THE QUESTION: Who Created "The Year of Living Creatively?"
If you are thinking about enrolling in The Year of Living Creatively, one question you are likely to ask is this: "Who created it and what are his credentials?"
Your caution is understandable, especially if you are about to invest some of your precious time and money.
Which is precisely why, below, I have listed a selection of the products and services I have created over the years. My intention is not to call attention to myself, but to let you know that I've been deeply immersed in the creative process for decades and, along the way, have learned a lot about what enables the origination, development, and implementation of new possibilities and what obstructs it. In other words, I practice what I preach. Has everything I've created been a smashing success? No. But I've definitely had my share of successes. And the ones that didn't succeed taught me a lot -- about myself, life, the marketplace, and what it takes to go from the IDEA to the MANIFESTATION of the idea. Click the link for more...
1. IDEA CHAMPIONS: Co-Founder and President an innovation consulting and training company. Founded in 1987. Alive and well. Now migrating its services online. Client list.
2. FACE THE MUSIC: Co-Founder, lyricist, and MC of the world's first interactive business blue band. Founded in 1999. Sold my shares in 2008.
3. STORYTELLING FOR THE REVOLUTION: A book about the power of personal storytelling. Published in 2018.
4. FREE THE GENIE: A deck of cards to help aspiring innovators originate, develop, and manifest bold new ideas and possibilities.
5. FREETHEGENIE.com: The online version of the cards. Four idea-sparking games to help people get out of the box. Free 10-year trial subscription.
6. FREE THE GENIE BRAINSTORMING: Facilitated, online creative thinking sessions for individuals and small teams. Facilitator training program in the works. Testimonials.
7. WISDOM CIRCLES: Small group storytelling gatherings to build community, inspire, communicate tacit knowledge, and transmit wisdom. Virtual version to launch in 2021.
8. STORYTELLING AT WORK: Award-winning book about the power of personal storytelling in the workplace.
9. LIGHT READING: Underground community newspaper in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1976.
10. THE BREAKTHROUGH CAFE: A creative thinking experience disguised as a cafe. Created for people in organizations who get their best ideas after work.
11. AWAKE AT THE WHEEL: Award-winning business fable about the mythical invention of the wheel.
12. THE YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY: A suite of online services to help anyone, anywhere, anytime radically increase their odds of manifesting a bold new idea, vision, or venture.
13. FULL MOON AT SUNRISE: A book of poetry. Published in 2012.
14. BRAINTRUST: An outsourced think tank to help organizations accelerate their process of originating and developing new products and services. First client: General Mills.
15. TEAM LEADERSHIP TRAINING: An online learning experience to help organizations establish high performing teams.
16. JUMP START CREATIVITY: The first creative thinking training (aka "Get Out of the Box") AT&T ever offered to its workforce. Licensed to AT&T in 1991.
17. HIGH VELOCITY BRAINSTORMING: Customized ideation sessions for forward thinking organizations. Train the trainer programs available.
18. TEAMWORK CARDS: A deck of 64 cards to spark collaboration, communication, and high performing teamwork.
19. CONDUCTING GENIUS WORKBOOKS: A 140-page guidebook for anyone committed to learning how to facilitate productive ideation sessions.
20. THIRST QUENCH THIRST: Book of poetry, 2007
21. THE DITKOFF/POUGET CLAN: A beautiful 29-year marriage to the extraordinary Evelyne Pouget. By the grace of God, we brought two amazing beings into the world -- Jesse (26) and Mimi (24).
22. CREATIVE THINKING GUIDEBOOKS: A set of five 16-page guidebooks to help aspiring innovators originate, develop, and implement new ideas.
23. INGENUITY BANK: Idea Management software. Commercialized in 2014. Licensed to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Electronic Arts. Dissolved upon the death of my genius business partner and friend, Michael Schacker.
24. FIVE BLOGS:
-- The Heart of Innovation
-- Storytelling at Work
-- Heart of the Matter
-- Unspoken Word
-- Huffington Post
25. Micro-Learning for Innovators: An online library of innovation-sparking content for anyone wanting to dive deeper into their own creative genius. A "name-your-own-price" business model.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:55 AM | Comments (1)
March 05, 2021Regain the Lost Art of Reflection
Are you getting enough time, these days, to reflect or are you rushing from one task to another, swamped by information overload knee jerk responses. Here's a thought-provoking article on the phenomenon from the Harvard Business Review.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
