If you have received any value, in 2014, from the postings in this blog, please consider casting your vote, today, for Mitch Ditkoff, the primary author of The Heart of Innovation -- now in the running for "Best Innovation Blogger of the Year." All you need to do is click this link, scroll down to the REPLY area and write his name in the comments box. Then click "Post Comment." Will take you two minutes or less. Voting ends 12/31.

All of us at Idea Champions extend a hearty HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours. May 2015 be filled with peace, joy, and prosperity for you.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:43 AM | Comments (1)

Click here. Then scroll down and enter your name and email address in the space provided. Then enter my name, MITCH DITKOFF, in the comments field. If you value another blogger's work more, enter THEIR name. Thank you, in advance, for your support!

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:03 AM | Comments (2)

If you are interested in the relationship between storytelling and business, you might like this just released 34-minute podcast -- Innovation Engine interviewing Idea Champions' co-founder and President, Mitch Ditkoff.

Like the poet Muriel Rukyser once said, "The world is not made of atoms. It is made of stories."

Storytelling workshop
Power of storytelling in business
25 quotes on storytelling
Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:50 PM | Comments (3)

Idea Champions
Brainstorm Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)

GOOD NEWS! Idea Champions' The Heart of Innovation blog was just chosen as one of the top 25 "innovation blogs and experts" of 2014 (just 86 years after the first American Yo Yo factory opened in California). Check it out here. To be more specific, The Heart of Innovation is listed as #20. So, it's officially official: You are not a loser for reading this blog. On the contrary, you are insightful, intelligent, adventurous, creative, and very good looking, if not just a wee bit twisted. PS: There are a number of other, fine innovation blogs noted on Nick Skillicorn's end-of-the-year-round-up. Worth a look.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:04 PM | Comments (2)

If you want to foster innovation in your company, stop obsessing about programs and initiatives for a moment and simply help your people learn how to tune into the seed of innovation moment. It's much less expensive, and much more likely to yield results.

A simple way to begin
Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:56 AM | Comments (0)

What idea do you have to make a difference? What can YOU do to go beyond the obvious and really be of service to people in need? And if you work in an organization, how can you rally the troops to join you in the venture? Check out what 24-year old Veronika did. Genius!

Need to brainstorm it with others?
Just need a starter idea?

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)

In an effort to ho, ho, ho the ground for innovation in 2015 (and in gratitude for YOU being a reader of Heart of Innovation), Idea Champions will be giving away five annual subscriptions to our Free the Genie creative thinking app. If you want to enter the raffle, simply send an email to info@ideachampions.com by 12/26 and include one New Year's resolution you are making for the coming year. If your name is selected, we'll send you the link to your free subscription on 12/31. Go for it! And happy holidays to you!

FreeTheGenie.com
Five ways to use Free the Genie
The non-virtual version

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

The first company that says YES to Idea Champions' brainstorm facilitation training (and signs a contract by 12/31) receives a 20% discount. This ain't eBay folks, but it IS a good deal. Operators are NOT standing by. (We don't have any operators). But we will get back to you within 24 hours.)

Brainstorm Champions
What our clients say

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

PEACE ON EARTH: The biggest innovation possible. (And it begins with YOU -- right here, right now).

Idea Champions
Brainstorm Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

When my mother was alive, she would ask me, at regular intervals, what I did for a living. I would do my best to explain it to her but, somehow, her explanations to her friends around the canasta table always ended up with some version of "my son is a motivational speaker." No matter how hard I tried to educate dear Sylvia about what I REALLY did, nothing stuck. It would have been easy if I was a doctor, lawyer, or dentist, but I wasn't. I was a....

Anyway, a few days ago, a new prospect of Idea Champions just asked me a similar question. This is what I told her:

Idea Champions is an innovation consulting and training company, headquartered in Woodstock, NY. Since 1987, we have been helping a wide variety of forward thinking organizations increase their employee's ability and commitment to think creativity, generate powerful new, business-growth ideas, collaborate, and develop the kind of organizational culture that is conducive to sustainable innovation.

How we accomplish this noble goal depends on the current reality of each client, their level of commitment, and what their hoped-for outcomes are.

Services we provide include: innovation-sparking keynotes, leadership development sessions, creative thinking training, facilitated brainstorming sessions, culture of innovation workshops, brainstorm facilitation training, team building, executive coaching, and innovation-sparking materials.

Our clients have included: General Electric, AT&T, Merck, Lucent Technologies, NBC Universal, Pfizer, Kraft Foods, General Mills, MTV Networks, Chubb insurance, Goodyear Tire, Citibank, Wells Fargo, TV Guide, Hitachi, A&E Television, Genentech, Michelin, Con Edison, MBooth, Blue States Digital, Duke Corporate Education, Atlanticare, TIAA Cref, The National Institutes of Health, Champion International, Coca Cola, and a host of others. This is what they say about us.

Intrigued? Check out either or both of our websites:

Idea Champions
Brainstorm Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)

Just published in the Huffington Post -- the story of how BIG IDEAS sometimes manifest in the most unexpected situations -- in this case, the idea for a business blues band that came to me late one night, as a young parent, while I was out on the town with my wife for "date night."

Where do YOU get your breakthrough ideas?

Face the Music
How to attract a big AHA!

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)