Creativity & Innovation: Content Archive

Ideas are fragile (handle with care)

Opinion 14 Dec 2020 Max McKeown

If someone in your organisation has an idea, is it welcomed? Or does hierarchy, history and organisational politics make innovation impossible?

Old habits die hard, new habits die easy

Opinion 30 Sep 2020 Max McKeown

Habits are efficient. Without them, we would need to find a response to every situation no matter how many times we had experienced it before. But how do you change an old habit or create a new one?

The four obstacles to corporate innovation

Opinion 20 Aug 2020 Michael Ellenby

There are four main obstacles to corporate innovation that can stifle the potential of organisations of all sizes. Understanding how to overcome them is key to a healthy future for every business.

Breakthrough innovation and corporate antibodies

Opinion 04 Aug 2020 Rod Collins

If companies want to be on the leading edge of breakthrough innovation, they have to neutralize the corporate antibodies that try to kill any new ideas that threaten the status quo.

It's not what you know, it's how fast you learn

Opinion 05 Feb 2020 Rod Collins

The secret to market success in a rapidly-changing world has less to do with what you know and much more to do with how fast you learn.

The future of work is creative collaboration

Opinion 10 Jan 2020 Eugene Hughes

Innovation is very rarely the result of individual genius. Instead, the biggest breakthroughs occur when networks of people with a collective vision join up and share ideas. That’s why as the fourth industrial revolution unfolds, creative collaborators will be kings.

Opening the Johari Window

Opinion 08 Aug 2019 James M. Kerr

The Johari Window is a technique that can be used to expose an individual’s blind spots and increase self-discovery. It’s also a useful way to improve team performance and encourage breakthrough thinking.

Encouraging innovation in large organizations

Opinion 15 Jul 2019 John Brooker

Many large organizations have problems with innovation. So unlocking their potential means understanding the key factors that influence innovation and how leadership behavior influences them.

How to get your ideas adopted

Opinion 17 Jun 2019 Anne Miller

Nothing is more frustrating than a great idea falling on deaf ears. If this happens to you, don't get demoralized, get smart. To get your ideas adopted, you need a strategy.

All new ideas are made of old ideas

Opinion 12 May 2019 Max McKeown

In the same way nature has mixed and remixed matter to arrive at our current universe, mankind has mixed and remixed ideas to arrive at our current society. So if we want to make the future better, we need to look for new combinations of old ideas.

The creativity success manifesto

Opinion 16 Apr 2019 Jurgen Wolff

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

Swerve and swarm

Opinion 23 Jul 2018 Max McKeown

You want to know the secret to winning in an age of uncertainty? It's to keep your future open. Planning never guarantees success. Only adaptation guarantees success. Success comes from being confident in your human ability to see opportunity, understand opportunity and grab opportunities.

The dual company

Opinion 03 Jul 2018 Rod Collins

In today’s world, strategic plans and once-successful business models can quickly become redundant. So how can companies sustain short-term profitability while building long-term innovation capability? One answer is to create a dual company.

Quick fixes can lead to great innovations

Opinion 19 Apr 2018 Max McKeown

Most innovation is quick-and-dirty. But there's nothing wrong with quick fixes - they point to real customer needs much more accurately than focus groups and reflect new tastes and fashions.

Hire for how they learn, not what they know

Opinion 11 Oct 2017 Max McKeown

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

Latest book podcasts

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23 Dec 2025

Steve Cockram: the Voice-Driven Leader

Steve Cockram, co-founder of Giant Worldwide, talks about his latest book, 'The Voice-Driven Leader' and explains how to create environments where every voice gets heard.

18 Nov 2025

What is Relationship Currency?

Keynote speaker and transformational coach, Ravi Rajani, talks about his new book, "Relationship currency: five communication habits for limitless influence and business success".

07 Nov 2025

Hone - how purposeful leaders defy drift

We dive into the new book from Deloitte's Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach, 'Hone - how purposeful leaders defy drift'.

28 Oct 2025

Lesley Cooper on stress and pressure at work

In this episode we discuss wellbeing at work with Lesley Cooper, including the issues of fear-based cultures and psychological safety.

Employing outsiders: a survival guide

Opinion 30 Aug 2017 Robert Kelsey

Outsiders can be a manager's worst nightmare. But misfits don't have to be disruptive workplace mavericks. Most are creative, crafty and brave. So rather than try to get rid of them, here’s how to understand what makes them tick and harness their talents.

Leadership, innovation and the future

Opinion 03 Aug 2017 Duane Dike

Leaders are critical to innovative thinking. Great ideas don't emerge from companies whose leaders try to control and micromanage. Innovation only thrives in organizations whose members are free to think and express themselves.

Why people don't want your new idea (and how to change that)

Opinion 07 Apr 2017 Jurgen Wolff

If you come up with a new idea, more often than not you'll meet tremendous resistance. So here are some strategies to disarm the idea-killers, neutralize the objections and get your ideas taken seriously.

Parking spots: 6 ways to find space for innovation

Opinion 23 Jan 2017 Christos Tsolkas

Many people know what it’s like to have a great idea. But putting an idea into practice is something else entirely, particularly if you already have a serious job in a large corporation. So here’s a simple formula for getting yourself or your team to move.

Fish in a different pond

Opinion 22 Sep 2016 Andy Hanselman

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.

Cross-fitness for business agility

Opinion 06 Apr 2016 Christos Tsolkas

Every large organization wants to act more like a startup, but how can they help their people develop the drive, urgency and mental agility they need for a startup environment? One way is to develop a cross training program for business skills.

Cultural intelligence and the power of attention

Opinion 10 Dec 2015 David Livermore

Giving undue attention to negative feelings shrinks your world and your breadth of perspective. Focus on the positive and you’ll expand your view. This is the power of attention. And in culturally diverse teams, it’s absolutely critical.

Too much innovation doesn't pay dividends

News 25 Aug 2015 Brian Amble

Those who try to innovate the most often don’t reap any benefit from their efforts, even when circumstances seem to be at their most optimal.

If you want to succeed, get used to failure

Opinion 06 Aug 2015 Max McKeown

Failure is commonplace. Ninety-nine percent of all species and organisations that exist will eventually disappear. Once you accept this and understand that every innovation begins with a series of aberrations, you will be better placed to succeed now and in the future.

The Ministry of Silly Questions

Opinion 21 Jul 2015 Tim Lambert

Every business has its sacred cows - the ‘no-go areas’ that only the fearless dare to question. But it’s those inquisitive, curious and downright silly people who often stumble across the greatest ideas simply because they’ve dared to ask the questions that no-one else will.

Leadership and the curiosity quotient

Opinion 16 Apr 2015 Michael Hvisdos

Curiosity is one of the most vital - but least acknowledged - of leadership values. It is the catalyst for creativity and innovation, the building block of relationships and the magic ingredient that can lift a business from medocrity to wild success.

A beautiful idea is never perfect

Opinion 07 Apr 2015 Max McKeown

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. And that's good news for anyone who wants to contribute and for any business that wants to grow.

Leadership and the beauty principle

Opinion 19 Feb 2015 Michael Jones

For Steve Jobs, Apple's products had to be beautiful as well as functional. His pursuit of beauty highlights that while power may inspire the mind of a leader, it is beauty that inspires their soul, grips the imagination and inspires what needs to get done.

Soil, growth and the art of conversation

Opinion 20 Jan 2015 Michael Jones

Like seeds, ideas can only germinate when conditions are right. And while most organizations aren’t short of ideas, they’re much less adept at enriching the soil to enable these ideas grow. What builds this soil is conversation. But not all conversations are the same.

Business blind spots

Opinion 02 Sep 2014 James M. Kerr

Many breakthrough ideas get ignored because business leaders are unable to grasp concepts that don't fit their expectations of what will work within their firm or industry. So how can we avoid these business blind spots?

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