While the winding road to innovation often only makes sense in retrospect, that doesn’t mean you can’t bend the odds. One of my favorite prospective strategies an organization can employ is the classic science fair... but you must approach it correctly.

One of my all-time favorite origin stories is a case study in innovation: a collision between boredom, R&D, ineffective technology and a frustrated choirboy.

Thomas Edison is one of history’s most prolific inventors. He made regular professional use of an under-rated if not derided personal past-time. New research suggests his radical strategy works!

The need to “think outside the box” seems obvious. A few Nobel Prize winners share their thoughts on how to do it. (It’s not nearly as complicated as you might think.)

Ever wonder where Amazon’s famous flywheel-spinning organizational innovation, the “two pizza team,” came from? Hint: it didn’t come from a brainstorm…

Innovators ranging from Lin-Manuel Miranda to Jeff Bezos wielded down time as a deliberate strategy. For all our connectedness, being unplugged has never been more important.

For breakthroughs to happen, we need to make new connections. These connections aren’t just the function of new input, though; we’ve got to create space to realize them, too.

A stratospheric success at Google might never have reached escape velocity if folks weren’t allowed to indulge pet projects. Here’s the inside scoop.

For all the ink that’s been spilled on overcoming creative blocks, we often neglect an important reality: getting stuck is essential to breaking through! Let’s stop to appreciate the feeling…

Wildly inventive individuals have a habit of gathering conceptual pieces before they know exactly what they’re going to do with them. The more legos you collect, the more ideas you can make.

How did I have the boldness to approach a living legend of innovation as a total stranger? I was inspired by one of my own students, and followed suit.

I was blown away by Malcolm Gladwell’s response to the question, “If you were given a month to come up with an idea for a new story, what would you do?”

My simple, battle-tested strategy for winning at the conference game. Developed to help combat the tendency to comfort-seeking and awkwardness-reduction. Applied in cringe-worthy moments, with delightful results.

“Who in their right mind would work in such conditions???” I often think to myself… And then that very, messy environment delivers an unexpected connection, and I remember: Picasso, Angelou, and me.

Since connections are the very basis of creativity, anyone who seeks creative output should consider: what fuels new connections? Michael Dell’s early experiments give us a glimpse at a very unexpected answer…

A fascinating psychology study reveals a disturbing truth: the world around is ripe with potential inspiration that is far too often unrealized simply because we aren’t looking.

Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” But to connect, you’ve got to disconnect, too. A growing body of research demonstrates the benefits of literally “looking at nothing.”

Our instinct is to retreat inwardly when tasked with the challenge of coming up with ideas. Instead, we should get out. Here’s my favorite way to find ideas.

The fundamental responsibility of the innovator is to forge new connections. But how does one do that? Here are a few starting suggestions.

Marcus Hollinger is a modern day renaissance man. A steady gig as SVP of Reach Records didn’t keep him from starting coffee company on the side. Far from sapping him of creative energy, the side-hustle fuels fresh thinking.