The Deliberate Creative

Space matters. In this episode, Architect Donald Rattner shares the research on how to design your space to enhance your creativity. Donald shares several simple changes you can make. Then, he examines Amy's office and provides advice on how she can make her space more conducive to creativity. Then, Amy implements those changes and reveals the new office layout.

What You'll Learn

• The three A's of designing a creative space
• How our brain's perception of our space impacts our creativity
• What prospect refuge theory is and how to use it to your advantage
• Learn about the new "resimercial" design craze for workplaces

About Donald Rattner Donald M. Rattner is the author of "My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation" and principal of Donald M. Rattner, Architect. As a consultant he draws on scientific research to help individuals and organizations maximize occupant creativity in workplace, residential, wellness, hospitality and retail environments. Educator and author as well as practitioner, Rattner's publications include "The Creativity Catalog," "Parallel of the Classical Orders of Architecture," entries in professional reference books, and numerous contributions to print and online channels. He has taught at the University of Illinois, New York Academy of Art, New York University, Parsons School of Design, and online. Workshop and lecture venues include NeoCon, Metrocon, Creative Problem Solving Institute, Creative Mornings, and many others. His work has been featured on CNN and in such publications as The New York Times, Work Design Magazine, Builder, L-Magazine, and Better Humans. He holds a Bachelor's degree in art history from Columbia and a Masters of Architecture from Princeton University. Weekly Challenge

Assess your space. Keep a log of when/where you are doing your best work and when/where are you doing your least successful work. Then, what changes might you make to help you be more creative?

Resources

• Donald Rattner's Website
• Donald Rattner's Book: Your Creative Space
• Focus At Will
• Coffitivity

Deliberate creativity encourages gaining clarity about the problem at the beginning of the innovation process. However, that's not how we always work. It's common to create something new while maintaining ambiguity around the purpose of the solution. Dr. Johnathan Cromwell found this in his research while studying a start-up company that was creating a social robot. After observing hundreds of hours of team meetings he noticed a process he calls emergent innovation. In this episode, he explains his research and helps us understand how emergent innovation works.

What You'll Learn

• The difference between emergent innovation and deliberate innovation
• Elements of emergent innovation
• How to get comfortable with ambiguity

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About Dr. Johnathan Cromwell

Johnathan Cromwell is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Strategy at the University of San Francisco. His research focuses on creativity and innovation in organizations, particularly how people collaborate with each other as they tackle vague, open-ended, and ambiguous problems. Through this research, he aims to develop a new theoretical framework called "dynamic problem solving" that explains why, when, and how people change the way they approach problems as they deal with various constraints during the innovation process. This work has been recognized by the Academy of Management with the 2018 OB Division Best Paper Award. He earned an S.B. in Chemical-Biological Engineering from MIT and a Doctorate in Management from Harvard Business School.

Weekly Challenge

John challenges us to try improv cooking as a way to explore emergent innovation. Use the ingredients in your kitchen and come up with a dish. Use those ingredients to shape your dish and see what emerges.

A polymath is a modern-day Renaissance person. They have expertise in a range of fields and their diverse experiences help them be more creative. Dr. Angela Cotellessa was the first person to do a dissertation on modern-day polymaths. In this episode, she shares with us what she learned about polymaths and how it relates to being more creative.

What You'll Learn

• What is polymathy and why does it matter?
• What are the themes of modern-day polymaths
• What we can learn from polymaths to help us be more creative.

About Dr. Angela Cotellessa

Dr. Angela Cotellessa is dedicated to helping individuals reach towards their fullest potential.

Her doctorate from George Washington University is in Human & Organizational Learning. The focus of her doctoral research and dissertation was on modern day polymaths: people with broad, varied expertise in both the arts and sciences.

Since 2007, Angela has worked for the American federal government. From 2007 to 2013, she was a non-political, civil servant at the Executive Office of the President. Since 2013, she has worked at the Center for Leadership Development, helping make the federal government more effective, one leader at a time.

Angela lives near Washington, DC with her husband, Joe, and her daughter, Lily. For fun, Angela enjoys traveling internationally, music, and learning.

Weekly Challenge

Angela gives us two challenges this week.

1. Try something new. It doesn't even have to be outside of your comfort zone. Just something new. Reflect on it. What did you learn?
2. Think about an issue or challenge you have. Is there another area of your life that you could apply to solving this problem?

Wow! It's episode 100! In this episode, Amy Climer interviews four long-time listeners who share what they learned from The Deliberate Creative Podcast. They talk about their own insights and changes they made in their lives based on listening to the show. Prepare to be inspired!

What You'll Learn

• How four listeners have applied the learnings from the podcast to their work and life
• Insights into Amy's recent creative block
• News about the future of The Deliberate Creative Podcast

Resources

• Episodes about Creative Problem Solving: 003, 004, 005, 006, 007
• Episode 8: FourSight Thinking Profile with Blair Miller
• Episode 20: How Your Mindset Explains Everything
• Episode 21: Identify Your Creative Blocks
• Episode 26: Is the Imposter Syndrome Decreasing Your Creativity?
• Episode 64: Five Steps for Presenting Ideas with Jack Hannibal
• Episode 70: How to Ask Questions with Chad Littlefield
• Episode 91: The Skills You Need To Be a Design Thinker with Dr. Dani Chesson
• Book: The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield

Human-centered Design requires learning people's real needs. It means moving past assumptions and engaging with people to better understand their experiences. Some of the most powerful tools in the Human-centered Design process are ethnographic interviews and other types of ethnographic research. This episode explains what these tools are and how to use them to help you gain a deeper understanding of their real needs. The results will be increased creativity and innovation.

What You'll Learn

• What ethnographic research means in the context of design and creativity
• 4 types of ethnographic tools that are helpful for solving problems creatively
• Tips and advice for conducting ethnographic research such as interviews, walk-a-mile, contextual inquiry, and observation.

Resources

• IDEO.org
• Suri, J.F. & Howard, S.G. (2006).Going Deeper, Seeing Further: Enhancing Ethnographic Interpretations to Reveal More Meaningful Opportunities for Design. Journal of Advertising Research.
• IDEO's Design Kit Course

Weekly Challenge

Practice doing at least one ethnographic interview this week.

Human-centered Design is about looking at people's real problems and creating solutions that meet their needs. In this episode, learn the definition and basic steps of human-centered design and how it can help you solve problems more creatively.

What You'll Learn

• The definition of human-centered design
• Why human-centered design matters and how you can use it in your work/life
• The six-step human-centered design process

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Resources

• The Lab, Office of Personnel Management
• Fundamentals of Human-centered Design for federal employees
• Creative Problem Solving Institute
• IDEO.org and IDEO.com

Weekly Challenge

Think about a problem you are trying to solve. Who are the stakeholders involved? Who do you need to talk with to gain a deeper understanding of the actual problem.

Transcript

Feel like reading instead of listening? The transcript will be available in a few days. Thanks!

Note: The links on this page may be affiliate links. That means I get a small commission of your sale, at no cost to you. However, I only share links to products that I or my guests believe in. Enjoy them!

Intrapreneurs are problem solvers who are being recognized as the driving force behind innovation in organizations. Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw is leading the charge in this new way of working. In this episode, she shares how to be an intrapreneur and how to create a culture that fosters creativity and intrapreneurialism.

What You'll Learn

• What intrapreneurs do and why it matters
• Three practices to foster intrapreneurialism
• Barriers that prevent intrapreneurialism
• An example of a large organization who implemented intrapreneurialism and reclaimed over $1 million in lack of productivity.

About Irena Yashin-Shaw, Ph.D. CSP

Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw, is a liberator of underutilized talent within organizations. She is an innovation and creativity expert, thought leader and practitioner dedicated to creating intrapreneurs – people who think and act like entrepreneurs while working inside organizations. She works with leaders in both the public and private sector who want a critical mass of high-performing, dedicated, energized employees who will help create a future-ready organization.

With a PhD in creative problem-solving and a Masters in Adult Education, Dr. Irena is a rare combination of deep academic knowledge, real-world entrepreneurial experience and entertaining speakership who has been working in the fields of innovation and creativity since before they became the new workplace imperatives. In addition to her work as a corporate educator, advisor and mentor, she is an international conference speaker who has taken 'edutainment' to an art form. As a Certified Speaking Professional she loves to challenge smart, savvy and sophisticated people who want insight rather than information and an experience rather than a presentation.

Irena lives in Brisbane, Australia, but considers herself a global citizen, with a commitment to being part of the solution for the big challenges that define our age.

Charles Day is an accidental consultant. After building a successful, creative film editing company others started asking for his input on developing their company to be more creative. In this episode, he shares his insights and what he's learned about organizational creativity. What You'll Learn

• common practices of the most creative businesses
• Three elements leaders need to do a lead a creative organization
• Four weapons every leader needs - and they don't cost anything

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About Charles Day

In addition to running The Lookinglass, Charles is a Principal of the Boswell Group which provides psychodynamic management consulting to CEOs, corporate directors, and senior leaders. He is also an Adjunct Professor at New York's Columbia University, where he has taught the art and science of building companies that unlock 'Profitable Creativity', and he coaches at The Harvard Business School in their Executive Education Program. Charles writes frequently for Fast Company and speaks regularly on Creative Leadership.

Resources

• Climer Consulting Resources Page
• Episode #100 - Want to be a guest?
• Charles Day's website
• Episode #69 with Greg Climer
• Fast Company article: How To Achieve Profitable Creativity, The Secret Fuel Of Exceptional Companies by Charles Day
• Leave a review on iTunes

Weekly Challenge

See if you can identify everyday creativity within yourself and others. Acknowledge the creativity and focus on giving creative feedback.

Transcript

Feel like reading instead of listening? The transcript will be available in a few days.

Note: The links on this page may be affiliate links. That means I get a small commission of your sale, at no cost to you. However, I only share links to products that I or my guests believe in. Enjoy them!

Conversations are the heart of what we do. The type of conversations we have impact all aspects of our business and personal life. Creative organizations have conversations that lead to creativity. In this episode, Dr. Cheri Torres shares how to engage in conversations that matter and how to help your organization be more creative. It is surprisingly simple and you can start implementing change immediately.

What You'll Learn

• Four types of conversations and which ones to avoid
• The two simple Appreciative Inquiry practices
• The impact of conversations that matter and how one hospital went from low patient satisfaction scores to amazing within one quarter

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About Cheri Torres, Ph.D.

Working with Cheri, people learn to use everyday conversation to dramatically improve outcomes for their organization and relationships. Leaders and team members develop their capacity to use Appreciative Inquiry to foster productive and meaningful engagement, even when facing complex problems. The success her clients experience is not magic. Her approach is grounded in the most current research in positive psychology and neurophysiology. Leaders working with her learn to create the kind of relational dynamics that ignite the full potential of their teams and organization, resulting in high performance, innovation, and goal achievement. Culture change and strategic planning become opportunities for engaging all stakeholders in conversations that create change from the inside out.

She has worked across all sectors: corporate, government, education, and social profit/NGOs, supporting their capacity for learning and innovation, shared leadership, teamwork and collective impact. She has trained thousands of trainers and teachers in the use and practice of Experiential Learning, Appreciative Inquiry, and other strength-based processes. In addition to North America, she has worked in India, Mexico, Canada, South America, and Europe.

Cheri holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Collaborative Learning from the University of Tennessee. She also holds an MBA, a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology, Level 2 certification in Cultural Transformation Tools/Barrett Values Centre, and Level II certification in Spiral Dynamics Integral. She has authored numerous books and articles. Her most recent book, Conversations Worth Having: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Fuel Productive and Meaningful Engagement, was published by Berrett Koehler in May 2018.. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, Michael; their two dogs, Logan and Annabelle; and two cats, Ziggy and Lucy.

Resources

• Book: Conversations Worth Having
• Cheri's website
• Karl Rohnke Creativity Award
• Leave a review on iTunes

Weekly Challenge

Pay attention to the conversations you have this week. When you find yourself in a negative conversation, ask a generative question. See what happens and how it flips the conversation into something with a more positive, hopeful, and productive spin.

Note: The links on this page may be affiliate links. That means I get a small commission of your sale, at no cost to you. However, I only share links to products that I or my guests believe in. Enjoy them!

Understanding the four levels of creativity can help you assess yourself and your colleagues. In this episode, Daniel Cape explains the four levels and talks about experiential education and creativity.

What You'll Learn

• The four levels of creativity and examples of each
• The level we judge ourselves on and how that can inhibit our creativity

About Daniel Cape

Daniel Cape is a doctoral student at Saybrook University earning his degree in psychology with a focus on creativity studies. He has over 15 years of experience in the field of experiential education. Daniel's previous work included U.S. and international camp experiences, a project-based learning school, young-adult transition programs, and serving in the Army National Guard as a combat engineer officer. He started the non-profit EPIC Smiles where he teaches caricatures to children around the world. He is author of the book From Experience to Creativity: The experiential educator's incomplete guide to creativity and created EPIC Cards which teach and promote creativity.

Resources

• Daniel Cape's website
• Daniel's book: From Experience to Creativity
• Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Leave a review on iTunes

Weekly Challenge

See if you can identify everyday creativity within yourself and others. Acknowledge the creativity and focus on giving creative feedback.