Friday, February 29, 2008

"Inspiring Innovation"

The library nearest my house has a magazine swap pile. Bring your old magazines, if you want to. Take anything you like, whether you've brought any or not. What a treasure! I love digging through that pile, and I find some delightful items.

Most recent great discovery: a 2002 Harvard Business Review full of lots of good advice for artists.

It was written for business people to help make their companies more creative. That fits us very well, I think.

The issue pulls together short articles by some business innovators. The titles alone create a nice little creativity coda:

Make It The Norm--from a fellow at Procter & Gamble, who says creativity is "the everyday task of making nonobvious connections"

Put Aside Ego--try looking through someone else's eyes

Mix People Up--for the solo artists, we're the people in question, who need to try doing things differently

Don't Fear Failure--it's a necessary and useful part of the process

Abandon the Crowd--do your own thing

Fight Negativity--it takes strong conviction to stay on your own road

Ask "What If?"

Merge Patience and Passion

Experiment Like Crazy

Don't Innovate, Solve Problems.


The list is from a six year-old copy of a magazine, but the ideas are still pretty good.






If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.