The top 10 reasons why your CEO sabotages innovation.

This via my friend Alan Black.
A previous blog of mine featured the IBM CEO report that stated creativity is the number one trait wanted in CEO's but is there a gap between the desired and the actual.
http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2009/06/post_52.shtml
What do you think?

Stories synchronize brains

http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/stories-synchronize-brains.htm?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=neuromarketing

I am sure the ability to use stories to engage readers and listeners has application beyond marketing. What is your experience in using stories?

Creative Warfare

This puts a whole new dimension on the war games we used to play as kids!!

Cardboard Warfare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-ZmwATS8E&feature=related

The making of cardboard warfare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSCAfSJGMV8

What is creativity?

A discussion about Creativity with author Ashley Merryman, musicologist Aaron Berkowitz of Harvard University and Bruce Alberts

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11125

Vik Muniz on Creativity

Vik Muniz makes art from pretty much anything, be it shredded paper, wire, clouds or diamonds. Here he describes the thinking behind his work and takes us on a tour of his incredible images.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/vik_muniz_makes_art_with_wire_sugar.html

Ken Robinson on Creativity

For the first in a new series of community-driven Q&As, TED and Reddit joined forces to ask creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson any question. TED fans converged on this article on Reddit to post their questions, and to vote on questions posed by others. Sir Ken was asked the the 10 questions with the most votes. Here is the link to his answers:
http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/ted_and_reddit_1.php

The Creativity Crisis

For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong—and how we can fix it. This from Newsweek.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

Nurturing Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

The Tinkering School

Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build all sorts of unique constructions.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

The Element and Whole Brain Thinking

This from my friend and colleague, Ken Wall. http://www.wholebrainthinking.com.au/

I've just finished reading for the second time a really outstanding book by Sir Ken Robinson, The Element.

Sir Ken is probably most well known for his TED lecture in 2006 on how schools and our education systems are killing creativity in our children. His argument in this great talk (www.ted.com) was that the education system mainly recognises and rewards traditional left-brain thinkers. He doesn't suggest - and neither do we - that the traditional and basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic coupled with science are not important. Ken Robinson is suggesting, and we agree, that there is a lot more to being good at school - and in life - than being good at the basic left-brain subjects.

But what happens to right-brain thinkers? How do they get on in the left-brain education system?

The Element explains, through many examples and personal stories, how every one of us can find ourselves in our own personal Element, and achieve everything we are capable of and enjoy our lives to the fullest. One of the key principles of the Element is that we need to challenge what we take for granted. This is particularly important given the rate of change we now face and even more so as we go into the future. Children starting school today will leave school in 2022. What are we going to teach them to prepare for the day they leave school in 12 years time? Rather than focus on what is happening outside, Ken Robinson suggests that we might be better off if we focus on ourselves, what we are good at and what we would really like to do - our Element. The book takes this discussion a stage further and shows how each one of us has a point - the Element - at which our natural talent meets our personal passion. This idea has a very strong connection with our personal preferences and skills as measured by the Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI).

The NBI can give us a clear indication of our thinking preferences (personal passion?) and our personal skills (natural talent?). These two NBI profiles can therefore add considerably to the personal insights required for people to discover their personal Element, and to make more informed decisions about their future, or the future expectations of their nearest and dearest. It can also explain why you love - or hate - your current job, subject choices or career path. So don't leave it too late!

A good starting point would be to complete two NBI profiles - Personal Skills and Thinking Preferences.

Recycling Architecture

http://weburbanist.com/2010/07/04/lifes-a-gas-viennas-recycled-repurposed-gasometers/

More musical creativity from Diego Stocco

"A few weeks ago I visited a luthier looking for instruments parts, I had an idea in mind for an instrument I wanted to build. My curiosity was to hear the sound of violin, viola and cello strings amplified through the body of a double bass. I came up with a quadruple-neck experimental "something" that I thought to call Experibass."
http://vimeo.com/6739680

Musical Creativity

Take one broken cabinet handle, one chimney cap, some castoff guitar pickups, a broken bass neck, several piano keys and various other bits and pieces. Give them to Diego Stocco and you have the Bassoforte.
http://vimeo.com/12658207