The Innovise Guys

The Innovise Guys Interview innovation expert Blair Miller (of Blair Miller & Associates). As usual it's a combination of solid creative thinking and innovation content with a dash of fun from Fraley and Stevenson. Miller shares insights on creative environment, assessment, leadership, and more in this informal interview with a leading innovation practitioner.

In the second half of the live podcast Doug, Gregg, Megon, and Jill have a wide ranging discussion on many aspects of creativity -- and the fun continues as well. Megon does several hilarious musical impressions, including a terriffic version of Patsy Cline's "Crazy," and snippets of Doris Day, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and Edith Piaf. The serious topics include: getting into action, the value of audacity, the virtue of persistence, and overcoming procrastination and the fear factors in problem solving. The show ends with an inspirational song about Dreams by Megon. The Innovise Guys are appreciative of their guests -- thank you to Megon McDonough and Jill Badonsky.

The Innovise Guys host a lively live podcast at the North Michigan Avenue Apple Store in Chicago. Guests Megon McDonough, a singer/songwriter, and Jill Badonsky, author of "The Nine Modern Day Creative Muses...and a Bodyguard" join Gregg Fraley and Doug Stevenson in an explosive two part show. In Part One, Gregg and Doug improv on "My Kind of Town", Megon McDongough sings an inspirational song about finding one's creative soul, and Jill Badonsky does some cool and spiritual beatnikesque poetry. The discussion gets serious when the crew talks about how to find your creativity and how spirituality connects with...business results! Megon shares some hilarious stories about illegal driving at the age of 15, and Jill explores how your use of language can have you thinking differently and more creatively, all the time. This and much more in Part One, enjoy.

Dan Greenberger is the Chief Innovation Officer of Greenhouse, an innovative advertising company in Chicago. He talks with the Innovise guys about the value of creative problem solving training in his agency and also about the value of understanding creative style. This is a real world interview with a working creative professional who doesn't stand pat but instead increases his creativity and the creativity of his people to provide better value for his customers. As usual The Innovise Guys have some fun riffing on Thelonius Monk, zen jokes, and more.

In part two of the interview with Stephen M. Shapiro, author of "Goal Free Living," Doug and Gregg riff on Shaprio's 8 secrets. The energy is high and the content is dense and fascinating. All lightened by humorous Shapiro anecdotes and improvised sidetrips to connect the 8 secrets to creativity and innovation. This might be the funniest -- and most relevant -- interview the Innovise Guys have done to date.

Author of "Goal Free Living" -- Stephen M. Shapiro is interviewed on this edition of The Innovise Guys. In part one of this two part podcast, Stephen talks about how he intended to write a book about creativity --but took a left turn into something much different and more powerful on a nationwide interviewing tour. The guys have fun singing snatches of "Goal Free" -- a parody of the old chesnut "Born Free". Some typical Innovise Guys improvisational tangents and funny stories with profound points from Stephen punctuate this lively interview.

The Innovise Guys talk with Jean Bystedt, one of the authors of "Moderating to the Max" a seminal book on the field of Qualitative Research. Jean and the guys explore the relationship of qualitative research to innovation, and debunk some common myths. Jean does some actual research techniques and advises small business people on ways to do better research on the cheap. As usual the guys have some fun and Jean and Gregg do a singing duet only to be "raided" by an ASCAP-BMI agent (Doug).

Inventive Behavior is the theme this week on The Innovise Guys. They interview Paula Rosch, inventor of Huggies Little Swimmers, and talk to her about her unique theory of predicting consumer markets. She's identified "Scouts" -- consumers whose behavior gives clues as to where the market is going years ahead of the pack. As always, the innovise guys have some fun -- Gregg and Doug do some scat singing, play drums, and the lively talk with Paula encompasses related innovation subjects like change agents, "floaters," the value of incubation, observational research, and the creation of tools to help you invent and innovate. Scouts is a registered trademark of Paula Rosch.

In the third edition of The Innovise Guys, Stevenson and Fraley disucss a tool for idea evaluation and refinement called "PPCo" or Positives, Potentials, Concerns, and Overcoming concerns. They get off on some humorous tangents related to Doug's Christmas tree which is still up on February 7th. Listen for their improvised version of "O Christmas Tree," Gregg's John Wayne impression, and more fun as they explain and demonstrate the PPCo tool.

In their second show Da Creative Guys become Da Innovise Guys -- combining innovation and improvisation to create a new identity. They talk about the Four P's of creativity: Process, People, Product, and something called "Press". Discussion included information about the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), the Creative Education Foundation (CEF), and the March public seminar the InnoviseGuys are conducting in Chicago