Michiana Story Hour With Gregg Fraley

Nika Quirk, AKA Princess Succulenta (don't ask) crossed the path of The Innovise Guys at the AIN conference in San Francisco (AIN is the Applied Improvisation Network, see: www.appliedimprov.net). Nika was a keynoter and did an amazing plenary session that involved a group of about 80 people in creating music. We were impressed with her facilitation skill and we had to get her thoughts on tape for our podcast. Nika is a lot of fun, and, a real expert at applied improvisation. She uses her tools and techniques with her coaching and corporate clients. Nika is a co-creator and co-leader of TelePlay, an innovative group coaching seminar utilizing the principles and tools of InterPlay, a philosophy and practice focused on creativity, community, and change (for more information see: http://www.thegreaterpossibility.com/). She's also doing some interesting work as part of her PhD. The Guys and Nika have a bit of fun in this interview, it might have been the wine, but this is a fun interview with great content for an

Pamela Meyer is a consultant, author, and teacher. In this fast moving and lighthearted interview with the Innovise Guys she talks about her deep dive into the idea of organizational improvisation and the related topics of creativity training and appreciative inquiry. Pam has a deep background in the theater arts and she discovered the value of improvisation when casting plays. She's learned over time the value that improv has to build responsiveness to changing conditions in the market place, and an ability to adapt quickly to change. She's also learned how to introduce improvisation to organizations in a way that takes the emphasis off performance and back to awareness, appreciation, and ultimately improved ability to interact and innovate. She teaches these things to her corporate clients and students at DePaul University. She's the author of Quantum Creativity. For more about Pam visit her web site: www.meyercreativity.com.

The Innovise Guys do an inspiring interview with creativity icon and author of "The Artists Way", Julia Cameron about her new memoir "Floor Sample". Julia is best known for her seminal book on unblocking creativity (The Artists Way) and Gregg and Doug talk with Julia about both books in this lively chat. The topics bounce around all things creativity. Julia talks about how her sobriety caused the invention of her creativity tools, and how her upbringing in a big family led to her teaching these tools and sharing with others. An overview of the "Artists Way" is given, including the concepts of Morning Pages and an Artist's Date. She also talks about how to train your inner critic and finally her current project with collaborator Emma Lively -- a Broadway musical (their third!). This is a fascinating talk with a very interesting person and all in less than 24 minutes!

Tama J. Kieves, Harvard Law School cum laude graduate abruptly left the legal profession to write. Her book "This Time I Dance!" is all about doing what you love and more generally Career Transitions. She talks with Gregg and Doug in front on a live audience at Transitions Bookplace in Chicago. It's an entertaining interview -- Tama has fun with Da Guys -- that gets to the heart of why 3 of 5 people are unhappy with what they do. She suggests practical remedies to that sad situation. For more information about Tama visit www.AwakeningArtistry.com.

Amy Lee, aka Segami (the word Images backwards) is that rare combination of scientist and artist. Segami literally paints on water -- she talks about that process here -- and gives dynamic keynote speeches about Seeing the Impossible. Segami is also involved in an international entrepreneurial business venture in the recycled waste for energy arena. Listen to this interesting interview with the Innovise Guys, the talk is about art, innovation, business, creativity, and more. For more information about Segami and her art, visit: www.segami.com

Ralph Kerle, of The Creative Leadership Forum of Asia Pacific and Australia is a leading creativity expert and a pioneer in the use of the arts in business leadership training. A former theater director, he has a lot of insight on the value of creative training at all levels of management. His wry sense of humor blends well with the Innovise Guys and they have a great discussion about...getting into the moment, acting and authenticity, status in business transactions, and much more. Tune in for an amusing interview! Check out Ralph at: www.thecreativeleadershipforum.com.

Linda Yaven is a communication designer and invention coach with a unique appraoch to creativity. The Innovise Guys interviewed her at the Creative Problem Solving Insitute -- and it's a light hearted and yet rich in content discussion. Linda provides clients with services and trainings, based on emerging methods from the design studio - for making thinking visible and qualitative assessment. Linda recently completed a project for The Department of Defense on creative thinking and assessment. She is on the Graduate Design Faculty of California College of the Arts, and is a public speaker on innovation design. She has been an advisor/documenter for The Making Learning Visible Institute at Harvard. She will present "Fast and Light: Making Thinking Visible" at The Innovation Immersion Conference for Fortune 500, San Diego, CA. in October. She is completing a one hour documentary "Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes". To subscribe to her newsletter, called work-in-progress, please visit www.lindayaven.com

Hear Jon Pearson and believe in yourself as an artist! Jon is a font of knowledge and inspiration on creative process. A former political cartoonist, and now an educator, consultant, and speaker, he's profound, funny, interesting, and full of content -- all at once. In this highly improvised and humorous interview Jon speaks about using drawing to explore challenges, how anybody can draw using his famous Moodgie technique, being in the present and "Not Knowing. He links Not Knowing to better learning, thinking, seeing, experiencing -- and gratitude. Take the time and listen to a creative master riffing his heart out. You won't be disappointed.

The Innovise Guys interview Transitions Bookplace owner, Gayle Seminara-Mandel. Gayle talks about how she came to start Chicago's premier bookstore and also about the context of her own spiritual transformation. Gayle's turning point came when she was involved in a near fatal car accident, and she tells that story here. She also relates how serendipity saved the store from financial disaster. Her real life stories of inspiration mark this podcast as one of the more serious and spiritually oriented programs the Guys have done to date, certainly the most inspirational. For more information on Transitions Bookplace, go to: http://www.transitionsbookplace.com/.

The Innovise Guys Interview innovation expert Blair Miller (of Blair Miller & Associates). As usual it's a combination of solid creative thinking and innovation content with a dash of fun from Fraley and Stevenson. Miller shares insights on creative environment, assessment, leadership, and more in this informal interview with a leading innovation practitioner.

In the second half of the live podcast Doug, Gregg, Megon, and Jill have a wide ranging discussion on many aspects of creativity -- and the fun continues as well. Megon does several hilarious musical impressions, including a terriffic version of Patsy Cline's "Crazy," and snippets of Doris Day, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and Edith Piaf. The serious topics include: getting into action, the value of audacity, the virtue of persistence, and overcoming procrastination and the fear factors in problem solving. The show ends with an inspirational song about Dreams by Megon. The Innovise Guys are appreciative of their guests -- thank you to Megon McDonough and Jill Badonsky.

The Innovise Guys host a lively live podcast at the North Michigan Avenue Apple Store in Chicago. Guests Megon McDonough, a singer/songwriter, and Jill Badonsky, author of "The Nine Modern Day Creative Muses...and a Bodyguard" join Gregg Fraley and Doug Stevenson in an explosive two part show. In Part One, Gregg and Doug improv on "My Kind of Town", Megon McDongough sings an inspirational song about finding one's creative soul, and Jill Badonsky does some cool and spiritual beatnikesque poetry. The discussion gets serious when the crew talks about how to find your creativity and how spirituality connects with...business results! Megon shares some hilarious stories about illegal driving at the age of 15, and Jill explores how your use of language can have you thinking differently and more creatively, all the time. This and much more in Part One, enjoy.

Dan Greenberger is the Chief Innovation Officer of Greenhouse, an innovative advertising company in Chicago. He talks with the Innovise guys about the value of creative problem solving training in his agency and also about the value of understanding creative style. This is a real world interview with a working creative professional who doesn't stand pat but instead increases his creativity and the creativity of his people to provide better value for his customers. As usual The Innovise Guys have some fun riffing on Thelonius Monk, zen jokes, and more.

In part two of the interview with Stephen M. Shapiro, author of "Goal Free Living," Doug and Gregg riff on Shaprio's 8 secrets. The energy is high and the content is dense and fascinating. All lightened by humorous Shapiro anecdotes and improvised sidetrips to connect the 8 secrets to creativity and innovation. This might be the funniest -- and most relevant -- interview the Innovise Guys have done to date.

Author of "Goal Free Living" -- Stephen M. Shapiro is interviewed on this edition of The Innovise Guys. In part one of this two part podcast, Stephen talks about how he intended to write a book about creativity --but took a left turn into something much different and more powerful on a nationwide interviewing tour. The guys have fun singing snatches of "Goal Free" -- a parody of the old chesnut "Born Free". Some typical Innovise Guys improvisational tangents and funny stories with profound points from Stephen punctuate this lively interview.

The Innovise Guys talk with Jean Bystedt, one of the authors of "Moderating to the Max" a seminal book on the field of Qualitative Research. Jean and the guys explore the relationship of qualitative research to innovation, and debunk some common myths. Jean does some actual research techniques and advises small business people on ways to do better research on the cheap. As usual the guys have some fun and Jean and Gregg do a singing duet only to be "raided" by an ASCAP-BMI agent (Doug).

Inventive Behavior is the theme this week on The Innovise Guys. They interview Paula Rosch, inventor of Huggies Little Swimmers, and talk to her about her unique theory of predicting consumer markets. She's identified "Scouts" -- consumers whose behavior gives clues as to where the market is going years ahead of the pack. As always, the innovise guys have some fun -- Gregg and Doug do some scat singing, play drums, and the lively talk with Paula encompasses related innovation subjects like change agents, "floaters," the value of incubation, observational research, and the creation of tools to help you invent and innovate. Scouts is a registered trademark of Paula Rosch.

In the third edition of The Innovise Guys, Stevenson and Fraley disucss a tool for idea evaluation and refinement called "PPCo" or Positives, Potentials, Concerns, and Overcoming concerns. They get off on some humorous tangents related to Doug's Christmas tree which is still up on February 7th. Listen for their improvised version of "O Christmas Tree," Gregg's John Wayne impression, and more fun as they explain and demonstrate the PPCo tool.

In their second show Da Creative Guys become Da Innovise Guys -- combining innovation and improvisation to create a new identity. They talk about the Four P's of creativity: Process, People, Product, and something called "Press". Discussion included information about the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), the Creative Education Foundation (CEF), and the March public seminar the InnoviseGuys are conducting in Chicago

Gregg Fraley and Doug Stevenson do for creativity and innovation what the car guys did for auto repair. Both are experienced corporate innovators who also have experience in the world of improvisation, giving us Da Innoviseguys. They talk about creative problem solving, innovation, and the tools and techniques to become more creative. They have a good deal of fun along the way. This is their first podcast.