 Aloha. Welcome to The Creative Life, brought to you by the American Creativity Association in collaboration with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Darlene Boyd, ACA Chair, and Phyllis Bleece, ACA Association President, joins me in hosting today's show as we explore the secrets of top innovators with today's guest, Rosemary Rine. Rosemary joins us from her home in Cuenca, Ecuador. Rosemary is a renowned award-winning author and internationally sought after creativity consultant. Originally from the United States, she has lived a creative life in Latin America for 15 years. Her passion is helping organizations and more than 100 global fellows from around the world develop a culture of innovation. Welcome Rosemary to The Creative Life. Perhaps the best way to start off is if you would briefly tell us about this adventure you have with innovation minds and in particular your role. Oh well Aloha and congrats to the American Creativity Association. Now more than ever we need creativity and innovation in our life and thank you for inspiring the curiosity with this program. Well my journey with innovation minds I began as an in-person facilitator of creativity and innovation and one of the frustrations I had was that innovation would happen in these once a year events but in fact innovation is needed every day and every way that we look at both business and life. So I was very fortunate to be invited to be one of the innovators interviewed by the team at innovation minds who had identified four blockers innovation. What was stopping companies from being more innovative and developing a technology solution as we move into the era of AI and technology that would enable us to make creativity and innovation part of everyday workflow and particularly in the times that we live in and the hybrid world that many of us are working in. So yes resume you said you were asked to be one of the consultants with innovation minds who are innovation minds and you know how do we contact and be in contact with that group and also what is the foundation for the four blocks to innovation. How did you discern what those four blocks are? Well actually innovation minds was formed it was a Silicon Valley startup developed by the innovators at LinkedIn and PayPal who got together with their frustrations and created this organization that would have an end-to-end solution not just idea management but also how do you go from idea to implementation. So I was very thrilled to be one of not only the participants in terms of what was blocking us but to be part of interviewing top innovators what are these four blockers to innovation and then to create a solution that's going to tackle that. So in fact innovation is part of what we do in everyday workflow and we can talk about those blockers Phyllis if you if you'd like to. Yeah so why don't you kick it off. Okay well the first one I wanted to talk about is non-scalable process which is once and done or one hit wonders innovation does not happen in this one aha moment and doesn't happen with this one group and we also have day to day work so we should be innovating every day. So how do you create a system and framework so that it's incorporated innovation is incorporated into daily workflow in both the real and the virtual world. So blocker number one is you need to have a sustainable framework you don't want to be have the future of a blockbuster that stopped with innovation with one product one and things are changing so rapidly which gets to blocker number two which is prioritizing today's work over tomorrow's ideas and I always love to give resources to those that are watching that are entrepreneurs that are innovators and right now online you can find a 2022 trend hunter report that shows how the pandemic is radically changing how we think how we learn how we love and it's so critical we can't wait till we get through the pandemic these changes are happening a fast and furiously so for example we've got the work from home culture to contend with and by the way people that work from home are not as motivated as those that are working in the office so how do we engage with them a second trend is artificial intelligence how are you using artificial intelligence to engage your customers with your brand and the example that comes to mind is idea you know people are no longer going many people are not comfortable with in-person shopping so idea has an awesome qr code that you actually go into your living room you put the qr code you take that magic blue sofa you put it in your living room your family does weight lifting and has fun interacting with the furniture so how are you engaging with this new consumer who's staying at home and prefers the safety and convenience of shopping from it help and third of course is health and safety how is your brand looking at health and safety that's a trend that we really can't wait to think about how we're going to tackle that so for example not only are we going to see more physical safety in locations but they even have innovative projects or products such as smart mirrors that you look in the mirror and the whole family gets their biometrics measured the children have cartoons that they can brush their teeth longer because they're engaged with the mirror so technology is changing at the speed of light as we become more health and wellness oriented and the fourth trend of course is concern for our planet and taking care of our planet how is your brand innovating so not only are you creating innovative products like a vietnamese company created a biodegradable mask made of coffee beans i'm from Ecuador so of course that appealed to my sensibility but how is your company lowering your environmental footprint so the second blocker is you can't afford to wait for innovation because things are changing so quickly and the third showstopper or inhibitor that that really was the foundation of innovation minds is lack of strategic alignment and sponsorship if you don't have an executive sponsor to move this forward it won't happen angel investors for entrepreneurs and interestingly enough the diversity of the team one of the things we created at innovation minds is like a e harmony profile so we get diverse team members working on that innovation project not people that are all thinking the same way through innovative profiles and the fourth one which i think everyone who is in business is thinking about today is talent isn't engaged and motivated and you might reference in academic journals the great resignation low estimates are 25 of us because we were staying put during the pandemic are going to be looking for new job opportunities so how do we keep you engaged so with all of those blockers in mind we created an all in one solution that tackles engagement that tackles how do you get the right people on the team and by the way make it simple so you're not going to all these multiple platforms you're not going to a facebook and an event bright but you're actually combining everything in one piece of software as well as in person facilitation that makes it engaging and fun what is it i'm sorry i know you have a question darling but you said you've got an all in one solution it won't innovate the rest of your lives but the one thing it will do is it will make it seamless so we have a tool that we provide to both small and large businesses one client i recently worked with was red bull in which you can have this combination of in person as well as virtual engagement so when you think about creativity and innovation you think about post-it notes well imaginative innovation was as engaging as a facebook feed for example where you have innovation snacks and you're matched with individuals who have an interest in solving those challenges by the way one of the top motivators how do you keep employees engaged during this hybrid time is to give them a challenge to solve they people want a mission and want a purpose so how do you engage that that hybrid workforce you get them engaged and use technology as a tool but not the only tool so we do in person events as well well i i just i'm really excited about your examples and many things i hadn't thought about but what comes to mind is i'm listening to you i was bringing myself back to thinking about just the idea of vaccination and some of the barriers that we received all right so every day the shifts in how vaccines would be distributed for example and the politics involved any comments that you might have for us and oh i am so happy that you know politics yeah at at the beginning of the pandemic if you were in the us you watched it on cnn you probably watched it on bbc ecuador was listed as the worst place to be in the pandemic with bodies on the street and it was horrid and no vaccinations no vaccines were available which is exactly why i thought you might be a perfect person to talk about it was such a challenging time um my husband and i celebrated our combined 145th birthday virtually because we were in lockdown mode but what i'm so thrilled to share is the power of creative problem solving and innovation last week world health announced that ecuador is leading the world in vaccination rates and they applied creative problem solving and process i talked about a sustainable framework this was a time during political transition as the us experienced but we were able to accomplish this by looking at really innovative ways to actually use for example polling registrars to to reach at-risk communities and rural areas so i'm very pleased today and let's keep our fingers crossed that we continue that that is one practical example of how when you get head heart and and and mind connected and you apply creative problem solving miracles do happen what what do you do in the process when what do you do to come up against the show stoppers and the blockers when they're not moving when those blockers you think you've utilized all your strategies that you've mentioned but yet you're still hitting a wall how do you get true or above that wall well yeah the the wall still occur for example you have organizational change i'm working with a client right now of a major corporation where there's change at the top and so the focus on innovation can be challenging i think our principles of change management which are bite-sized chunks and progress you need to show i i think about the example of an uber why is it we're going to wait for an uber because we can see the car coming right i think when we think of innovation is all this one big thing it's a major initiative we need to make these incremental increases and show employees that we're getting somewhere i will say that's so important i'm a big believer in applying creativity and allowing innovation and creative thoughts to thrive which is why creative problem solving itself i think is a miracle because it stops us from premature evaluation of ideas through divergent and convergent thinking but so important that we not only have that sustainable framework in place but we make sure at the beginning of the initiative which is why we do a lot of hand-holding at innovation minds with clients to make sure they're going to be successful by having both executive sponsorship in person as well as virtual touchpoints and we always keep in mind the key motivation of individuals you know not only are there very cool things that you can do like virtual coffee houses and virtual wine clubs i love that one by the way um where they're setting bottles of wine to everyone and they're they're finding unique and creative ways so that employees can play so always keeping in mind that even though technology is an aid it's always the heart of human connection well if you would allow me before i ask uh phyllis to come up with her her thoughts because because i'm sure she has many i don't want to leave your mention of creative problem solving without bringing forth that there are many models for problem solving that we come across but the models that that i feel are bring most success are those that go repeatedly in the process from the creative to the critical so in other words you're going from creative thinking to critical thinking creative thinking then back again to critical thinking and reevaluating i would assume you would agree i absolutely would agree and i think there is a marriage between creative problem solving and we've used design thinking and other we have a thongs framework the sharkathon the makeathon cool names for different ways to get people engaged but one component that i'm a big believer in is ideas need implementation so one of the things we did in innovation lines is we made sure that ideas don't stop in the idea bank that it sees its way through to project management and implementation and one of my pet peeves has always been how do we measure innovation and so using employee engagement measures and other measures will help us kind of put a spotlight on the importance of innovation every day equal to that of productivity so you between you we're talking about creative problem solving and there's been years of a creative problem solving institute at sipsy at the new york university at syracuse and when and our audience is hearing this and it's rolling off our tongues but we're talking about years of process and work so if you look up online just google creative problem solving or cps we're not just using it generically that's a term of art that embraces a lot of modalities for creative for generating creative ideas like um and in you know brainstorming alliteration there's just there are there are very strategic and well thought through steps to this quote creative problem solving unquote discipline and uh and we're we're jockeying around these terms because we're it it's our craft and but i want to move to the personal side and you talked about having creativity one of the blocks is not using innovation every in an everyday way but it's just kind of an annual event and what are some of the secrets to embracing innovative habits and thinking on a daily basis i know this is something you and your company have really spent time looking at if you could share that with the audience for sure and the global fellows i work with um you know it goes back for me to there was a Harvard study on the power of the word the cause and believe it or not when you use that magic word you increase retention from 60 to 93 percent so for example if you have a teenager who won't clean up their room uh you just don't say well why do you what's what's the because for them not because i said so that doesn't work but giving them a powerful motivator so everything from filling out a form tell me the why so when i think about personal creativity what is my personal why now my husband and i've been married for 28 years um we uh every year it probably looks kind of dorky but we have a marriage state of the marriage retreat and we talk about 10 10 and 10 10 things we want to be say and do and we have that as a framework at the beginning of the year and sometimes we do things differently but we we have a discussion about what are those critical because points for us um when i teach speak when i teach global fellows how to speak english it's not to speak english it's what is the because behind that are they looking to work internationally for example so knowing your because not only important in business but yourself as well i think another um component that i think about is we talked about applying creative problem solving and trying to put a little bit of innovation in your life every day now i authored go wild survival skills for business and life uh for park university and i went into the wilderness and became a wilderness expert and learned that there are five keys to surviving and business and life which is the premise of the book but one thing that was very important to me is my understanding of the power of nature and the nature of inspiration so spending time with nature i tell my clients those five minute vacations that you can spend mind walks all kinds of different techniques using nature as a tool and then one i know darlene you and i met at a creative problem solving institute conference find your tribe i am such a firm believer even in covid i have found a way to find my tribe of five you should have that individual who supports you that individual who you have fun with that individual who will call you out on your stuff and say i'm not sure you're thinking you know the right way on this you should have that individual that engages you and gives you new ideas my one book i read recently was you become the five people you spend time with i want to spend it with really cool people who will stretch my thinking and you think differently than i do and of course both of you realize in these days of political division how magical is it that we can speak of two individuals with different thoughts and and and and discuss ideas just as we're doing with think tech kawaii when you mentioned tribe i i've been thinking about tribe quite a bit lately and what i find intriguing when i think about my tribe is how we gravitate to each other over the years and and as we often say about friends you can talk to a friend from years ago and it's as if you never broke away you just take off where you've left off and and i think that is important about tribes i find it interesting too that you so you suggest to have i heard you correctly five in your start five yeah at least a tribe of five we have we have tribal meetings virtually really you are a wild woman so i i think i personally find something intriguing about your adventurous life that not only do you visit these places and i don't and live in them i don't think you're there as a tourist if i understand what i've heard from you you actually immerse yourself and become part of that culture could you suggest a couple examples that that you've done i know in close to rica it seems that it seemed that you had all kinds of excursions and adventures for sure and yes we were pretty committed that we would not live in an enclave of of expats and we we purposely and with intention not only do we take courses from the university here in ecuador even though spanish is my second language so there there is a barrier there that you need to overcome but we do try to not only mingle with international citizens who are residing here but try to go to local events understand the culture you know my i've also done some recruiting for executives and i often say to them you know you have a real winning candidate if you find someone who's lived somewhere else in the world there is something about living somewhere else not as a tourist but living somewhere else and so many of the students that i'm working with are in the process of immigrating from brazil to italy because they have national italian heritage for example and they're taking that jump that leap because they want to live life as an adventure a learning adventure and as long as you're you're ready to have embarrassing moments to have times where you do not understand what is happening and you can laugh about it and you know i i often say to my students if you can say two words in any language you will survive please and thank you learn basic courtesies and i have to say that one challenge i have had is when people who visit here or think about living here constantly make comparisons with their home country because i think when you make the move and if you are thinking about an international lifestyle that you need to embrace all that it is have you learned not to make that comparison yourself how long did it take you to shed that you know what i have to shed when i talk with my family back home and they see the pictures on facebook of my amazing life and they say but don't you miss it back home and i i kind of bite my tongue a little bit because there are so many things i love about this country and also the united states of course is my home country i'll always be a us citizen gave me opportunities and i still work with so many clients there but i've learned to appreciate each culture for what it brings and my one of my teaching moments is never to make generalizations about women men populations because it just doesn't apply we're all unique god-given creatures it doesn't sound like you have any regrets do you do you ever think of a regret now and then i'm sure there are life regrets at 28 i opened uh and converted an 1840 historic building in kate may new jersey young and entrepreneurial i had a half a million dollar sba loan when i was 28 years of age went on into business i'm sure mistakes along the way but uh i have to say that the decision to move to a foreign country particularly latin america was a blessing for us but i always love to go home i'm going to be i i was soon as we're able to travel um i certainly will look forward to my own little creature comforts that i miss back in the us phyllis yes um rosemary you've talked about working with innovation officers that sounds like a job title and i think the audience would be really interested to know how do you become an innovation officer and who's hiring them and if you are already one what could you do better to to encourage other companies to add more of what you do this is a whole new industry is it not it really is and just yesterday i was with a student in saudi arabia uh virtually of course and she just received her certification to be a chief innovation officer and dubai and abu dubai as you might be aware have so many incredible innovations happening and so she's working with a nonprofit to encourage uh an incubator for entrepreneurs modeling in part what silicon valley has done you will find a lot of chief innovation officers in the silicon valley area but companies i would encourage companies to reach out to us at innovation minds certainly we can we can point you in the right direction connect you with other innovation officers we do a podcast with innovators and not only cheap innovation officers but um almost like i might at one point i had a business card for my dog called cfo chief fund officer one and an agent and he was i got more clients by giving business cards i can tell you but um really it's that it's that art of not only knowing the process of innovation so i would explore that um and there are groups certainly online of of innovation officers but really exploring how employee engagement is really at the heart of it all because in the end people are the ones powering the engine think think mahalo is we say in hawaii for that and i'll turn it over back to you darlene i think we're in the last gas i would like to know more about what people do to become an innovative officer or be able to apply and there is a blog on the library at think tecawaii of all of our shows on the creative life and after each show there you can add information and you can look there for ways to look up getting qualified and certified and create a problem solving so i encourage people to look online after the show is over but off to you darlene yes and and rosemary i i really have enjoyed as i always do hearing your repertoire and your advice and your suggestions and i do thank you for the time that you've given us and i suppose phyllis it's might be helpful to mention to our viewers since we have talked about creative problem solving that in the next few shows coming up over the next two months i believe we will have some of the heads of those uh institutes that that we've somewhat referenced jarard putio from buff state with the the famous creative problem saw overseeing the famous creative problem solving institute so we would encourage our visitors to keep with us and i i think we might be able to build our own little tribe here if we have that opportunity so with that thank you for joining us today for today's think tecawaii show the creative life with creativity consultant guest rosemary rine the primary takeaway from today's show is perhaps a better understanding of how to navigate through and override blockers to organizational innovation in business and in our personal lives join us in two weeks for the next show of the creative life journey on behalf of my colleague and host phyllis please and our guest remacy excuse me rosemary rosemary rine and myself aloha