The Creative Bone

Part of my job is to think up new things. New strategies, new products, new names, new identities. Sometimes incremental innovation is called for, in the case of a flavor innovation or a logo refresh. But often I am challenged to think of really new things. Products or services people don’t know they need yet; names and identities that both anchor those products in the familiar and propel them into the world of imagination.

Meaningful innovation requires creativity. People often tell me, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” But it’s not true. You may be more at home with a spreadsheet than a set of watercolors, but anyone with the capacity for free will – and that’s all of us – is, by definition, creative. (Plus, I have personally seen a lot of very creative spreadsheets.) The question is how to access that creativity in a way that delivers whatever kind of value you seek. 

My life’s work, as I see it, is enabling creative expression. I help people and organizations unlock their creativity, develop amazing new ideas, and express themselves articulately and compellingly. There are lots and lots of specific tools for doing this, but they are all grounded in simple universal concepts, which I have learned from many and varied teachers, to whom I am grateful.

I hope you will be inspired, as I have been.