How Reframing a Problem Unlocks Innovation

I came across this great article recently that got me
thinking about how many of us respond when problems arise. We often immediately
jump to how this problem can be solved, but forget to really take a look at what
the problem actually is. The simple
process of asking why may help us analyze the problem from a variety of angles
and potentially develop a better solution. Do you have any success stories of getting to
the root of a problem? What was the
outcome? Your success story may help a colleague get to the root of their
problem.

Writing Daily

Are you, like me, sometimes overwhelmed with your daily "big picture" tasks, that you lose track of the smaller things that you should be practicing every day? Don't worry, you're not alone. As a copywriter and editor, I try to set aside X amount of minutes each day to just free-write. This is not always related to work, or personal life, or anything. It's just the practice of writing (and no, emails don't count!) that gets those juices flowing.

I recently read this article, "Why You Should Write Daily" by Leo Babuta, which outlines the importance of setting aside writing time, and also gives tips on how to do it. His top five tips?

1.) Commit to writing daily.
2.) Set aside the time.
3.) Start small.
4.) Blog.
5.) Shut down distractions.

Read the full article here, and happy writing!

Bring out your latent artistic skills at the Forum Conference

I've been a terrible artist my entire life. I cannot render the most basic images. Put a pencil in my hand and watch catastrophe unfold.

So I am especially excited that we are bringing Debra Frasier to the conference. You probably know Debra's book On the Day You Were Born, which has been a mainstay of baby gifts for more than 20 years.


Debra will be joining us for two sessions where she'll be teaching us the art of paper cutting--and how anyone, even me, can express themselves artistically with paper, scissors and glue. I might not ever make a beautiful papercut for my day job, but the creativity it unleashes will definitely influence all the other things I do at work.

Here are a couple other paper cut images from On the Day You Were Born:

"Welcome to the spinning world," the people sang, as they washed your new, tiny hands. "Welcome to the green Earth,"....

These are from A Birthday Cake is No Ordinary Cake:




And Debra's new book, Spike: Ugliest Dog in the Universe, was illustrated with cut up old jeans. It comes out in fall 2013.

Now, REGISTER for the conference, today.