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Creativity, Visions & Success

posted this in Change & Innovation, Leadership, Organizations, Planning on October 5th, 2011

An interesting study by MDC Partners & Allison & Partners called the C-Factors Report points to creativity, collaboration and culture to re-engerize today’s global economy. They surveyed leading CEOs & CMOs who view creativity as a criticial driver of the global economy.   Great stats & insights:

* 73 % of respondents think we’ve entered the “imagination” economy, with 98 percent affirming that creativity is critical to economic success today

* 76% state that creativity has a significant impact on driving business forward

* over half (57%) strive to develop a strong creative culture within their organizations; & 80% believe creativity must be generated and fostered by industry leaders in order for new and innovative thinking to survive

* 73% of senior executives will place an increasing emphasis on creatively inspired communications in the coming years

“Creating a vision, and building a defined culture around that vision, was a strong theme. Thought leaders from start-ups such as Inkling, to legacy companies such as IBM, all cited the need for deep discipline and a firm self-audit process to unleash the broadest creative efforts possible within a corporation.”

I’ts exhilarating for Rebecca and I when we work with clients to create visions that are so exciting and forward thinking that organization leaders can build strong support for their strategies to guide them towards that positive future.  I love the “imagination” economy mentioned in this study and the fact that leaders realize innovative thinking and creative cultures are so important today.  Goes back to my favorite Walt Disney

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October 5th, 2011 | Tags: | Category: Change & Innovation, Leadership, Organizations, Planning | Leave a comment

Getting Your Idea Off the Ground

posted this in Change & Innovation on August 18th, 2010

Jane has this fantastic ability to connect ideas from disparate areas into new ideas.  I didn’t know there was a name for this ability until just now when I read BNET‘s posting about Dave Stewart’s new book.  Jane – you are a polymath – meaning that you are knowledgeable about different things, and curious able to see unlikely linkages.  Yep, that’s Jane.

And, it’s Dave Stewart too.  His book “Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide” (there’s a free chapter by the way) advises that those with the idea shouldn’t be expected to implement the idea; their strength is in the idea, and in helping to nurture the idea so that those with the ability to implement can help the idea come to life.  As Stewart says, he’d rather see 10% of an idea become reality than 100% of the idea not realized.

Yet that’s so difficult for so many people.  It is “their” idea, and the ownership of that idea is important for them — rightly so.  Too often the idea-generator isn’t comfortable handing over the fledging idea for refinement and implementation to others; it’s their “baby”  and they want to be a part of its growth and maturing, and they want credit for the idea. How often have we seen those implementing a new concept taking credit for the concept or idea? So why wouldn’t the idea-generator want to continue to lead the implementation? Well……unfortunately, people who are strong idea-generators aren’t always strong implementers.  The result

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August 18th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Change & Innovation | 3 comments