P24 Creativity and the Power of Questions and Curiosity.

• “Welcome to the Proven, Practical, Profitable Innovation podcast! I am Richard and I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day to listen to this podcast.
• My goal is to make sure you get a high return on your time investment listening to this podcast. I want you to immediately be able to use the information in this podcast to help you sell more and make more.
• Please be sure to listen to the end of this podcast where I give you an exciting preview of future podcasts.
• Creativity always seems to have a bit of mystery about. In this podcast, we explore the power of questions and sense of curiosity to drive award-winning creativity. We’ll take a peek into what has made Brian Grazer so successful as a television and movie producer.
• If after listening to this podcast you feel a need for more help, please contact me directly—my email is richard@i2ge.com. You can also go to my website—i2ge.com– where you can explore many innovation topics, especially check out the DIY Innovation Training on the menu bar. We customize all the training programs to our clients’ unique needs and circumstances.
• Let’s get to know Brian Grazer better.
  • • Born in 1951, Brian knew it an early age that visual media was where he wanted to focus his many talents. He graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinema – Television in 1974. In the early 1980s, he formed a highly successful business and creative partnership with Ron Howard – a star in the Andy Griffith Show for eight years and the sitcom Happy Days for six years as Richie Cunningham. In 2007, Time magazine named Brian one of their 100 most influential people in the world.
    • Their first hit was a movie called Splash that in 1984 earned them an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. Other well-known hits include Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind (won the Academy award for best picture in 2001), and the da Vinci code in 2006 to name just a few.
  • What drives his creativity?
    • Brian makes it very clear what drives his creative success in the title of his book – A Curious Mind.
    • Here is an extended quote from the book’s early pages.

 

“By the time I was a young man, curiosity was part of the way I approached the world every day.”

My kind of curiosity is a little wide-eyed, and sometimes a little mischievous. Many of the best things that have happened in my life are the result of curiosity. And curiosity has occasionally gotten me into trouble.”

But even when curiosity has gotten me in trouble, it has been interesting trouble.

Curiosity has never let me down. I am never sorry I asked the next question. On the contrary, curiosity has swung wide many doors of opportunity for me. I’ve met amazing people, made great movies, made great friends, had some completely unexpected adventures, even fallen in love – because I’m not the least bit embarrassed to ask questions.”

 

• A sense of curiosity is absolutely essential to successful innovation. From the podcast on quantum idea generation, we learned strong forces like diversity and stimulus engage your curious mind.
• While most of the podcast so far has focused on the first step in the innovation process – generating high potential new ideas, every step of the innovation process requires a curious and questioning mind if ideas are to be translated into marketplace successes.
• Brian does this by asking questions at every stage of the innovation and development process. Here in his own words is how he illustrates the kinds of questions that make a big difference: “Making the case means answering the big questions. Why this project? Why now? Why with this group of talent? Why with this investment of money? Who is the audience? How will we capture the audience, that customer? And the biggest question of all: what’s the story? What’s this movie about? Or, if you’re not in the entertainment business, what’s the story of this product? What’s this product about?”
• He goes on to say, “Sometimes we need to ask questions that are even more open. What are you focused on? Why are you focused on that? What are you worried about? What’s your plan?
• For Brian curiosity and questions generate the information necessary to make critical decisions at each step of the creative process.
• His curiosity and questions also underscore the importance of diversity in the creative process – every step of the creative and creative development process. By asking questions of many people, you tap into a diverse stream of thinking and solutions to guide decision-making.
• I am a very big believer that the best thinking of any one person can absolutely be made better by the best thinking of many people.

• Ongoing close.
  • What you can do today with this information.
    • First, become a curious person if you’re not already one. Many people think of themselves as experts in something. Unfortunately, this causes what I call the “curse of the expert.” Since they think they already know it all, they are not curious – they are not inclined to ask questions. This curse makes out-of-the-box thinking almost impossible. Experts think they know the hard and fast dimensions of the box and anything outside of the box is not worthy of consideration. If you think you’re an expert, you are cursed. Recognize that you’re not an expert – you really are not – and learn to become curious and satisfy your curiosity with questions.
    • Second, at every stage of the innovation process be far more a receiver of information through answers to your questions than a transmitter of information. Remember in quantum idea generation, the great power that diversity brings to the creative process. You already know what you know. Now find out what other people know by being curious and asking questions.
  • If you would like to see the key written points from this podcast, you can find them in my blog – i2ge.com/blog.
  • If you found this podcast helpful – and I hope you have – please consider giving us a five-star rating. It helps the podcast to become more visible to others and let them know that there is proven and practical help in this podcast that enables them to sell more and make more.
  • If you would like to contact me, please email me at richard@i2ge.com.
  • If you would like to create far more robust innovation capabilities within your business, I have a complete portfolio of training programs that we tailor to your unique needs. If you would like to learn more, go to the Innovate2Grow Experts website – i2Ge.com and click on DIY Innovation Training.
  • One of my six books is Proven Practical Innovation That Delivers Results. This very low-cost book is available at Amazon in paperback and has a Kindle book. Is truly packed with lots of practical help.
  • Importantly, if you found this podcast helpful, please consider helping us with a five-star rating for these podcast. Thank you in advance for your support.
  • PAUSE
• A preview of some future podcasts.
  • Upcoming podcast focus on specific case studies with broadly relevant innovation insights.
  • The next podcast shares part one of some of the biggest business comebacks of the last five years and the major role that innovation played in those turnarounds. As usual, the lessons from these turnarounds can help you immediately to either turn your business around or take proactive action so that you will not be faced with the need of a turnaround.
  • PAUSE
• Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Please have a great day.