techniques to master.
For many of us, it can be confusing to figure out what it means let alone apply it. However, in my opinion, it’s the most powerful creativity technique of all. We must get a good grasp on it so we’re able to use it confidently.
Well, today’s your lucky day! There’s a new web app out that allows you to perform attribute dependency. Tune in and I’ll tell you all about it.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- A refresher on attribute dependency.
- Examples of innovations that utilize attribute dependency.
- How this new web app, Omni Vati, allows you to use attribute dependency.
- An example of how you could use the app for innovation.
- How Omni Vati helps you come up with ideas you never would’ve come up with on your own.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
I hate Post-it notes.
No, that’s not true. I love them as a product. I use them nearly every day.
What I do hate is how they are used as an example of innovation and creativity. To me, they set a terrible example of creative thinking.
Tune in to learn some of the history of Post-it notes and why I don’t think they teach us any good lessons about creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- Who invented Post-it notes and why.
- Why serendipitous products aren’t that creative.
- How the inventors of Post-it notes struggled to get buy-in.
- When the product started to take off.
- Why the launch of Post-it notes is a dreadful example of innovation.
- What we can learn from failures like this.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Ever said, “I’ll know it when I see it?” I said this recently to a salesperson in an art gallery. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but knew that if there was something I really liked and was interested in, it would jump out at me. I’m sure you’ve done the same.
Well, sometimes our judgments aren’t quite right. We may not be as good at assessing creative work as we think. In this episode, I discuss this and give some reflections on the matter that may surprise you. Join me!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How we judge a creative idea is affected by how we perceive its inventor. 2. A study on how the gender of an inventor and the uniqueness of his or her name affects one's perception of the invention itself. 3. Where we see bias in the world of innovation. 4. Why I keep ideas anonymous in my creative work. 5. A mental trick that can help you remove implicit bias.
Resources from this episode: Research: Izabela Lebuda and Maciej Karwowski
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
It’s graduation season! College seniors are getting ready to walk that stage, receive their diplomas, and enter the workforce.
As a new graduate, working on your creative ability is important. Being an asset to your company by generating creative ideas will make you stand out and leave a great impression on your new employer. In every challenge you encounter in adult life, being able to think about and attack those situations creatively puts you a step ahead of everyone else.
Today, I want to teach you how to start doing this. Tune in to learn five tips on how you can step into a new job and start making a creative impact right off the bat.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why you should identify the constraints of your new situation or job. 2. What constraints do. 3. How imagining that you’re solving someone else’s problem increases your problem-solving abilities and creative output. 4. The importance of breaking your big problems down. 5. Why brainstorming doesn’t work. 6. The golden rule of creativity and how to apply it at work.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Success doesn’t mean doing everything perfectly. It doesn’t even depend on what you accomplish in life. Rather, success is based on how you overcome the challenges presented to you daily.
In this episode, I want to teach you five ways to tackle the challenging problems you may be facing. This is called problem-solving.
Problem-solving is different from creativity. They are often intertwined but solutions don’t always have to be creative.
Tune in to learn ways to change your thinking around challenges and, ultimately, overcome them.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How to chunk your problems down. 2. How to simplify challenges. 3. Why drawing your challenges can be helpful. 4. How rearranging a problem makes it more manageable. 5. The importance of challenging your assumptions.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
I always say “think inside the box.” However, this week, I want you to instead think inside the skyscraper! We’re going to take a little trip to the world’s tallest building and see what we can learn about creativity from it.
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Dubai and visit the world’s tallest building. I even went to the very top floor. That caused me to reflect on all skyscrapers have to teach us regarding creativity and creative patterns.
Today, I want to share some of the lessons I learned and apply them to your day-to-day life.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How skyscrapers make use of the multiplication technique of innovation. 2. Where we find the division technique in skyscrapers. 3. How the tallest building in the world uses the task unification technique. 4. What pattern spotting is. 5. How attribute dependency is in skyscrapers. 6. The benefits of all of these innovative techniques.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Do you want to be a more creative person?
Of course you do! Otherwise, you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast.
There’s one thing that will make you a much more creative person: pattern spotting. Pattern spotting is when you take the time to analyze things you find creative. Then, you try to understand the underlying structure of those things and figure out why they’re creative.
In this episode, we will talk all about pattern spotting while you travel. Airports are a neat venue where you will find loads of innovative ideas. When you’re at the airport, you can practice pattern spotting by noticing creative things.
Let’s dive into that now!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why airports are a great opportunity for pattern spotting. 2. The innovative aspects of baggage claim. 3. How to practice pattern spotting on advertisements. 4. How pattern spotting makes you more creative.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
There is an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, is that really true? Does necessity cause us to want to be more creative? You will find it out on our episode today!
What if your parking ticket isn’t working because it’s defective and you get stuck in the parking lot? What would you do in this situation? That actually happened to me when I was traveling recently and the QR code in my parking ticket got smudged.
How can we then apply the systematic inventive thinking method to a parking garage dilemma? Let me work through with you some thought processes and how you might use the patterns of innovation when you find yourself in similar situations.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. A story from an airport parking garage 2. Contradictions in life can lead us to creative thinking 3. 5 SIT patterns applied to the parking garage dilemma 4. How the story was resolved
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode 075: Contradictions: A Pathway to Creative Thinking
https://drewboyd.com/iib075/
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at emeraldcitypro.com.
Water that follows the path of least resistance is the easiest route to arrive at its final destination. The same can be said about our minds, too, which tend to take the path of least resistance. In other words, we lean into taking avenues familiar to us.
However, most creative ideas come from following the path of most resistance, not the least resistance. The best innovators are those comfortable with recognizing and looking for the more difficult, tortuous path. This is why we need to push our brains a little bit further if we want to boost our creativity.
In this episode, let’s talk about what it means to take a little risk when you want to be more creative, and particularly, what it means to you in practice. We also discuss the two important principles from the world of consumer behavior research-based principles that account for why most of us tend to take the path of least resistance and how we can use the SIT method to ultimately lead to some powerful ideas you wouldn't have come up with otherwise.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The path of most resistance is a principle of the SIT method 2. The Principle of Cognitive Efficiency 3. The Principle of Knowledge Accessibility 4. Matching two unrelated things together to create the most resistance 5. What it looks like to take the path of most resistance
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
SIT (Tel Aviv)
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
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Do you think of yourself as a creative person? In this episode, you're going to find out!
Now, I’ve read a blog about the creative stereotypes or what a “creative person” looks like where the author looked at gender, individuality, beliefs, and upbringing.
Forget about the stereotypes. It doesn't matter how you compare to these so-called creativity stereotypes. And if you look at those stereotypes of creativity as your benchmark, then forget about it because it's not relevant.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how other people view you. What ultimately matters is whether you think you are creative and whether you’re willing to break free from your own self-limiting belief that you can’t be creative – because you can!
In this episode you’ll hear:
- A creativity experiment
- What matters is the trying
- Overcoming fixedness to apply SIT
Resources from this episode: Nick Skillicorn’s blog post: “The Creative Stereotype: What does a “creative person” look like?”
https://www.ideatovalue.com/crea/nickskillicorn/2022/03/the-creative-stereotype-what-does-a-creative-person-look-like/
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
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Do you think computers will be able to do creative thinking as humans do? The idea of artificial intelligence has been around for a very long time. And since then, it has been rising in popularity. But what are the limits to it? How far will technology go in taking over this important task?
You have probably been using technology to take over many things you're doing today. Think about robotics such as the robotic vacuum or a robotic lawnmower. Now, what would it take to have a machine or computer do systematic structured methods?
The point of this podcast is to make the case that you can be more creative thinking by structuring your brain, using it in a systematic way, and regulating your thinking. Will computers be able to do the same, and even better than you?
Today, let’s try to examine this closely.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- The 3 steps of the SIT method: how can a computer fulfill each step?
- The 5 tools of SIT
- Why my bet is on humans when it comes to parts of creative thinking
- Let's focus on what humans can do to think in structured ways!
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Welcome to Creativity Inside the Box, formerly Innovation Inside the Box. I started this podcast back in 2020 and I was talking about innovation broadly - how you get new products and services to market with a decidedly business-focus - but the podcast grew and evolved over the past two years.
This podcast really is all about you, though, and I want this to be like a one-on-one conversation where we get to talk about what I’ve learned in the 20+ years of working in the field of creativity and innovation and give you some tools and techniques and some ideas that will make you a better and better person in terms of your creative output.
So join me each week and let’s chat about how we can each become a more creative person.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.
Is there a room or a space in your home where you think you are your most creative? If not, how do you then create a space that allows you to be your most creative self?
You've probably seen rooms dedicated to brainstorming as well as some people taking all those different efforts to create creative spaces.
Now, let's explore it in your own experience!
There's no worse metaphor for innovation and creativity than the famous brainstorming room where you walk in and you see beanbags and cool stuff hanging from the ceiling. Well, that doesn't necessarily make you more creative because no matter where you are, ideation is independent of location.
Today, find out how you can bring out creativity no matter where you are!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Considering different spaces in your home 2. What are others saying online about spaces that boost creativity 3. Structured methods you can use anywhere at anytime
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Back in 2012, The New York Times released an article entitled “32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow.” It was basically a list of 32 different innovations which they predict will change the future.
In today’s episode, let's turn the clock back and see how well they did as we look ahead from 2012 to today. Now the people in 2012 couldn't possibly have predicted this pandemic. Interestingly, a lot of the innovations in the list actually resonate with the context of today’s environment.
Sometimes, great ideas just need to percolate and bide their time until the right situation comes for them to be used. This probably has been the history of a lot of creative ideas. And so, when you get a creative idea, don't just throw it away. Store it away for that day when your super cool idea is going to find its time.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The analytical undies 2. The congestion killer 3. The anti-slouch screen 4. The speech jammer 5. Mind-reading shopping cart 6. CSI bathroom
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
The New York Times article: 32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/03/magazine/innovations-issue.html
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Can you really learn to be more creative? Well, of course you can, but what if you didn't want it to take the time to actually learn it?
What, instead, if you could just take a pill?
Imagine if you went to a meeting with your colleagues and you all got ready to just pop a pill in your mouth, a magic creativity, pill, and voila!
It turns out that certain drugs can do just that.
In this episode, you’ll learn how different drugs can help (or impair) your creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How certain drugs can actually help your creativity. 2. How different drugs affect divergent or convergent thinking.
Resources from this episode: Nick Skillicorn’s blog: Idea to Value
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Ever removed a cork from a wine bottle? If so, you also know how to remove a baby from its mother’s birth canal!
Just kidding. That is certainly not true.
What is true, however, is that a very important medical device has been invented because one man learned how to remove the wine cork that was stuck in his wine bottle. He did so by using something called analog transfer.
In this episode, I’m going to share the story of that medical invention with you. Then I’m going to explain how analog transfer was used in the story and how you can also use this method in your innovation efforts.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How a car mechanic took methods for removing a stuck wine work and applied it to babies stuck in the birth canal. 2. The device that was formed from his ideas. 3. What analog transfer is. 4. How to apply analog transfer in your life.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Have you ever heard of divergent and convergent thinking? In the world of creativity, these two terms come up quite often. They are different thinking abilities that are utilized in innovation. The question is, which one is more important and effective when it comes to creative ability?
In this episode, I answer that question. I also dive into a more thorough explanation of what both convergent and divergent thinking are. Tune in to learn all about it!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. A quick quiz that tests your ability to think outside the box. 2. What divergent thinking is. 3. Why brainstorming doesn’t work. 4. What convergent thinking is. 5. Why you don’t need divergent ability. 6. Tools that will take care of divergent ideas for you. 7. Why it’s easier to find the benefit of a divergent idea than come up with the idea yourself.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Do you want to become a more creative person?
Well, of course you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be tuning into this podcast!
So, the question remains: how can you become a more creative person? The key is to be a consumer of creative products, not just a generator of creative ideas. In this episode, I want to bring to light this notion of your behaviors as a consumer of creative products and services.
Research has shown that people who are drawn to creative things tend to be better at creativity themselves. On the flip side, those who shy away from creative products tend to be less creative. Let’s dive into our spending habits and talk more about what all of this means.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why we should all do more product research before buying anything. 2. Why brand knowledge is important. 3. How to analyze your purchases through the lens of creativity. 4. How to increase your consumption knowledge. 5. How to be intentional about purchasing creative things. 6. A recent example of a creative purchase I made.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Life is full of contradictions, isn’t it?
We often have two ideas in our heads that are in opposition with one another. We want one thing but we also want something else. Unfortunately, we can’t have both because they’re directly opposed.
So, what do we do?
That’s what I’m discussing in this episode. I’m going to help you navigate this very common situation. The next time you’re facing a contradiction, you’ll be equipped to handle it with confidence and even a boost in creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Some examples of contradictions we face every day. 2. Two schools of thought on contradictions. 3. The weak link in contradictions. 4. Why all assumptions are false. 5. How to identify your assumptions. 6. Techniques I use to break contradictions. 7. Examples of how to use these techniques.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
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The Beatles are making a comeback.
Well, sort of.
They are making a comeback but in a different format than we’re used to. They are appearing in a new documentary called Get Back which you can stream now on Disney Plus. The documentary is a distilled version of over 150 hours of footage of the Beatles from back in January of 1969. In it, they attempt to write and record 14 songs in just over two weeks. It is truly a spectacle to see how they produce music together.
I thought it would be interesting to dive into the documentary and consider it through the lens of creativity. So, in this episode, I discuss some of the lessons of structured creativity we can learn from Get Back.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. All of the attention Get Back is getting in the media. 2. Why the Beatles started with a partial solution and worked backward to create a full song. 3. Why creativity requires hard work. 4. Why constraints are a necessary condition for creativity to occur. 5. How diversity magnifies our creative output.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
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When does a creative idea get so old that people stop appreciating it and start just expecting it?
I’m not sure I have the answer for that. However, I do know that there are many unappreciated things out there that are still highly creative. In this episode, I explore some of these things.
Everything you see around you is a creative invention that has survived the test of time. It’s important to take the time now and then to stop, appreciate these things, and be amazed by how creative they are. That’s what we’ll do today.
Tune in to hear my list of the top 10 most underappreciated creative inventions.
In this episode you’ll hear: #10: Elevators
#9: Water towers
#8: Calendars
#7: Roads
#6: Keys
#5: Currency
#4: The iPhone
#3: Brakes
#2: Hair color
#1: Eyeglasses
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
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Have you ever been invited to a party or other event but had something else you really wanted to do at the same time? Maybe in these instances, you’ve said to yourself, “Gee, I wish I could be in two places at once!”
Obviously, that’s impossible from a physical point of view. However, it brings up an important concept in the field of creativity: location.
Location has a very special place in our thinking about creativity. So, in this episode, I want to explore this notion of location. Tune in to learn how location can work for you and make you more creative.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The importance of location in our lives. 2. How to apply attribute dependency to location. 3. An example of attribute dependency in GPS locational data programs. 4. How the routes you take could be influenced by your insurance programs or health requests. 5. How social status factors could be correlated to your location. 6. Ways to innovate a coffee cup depending on your location. 7. How using attribute dependency to make your products and services change as your location changes could improve the quality of your life.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
If you’ve been listening to this show for any length of time, you’ve more than likely come to realize that learning creativity takes time. However, it is time well spent. Becoming more creative will change every aspect of your life for the better.
Today, I want to dig into this concept of time. In this episode, I discuss time as the dimension it is. I also explain how it’s used in our creative thinking and creative output.
I believe that time should be a regular part of your creative output. You should always keep the idea of time next to you while working on your creativity and fold it into all of your efforts. Tune in to learn how!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What the principle of constraints is. 2. How putting time constraints on a project can make you more creative. 3. How to use the division technique to rearrange things through time. 4. Examples of using the division technique with time. 5. How to add the element of time to the multiplication technique. 6. Where we see time represented in the attribute dependency technique.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
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Brainstorming. We’ve talked about it here on the podcast before. Regular listeners will likely remember that I’m not a big fan.
However, today I want to share insights on brainstorming from someone besides me. Mark McGuinness is a fellow author and podcaster. He recently put out an article called “Is Brainstorming A Waste of Time?”
In this episode, I discuss this article and share the case for and against brainstorming. No matter where your opinion on this method lies, I encourage you to listen to the end to hear both sides of the argument. Mark’s insights are very helpful as we explore what role brainstorming plays in innovation.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Mark’s balanced view on brainstorming. 2. The benefits of brainstorming. 3. How brainstorming gives everyone a voice and a chance to air out their thoughts. 4. The four rules of brainstorming. 5. The problems with brainstorming. 6. The dangers of inhibition and groupthink. 7. Why we should compare brainstorming with other techniques of innovation to decide which one to use.
Resources from this episode: Productivity for Creative People: How to Get Creative Work Done in an “Always On” World by Mark McGuinness
The 21st Century Creative podcast
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If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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We’re getting ready to embark upon the holiday season here in the US. It all starts with one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. I especially love this holiday because the food is so good: the traditional turkey and all of the incredible side dishes. Not to mention, it’s an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends.
So, what does this have to do with creativity? Today, we’re going to investigate that a bit. We’re going to explore Thanksgiving and do some pattern spotting.
As I always say, anyone can learn the skill of creativity and a big part of that is noticing the patterns in the things we see around us. Tune in to apply this to Thanksgiving dinner and get some inspiration for pattern spotting in your everyday life.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What pattern spotting is. 2. Five kitchen gadgets that have the five patterns of the SIT in them. 3. An example of the subtraction technique in a turkey probe. 4. Where we can see multiplication in a triple timer. 5. How gravy can display task unification. 6. How the division technique has been used to make it easier to get the turkey out of the oven. 7. How attribute dependency could apply to Thanksgiving dinner.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
If you live in the United States, you know that it is football season here. Regardless of whether you’re into pro football, college football, or none of the above, you are more than likely aware that football season is going on and you are probably influenced by it in some way.
Today, I want to get into some of the innovation aspects of football. I’m asking and answering the following: what’s happening in the world of sports (and football, in particular) in regards to creativity?
Tune in to hear some of the ways football has innovated over the years and how we can become more creative by studying this popular sport.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Technology-driven innovations in the game of football. 2. Why no-huddle offense is a good example of the SIT technique of subtraction. 3. What’s so creative about the wishbone offense strategy and how it demonstrates multiplication. 4. Where we can see the division technique in zone defense. 5. How to apply other SIT techniques to football. 6. How to break fixedness around football, specifically regarding jerseys.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
As one thing changes, another thing changes.
That may sound like a simple (and perhaps obvious) phrase, but if you can remember it, you will have added a very powerful tool to your creativity arsenal. It is the basis of the fifth tool in the SIT method of innovation. Indeed, it sums up attribute dependency.
In this episode, I discuss this tool in depth. I’ve covered attribute dependency in previous episodes but today I want to go a bit of a different route. I’ll explain some of the things I observe when my students learn this technique and teach you how to get this powerful tool up and ready to use for your own innovation.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What attribute dependency is. 2. What an attribute is. 3. Why this technique can be the most challenging. 4. Examples of attribute dependency all around us. 5. The complex way to use attribute dependency. 6. An easier way to practice using this technique. 7. How companies use attribute dependency to make smart products.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Never look inside a woman’s purse.”
Boy, do I know that to be true! I do everything I can to not look inside my wife’s purse because, when I do, it’s horrifying. It’s truly mass chaos in there.
But, what does any of this have to do with creativity? That’s what we are discussing in today’s episode. We’re going to look around a woman’s purse and see what creative lessons we can take from it.
Tune in to join me!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How a woman’s purse is like a bridge. 2. What smartphones and purses have in common. 3. How to apply the task unification technique to a woman’s purse. 4. What the “circle of preparedness” is. 5. A personal story about innovating a purse.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
The title of this episode reveals the question on many of our minds: is it creative to copy someone else’s idea?
At first glance, that wouldn’t seem very creative. If you were to take someone’s idea and claim it as your own, few would label that “creativity.”
However, there is some merit to the idea of copying. There’s a very good and compelling reason for using a degree of copying as a way to boost your creative output.
That’s what we’re covering in this episode. In it, I explain why we should sometimes copy others’ ideas to increase our own innovative abilities.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How architects borrow other architects’ designs and styles. 2. How copying can be a way to master fundamental, foundational ideas. 3. Why copying is really just transferring the style of one creative person to your own. 4. How to transfer a creative idea into another genre. 5. What analog transference is. 6. The difference between innovation and discovery. 7. Why every new idea has an old idea in it.
Resources from this episode: Stewart Hicks’ YouTube channel
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EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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If you’ve been tuning in to the podcast for a while, you probably remember the one thing I always say: creativity is a skill that anyone can learn.
Just like any other skill, creativity can be taught and it can be learned. This may be hard to believe for those of you who don’t think you are naturally creative. However, that’s just the point. You can learn to be creative.
In this episode, I’m sharing the evidence that proves this to be true. The evidence comes from a group of students that are undergraduates at the University of Cincinnati at the Linder College of Business. I teach a course called Marketing Innovation there and get the chance to hear cool, novel ideas that my students come up with.
Today I’m sharing a handful of those ideas with you to prove you, too, can learn creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. An innovative idea my students came up with by applying the subtraction method to a kayak. 2. Another innovative idea that came from the subtraction method being used on mascara. 3. How the task unification technique can be used to innovate suitcases. 4. How such cool ideas can come from standard, everyday objects. 5. Innovations my students have come up with for golf. 6. How I’m training my students to provide valuable ideas to their university.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play!”
You probably recognize that lyric from the very popular song, Home on the Range. That song is top of mind right now because my wife and I just returned from Yellowstone National Park. While there, we saw plenty of buffalo, deer, antelope, and elk.
I also noticed something very interesting about the buffalo while at Yellowstone. There is something the park rangers can learn from watching these buffalo. As a result, they do something very creative.
In this episode, I’m diving into what that lesson from the buffalos (or bison) is and dive deep into the creative lessons we can learn from our national parks.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What biomimicry is. 2. What bison can teach us that leads to a creative act. 3. How park rangers have followed the buffalo to know where to build safety boardwalks. 4. What omission neglect is. 5. Other ways we can apply this biomimicry lesson. 6. What pareidolia is and how we do it all the time. 7. How all of this related to the task unification technique in the SIT method.
Resources from this episode:
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If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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We all want to improve the quality of our ideas. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.
So let me give you one quick tip that will help you improve all of your ideas: forecast that idea’s future.
Taking an idea and thinking about how it will play out far into the future is a phenomenon in innovation. Today, I share some research that has been done on it. I’m also going to describe how to practically apply this idea so you can generate better quality ideas.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What perspective innovation is. 2. How to forecast the future of your ideas. 3. Research done on this topic by the University of Oklahoma. 4. Why you should stop and think about a new idea before moving on to the next one. 5. An example of how I’ve seen someone use this phenomenon.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Creativity is nothing more than the collision of two previously unrelated things.
To be creative, you simply have to take two things that don’t belong together, mash them up, and figure out what they make. However, the key here is that the end result must be useful.
Sure, you can take any two objects, smash them together, and come up with something creative. The problem is, it might have no use. If this is the case, you’ve gone too far.
So, in this episode, I want to teach you how to make sure you err on the side of being useful. I explain the product that inspired me to think deeper into this idea and delve into the SIT method once again to show you how to be truly innovative.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- What “Mayochup” is.
- Why food flavor combination is nothing new.
- How cognitive fixedness is a barrier to true creativity.
- Why creativity doesn’t always equal usefulness.
- Innovation=creativity+usefulness.
- How the SIT method empowers you to routinely create high-quality ideas.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Do you remember being told as a kid that elephants are afraid of mice? Well, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not true. Despite what we saw in the cartoons, scientists have said that elephants are not, in fact, afraid of mice.
However, want to guess what elephants are afraid of? Bees.
Today I talk about how this fact about elephants and bees relates to creativity. I explain the insights that it can give us into innovation. I also discuss what the codes and patterns of nature, in general, can teach us about creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What inspired me to look at this issue. 2. A creative solution some farmers came up with when elephants were destroying their crops. 3. What a closed world solution is. 4. What biomimicry is and how it relates to creativity. 5. Lessons we can learn from nature. 6. How to transfer nature’s patterns into human society. 7. Why innovation requires us to be able to pass on the information.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Today, I’ve got some bad news and some good news.
Good news first: you’re probably more creative than you think you are!
So what’s the bad news? We all tend to give up right at that point when we’re starting to become really creative.
Studies have shown that when we’re facing a creative challenge and things start to feel difficult, we lower our expectations about what we’re able to do. We underestimate our ability to generate more creative ideas.
Today, I’m going to talk about what this means for all of us. I’m going to share more research that backs up this tendency and then I’ll help you understand what you should do when you reach that point of wanting to give up.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Experiments that have proved that people consistently underestimate the number of ideas they could generate while solving a creative challenge. 2. What to do when you feel a creative task starting to get difficult. 3. Why the best ideas come after you get stuck. 4. The danger of stopping when you feel stuck. 5. An example of a time I witnessed this happen and clever ideas were produced. 6. The power of persistence.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Fear of failure is one of the biggest barriers to creativity.
However, if you struggle with fear, don’t despair. There are strategies for dealing with it. In this episode, I’m sharing some of those strategies with you.
The truth is, even though anyone can learn the skill of creativity, everyone also encounters impediments to this skill. There will always be situations where fear will kick in and prevent you from reaching your greatest creative output.
I’ve seen this happen over and over again in my 30 years of dealing with innovation. Tune in to hear some of the things I’ve learned about overcoming your fear of creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why we fear creativity. 2. How systematic methods do the hard work for you. 3. Why your fear is unfounded. 4. How the fear of being judged inhibits brainstorming sessions. 5. Three practical ways to overcome your fear of creativity.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Today’s topic is toilet paper.
Yes, you read that right. We’re talking about toilet paper on the podcast.
I promise there’s an explanation: I want to teach you how to apply structured creativity methods to this everyday product. I believe that if you can learn to create innovative ideas for something like toilet paper, you can apply innovation to just about anything.
To apply creativity to toilet paper, we’re going to focus in on one of the five patterns in the SIT method. This is the technique that I would consider to be the most difficult. It’s called attribute dependency.
Tune in and we’ll dive into attribute dependency and toilet paper.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The history of toilet paper. 2. Different ways to innovate toilet paper. 3. How attribute dependency works. 4. What internal and external attributes are. 5. How to apply attribute dependency to toilet paper. 6. How this helps break structural fixedness.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
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Today, instead of innovating inside the box, I want you to think inside the umbrella.
Believe it or not, the umbrella is a great example of how patterns of innovation have progressed over time to form the basis of the SIT method. Patterns have been used by everyday innovators for thousands of years to create new inventions. Many times they were using those patterns without even realizing it. Now those patterns are embedded into the everyday things you see around you like umbrellas. These items can be leveraged and used to create and innovate new things.
In this episode, we’re going to look into this everyday object of the umbrella. It may seem like a simple and lowly household object. However, you’d be surprised to know that all five patterns of the SIT method can be found inside of it. Tune in to learn how.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The history of the umbrella. 2. Examples of innovations of the umbrella that used subtraction. 3. How the task unification technique has been used on umbrellas. 4. What the “unbrella” is and how it exemplifies the division technique. 5. How transition umbrellas use the attribution dependency technique. 6. How the multiplication technique could be used to innovate the umbrella. 7. What a 3rd grader taught me about the multiplication technique.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
You may not realize it, but there is a very important part of our food chain that is under duress.
One-third of the food we consume on a daily basis depends on animal pollination. Eighty percent of all flowering plants rely specifically on the pollination of bees. The problem is, these bees are in trouble. Both the honeybee and native bee populations are declining.
Scientists know that if they were able to figure out where bees are doing well and where they’re not, they would be able to address some strategies for helping them out. With millions of bees all over the country, though, they need to come up with a very creative solution for collecting all of that data.
Well, one very clever and talented researcher has decided to use a creativity technique to do just that. Processor Gretchen Lebuhn used the task unification technique to start The Great Sunflower Project. In this episode, we’re discussing this project in depth. I’m explaining how Professor Lebuhn’s project works and where the SIT method plays into it.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How The Great Sunflower project allows scientists to get an accurate picture of what’s going on with bees. 2. The creative part of this project. 3. How the task unification technique works. 4. What crowdsourcing is and how it plays into all of this.
Resources from this episode: The Great Sunflower Project
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EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Have you ever said the following? “I’ve got this great idea! If only I could explain it to you…”
I’m willing to bet you have. A great idea has popped into your head but you just couldn’t find the right words to express it. You were trying to understand it yourself and then had to go and try explaining it to others.
You’re not alone. In fact, this is a very common phenomenon.
So today, I’m going to talk through the sequence of events that are put into play when an idea comes into your mind. I’m going to take you from the core of the idea when it starts to the finishing point of the idea and through all the things that have to happen in between.
Tune in to get your ideas out into the open!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What a pre-inventive form is. 2. How to match your ambiguous ideas with objective facts. 3. Why you need to put words around those facts. 4. How to describe your idea in a way that creates value. 5. How Googling your mind can play into all of this. 6. Why you should demonstrate your idea by explaining it in a way that people can see it. 7. An example of how this sequence of events might flow.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
A few episodes ago, I talked about what I considered the world's greatest invention. And in that episode, I made some disparaging comments about the wheel. I said that the wheel was not the world's greatest invention ever, how there were a lot of limitations to this idea, and I talked a little bit about its history of it. But I guess some people didn't like that.
And so, in this episode, let me give some credit back to the lonely whale and talk about its evolution, and give you some of my ideas about if you were to continue to innovate this important invention and what it would look like.
I love taking something that has been around for a long, long time and see if we can continue to innovate it. It always astounds me when you're able to take something as simple as a nail or something more complex like photography that has been around for a long time and you can still innovate.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The evolution of the wheel 2. Examples of SIT applied to the wheel 3. Some fixedness associated with the wheel 4. How do you apply SIT thinking to the wheel?
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Less is more. We hear this phrase all the time, and it gives us this sense that taking things away or reducing complexity is a good thing. However, recent research suggests that people have this natural tendency to lean into any problem with a more addictive mindset.
A lot of people do it probably because it works out just fine. But now that you’ve recognized this additive bias and if you want to amp up your game, you can boost your creative output using a subtractive approach.
In this episode, I'm going to explain the background of this research and what it means for you day in and day out if you want to be a better thinker, and more creative.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. An look into the study’s abstract 2. A default to searching for additive transformations and overlooking subtractive transformations 3. What does this mean for you personally? 4. The SIT Subtraction Technique 5. Ways to improve customer journey through subtraction
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Research: People Systematically Overlook Subtractive Changes
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03380-y
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
It’s time to celebrate here at Innovation Inside the Box!
We’ve passed the 50 episode mark which is a big deal for a podcast. Over the past 50 episodes, we’ve covered tons of content to help you develop your creativity and innovation abilities.
Today, I wanted to take some time to summarize the key points of what this podcast is all about. It never hurts to get a review and make sure we’ll all on the same page about the things we teach here. I also want to take some time to thank the people who have supported me through this podcasting journey and helped me get to where I am now.
Tune in to join the celebration.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How creativity is a skill that anybody can learn. 2. The bad creativity methods out there. 3. A review of the SIT method. 4. Why you should start with a solution and work backward for innovation. 5. How the SIT method helps break fixedness. 6. Why constraints are necessary for creativity. 7. My appreciation for the people who have helped me out with this podcast.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
I gave you a challenge and you stepped up.
In case you missed it, a few episodes back I discussed the multiplication technique. I also applied it to the photography industry by explaining how every facet of photography was created by the use of the multiplication technique.
From there, I issued a challenge to all of you listeners. I challenged you to take the multiplication technique and apply it for yourself and many of you came through! I received multiple amazing ideas after the release of that episode.
So, in this episode, I’m going to share three of the ideas that were submitted. I’m explaining three of the brand new inventions you listeners created by using the multiplication technique.
Tune in for some innovation inspiration.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. A recap of the multiplication technique. 2. An innovation of the traditional single-lens reflex camera. 3. An idea for a distributed lens that lets you see multiple things in different places. 4. How multiplying the shutter button on a camera would work. 5. The benefits of all of these new inventions.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Creative people are those who have the ability to Google their own minds.
What does that mean?
Well, it all ties back to the SIT method (systematic inventive thinking). When you use this method for innovation, there is a very specific process you follow inside your head. Part of this process involves asking yourself some questions that require you to search your mind for answers and ideas. In a sense, you Google your mind.
In this episode, I’m talking more about this idea of Googling your own mind. I’m explaining what it is, what I’ve observed in practice, and what it means for you to be able to use it as a way to boost your creative output. Tune in to learn more.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What it means to Google your mind. 2. Why our minds are a treasure trove of information. 3. How to improve your mind searching ability. 4. What bracketing means in terms of innovation. 5. How to chunk down to increase your creative output. 6. Why you need to be clear about what you know and what you don’t. 7. How to leverage what you don’t know.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
One of the biggest barriers to your creative output isn’t your ability to be creative but your fear of being creative.
I’m sure you’ve experienced that at one time or another. We all harbor some sort of fear about being creative or generating creative ideas. It’s inevitable on the road towards innovation.
In this episode, I’m explaining why we all have this fear. However, I’m not going to leave you there. I’m also going to teach you how to overcome the fear of innovation. Listen in and you will be equipped to be creative over and over, whenever you want.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The two sources of fear that make us scared to innovate. 2. The kind of ideas people offer when they’re afraid. 3. Why you should physically write or draw out your creative ideas. 4. Why you should make innovation playful. 5. Why you need a degree of intimacy with your idea.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
I love a good analogy. They help us explain things, make comparisons, and bring clarification to complex issues. I use them a lot in the classroom and with my corporate clients. It’s likely that the people you know who are best at explaining things use analogies too.
Did you know that you can also use analogies in creativity?
If not, I’m going to teach you how to do so in this episode. I’m explaining how to harness the power of analogies in order to generate more creative ideas.
Truly, life is like an analogy. Our lives are all about the comparisons we make from one thing to another. In the same way, in the creative world we can use analogies to make our lives just a little bit better. Tune in to hear all about them.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What an analogy is. 2. The different ways and situations in which analogies are used. 3. How analogies can simplify conversations. 4. What an analog transfer is. 5. The two broad ways to use analog transfer. 6. Four different kinds of analogies you can apply to a creativity context. 7. Why you must be intentional when using analog transfer.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Today I have two challenges for you.
One of these challenges is fairly easy while the other is comparatively hard. Can you guess which one is which?
My first challenge will be to take an everyday item and find an example of a creative pattern in it. The second challenge will be to take that everyday item and invent something that you've never seen before.
If you're like most people, you probably think that inventing something completely new to the world is the harder challenge. However, in this episode, I will try to convince you that the opposite is true. Inventing something is actually much easier than you think.
Tune in to hear my innovation challenges and take them on for yourself.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- The everyday item I’m challenging you to be innovative with.
- How an innovation pattern formed the entire premise of photography.
- Examples of the multiplication pattern in a camera.
- How to invent something brand new using multiplication.
- An example of how this innovation pattern works.
- What cognitive fixedness is and how to overcome it.
Resources from this episode:
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Email me: drew@drewboyd.com
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
You’ve heard it a million times: “There is no such thing as a bad idea.”
Well, as hard as it may be to hear, that’s just not true.
We’ve all been in meetings or brainstorm sessions where a colleague raises his or her hand to give an idea and it ends up being awful. Who can say, in that situation, that there are no bad ideas?
So, yes, there are bad ideas. However, bad ideas are good things. They are tools that can lead us to the amazing ideas we’ve been looking for!
In this episode, I’m going to teach you how to begin to tolerate and even welcome bad ideas. I’m giving you a systematic way to come up with bad ideas in the first place and then use them to get a good idea.
Come learn what work you have to do to make bad ideas the powerful resource they are!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The first thing to do when you hear a bad idea. 2. Examples of times I’ve found benefits in the wackiest of ideas. 3. Why you should examine your criteria for judging ideas. 4. Why you should look for the old and new parts of bad ideas. 5. A systematic method for creating bad ideas.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
What is the most creative invention of all time?
That’s a profound question. You may be scratching your head trying to find the answer. However, I actually get this question from my listeners, clients, and students quite often.
In your mind, the smartphone might be the most creative invention ever. Or perhaps you’re thinking of something that has saved millions of lives like penicillin or cancer treatments. However, my answer is something a little different.
Today I am explaining what I consider to be the most creative invention ever. It is an invention that is not only extremely significant but, in my opinion, the most significant of all. I’m also explaining why it is important for you to think through this question and what all of this means for you. Tune in to hear it all.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why the smartphone isn’t actually that creative of an invention. 2. What the inventions of penicillin and post-it notes have in common. 3. Why the wheel isn’t the blockbuster invention. 4. What I think is the most creative invention ever. 5. Why vision impairment is so harmful. 6. Where vision correction came from. 7. How the SIT method was used in the creation and continual updating of vision correction. 8. Why you should keep in mind the invention that you think is the most profound and creative. 9. How highly innovative things can teach and train us.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
You know that feeling when you come up with a really creative idea?
You feel overjoyed. Your face lights up. It’s almost like you’ve fallen in love.
It’s great to have these happy moments. The trouble is that getting infatuated with a creative idea also presents some danger.
That danger comes in the form of confirmation bias.
Don’t beat yourself up for being overly positive about your creative idea. Everyone does it! Instead, tune into today’s episode to learn some ideas for overcoming confirmation bias so you can rationally analyze your idea.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What confirmation bias is. 2. Why there actually is such thing as an ugly baby. 3. Why it’s a good thing to be passionate about your ideas. 4. How to balance that passion with realism. 5. Why you should point out the negative things about your idea first. 6. The benefits of getting help from others to overcome confirmation bias. 7. Why you should find reasons that your idea won’t work.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
When you hear a joke, at what point do you laugh?
Do you laugh at the beginning of the joke, right when it begins?
Of course not! You laugh when you hear the “punch line.” This is the moment of collision, the moment all the elements of the joke come together and you finally get it.
The same thing happens with a creative act. That is why the act of innovation and humor are so strongly connected. They originate from the same phenomena, that being the collision of two previously unrelated themes.
Tune in to today’s episode to hear more about this phenomenon and how to use it to increase your creative output.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why hindsight is so important in creativity. 2. How to use systematic inventive thinking to come up with abstract ideas. 3. The 5 patterns that go into the SIT method. 4. How to take the abstract ideas in your mind, develop them, and look back on them later to produce an innovative idea.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Think of a current problem in your life that you’re trying to solve.
Maybe you’re encountering an issue at work, something is going on at home, or there is some tension in one of your important relationships.
Now, brace yourself because I have some bad news for you: more likely than not, you’re going about that problem all wrong.
However, there’s also some good news: you’re not alone! Most people go about their problems less than optimally. We try to solve or improve them by adding something. In reality, we should be subtracting things!
Today, I am going to explain why this is the case. Tune in to learn why you need to stop adding things to your life and how to go about solving your problems more efficiently.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The study that reveals why people are more likely to consider solutions that add (rather than remove) features. 2. Examples of situations where people added things to solve a problem. 3. Why we are prone to add things to our lives. 4. What the sunk-cost bias is. 5. The benefits of subtractive thinking. 6. How to apply the subtraction technique. 7. How to use subtraction to be more creative.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
“People Systematically Overlook Important Changes” by Gabrielle Adams, Benjamin Converse, Andrew Hales, and Leidy Klotz
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Creativity is a team sport. It is not a solo event.
When you try to generate creative ideas all by yourself, you’re sitting in a vacuum. You aren’t making the most of the resources at your disposal!
However, if you leverage the brainpower of other people, you can boost your creative output in amazing ways.
Today, I am explaining why this boost in creativity happens when you work with a team. I am also sharing the one question you should be asking to improve your creative output. Finally, I’m teaching you exactly where in your creative act you should ask that question.
Tune in to hear it all and stop limiting yourself.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why people are so reluctant to ask for help. 2. A study that proves people are more willing to help you than you think. 3. The benefits of asking for help. 4. Where to ask for help in the context of creativity. 5. Why asking kids for help can be useful. 6. How to practice this method over email.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
“If You Need Help, Just Ask”: Underestimating Compliance with Direct Requests for Help by Francis J. Flynn and Vanessa Lake
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
If you want to be more creative, turn off your phone and put it away.
No, I’m not trying to be your parent. I’m just trying to remind you that your smartphone is a major distraction and that distraction is the enemy of creative thinking.
However, we face hundreds of distractions every day. There is no way to escape them completely. We can’t just get up every morning and spend hours thinking silently.
So, in this episode, I’m going to teach you how to be creative despite all of your distractions and clutter. I am providing you with practical tips that will help you improve your creative input whether you are working amidst noisy kids or blaring email notifications.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. A study that proves how distractions impede creativity. 2. What the principle of constraint is. 3. How to put the principle of constraint into practice. 4. What the task unification tool is. 5. The difference between multitasking and taking advantage of the clutter or distractions in your life.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
“Decluttering the company” Economist article
The Myth of Multitasking by Dave Crenshaw
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Creativity is nothing more than combining two things in an unexpected way. However, it is critical that it really is unexpected.
For example, if you mash peanut butter and jelly together, it may taste great, but it’s not very creative. You must take two things that have never been put together and combine them to produce something truly innovative.
If you struggle with finding two new things to mix together, this episode is for you. In it, I am going to be sharing 10 different scenarios that clearly explain how to pick items to mash together to produce a creative output. Tune in and you will further develop the habit of innovation.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The power of getting specific. 2. How to utilize imaginary boundaries to generate creative ideas. 3. How to put this method into practice at home. 4. Ways to be more creative in your writing. 5. How to put this method into practice at work. 6. Ways to be more creative in the service industry. 7. How to be more creative in your relationships.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Do charities and nonprofit organizations also need to be as creative and innovative as for-profit companies? Absolutely!
If you’re doing work in a nonprofit organization, volunteering work for some charity, regularly donate money to a particular organization, or have at least some involvement with a nonprofit organization, there are ways and areas where you can particularly be more creative so you can see better opportunities and help your organization of choice progress even further.
Today, let me share with you some ideas about how to apply creative thinking to a nonprofit organization. It doesn't matter which charity, the key is deciding on your closed world and looking for ways to break fixedness.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. SIT Review 2. 3 key areas for being creative in the nonprofit world 3. Team Rubicon 4. America's Packard Museum 5. Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation 6. Organization for the visually impaired
Resources from this episode: Team Rubicon
Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation
America's Packard Museum
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Guess who’s more creative – men or women?
If you answered either of them, you’re wrong. In fact, many people think men have more innovative solutions than women. But it’s a little bit more complicated than that.
Both are equally creative – they just have different roles in terms of their creative output.
In this episode, I’m going to share with your two independent studies that talk about this complex issue of gender role in creativity.
I'm also going to describe for you a very real gender bias that occurs in the world of creativity and in other places we know of.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Research study on "Role Expectations as Constraints to Innovation" 2. Second research study on the uniqueness of the inventor's name and perception of the innovation 3. How to achieve the sweet spot of innovation in terms of gender roles 4. The implications of gender role differences and gender bias in creativity
Resources from this episode: Study: Role Expectations as Constraints to Innovation
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Most likely, there probably have been moments in your life where you have been rejected for your ideas. Getting rejected is a terrible feeling for sure. But try to recall and go back to those moments. How did you handle those rejections? Did you just instantly give up?
When you get rejected, the key is to use that as your motivation to come back with an even better idea. Rejection breeds creativity. Having our ideas rejected actually motivates us to be even more creative.
The next time you're out there developing a great idea, keep going. Use your creative tools and templates we’re going to talk about today and use that golden moment in taking rejection to fuel further creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Research: having ideas rejected motivates our creative output 2. Let rejection work to your advantage 3. How to reject someone's idea the right way
Resources from this episode: Outside Advantage: Can Social Rejection Fuel Creative Thought?
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
No matter who you are, it doesn't matter if you're born creative or gifted in some way, everyone has the potential to become more creative, regardless of where you’re at on the creativity scale.
The secret of this is the idea of patterns and how patterns of the mind boost our creative power even without knowing it.
As creatures of habit, humans follow habits all the time, which we tend to repeat especially if it leads to a good outcome. Sadly, we may also follow some bad habits. But for the most part, when we do something successfully, we tend to repeat it.
And many times, we're not even aware of how our habits actually control our choices. Now, if you can take what you’re already doing subconsciously put it into action proactively, just imagine how much you’ll be winning at everything you do with creativity each time.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How humans are creatures of habit 2. The study on the Rock Paper Scissors Tournament 3. How the rock, paper, scissors game is a game of choice 4. A review on the 5 patterns of Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) 5. Examples of these patterns
Resources from this episode: Rock Paper Scissors Tournament study:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.5199
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Are you struggling with creativity? Just make it someone else’s problem. Now, it doesn't mean you should just stop being creative and outsource your creative thinking to someone else.
But there's a great yet simple way to boost your creative output by imagining you're being creative for someone else's problem.
In other words, you're playing a trick on your mind. You're just imagining that instead of generating a creative idea for your problem, you’re pretending it's somebody else's problem. And voila! You end up with more creative ideas.
Now how is that even possible?
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Two research studies on why deciding for others increases creativity 2. A training exercise where you can apply this to Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) patterns 3. How this trick breaks fixedness 4. Real-life practical applications where you apply the solution to someone else first
Resources from this episode: Research: Decisions for Others Are More Creative Than Decisions for the Self by Evan Polman and Kyle J. Emich
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
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He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
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Cliches oftentimes do a good job of communicating what your point is. Other people understand them readily, but using the same old cliches can get boring. So how do you then create a message that’s more interesting?
In this episode, I'm going to teach you how to be more creative in the way you speak and write. Communication is an essential tool in our daily lives and how you speak or write has a huge impact in the workplace and at home. Look at any email today and there are so many ways you can misunderstand somebody's email.
It’s therefore critical you learn the skills so you can write better, talk better, and think better – in a more creative, systematic way!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Rearranging cliches to come up with a more interesting message based on Sam Horn’s LinkedIn article 2. Examples of cliches you can work on 3. How the SIT techniques can be integrated into creative speaking
Resources from this episode: Sam Horn’s article: Why to Avoid Cliches and Platitudes
List of Cliches
Adding Prestige to Your Portfolio
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
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There are lots of ways for you to learn about systematic creativity. In today’s episode, I’m sharing with you two amazing apps right at your fingertips. At least take a look at them and see what value you might get out of them. Think about how this can benefit your personal and professional life. Trust me, it’s going to improve so many things about how you see the world around you and how you take advantage of the wisdom of patterns.
Although these apps are very beneficial to educators and practitioners, it’s also for everyone who wants to get down deeper into the nuts and bolts of how the SIT method works. So dive in, learn, develop, and become a student of creativity.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Two apps to help you learn creativity 2. Learning attribute dependency technique 3. Other resources to help you learn
Resources from this episode: Alpe Audio – Creative Thinking Inside the Box:
https://www.alpeaudio.com/creative-thinking-inside-the-box
Omnivati:
https://app.omnivati.com/
LinkedIn Learning:
https://www.lynda.com/Drew-Boyd/1699749-1.html
SIT:
http://sitsite.com/
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
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If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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There's no excuse for not being creative. You have the ability to be creative any time you want. And all it takes is a simple trick that I'm going to explain to you right now.
Creativity is just combining two things that previously had nothing to do with each other and mashing them together. Look around and you see this act of creation all the time. Artists, for example, take two things that just didn't belong together and mash them together to produce creative art. Even humor or a joke is nothing more than mashing two unrelated things together in a way that makes you laugh.
Today, I’m going to show you how exactly you can apply this to your daily life – not just to become creative, but also in a way that you can put your creativity to good use.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is creativity? 2. Real-life application of combining things to become creative 3. Useful vs. non-useful creativity 4. SIT overview + two key questions to make sure it’s valuable 5. Pattern spotting 6. Example of the creative luxury process
Resources from this episode: Adding Prestige to Your Portfolio by Drew Boyd
The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler
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Do you have an idea for a great invention you think is going to improve people’s lives and perhaps change the world? You may have been sitting on that idea for quite some time now. What are you going to do about it then? How are you going to take it forward?
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Philips North America study 2. The motivation for people to invent something 3. What to do with your big idea 4. Finding your innovation sweet spot 5. Value of SIT
Resources from this episode: Article on the Philips North America Study:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140723005998
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it
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Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
.
Are you one of those people that a company would choose to call to get feedback about their products or services? Do you have the right characteristics? In business, we call it the voice of the customer. And that's the idea of going out into the market, talking to real customers, and finding out what they think about the products or services so you can improve them.
Well, it turns out, there are certain types of people who are better at this than others. Today, I'm going to share with you those characteristics. Try to see if you're one of those people, and if not, I’m going to share with you some ideas about how you might become more likely to become the voice of an emergent customer.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Donna Hoffman’s research on the emergent customer 2. List of emergent customer qualities 3. Learning SIT to grow your creativity
Resources from this episode: Episode 20: Where There’s Hope, There’s Creativity
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Today, I’m going to share with you some concepts and insights from my newly released book, Adding Prestige to Your Portfolio: How to Use the Creative Luxury Process to Develop Products Everyone Wants. It's a book that looks at how you use creativity structures to develop more luxury-like products. And it's a book that a company would use to take their existing products and upgrade them into a more prestigious or luxury-like category.
But not only can you add prestige to your product, you can also do the same thing to yourself as a person. Think of it as a checklist that you can use to upgrade who you are. What steps do you need to go through to transform yourself from where you are today into a person of prestige?
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What prestige means and how to add prestige to your portfolio 2. Becoming a masterful solution 3. Being the best of the best 4. Coming in a polished wrap 5. Elevated service based on the rule of reciprocity 6. Developing a distinct brand and building your fan base and alliances
Resources from this episode: Adding Prestige to Your Portfolio: How to Use the Creative Luxury Process to Develop Products Everyone Wants
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
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Want to be more creative – fast? Here’s a shortcut to becoming more creative: change the names of the things around you every day. Names have a way of being very efficient. We name things all the time. It helps us understand our world and it's how we communicate with others.
The truth is that the names we give certain items create this barrier to innovative thinking. And by changing the names of the things around you that your mind and your sensations are attached to, you’re now going to see things a lot more differently – leading to a more creative solution.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why a name is a barrier to creativity 2. The candle problem discovered by psychologist Karl Duncker 3. Overcoming functional fixedness 4. A fun experiment you can try every day!
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
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Creativity can be learned, and there are patterns you can use to generate creative ideas. If you’ve listened to our previous episodes, you’re pretty much familiar with the 5 patterns of systematic inventive thinking or SIT method by now. But how do you actually master those patterns long-term? In this episode, I'm teaching two techniques to help improve creative thinking long-term as well as some practical tips to make sure you’re on your way to mastery.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Scientific study on creativity 2. What is the voice of the product 3. How to develop your creative thinking through pattern spotting 4. Mental simulation & the 5 patterns of the SIT method 5. Practical tips
Resources from this episode: Inside the Box by Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg
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Think big. You’ve probably heard that a lot of times. But does this apply to creative thinking as well? As leaders, we need to be more aggressive, take more risks, and challenge ourselves to think bigger. We also do this with our teams, and it does work most of the time.
In this episode, I’m teaching you a quick way to boost your creative thinking and improve the quality and originality of your ideas. It’s called the creative power of thinking big.
Creativity is a skill that can be learned like any other skill. The secret, of course, is in patterns that mankind has used for thousands of years. Now, try to combine the creative power of thinking big and the techniques of the Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) method – and just imagine the powerful things you can do in your life!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Research from the University of Oklahoma 2. What this means in practice
Resources from this episode: The Effects of Forecasting on Creative Problem-Solving
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The next time you come up with a great idea, do me a favor – don't share it with anyone! If you want your ideas to have the best chance of getting accepted and implemented, then be careful how you share them.
People evaluate ideas differently. They evaluate ideas based on the person who offered the idea. If they like the person, they like the idea. And if they don't like the person, they don't like the idea.
In this episode, learn how you can share your ideas and strip them of their identity so your ideas are more likely to survive.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Experiment: Ideas seem more valuable when they are outside the system. 2. Research from the University of Chicago 3. How do you defeat this dynamic?
Resources from this episode: Dr. Tanya Menon’s research: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0525
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
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If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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Comedian Bill Murray's classic line, "You're awesome!" was sarcasm at its best.
Sarcasm is the idea of using irony in a way to mock somebody or to insult them. But while it can be insulting and hurtful to somebody, it also has an important positive aspect on peers.
Sarcasm can lead to higher levels of creativity.
So, the next time you get a sarcastic remark? Take that and turn it into a valuable exercise to generate new ideas.
Let me show you how to do that exactly!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The study on sarcasm and its benefits 2. How sarcasm leads to higher levels of creativity 3. An example of using a sarcastic comment as your starting point for the Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) method
Resources from this episode: Study on sarcasm increases creativity: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074959781500076X
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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Have you ever experienced working in a company where your colleagues tend to withhold information? And you know they’re not going to share it with you unless they know you’re going to be sharing information with them, too.
But did know you can be a more creative person by helping others become creative too? The key is to make the first move.
In this episode, let me share with you some things you can do to increase this sense of a collaborative environment when working with others and how to get others to share in that creative load.
Discover the Golden Rule of Creativity!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Innovation is a team sport 2. The Golden Rule of Creativity 3. The Rule of Reciprocity 4. Why reputation matters
Resources from this episode: How Reputation Affects Knowledge Sharing Among Colleagues: research conducted by Prescott Ensign and Louis Hébert
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272745489_How_reputation_affects_knowledge_sharing_among_colleagues
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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If you're wondering why you just can't be creative or you’re almost losing that sense of hope of being able to generate a creative idea one day, well, don’t lose hope – just yet.
You see, HOPE is a prerequisite of creativity.
Without hope, taking such a task as innovating becomes difficult, if not, impossible. After all, why bother if there is no hope for a successful future?
Hope is a powerful element in innovation at work because creativity requires challenging the status quo and the willingness to try and possibly fail.
Join me today as I discuss the value of hope as it relates to creative output.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- A 2009 study correlating hope and creativity
- What is hope and why it's important
- A practical story from J&J
- The modes of hoping (5 types of hope)
Resources from this episode:
Darren Webb’s research on Modes of Hoping: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0952695107079335
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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://drewboyd.com/podcast to download it.
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Have you found the secret sauce in your product or service?
Well, it turns out, there are characteristics of highly innovative products and services that tend to attract people’s attention more than others.
In this episode, I’m going to discuss the 5 characteristics of highly innovative products and which techniques of the SIT or Systematic Inventive Thinking method can be applied to move you towards that direction.
Creativity is a skill anybody can learn – and the secret is in patterns.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. The characteristics of highly innovative products and services 2. Examples of highly innovative products and services 3. Techniques of the Systematic Inventive Thinking method that applies to each characteristic
Resources from this episode: IIB 02: Task Unification - https://drewboyd.com/iib002/
IIB 03: Division - https://drewboyd.com/iib003/
IIB 10: Multiplication - https://drewboyd.com/iib010/
IIB 11: Subtraction - https://drewboyd.com/iib011/
IIB 19: Attribute Dependency - https://drewboyd.com/iib013/
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EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
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Have you reached that point in your life when your creative output is at its optimal level? But when do you know if and when you’ve reached that peak? And what do you do if you’ve reached past it? Do you think there’s still a way to maintain that level of creative output?
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. When creative peak occurs 2. The Golden Ratio 3. At what age do you reach your creative peak? 4. What happens during the two-thirds part of your life 5. What to do if you've reached your creative peak
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Not all ideas are equal. Ideas get resisted sometimes because either they're too complex – or they’re just plain boring they don’t make it to the center stage. Then there’s this thing called the sweet spot idea which is the most valuable of all ideas.
But what can you do with those non- sweet spot ideas? Well, they are still ideas and they still have value. So don't just throw them in the drawer. Don't ignore them. There are actually ways to recover those and pull them into that sweet spot. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Definition of "Sweet Spot" in creativity 2. The 3 kinds of ideas 3. What to do with non-sweet spot ideas 4. Applying techniques to the idea
Resources from this episode: Harvard Business Review: Finding Your Innovation Sweet Spot
https://hbr.org/2003/03/finding-your-innovation-sweet-spot
Ep013 - Attribute Dependency
https://drewboyd.com/iib013/
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Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
If you like creativity and innovation, there are a lot of great books out there that cover a wide range of topics. So how do you know which ones to get?
Unfortunately, 90% of the books out there just talk about the importance of creativity and not about the “how.” So be wary of books that over promise and under deliver. Choose books that give you the skills, tips, techniques, and stories that drive you to a better creative place.
Today, I’m giving you a list of my top 6 books on creativity and innovation. These are the classics that teach the how, not the why!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why I chose these books 2. Outline of these Top 6 creativity books 3. The criteria for choosing a great book on creativity
Resources from this episode:
Think!: Before It's Too Late by Edward de Bono
https://www.amazon.com/Think-Before-Its-Too-Late/dp/009192409X
Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation by James Utterback
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Dynamics-Innovation-James-Utterback/dp/0875847404
The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms by Margaret Boden
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Mind-Myths-Mechanisms/dp/0415314534
Creative Cognition: Theory, Research and Applications by Ronald Finke, Smith Steve, and Thomas Ward
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Cognition-Theory-Research-Applications/dp/0262560968
Creativity in Product Innovation by Jacob Goldenberg
https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Product-Innovation-Jacob-Goldenberg/dp/0521002494
The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler
https://www.amazon.com/Act-Creation-Arthur-Koestler/dp/1939438985
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Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Brainstorming = Innovation, correct?
A lot of people equate innovation with brainstorming. And that’s entirely false. In fact, brainstorming creates this one-sided view that biases people to think that there are certain creatives, and then there are people that are not creative.
But creativity is a skill that anybody can learn!
If anything, brainstorming can do more harm than good. Today, we dive deep into why you should probably put off brainstorming sessions to make way for the more creative ways of thinking.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Where the idea of brainstorming came from 2. The 4 rules of brainstorming 3. Does brainstorming work? 4. Why brainstorming is ubiquitous today 5. Why brainstorming doesn't work 6. The fallacy of brainstorming in terms of deferring judgment 7. Why brainstorming does a lot of damage 8. Things you can do if ever you’re pulled into a brainstorming session
Resources from this episode: Applied Imagination by Alex Osborne
https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Imagination-Alex-F-Osborn/dp/0023895209
Research paper: Flawed Tools by Gary Schirr
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264659753_Flawed_Tools_The_Efficacy_of_Group_Research_Methods_to_Generate_Customer_Ideas
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Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Can you teach your children to be more creative? Of course! In fact, the systematic inventive thinking or SIT method that I’ve been covering for the past weeks can be something your kids can learn too.
Today, I’m going to share with you 5 ways you can teach your kids to become more creative and innovative.
Innovation is not only for adults. And once your kids are able to develop these creativity skills, you’ll feel confident they’ll be more ready in life – because creative kids are empowered kids.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Function Follows Form: the value of thinking backward 2. The value of constraints 3. Task unification 4. The division technique 5. Stories of kids doing these creativity exercises
Resources from this episode: Innovation Girls
https://innovationgirls.com/
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Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
We live in a world of change. Just look around you, everything is changing. But today, I’m going to talk about another level of change that you probably don't recognize though you actually experience, virtually every day.
It's the underlying pattern for creativity technique called Attribute Dependency. This is the fifth technique of the Systematic Inventive Thinking or SIT method.
Many people would argue that this is the most powerful of the techniques. Well, they're all powerful, but this one definitely accounts for most of the innovations out there. And while it may be the most powerful, it's also the most difficult and the most abstract. So there are a few things you need to consider if you want to break fixedness though mastering this technique.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Definition of Attribute Dependency 2. How to use the Attribute Dependency technique 3. Benefits of Attribute Dependency 4. Distinguishing attributes vs. components 5. Examples of Attribute Dependency
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Chocolate chip cookies, penicillin, Velcro, the microwave oven, and the game of basketball – what do all of those have in common?
Well, they’re examples of products that have been derived completely by chance. They're called serendipitous products because they've been randomly invented with no underlying creativity structure at all.
They’re phenomenally popular and very useful. So, does this mean serendipity is a good way to invent products?
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Why serendipity is relevant 2. Should you rely on serendipity when inventing new products? 3. Examples of serendipitous products and how they got invented 4. Why the Post-It Note is not a great example of innovation 5. A better alternative to inventing products
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Imagine a package of powdered soup, a contact lens, a child's high chair, and an exercise bicycle.
What do you think these items have in common?
Each one actually has had something subtracted from them. And that’s what we’re going to discuss today.
Learn how the subtraction technique works in breaking cognitive fixedness. Using this very powerful tool, it forces you to take out an essential element from your product, service, or system and see new benefits you might not have seen before. It helps train you to use your brain in a different way and see new possibilities.
Remember, the SIT method is driven by this idea of our need to break cognitive fixedness, which is the mental bias of how we see things in the world which can make it difficult for us to imagine them in new configurations.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is the Subtraction Technique? 2. Feature Wars: The problem with adding features to your product 3. The benefits of subtraction 4. The common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when using this technique 5. The steps in a subtraction technique 6. Examples of products using subtraction
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
How does a company like Procter & Gamble take their air freshener product that’s lagging in the market and all of a sudden propel it to first place, adding 20 points of market share in just a matter of four months?
Procter & Gamble assembled a team of marketing and technical people, and they applied systematic inventive thinking, where they particularly used the SIT technique called Multiplication.
Learn how you, too, can use this technique in your organization!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is the Multiplication technique? 2. The multiplication steps 3. Uses of the multiplication technique in our world today 4. The dreaded tsetse fly story and the rubber feet story 5. The common pitfalls you need to avoid
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Grab a copy of my book, Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results: https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Box-Creativity-Breakthrough-Results/dp/1451659296
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Once you've embraced this idea that creativity can be systematic, and you've started to invest time and energy learning the Systematic Inventive Thinking or SIT – a very common question for you at this point is – how do you spread what you know to others?
How do you get your boss on board with this? Or how do you try this at your company?
How do you get the others to see its value, especially in terms of generating growth within the company?
In this episode, I talk about how to run an innovation pilot program.
Pilot programs are an effective and low-cost way to test new ideas. They help you gain insights around innovation techniques or methods and how those can be applied to different parts of the business. They shed light on what's going on in an organization and how they can help the organization see you as a valuable contributor.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is an innovation pilot program? 2. How to run an innovation pilot program 3. When’s the best time to strike the idea of a pilot program? 4. Why you need to get support from your colleagues and other departments 5. Two things to think about after your program has been approved 6. What to do once the pilot program is done
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode 006: Innovation Dream Teams: The Secret Formula to Drive Team Success
https://drewboyd.com/iib006
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Every day, you face at least one situation where a creative idea would come in handy. But there are just times when you feel like nothing comes out of you.
So what diminishes your creative spark?
It’s actually not because you don't want to be creative, or you don't need to be.
What blocks creativity is this condition called fixedness.
Fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits our ability to see the world around us differently than what we're used to.
Today, let’s take a deep dive into how you can break your fixedness so you can start adding some creativity into your business, your systems and processes, and everyday life.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is fixedness 2. Why it's good 3. The Dunker Candle Experiment 4. The barriers to creative output: 3 types of fixedness 5. The 5 SIT techniques to break fixedness
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Does the SIT method work with services as well?
This is actually the most common single question that I get about innovation and the SIT method.
And the quick answer is, YES!
The Systematic Inventive Thinking or SIT method is not only applicable to products, it’s also highly valuable in process innovation.
Let's explore how we could apply the SIT method to a service.
The point is to look for opportunities so that we see the structure or function of the process in a different way than we're used to.
They’re all designed to eventually help us break fixedness, which is that cognitive bias that makes it very difficult for us to imagine configurations other than what we know.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. How to apply the SIT method to a service 2. Why process innovation is important 3. The difference between a product and a service 4. The benefits of applying the SIT method to a service or process 5. The Division Technique 6. The Task Unification Technique 7. Some examples of SIT method applied to services
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Does your organization struggle with generating better ideas? Unfortunately, the traditional brainstorming approach doesn't work.
Innovation is a team sport. You're going to get better and richer innovation when colleagues and other support people around you are involved in generating novel ideas.
But what types of people should make up your winning team?
In today’s episode, learn how to create innovation dream teams in a systematic way. So that whenever you want to generate ideas, you already know the basic elements needed in pulling together a special combination of talents in the room – and that’s where the magic happens!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Steps in creating your ideal innovation team 2. Roles in an innovation dream team 3. The different types of diversity to consider 4. Breaking down functional diversity into 3 parts 5. Why gender diversity is important 6. Why you need to break bigger groups into smaller ones
Resources from this episode: Group Genius by Keith Sawyer
https://www.amazon.com/Group-Genius-Creative-Power-Collaboration/dp/0465096638
Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
With innovation comes resistance. They define each other. An idea can’t be innovative unless it’s met with resistance, so we should see it as a good thing.
Instead of giving up when we meet resistance, we should figure out how to approach it so that we can then overcome it. This includes knowing what to expect depending on the characteristics of our ideas, the resistors, and ourselves as the innovators. These characteristics will lend themselves to either an increase or a decrease in resistance.
That is what today’s episode is all about. I talk about how to know what kind of resistance to expect and what to do about it.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What not to do when trying to overcome resistance. 2. The 3 sources of resistance. 3. 11 factors in the idea itself that could cause resistance. 4. An example of an innovative idea, what kind of resistance that idea would likely meet, and how the company could overcome it. 5. The characteristics that make people more or less likely to reject an idea. 6. The characteristic of the person pitching the idea that determines how much resistance it will meet.
Resources from this episode: Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Have you ever experienced coming out of brainstorming sessions getting all frustrated because you and your colleagues are always coming up with those same old, crappy ideas?
Good thing I’ve found a great way to generate new ideas and become more creative through the SIT method, which stands for Systematic Inventive Thinking.
Think about how you can be more successful in what you do every day just by being able to generate high-quality ideas in a systematic way – at any time. It's definitely a great way to boost your value, especially within your organization.
Today, I’m going to talk about the Closed World Principle of Creativity, which is one of the most important principles of the SIT method.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is the Closed World Principle? 2. Why it’s one of the most important principles of the SIT method 3. How does applying the closed world principle boost creativity? 4. The inverse relationship between the proximity of the problem to the solution and the level of creativity 5. Imagining an imaginary boundary 6. How you can change the definition of your closed world 7. How you can apply this principle to your business and everyday life
Resources from this episode: Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results
https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Box-Creativity-Breakthrough-Results/dp/1451659296
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to develop our creativity. A common misconception is that creativity is a gift you are born with. In reality, it’s a skill that anyone can learn. All you have to do is adopt a pattern or method for doing so.
Most innovation in the world can be explained by five patterns. If you could just master one or two of them, you’d be well on your way to generating high-quality ideas. In this episode, we discuss one of those five patterns: the division technique.
Mastering the division technique will allow you to break out of fixedness and become more creative. If you’ve been told all your life that you aren't creative, listen in to discover how you actually can develop that skill.
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. A definition and explanation of the division technique. 2. The steps of division. 3. The various types of division. 4. The questions you must ask yourself as you perform the division technique. 5. Examples of each of the three types of division. 6. How to use the division technique in a process or service. 7. Pitfalls you may encounter when using the division technique.
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Mankind has used patterns for thousands of years to solve everyday problems. Those patterns are now embedded into the products and services you see around you every day. These patterns are like the DNA of a product or service.
Now, imagine if you had a way to extract that DNA and reapply it to any product, process, or service. These patterns form the basis of a method called Systematic Inventive Thinking or SIT for short.
One of the five pattern-based techniques of the SIT method is called Task Unification.
In this podcast, learn how you can apply the task unification in the everyday things you do, whether it be at work or at home or some other part of your life. Learn how to generate ideas in a systematic way and increase your creative output no matter where you're starting from on the creativity scale.
Task unification is everywhere so get used to seeing it out there!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. What is Task Unification? 2. Steps in using the task unification technique 3. The benefits of using task unification 4. How you can apply task unification technique in everyday life 5. Internal components vs. external components 6. Examples of existing task unified components 7. Some common pitfalls to avoid when using this technique
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Innovation is a skill – it’s not a gift. It's not something you're born with. You can actually learn to be creative like you could learn any other skill whether it be in business or in your personal life or some other skill that you want to learn like a new sport.
Innovation Inside the Box is a podcast dedicated to creating a culture of innovation and a flowing pipeline. Each week, we feature structured creativity and innovation strategies for leaders who want to think differently and who want to be more innovative, implement change, and grow.
This podcast is about the idea that creativity can be systematic.
With each episode, you will learn how to generate ideas using a method called Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), which you can apply individually or with other people. You're going to learn how to break fixedness and discover great ideas that will help you generate even greater ideas.
If you’ve struggled many times to come up with great ideas, this gives you a way to actually generate high quality, innovative ideas on demand – anytime you want.
Innovation Inside the Box starts now!
In this episode you’ll hear: 1. Reasons you want to improve your creative skills 2. What is creativity? 3. The 3 criteria for creative thought 4. How does the brain produce these creative ideas? 5. What holds people back from being creative? 6. Constraints are not a barrier to creativity, fixedness is! 7. The 3 types of fixedness
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Drew Boyd is a global leader in creativity and innovation, international public speaker, award-winning author and innovation blogger, and university professor who has worked with clients such as GE Aviation, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Stryker, Danaher, Kaiser Permanente, Eli Lilly, Underwriters Lab, Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati Bell, and Toyota. He teaches teams, businesses and governments how to solve tough problems to create a culture of innovation and a flowing pipeline. Drew reframes the innovation process in a way that makes people more—not less—creative.
Innovation Inside the Box features structured creativity and innovation strategies for leaders who want to think differently, be more innovative, implement change and, grow. The conversations you'll hear will help you apply innovation methods to services and processes, overcome resistance to ideas, and create a culture of innovation.