Catalyst Ranch’s
Creative Juice Blog
The debate about “working from home” continues. Last week, Chicago Ideas Week shared the video “World of Work,” a conversation between 37Signals co-founder and CEO Jason Fried and James Warren of The Daily Beast/Newsweek. (if reading from email, click here to view this video) Fried presents his office’s non-traditional work methods, including “quiet Thursdays” where [...]
As we prepared for our friend Brendan Sullivan's workshop Why Didn’t We Think of That? Ideas for Generating a Culture of Innovation in Your Workplace on March 21st, I couldn't help wonder what my own "Why didn't I think of that?" moment was. One of my favorite websites is BuzzFeed. I love how they present topics relevant to varying demographics [...]
We're very lucky to meet some of the coolest people at the Ranch. One such person is our friend Brendan Sullivan is a creativity coach. Not only does he work with such clients as PepsiCo, Kelloggs, and GE, he also facilitates our Art-Work partnership with The Art Institute of Chicago. That's why we're so proud to present his [...]
We were so honored to join the many nominees of this year's Illinois Meetings + Events Magazine 8th Readers' Choice Awards on Thursday March 7, 2013. Some of the meetings and events industry's biggest movers-and-shakers gathered at the lovely Spiaggia to mix, mingle, and hear the announcement of this year's winners. We were doubly honored to win the [...]
November 7th marked the Catalyst Ranch 9th anniversary and we celebrated with a fantastic party filled with clients, family and friends. iluvphoto provided lovely shots of our revelry and those photos can be seen on our website. There was delicious food, a giant birthday cake, specialty cocktails and, of course, party games; but not just any [...]
Here is a meeting energizer that will jump start the problem solving juices in your attendees before the start of a brain-busting session. Make up a reasonable problem scenario for your organization where people need to get introduced, e.g. "The manufacturing department is bringing in 20 temporaries to help with the peak season. They want us [...]
We all are innovators in our own ways. We know how creative you can be, we have seen it over and over again from focus groups to ideation sessions, you all bring the “sky is the limit” to the ranch. Now here is a chance to gather with like minded friends both new and old [...]
Noitavonni…. Say what? That “word” is innovation spelled backwards. Now try spelling creativity out loud, harder than you thought right? Having a backwards spelling can be a good brain teaser exercise to use before the initial start of a meeting. It throws people for a loop a bit and really gets those wheels spinning. Assignment: [...]
Hop, skip, jump and now splash into a new direction with offsite meetings! We know a thing or two about how much people benefit from leaving their dusty drab office by springing into a colorful innovative space. Here is an office design I would like to share with you that just rocks out with innovative design…… [...]
What in the world? Here is an icebreaker that brings out creativity and imagination from your meeting attendees. All you need is some old magazines and glue to create an out of this world person. Silly facial expressions, dog tails, robotic legs…. The sky is the limit. Assignment: Put together a person using various body [...]