Mixed Emotions

My friend Kevin Patrick Connor's send-off was not so much a day of mourning --although it was -- as it was a day of celebration of a life lived full-tilt.

I think he'd like this Jagger-Richards epitaph from "Mixed Emotions":

"Let's grab the world

by the scruff of the neck

And drink it down DEEPLY

Let's love it to death

So button up your coat

Let's go out dancing

Let's ROCK & ROLL"

Doug Stevenson ... Just Waiting on a Friend ...

Paint it Black

My friend Kevin Patrick Connor passed away last week after a long illness. He was 55.

He was T-H-E consummate Rolling Stones fan, finding much inspiration in the darkness, reckless abandon, often irreverent -- if not vituperous lyrics and the defiant frolic of his beloved icons.

Kevin, like The Stones, was an iconoclast that dwelled in both darkness and light, sneering at and celebrating life at the same time.

Among the things that made him creative and interesting to be around were:

• His irreverence


• His dark sense of humor


• His love of people


• His deadpan delivery


• His disdain for complacency -- and playing it safe


• His capacity to connect people


• His love of variety and diversity


• His explosive laugh


• Hi insatiable appetite for the new


• His love of change and challenge


• His keen intellect


• His penchant for organizing fun


• His spirituality


• His authenticity and blunt honesty


• His tolerance/attraction to the strange and unusual


• His love for art, music, cooking, reading -- any challenge, including acting, triathalons and long-distance bike rides

Nils Lofgren once wrote a song entitled "Keith Don't Go" about Keith Richards.

Last week our hearts seemed to be exclaiming "Kevin don't go!"

But he didn't have it in him to "gather moss" -- and he had fought tirelessly and with great spirit and humor to beat his unrelenting cancer.

Keith Richards once said, "There is the sun, the moon and The Rolling Stones."

A lot of people felt that way about Kevin.

Doug Stevenson for The Innovise Guys

Creative Clutter

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

Albert Einstein

Take Your Notebook to Church!

Since we have established that both a sermon and a boring meeting are opportunities to think creatively, you might want to take a notebook and a pen with you to today's religious services. If your mind starts to stray, as it often does, record the aberrant creative thoughts that cascade like tumbleweeds through your mind. Treat these thoughts as unintended or subliminal inspirations -- gifts from the pulpit and from a higher realm.

Doug Stevenson for The Innovise Guys

innovation, creativity, CPS, improvisation, Osborne-Parnes

ideation, facilitation, consulting, keynotes, change management

When Do CREATIVE IDEAS Come?

I attended a luncheon lecture that Dr. Lisa Gundry of DePaul University's Center for Innovation presented recently and she shared the top ten places where new ideas tend to happen:

1. Mowing the lawn.

2. During a church sermon.

3. Waking up in the middle of the night.

4. Exercising.

5. Reading.

6. During a boring meeting.

7. Falling asleep or waking up.

8. Sitting on the toilet.

9. Driving.

10. Taking a bath or shower.

Dr. Gundry also shared that she knew people who worked in a corporate culture wherein there was an ongoing competition to appear to be working hardest, such that employees there would try to arrive at work the earliest, leave the latest and seem to be the busiest.

I observed that this was not only a waste of energy, but if ideas tend to come when we are "off task" or not working/doing, then all this busy-ness actually subverts productivity and the discovery of breakthrough ideas.

Albert Einstein was once asked if he had an hour to solve a problem, how he would allocate his time. He responded that he would spend 55 minutes thinking about and clarifying the problem and 5 minutes solving it. (working/doing)

We need to give ourselves permission -- and allow ourselves to do the important creative "work" that we do when we are not working.

Doug Stevenson

The Innovise Guys

innovation, innovisation, applied creativity, CPS, Osborn-Parnes ...

keynotes, consulting, workshops, facilitation, business humor

ROCKS in your HEAD?!

"Laughter frequently signals when a wacky, quirky, crazy idea has broken the 'unsound barrier.'" Doug Stevenson

What the Huck ...

Thought for the weekend ... I forgot one other thing that Mark Twain said that is relevant to innovation:

"If you're not having FUN, you're not doing it right." -- Mark Twain

Play it Again, Sam ...

I was watching a rerun of the 2004 Mark Twain Award presentation to Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live fame on PBS the other day. Referring to his groundbreaking concept to bring a live comedy show back to television, a presenter quoted Mark Twain:

“A man with a NEW IDEA is a crank until the NEW IDEA SUCCEEDS.”

"Not bad," I thought. And I began to look for what else Samuel Langhorne Clemens might have had to say relevant to innovation ... I found these gems ...

“Name the greatest of all the inventors -- ACCIDENTS.”

Amen. If only we did a better job of keeping an open mind about our "mistakes" and would reframe them.

“Necessity is the mother of "TAKING CHANCES". Often.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

Creative Problem Solving (CPS) is one very good way to do this.

“DO THE THING YOU FEAR MOST and the death of fear is certain.”

Going at your fears works -- Amazingly. Although you don't need to do the Gordon Liddy thing and eat a rat or something like that.

"All you need in life is ignorance and confidence. Then success is assured."

This reminds me of what Napoleon described as the key to success: "Audacity". One thing's for sure, nothing happens unless you take a risk and take an action.

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.”

Laughter is essential to creativity. It shares the same DNA. It is at once core building block material and a potent lubricant of prodigious ideation.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

This one inspired me to take risks and seek to live out my life's purpose with passion - Creativity.

“Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.”

Do I need to explain this one? Speaking of which, The Innovise Guys are looking very much forward to working with Wine Australia in San Francisco in September. And we'll continue to serve wine (Australian you can bet) as we record our podcasts.

Doug Stevenson for The Innovise Guys

Reaching Beyond Your Grasp

This week the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency will celebrate it's birthday for the 72nd time. In my days at LBC, it was a special day of themed entertainment, all sorts of histrionics that only an advertising agency - or something like it - would sponsor, along with day-long lunch excursions with colleagues and the famed "silver dollar bonus" - one for each year the agency was old.



I had a special affinity for the funny-looking little man who shot from the hip and spoke from the heart. (Google "When to Take My Name Off the Door") His work ethic and advertising approach were distinctively Midwestern - Sincere, if not corny -- But on this ethos he built one of the world's most revered and successful agencies. And maybe I related because I was a Leo too -- also born in August -- a dyslexic 1953 to Burnett's 1935. Or because it was my first job out of school -- where I made many life-long friends and played joyously in Grant Park for the curiously quirky, creatively fluent and amply elixored softball team, The Bad Apples.



Leo was at heart an iconoclast and an adventurer. Everyone told him he was crazy to start an ad agency in the midst of the Great Depression. Pernicious prognosticators predicted that he would be selling apples on the street before long -- Thus the signature apples that he gave away, as the agency does to this day. Turning a negative into a positive was at Leo's core ...



Leo was an innovator par excellence because, among other things:

• His dreams always exceeded his grasp.


• He turned negatives into positives.


• He believed that advertising/work was fun.


• He put the client first -- always before profit.


• He understood Client TOUCH POINTS: From the apples, to the thick black pencils in his conference rooms, to his habit of signing all his letters and memos in green ink. Each were a distinct reminder of the brand Leo Burnett and the distinctly innovative thinker behind it -- His passion for what he did, a proud penchant for detail and a unique style.

Happy Birthday Leo! Thanks for the lessons in innovation ...

Doug Stevenson for The Innovise Guys

Mary's CREATIVITY Garden

Dr. Mary Murdock of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College, shows off her "Creativity Garden" at her beloved home in the Carolinas. The Garden was the inspiration of ICSC colleague Dr. Susan Keller-Mathers, who traveled south to Mary's home with plants and hoe in tow to till the earth and to toil with Mary to bring their vision to life. The flowers and plants which decorate the lavish landscape are all gifts from Mary's students, colleagues and friends, all of whom are wishing her well during her second bout with chemotherapy after a recurrence of her cancer.

Like her own beloved mentor and Creativity Hall-of-Famer Dr. Paul Torrance, Mary has enlightened minds, inspired the hearts and lifted the spirits of those around her. The CREATIVITY GARDEN is a living tribute to Mary's many years of ongoing tireless work (and play) and the many lives she has enriched. After providing the gifts of creativity to her minions, Mary has been known to say, "Now get out there and kick butt!!" And that's what many of her proteges have done --- in sharing the gift of creativity with the world.

Do you have a "Creativity Garden"? We all do in some measure -- We have people whose lives we have touched and have touched ours. So plant your own Creativity Garden for inspiration -- or make a collage representing it -- Maybe it's comprised of photos or images that represent the richness in your life. Maybe you cut out images in flower shapes and mount them to green pipe cleaners potted in clay. Or, make whatever suits you and "tills your soil" -- a sculpture, a poem, a drawing or a song ... Let your "garden" inspire you to wellness and a richness that comes from doing great things.

Doug Stevenson for The Innovise Guys