Creativity & Innovation

This month, Jurgen focuses on how you can shake up your thinking. When you know too much about a topic it's hard to be open to new ideas. So how can you forget what you know? Let's look at three methods.

This month, in praise of the "old school" way of doing things, why washing your hands matters, when to give up and why sometimes, a limitation can be an advantage.

Does your boss encourage innovation or kill it stone dead? Not only do many leaders squash innovation, but new research has found that they are also overconfident about their own ability to nurture it.

This month, some thoughts about taking risks, inspiration to help you overcome obstacles and barriers to creativity, a new take on the "to-do" list and some words of wisdom from Bruce Lee.

This month, Jurgen explores how you can tame your big idea, reveals some surprising new findings that could change your view on when you are at your most creative, suggests some unusual ideas for presents and stands up for introverts in an increasingly noisy world.

To get your new year off to a good start, I have tried to find some good meaty ideas – including how to make this the year you actually stick to your resolutions.

This month, some year-end ideas and inspirations, including how to make a different kind of gift list, some thoughts about Leonardo daVinci and Thomas Edison, how your flaws can become your strengths and assumptions that you can leave behind next year.

New research suggests that creative people more likely to cheat than their less creative colleagues because their talent increases their ability to rationalise their actions.

As we move toward the end of the year I have another round-up of ideas I hope you'll find useful, starting with something I know a lot about - making mistakes!

This month, kids and creativity, creative solutions in a different field, some outrageous ideas from Edward de Bono, some ideas to help you play – and some ideas to help you work.

China's journey from a seriously poor, insular, economy to the "shop floor of the world" took a little more than two decades. Today, it appears poised to evolve into becoming a leading global innovator. But can China actually make this next great leap forward?

This month, some ways to overcome the fears that are holding you back, the power of the absurd, how combining opposites can deliver break-through ideas and discovering the Zeigarnik effect.

The name given to an innovation matters. A great innovation may survive without a great name but the name helps - particularly if it is also a product, a service, something you will be trying to sell, something that needs a brand.

Whether you want to start a blog, write a best-seller or launch a new business venture, success in any kind of creative endeavour depends on some common factors. Understand and accept those factors and your chances of hitting the jackpot will be multiplied.

The quality of leadership in American organizations is poor and it isn't getting any better. What's more, leaders are stifling creativity and innovation because they are risk averse and focussed on their own survival.

The deliberate infringement of patents is clearly a legitimate cause for law suits. But we also need to remember that without copying, there is no progress. In nature, the most robust product is the one that survives.

Getting more from less has been one of the big drivers of invention and innovation throughout history. But what is innovation? What does it entail in practice - and how can organisations build an innovation culture?

Which kind of ideas culture do you have? If someone in your organisation has an idea, what happens to it? Is it welcomed? Or has hierarchy and history conspired to disconnect the part that thinks from the part that does – making innovation is impossible?

This month, how to be creative while you wait, how to cultivate and confirm a new habit, finding out whether it is time to reinvent yourself and an examination of the power of the ridiculous.

Have you ever considered setting up a Ministry of Silly Questions in your company and seeing what new insights it brings? This isn't a frivolous idea: silly answers might be just the thing to give you a competitive edge

This month, how laughing helps problem-solving, why you should use a matrix, an online tool to help you reach your goals, the power of smartphones and why it's never too late to achieve your life's ambition.

Spring! A great time for cleaning out old clothes, old stuff, even old beliefs that no longer serve you. You could even try changing the way you think – but just be careful not to have too many ideas!

Learning new things is at the heart of innovation. That's why it's far more important how a person learns rather than what they know. You need to hire people not for what they know now, but because they can adapt to the future.

Real innovation implies a readiness to explore and implement new ideas. But many organisations have a deep-seated fear of failure and do not like to try new things, even when much lip-service is paid to innovation.

Research on individuals who are culturally intelligent reveals that not only are they better at working effectively across various cultural contexts, they are also more creative and innovative.

Now is a great time to take stock, clear out what we don't need anymore, and use the energizing power of the season to get started on some new creative projects.

Most individuals and organizations don't spend much time thinking about how they actually go about generating new ideas. But why are some people and places so much better at generating ideas than others?

This time, Jurgen encourages you to revisit those abandoned New Year resolutions, explores the power of visualization, explains why "yes" means "no" and tries to harness his butterfly mind.

Looking back at the first decade of the 21st century, it's hard to avoid thinking that we should be ashamed of how little we have accomplished. But even if we haven't seen much revolutionary change, some vital trends have nevertheless emerged that will shape all of our lives.

At a time when organisations are crying out for creative leadership more than ever before, new research from Cornell University has found that being creative can actually block your chances of reaching the top.

Many people believe that creativity should be as free and unstructured as possible. But I would argue that creativity can better be delivered through teams whose function and tasks are clearly and distinctly defined.

Co-creation is the business idea of the moment. Why? Because the more ideas you can work with, the better. So more minds are always better than fewer, and the more different minds you can enlist, the higher the probability of finding a really different idea.

This time, Jurgen examines the power of stupid ideas, learns about innovation from Thomas Edison, helps you identify if you are a perfectionist and explores the persuasion principle.

This month, Jurgen discusses how to create an idea locker, how to be happy, a better way to organizing your work and how to break an insanity cycle - as well as how to know whether you're stuck in one.

Far too many executives believe that management thinking is all about continuity and problem-solving. But what if something is not a problem?

However great an idea, it will never be perfect. There will always be room for improvement, either in the detail of the idea or its implementation. But this is good news for anyone who wants to contribute and for any business that wants to grow.

It's September, almost October, time to start giving some thought to what you want to be feeling when this year ends. Will you be pleased with what you've done? Think about that while we explore some more interesting and unusual ways to boost your creativity.

Almost everyone's choice for the most innovative firm of recent years is Apple. But as history shows, it's far from easy to deliver consistent innovation. So what is the secret of Apple's innovation success?

Most of us assume that intelligent people are better at thinking. But this is not necessarily true. Just because somebody is good at analysis doesn't mean that they will be good at design thinking or operational thinking.

Why are some companies so much better at innovation than others? One answer, according to recent research, is keeping senior managers as far away from the innovation process as possible.

This month, more tips and techniques to boost your creativity, exploding an old communication myth, exploring the power of words and how treating a difficult situation as an opportunity to experiment can yield some surprising results.

To climb a mountain you need the intention and the right attitude – the belief that it can be done. But you also need to learn climbing skills. Exactly the same is true of creative thinking.

This time, we explore a process to improve innovation, learn from Pixar about the importance of changing direction and muse on whether you are asking the right questions.

Problem-solving is valuable in itself. But identifying a problem and working to put it right isn't the key to unlocking real creativity. That's all about exploring possibilities, questioning established ideas and looking for value.

The world is becoming more volatile, more uncertain and more complicated. That makes life tough for CEOs trying to navigate this complexity, many of whom don't believe that either they or their organisations are equipped to deal with it.

Until now, China's competitive advantage has been based on cheap labour, not innovation. But if it is to remain anything more than a low-wage producer, China has to find innovative ways of sustaining growth.

It's no accident that business is more interested in thinking than other sectors of society. It is because business has a reality test. There is a bottom line. There are results. And better or more creative thinking will result in more profits or market share.

The useful thing about habits is they are efficient. Without them, you're constantly struggling to find an appropriate response to every situation no matter how many times you've experienced it. But how do you change an old habit or create a new one?

Far from encouraging creative thinking, group dynamics, group brainstorms and traditional corporate structures are the enemy of businesses trying to encourage innovation, new research suggests.

This time, some advice on how to give you brain a boost, a simple idea that could that turn your business around, self-improvement lessons from Benjamin Franklin and a perplexing question: do you give your dog more treats than you give yourself?

Nothing breeds success like success, the old proverb goes. But this is not always the case when it comes to business growth. Many organizations become victims of their own success. They achieve rapid growth by introducing new products but quickly find that they cannot sustain this for more than a couple of years.

The gala opening of the Shanghai Expo has focused the world's attention on this vibrant city that - or so we are told - is "forging the future". But while one can't doubt Shanghai's size and vibrancy, it's potential impact on the future is much more of a moot point.

It's a fast paced world we live in. Blink and the competition has stolen a march. So how can organizations keep up? What makes some quicker to react than others? We talk to MIT's Steven Spear about high velocity organisations.

Improvements often require creativity. So there is a real need to spend some time thinking creatively to try to find a better solution, even when there is a routine solution to a problem or a routine way of doing something.

This month, Jurgen explores the power of the absurd, how to overcome procrastination, why you should go for evolution, not revolution and why brainstorming in a group can actually limit the range of ideas and solutions that arise.

Organisations spend a large amount of money on computers and IT systems. But while information is essential, so are ideas. Yet creativity isn't taken seriously at all.

It's often said that innovative firms perform better than their more pedestrian competitors. But where's the proof? And if they do perform better, by how much?

China is affecting the way global business operates and the way value-chains work. In particular, it is changing the speed at which business is done. And to do this, it is concentrating on improving, rather than inventing.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always had. That why you need to start thinking and doing differently if you want to generate any real innovation.

Every organisation can benefit from some deliberate thinking. This isn't the thinking we do when we are sitting at a desk or taking part in a discussion. It is a formal process designed to generate new ideas and perceptions, and to take action around any possibilities that exist.