Blog
Creativity and the Value of Improv
Creativity shares some of the same rules as improv. For one thing, every idea is the best idea you've ever heard. There's no judging and no denying. And that's the beauty of it. Companies and organizations that are worried about the costs of innovation, need not be...
Why Play is Important for Creativity
Most of the articles out there about play involve children and how important it is for their development. But what about adults? I guess adults don't really have to incorporate play into their lives, but how boring would that be? According to Plato "Life must be lived...
Inventor of Coston Flares
If inventors know one thing it's how to make lemons out of lemonade. History is full of stories about inventors who have succeeded despite failure and tragedy, and inventor Martha Coston dealt with both. She married a man, Benjamin Coston, a scientist who was...
Are You a Genius?
What do you think of when you hear the word genius? If you're like most people, you think that person probably has a high IQ. But IQ test scores only measure problem solving and reasoning. It doesn't measure creativity, and it doesn't account for savants. It's...
How Daydreaming Improves Creative Problem Solving
So, you're sitting there in class, reading a book or listening to a lecture, and suddenly you find yourself on a tropical island beach sipping a pina colada as the waves caress your toes. Then, just as suddenly, you snap out of it when the teacher calls on you. We all...
The Woman Inventor That Saved the Cotton Industry
One reason only a fraction of patent holders are women is because women simply aren't encouraged to invent. That wasn't the case with Ruth Benerito, who was surrounded by encouragement in her formative years, which was spent in the grips of the Great Depression....
How Humor Affects Creativity
As a creativity keynote speaker I love seeing audience members jump up on stage and get out of their comfort zone with improv. Not that it's easy to get them to do that. But once they find out how much fun it is, their creativity is unleashed. Because creativity is...
The Surprising Reason for Lack of Women Inventors
At a recent innovation keynote speech I gave to Fortune 500 women executives, sponsored by Cognizant Technology Solutions, we examined some of the reasons fewer than 19 percent of all patents in the world are secured by women. This isn't patents held by a single...
Inventor Spotlight – Louis Pasteur
Because of the nature of their jobs, many inventors are scientists and engineers. One scientist who was also an inventor was Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist, who was known for his discovery of pasteurization and microbial fermentation. His germ...