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Phil McKinney

Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.

The Role of the Individual in a Creative Economy Is …

How does an individual fit into the new creative economy? Many people think in broad terms of small start-ups with collaborative teams working together to achieve innovation. But the role of the individual is the most critical piece of the link to a creative economy. According to the Creative Econom

creative economy

Flow: Filling the Well of Personal Creativity

We’ve all experienced that magic state of being completely immersed in something or being blissfully “in the zone”. Everything clicks and you are running on all cylinders. Time seems to fade away, you forget to eat, and your focus is razor-sharp. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this feeli

creative flow

Brainstorming for Fun and Profit – 5 Tips for Teams

Today’s economy is not for the weak of heart.  From new media to flexible work hours to diverse workplaces, the business of business has become more complex than it ever was before.   To compete in the ever-changing marketplace, you have to be flexible, creative, and daring without forsaking sensibl

brainstorm for profit

8 Simple Steps To Be More Creative

So you want to be more creative? It may not be as hard as it sounds. Like so many other things in life, there are steps you take to train your creative muscle. Want it. Do you even want to be creative? If so prove it to yourself by living a life that embraces for […]

creative creativity

Great Innovations From Asking the Right Questions

Innovation is not about solving just any problem, but about knowing which problems to solve. We discover the right problem by asking the right questions.  There are a number of inflection points in history in which a brilliant person took a popularly held assumption — even one that is totally counte

Smart Questions

Better ideas can completely change the face of your business and that’s not a bad thing!

Better ideas can make or break a business plan.  After all, success is based on the ability to come up with better ideas.  At the same time, bad ideas can take a successful business model and drag it down into the ground faster than you can blink.  Trust me.  I have the scars to prove it. […]

better ideas innovation

Igniting Personal Creativity

In my book Beyond the Obvious, I discuss the power of questions in igniting personal creativity and thereby create innovations that impact a business or industry. If you’ve read the book, you know what some of those questions are. They begin, “What are . . . ?” “What if . . . ?” “What will be . . .

Igniting Personal Creativity

Beyond The Obvious is named Top 10 Business Book …. in Austria!

Yesterday I got an email from my publisher (Hyperion) with an attachment   When I opened the attachment, I saw that Beyond The Obvious had been named #8 on the Top 10 Business Book in Austria! Thanks to all the readers in Austria!   Note:  Through Dec 31st, 100% of the author royalties from my book

Top 10 Business Book

If you want to be innovative, it helps to be a little bit ‘different.’

Would you agree that if you want to be innovative, it helps to be a little bit different? The upcoming issue of The World Financial Review has reprinted Chapter 1 from my book Beyond The Obvious titled “Why Questions Matter?”. The core message of the chapter is that there are many ways to generate n

different broken

Core Attributes For An Innovation Culture

The key foundation for an innovation culture is what I call the “core attributes”.  Core attributes are those attributes the organization holds which form the foundation on which its perform work and conduct itself.  Done well, they are empowering to an organization. What to think about when definin

innovation culture