April 30, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
THE SELF-INQUIRY RAFFLE: Unleash Your Creative Mojo
If you have a big aspiration to create something new and wonderful in this world and currently find yourself operating on less-than-all-cylinders, this is your lucky day.
WHY? Because I am giving away five of my mind-opening creativity catalysts for…
April 30, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
We Were Made for These Times!
What follows is an extraordinary call of the heart by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Not only is it worth reading, it’s worth reading aloud — so you hear it and feel it as well as see it. Then, you get to decide who you want to share it with — and how. T…
April 29, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Collaborating over videoconference makes you both less creative
Researchers have found that Zoom, Teams and other videoconference tools can stifle creativity. According to a new research study just published in Nature, collaborating with someone using screens instead of sitting face to face resulted in both participants being less creative. This was from a field and laboratory study looking at the creative performance of […]
April 28, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Podcast S7E159: Margaret Webb – Divergent Association Task
In today’s episode of the Idea to Value podcast, we speak with Dr Margaret Webb from the University of Melbourne. Together with her co-author Dr Simon Cropper and Jay Olson, they created and released the Divergent Association Task, a new method to estimate the divergent creative potential of someone based simply on them entering a […]
April 27, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
When creativity feels rewarding: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
The most successful creative people are the ones who put in the time and effort. They have the grit to work and practice for years, in order to build up the skills to produce highly creative work. However, investing this amount of time and effort over many years requires the motivation to keep going. The […]
April 26, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Your brain on autopilot
Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming while still doing an activity, only to then realise you don’t remember anything that happened for a while. A classic example is that people have no idea what happened while they were travelling or commuting. You arrive at your destination and then realise you have no idea what was […]
April 25, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Unclog your filter
My vacuum cleaner sucked, badly. By which I mean, it hardly sucked at all anymore. Years ago when I bought it, it was amazingly strong and picked up everything. Now it could hardly pick up crumbs. Over the years, performance just dropped over time. I could have bought a new vacuum cleaner (I dread to […]
April 22, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Improve Return on Investment With a New Project Management Approach
Too often, leaders label projects as successes or failures based on budget and schedule expectations. Although time and cost are critical factors, they ignore whether the project delivered the expected benefits.
The post How to Improve Return on Invest…
April 22, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation Ecosystems: The future of Open Innovation
For the past decade or so, one of the most popular ideas in innovation has been around Open Innovation. This is the practice of innovating and co-creation in collaboration with people outside of your company. So instead of trying to do all of your innovation activities within your departments and only launch the final product […]
April 21, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
In Honor of All Our Fathers
I wrote the following piece the night my father died three years ago and read it at his funeral three days later. If your dad is still alive, love him today and every day. If you’re dad is gone, cherish his memory and all that he taught you. If there…
April 21, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Podcast S7E158: Ayse Birsel – Design the life you love
In this episode of the Idea to Value podcast, we speak with award winning designer Ayse Birsel. Ayse has been voted one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company, is a bestselling author, and has won international awards for designing everything from furniture to cars to toilet seats to vegetable peelers. Without […]
April 20, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals
When you are trying something new, you are likely to fail on your way. Repeatedly. In fact, one thing which separates highly productive creative people from others is just how willing they are to push through the hard times and keep going. It requires perseverance. And one of the best ways to explain what it […]
April 19, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Everything is a remix
There is no such thing as a truly original idea. No, I am not saying that to discourage you being creative. Instead, it is important to understand that every idea is built upon and adapted from something that came before. All ideas are a new combination of previous knowledge. But each time you make a […]
April 14, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Podcast S7E157: Paul Ruppert – How the 1990s telecomms industry drove innovation
In today’s episode of the Idea to Value podcast, we speak with Paul Ruppert. Paul is a veteran of the Telecommunications industry, and his companies have helped bring breakthrough technologies like worldwide mobile calling and SMS to the masses. In this interview, we speak about what it takes for companies to innovate in new markets, […]
April 13, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Are you solving a problem, or do you have a solution looking for a problem?
They are not the same thing. An innovation is only valuable if the customer perceives value in it. And for this to happen, the customer needs to feel like the solution is addressing some sort of problem or job to be done which they have. Too many startups, founders and inventors get this equation the […]
April 12, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
First-Mover or Fast-Follower: Which is the right innovation strategy for you?
The early bird catches the worm … ? What makes more sense: To be the first player in a brand new market, able to be the first (or only) company which customers buy from? To wait until other companies have proven there is a market for a new offering, and then quickly develop and scale […]
April 11, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Gemba Walks: The way to see what is actually happening in your business
Do you know what is happening in your business? Not what is supposed to happen, but what is actually happening on the factory floor? For many managers and leaders, it may have been a while since they actually experienced what it is like where the action happens. Where the products they sell are manufactured, or […]
April 11, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY: An Overview
“Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller
The Year of Living Creatively is a two-month, online course for anyone committed to manifesting an inspired idea, project or venture and knows they ne…
April 8, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Could your team cut down meetings to only two days a week?
Is your team having too many meetings? Do you ever come to the end of a workday and feel stressed because instead of getting any productive work done, you have spent nearly the whole day in back-to-back meetings? Ben Laker and his team recently conducted some research across 76 companies into the impact of reducing […]
April 7, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Podcast S7E156: Andy Binns – How corporations can beat startups at innovation
In today’s episode of the Idea to Value Podcast, we speak with Andy Binns, Co-Founder of Change Logic and author of Corporate Explorer: How corporations can beat startups at the innovation game. Andy has worked as a strategic advisor to Leaders for decades, with experience at McKinsey, IBM and now Change Logic. We speak about […]
April 6, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Create a Competitive Advantage Through Innovation
In the modern world of business, innovation is both an equalizer and a differentiator. It can give tiny startups an edge over global conglomerates and enable industry leaders to develop competitive advantages.
The post How to Create a Competitive Advan…
April 6, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Done is better than perfect
If I just spend another week in the editing room, I can get the colour levels just right. If I just do another month worth of focus group testing, maybe I will get that killer insight. If I just have another branding workshop, I will finally be happy with our company logo and then we […]
April 5, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
How to Innovate Your Business to Make It Climate Efficient
Climate efficiency is key for the future of everyone on this planet. With an issue of such magnitude, you may feel that individual actions cannot make a large impact. While your business by itself cannot solve global warming, the actions you take can i…
April 5, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Six Sides of the So-Called Box
Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past 20 years, I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase “get out of the box.” It’s everywhere. Whole industries have sprung up around it, including mine.
No one can deny that getting out of the box is a good thing…
April 5, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Build it, and they won’t come
In the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner’s character builds a baseball field within his corn farm after a ghostly voice tells him “If you build it, he will come”. In this case, the “he” refers to Costner’s character’s dead father. Since then, especially in entrepreneurial companies and startups, the phrase has been changed to […]
April 4, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Humans are social animals, and being excluded stresses us out
If there is one chemical in our body which can impact our well-being and creative performance, it might just be cortisol. Cortisol is a natural hormone produced in our bodies with a number of functions, but one of the primary functions is to feelings of stress. This evolved hundreds of millions of years ago in […]
April 1, 2022 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Highly creative brains may have more “random” connections
I have long talked about how the human brain aims to be as efficient as possible. One of the ways it achieves this is by linking together networks that often work together and strengthening the connections between those neurons, as well as making those networks faster at working together. However, a new series of brain […]