Idea Creativity
March 12, 2009 by Holst Group · Leave a Comment
Edward de Bono’s Message
I was in Prague on January 7th for the launch of the European Year of Creativity, 2009. The Czech Republic has the presidency of the EU for the first half of 2009.
As usual one of the big problems facing creativity is the inability of language to distinguish between artistic creativity and idea creativity. Read more
Innovation – Too Risky?
March 12, 2009 by iainchalmers · Leave a Comment
There has never been a time when innovation has been more important. It might be about finding new ways to cut costs or new product opportunities or generating a competitive edge.
Doing something new inevitably involves risk. The problem is that in difficult times people actually want to feel secure. The sales of food in the current environment indicate that people are going back to the brands that they know and trust. Read more
How creative are you?
February 27, 2009 by iainchalmers · Leave a Comment
Apparently, I am 54% creative. By answering 10 questions on this quiz it worked out that:
“You are a quite creative person. You’re always involved in at least on interesting project. Keep it up and keep learning. Your creativity may bring you great things someday.”
These types of quiz’s are a bit of fun but like most of the writing about creativity it misses the point. I could be ‘99% creative’ or ‘10% creative’ – it doesn’t matter, it is irrelevant and I’d be very suprised if this quiz has been validated. Read more
NO VAT!
January 28, 2009 by Russell · Leave a Comment
It’s amazing sometimes what’s out there and you just don’t know it. For example, many organisations in this climate are struggling with cash flow. Here’s a tip of which you are very possibly unaware. You can postpone paying your VAT, Personal Tax etc. We receive an excellent Newsletter from a partner of ours, Kirkpatrick and Hopes, and in it was this gem which could help many businesses with their cash flow. If you would like to know more then click here Read more
Creativity and the Risk Factor
January 16, 2009 by Holst Group · 2 Comments
Edward de Bono’s Message
Too often people think of creativity as being concerned with new products, new services and new markets. All of these imply a risk factor. So in difficult times people tend to reduce their creative efforts.
Updating The Six Thinking Hats®
December 9, 2008 by Russell · Leave a Comment
Training has moved very much from “training by the manual” to “learning by doing”. This is illustrated by The Innovator’s Toolkit which uses the de Bono tools to work an issue or opportunity right through from definition of the focus to getting an idea ready for implementation.
How to Increase Creativity across a Traditional Thinking Organisation
December 1, 2008 by iainchalmers · 1 Comment
Often organisations don’t understand what innovation is. Things like process improvements, cost cutting and change management do not seem very ‘innovative’ but actually are the changes that lead to innovation.
Simplifying a process can be as innovative as creating a whole new one so moving a traditional thinking organisation to an innovative thinking organisation is not as hard as it seems.
The Creativity Cull
The word “cull” is possibly a bit extreme; it conjures up thoughts of killing and death. So often ideas are killed off before they even have time to take their first breath. We are excellent at telling anyone who comes up with an idea what is wrong with it, but we rarely stop to think what the benefits and values of the idea might be. This can be overcome using the Six Thinking Hats®, which encourages parallel thinking and ensures that all ideas can get a “fair hearing”.
Curl Up And Dye!!
October 28, 2008 by Stuart · Leave a Comment
Hey, what a really creative name for a hairdressers! There are many hairdressing salons with “clever” names but this has to be one of the best I have ever come across. How do people come up with such good creative ideas?
Where do you get your best ideas? In the bath? The shower? Out walking? Sat in the hairdressers?
How about at work? Very rarely do we get really good ideas when we are at work, which is a real concern if we want to find ways to improve our business.
Back to school and innovation
September 29, 2008 by Stuart · Leave a Comment
With the holidays and the one day of summer behind us it is back to school, back to work and back to innovation. The need to get back to work is well understood but we also need to go back to school to learn new skills and keep up to date. Technology and markets are changing so fast that we have to keep learning about what is new and how to use it. It is clear that in today’s taxing economic environment deploying new skills and working hard are essential – but unfortunately they are not enough.
