Watch this space for an announcement of Idea Champions' newest offering -- DOING MORE WITH LESS -- a customized breakthrough thinking session to help our clients innovate their way through this latest economic downturn.

(You may need to tighten your belts, but you don't need to cut off your circulation to accomplish the results you want.)

What kind of challenges might you and your team tackle in a DOING MORE WITH LESS session? Click below to find out...

Some people say you are what you eat. Others, more cerebrally inclined, say you are what you think. I would like to propose yet another possibility -- you are what you drink.

And so, in this slightly tongue-in-cheek spirit, I offer you a selection of 101 exotic teas from around the world. Each one has been formulated to stimulate the specific, inner quality you need more of in order to be a more effective innovator on-the-job.

Your task? To choose three teas, from the list below, whose qualities you most need to imbibe -- then brainstorm ways in which you can bring more of these qualities into your life.

Drink deep... then think deep.

This just in from Thomas Duff, Top 100 Amazon reviewer:

Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World) can, in my opinion, be compared to the classic "Who Moved My Cheese?". Ditkoff does for creativity what Johnson and Blanchard did for living with change... It gives the reader a short, humorous story loaded with meaning and concepts that hit the reader right where they live.

Ditkoff explores the world of ideas and creativity though the story of Og. Og is a caveman who spends more time thinking than the average Neanderthal. He stumbles upon the concept of a circle, and becomes obsessed with what it could mean to the group. Of course, most of his fellow cavemen are more concerned about maintaining the status quo... hunting, eating, staying warm.

Og takes a journey to talk with a wise one, and from that trip the wheel is born. But even then, others in his clan are more interested in shooting it down as something that will never work. But one person does figure out the practical application, and pretty soon everyone is "rolling along" with the greatest thing since dried mammoth...

I really did like this book.

Conventional wisdom has it that the best time to name a new product is after you create it. Unconventional wisdom has it the other way around: first you give your product a name, then you create it.

With this approach, the name -- instead of merely being the description of your creation -- becomes the catalyst for its existence.

The key is to come up with a compelling name -- one that intrigues, delights, and has embedded within it the kind of multiple meanings that stimulate you enough to decode them.

Let's use the topic of my new book -- creativity -- as an example.

If I was looking to invent new products to hawk in the back of the book, but had no clue what they were, I might start by generating some creativity-themed names -- and then work backwards from there.

No matter what your point of view, I still think it's pretty cool that there's been an explosion of caveman ads (and tv shows) in recent months -- just in time to set the scene for the appearance of my new book. Bud Lite, Geico, and Fedex have all gotten into the act. I'd like to tip my hat to all these fine organizations for getting cavemen into the consciousness of the book buying public in time for the May release of Awake at the Wheel.

Take a look at the most recent example: Bud Lite's superbowl ad.

OK. It's official. My new book, Awake at the Wheel, hit the bookstores yesterday.

In celebration of its coming out, Wayne Hurlbert of BlogTalkRadio, did a 60 minute interview with me last night. Click here, if you want to listen. Click here if you don't want to listen. In either case, I hope things are clicking for you, no matter what you choose to do.

These days, almost all of my clients are talking about the need to establish a sustainable culture of innovation.

Some, I am happy to report, are actually doing something about it. Hallelujah! They are taking bold steps forward to turn theory into action. My hat is off to all of them -- and sometimes, my head. Nevertheless, the challenge remains the same for them as it does thousands of other forward-thinking companies and that is, to find a simple, authentic way to address the challenge from the inside out -- to water the root of the tree, not just the branches.

In other words, to get down to the essential DNA of what drives innovation.

In today's process-driven, OD-centric, Six-Sigma savvy organization, the tendency is to focus on systems as opposed to people -- as if systems were sufficient to guarantee change. Guess what? Systems are not sufficient to guarantee change. In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Systems die. Instinct remains."

At least once a week, one of my friends or one of my clients complains about email -- hjavascript:editPlacements()ow they get too much of it and how too much of what they get is spam. I feel their pain. I really do. Which is what inspired me to write this little blues song, first performed by Face the Music, back in 2000.

THE EMAIL BLUES

I logged on this morning
And found out I'd been spammed,
Got 500 emails, Lord, my inbox was way too jammed,
Most of it was useless, the rest of it was jokes
Sent by friends with downtime to the rest of us working folks.

Oh baby, I'm so digitally cool,
Oh baby, I'm gonna start my own gene pool,
Oh baby, I'm a nanosecond fool,
Gonna download half the universe,
Challenge Bill Gates to a duel.

When I co-founded Idea Champions in 1986, I had two business cards made. One said "President." The other said "Archduke." Whenever I gave clients a choice of which card they wanted, they always asked for the Archduke card. (After all, there are millions of Presidents running around, but how many Archdukes?)

In time, I ran out of Archduke cards and never re-ordered them -- in a pitiful attempt, I think, to seem more professional.

Fortunately, everything comes full circle. Last night, while enjoying a wonderful concert in my hometown of Woodstock, NY, my next title was suddenly revealed.

Director of Public Elations (and, no, I did not forget the "R".)

In a flash, not only did I get some major insight into what my focus is likely to be for the next few years, I also discovered an entirely new field -- one that business schools, no doubt, will soon be adding to their curriculum. Indeed, many forward thinking business have already understood this.

Cirque du Soleil is a perfect example. Gracefully walking the high wire of the Experience Economy, they know their success is intimately connected to their willingness and ability to elate the public -- to uplift, inspire, and activate joy. Southwest Airlines also understands this.

Theirs is a corporate culture founded on fun and play and delight. Even Starbucks and Barnes & Noble have gotten into the act. Both of them know their product needs to be more than coffee and books, but a feeling -- a sense of well-being, ease, and community. In a word, elation.

"Companies are actually living organisms, not machines. We keep bringing in mechanics, when what we need are gardeners." ~ Peter Senge

From where will the next wave of groundbreaking innovation come?

Not from organizations mechanically mimicking each other's best practices, but from organizations with the authentic commitment to take their stand on ground that has been cultivated for breakthrough.

See that Neanderthal to your left? That's Og, the mythical inventor of the wheel and the hero of Mitch Ditkoff's new book which hits the book stores on May 1.

In honor of Og, I am inviting you to the book signing at the Golden Notebook in Woodstock, NY, Saturday, April 26th, 5:00 - 7:00 pm.

Here's what Og has to say about the book signing:

Morkel noophpa umphh! Kiaww noofti agu. Brrpp. Obama! Rok. Remu! Ditkoff sumphfta jabu.

Translation?

"Hey bipeds with Blackberries and cash flow problems! You don't even need to know how to read to enjoy a book signing! Free wine! Free cheese! The tribe reconvenes! And Mitch Ditkoff, who has recently developed full use of both opposable thumbs, will be signing books. Or eating crackers. Or talking too much.

Bring a friend. Bring two. Really, you don't have to buy a single book if you don't want to. Just come and be part of the fun.

And support the fabulous Golden Notebook!

If you want to listen to Mitch's two minute rap about the book, click here.

PS: If you can't make it to the book signing, so be it. You can still buy a copy here.

Since 1986, I've been working with a wide variety of organizations who have acknowledged their need to innovate -- enough, at least, to invite Idea Champions in to help them on their way.

It's been a fascinating ride.

Along the way, I've noticed that a lot of people who work in corporations are ruled by a host of "reasons" why innovation can't happen.

Many of these reasons, I realize, are based on years of in-the-trenches experience. My clients are not hallucinating, merely reporting how difficult it's been for them along the way.

I guess you could call these people realists.

I understand their point of view, but it is precisely this point of view that's the problem.

Innovation, as I've said before, is an inside job. It begins with the individual. Organizations don't innovate. People do. And if people are ruled by past experiences, old assumptions, and limiting concepts of what's possible, nothing much will ever change.

And so, as a public service, it is my pleasure to present to you the Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating -- excuses I continue hearing again and again out there on the front lines of corporate America.

Please remember, dear reader, that there may be a kernel of truth in each of these reasons. Indeed, what sometimes may seem like an excuse may simply be a clear assessment of current reality.

Current reality, however, is only one form of reality. And just because it's current doesn't mean it's the way it will always be. Or should be.

True innovators rarely follow the straight and narrow path. Not only do they march to a different drummer, they're often not even on the same playing field as most people.

Take Seymour Cray, for example, the legendary designer of high-speed computers.

According to John Rollwagen, ex-chairman of Cray research, Seymour Cray used to divide his time between building the next generation super computer and digging an underground tunnel below his Chippewa Falls house.

Have you ever noticed America's strange fascination with lists? Cruise any supermarket magazine rack and you will invariably notice some version of the following:

"5 Sure-Fire Ways to Find Your Soul Mate"
"10 Ways to Profit from the Recession"
"50 Ways to Retire Before 40"
"The 100 Best Companies to Work For"

For years I ignored this phenomenon. Then I mocked it. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Perfect sense.

Lists simplify.
Lists cut to the chase.
Lists help people make sense of the world.

And in today's world, where the collective sum of printed knowledge is doubling every four years, anything that helps simplify life -- without oversimplifying it -- is a good thing.

And so, in honor of America's love of lists, the little known patron saint of the phenomenon, and your own commitment to innovation, I cheerfully present to you Idea Champions' time-tested, easy-to-read, highly compelling, imminently practical 100 Ways to Be More Creative on the Job.

For those of you trying to bring something new and original into the world, know this:

The creative process is very much like a relationship.

And like most relationships, it usually begins with fascination -- that curious state of mind (and heart) that keeps us spellbound, charmed and aroused.

Bottom line, whenever a person gets a new idea, a kind of romance begins. We become absorbed. Intoxicated. Smitten. Indeed, for many of us, just thinking about a new idea is an aphrodisiac. It turns us on, psyches us up, and otherwise makes it very hard to eat, sleep, or obsess about cash flow.

While some people involved in a new relationship are able to sustain the accompanying excitement for months, most of us are less fortunate. Indeed, it's the rare person who knows how to savor and expand upon this feeling for years.

Ditto with the creative process.