CM 098: Jon Kolko on Igniting Creativity in Organizations
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What if you are creative, but your organization is not?

Many of us have worked in places that have tried to adopt more creative practices, and we know that it doesn’t always produce the desired results. In fact, if we introduce creativity, it can even seem to backfire.

But Jon Kolko has devised a formula for injecting creativity into resistant organizations. Author of the book, Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide for Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company, Jon is a Partner at Modernist Studio and Founder of Austin Center for Design. He served as VP of Design at Blackboard, has worked extensively with both startups and Fortune 500 companies, and has written four additional books on design.

Jon shares insights for achieving creativity and innovation in even the most resistant organizations. In this interview we discuss:

	Why attempts at introducing creativity into organizations can make things worse
	The role framing plays in the creative process and how it helps with innovation 
	How leading with a creative strategy changes can yield more innovative solutions
	Why summary problem statements are so important
	How to push through complexity to arrive at simplicity
	Why creative people work best a flow state of uninterrupted blocks of time
	Why embracing a creative culture means embracing uncertainty
	The role of feedback in a special kind of meeting called a critique
	The two reactions to avoid when receiving feedback
	How creative approaches differ in small versus large organizations
	The three types of ownership of ideas
	The one skill that every instructor needs to teach students in creative fields
	What mentors are invaluable
	Why teaching design thinking is inseparable from teaching of design

Episode Links

Jon Kolko

Creative Clarity

Frog Design

Ideo

Flow

The Swoop and Poop

Design Thinking

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