Category Archives: Creativity

4 Innovation Lessons from the Miami Heat

in Creativity, Innovation, Strategy
English: Lebron James: Dunking Washington Wiza...

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If you’re a fan of basketball, competition and innovation, you will enjoy this. Before the start of the NBA season, ESPN published a fascinating article about how the Miami Heat’s offense will be reinvented. As you might remember, the Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the last year’s NBA Finals.

After the loss, the Heat’s Head Coach, Erik Spoelstra had a lot of time to think about how we would reinvent his team. His answer: Study the Oregon Ducks spread offense to see how he could apply the same principles to create a fast-paced basketball offense.

How might an offense that’s powered by dynamic players be reinvented?…

How to have great ideas without having to smoke weed

in Creativity

Catchy title huh?

I’m not much about celebrating milestones but this is the 400th post in the history of this blog. That’s a lot of writing. So to celebrate the occasion, I thought I change it up a little bit.

Last week a buddy of mine told me that for him to be able to have brain shaking ideas, he’d have to be high using his rda vapes. Lol!

I’m sure you’ve heard this before yourself. And I’m not so sure any professional recommends their clients to get high before a brainstorming session. Although we do like to use this analogy when explaining our own creative process, minus the catalyst for getting high. I think there’s some truth to that but I’ve personally never gotten high to have great ideas, I use Delta 8 disposable vape pens which do not give you the ¨high¨.

But really, you don’t need to smoke weed to have great ideas. Even having Canadian Vaporizers, wide selections of vaporizers at hand, can enhance the experience without the need for combustion. For those looking for affordable options, stores offering discount smokes can also be a great place to explore budget-friendly alternatives.…

How are you connecting the dots?

in Creativity, Innovation, Questions

Connecting the dots. It’s all about connecting the dots. And it’s never been more important and more relevant than it is today in this information overload world we live in. Or is it?

I don’t claim to have all the answers on how to connect the dots but I recently received an interesting comment regarding this unknown activity and it got me thinking about it. My buddy basically says that those of us who engage in curation/filtering are crazy.

Why?

Because since we curate information that we find useful for others, we’ve got ideas to spare. We’ve got ideas about how to have ideas and then some.  And if you curate information about diverse topics, we have ideas about stuff that doesn’t make sense to the majority of people. And this makes others feel overwhelmed because we can criss-cross from one topic to another.

On that last point is where a lot of ‘dot connecting’ happens.…

Creative thinking is not a one time activity

in Creativity, Innovation

Late last year, in response to an article that stated that you need to stifle your creativity in order to get promoted, I argued that you needed to become a credible innovator to cut through the smoke and keep those objections at bay.

Now, new research further indicates that people are biased against creative ideas. Among the findings:…

The new logic of innovation

in Creativity, Innovation

Apparently there is a food truck trend happening in the U.S. and everybody is talking about it.

To me what’s funny is that in Mexico, food trucks are a street corner staple. We like to say that for every Starbucks that exists we have 20 times more food trucks on every other corner of every street. I’m exaggerating a little bit but it’s true, in Mexico they’re part of our daily routine.

They type of food these trucks serve varies wildly, from tacos to tortas to sandwiches and even breakfast. These trucks serve people wherever they are, even in the the border crossing from Tijuana to San Diego. People who live in Tijuana but work in San Diego or Los Angeles, depend on these trucks for their breakfast.

So, why hasn’t anybody else thought about this and why is it becoming a trend now?…

How diversity helps break linear thinking in your innovation team

in Creativity, Innovation

I’m not so sure if I should write this post. It contains an email with some info that is best to keep private. But I just can’t contain myself as it’s a visceral example of why having a diverse set of people with different backgrounds, education and mental models makes your team more likely to innovate.

Below is an email from a colleague, from our Creative Generalist venture, where she explains very vividly her on-site visit with a client (nanes were erased to protect identities):…

How Happy Accidents Happen through serendipity

in Creativity

Two weeks ago we had a serendipitous event. A happy accident. We had a scheduled meeting with a partner at 8 am on Wednesday morning and our partner didn’t make it because of family issues. What’s interesting is that our partners office is on an adjacent street to an office building that is the first of it’s kind in Latin America. It’s the first sustainable building in the region.

It is a monument to innovation in my opinion because it is designed to be environmental friendly. Owned by VIA Corporativo, the building looks unlike anything out there but the most prominent feature it has is on the inside.

It has this hole in the middle. This serves a purpose, as this is what keeps the building cool and lets in natural light. The interior decoration is made up of recycled wood and concrete that are locally sourced.…