I have a friend who is an author who said that his innovation book launch was one of the best nights of his life. "How could this be?" I mused? The best night of your life? Surely it can't be that good? Well, I have to say it wasn't far off. It was a seriously good night.  

Why?  

Firstly, writing a book is seriously hard work. When you try and fit this in around the rest of your life - work, family, fun - it's a massive undertaking.  18 months of 5:30am starts, very late nights, more revisions than you can imagine, it's never as easy as you imagine it will be. To cap that off is a tremendous feeling.  

Secondly, (from my experience), most people write a non-fiction book as they want to help people and make a little dent in the universe. My big aim was to help large organisations kickstart a culture of innovation and in the process, enable the people that work for them to rediscover their very human traits (and essential 21st Century Skills)  of creativity, curiosity and imagination.  To be in a place to kickstart that journey is very exciting.  

Thirdly,  there are so many people who help bring a book to life (other than the author). Friends, colleagues, family (remember me, kids?), mentors, inspirations, people who have been interviewed for the book, researchers, designers, editors - and the list goes on. These wonderful people need to be thanked.  

Who doesn't love a party?  

On the 18th March 2018 at Berkelouw Books Paddington in Sydney, I ever so proudly arranged an innovation book launch- A Thousand Little Lightbulbs: How to kickstart a culture of Innovation in your organisation.  

And it was an amazing night and one of the things that made me most proud was everyone saying 'there was great energy in the room tonight'. (I love my good vibes, especially when they are creative vibes.)  

I believe that creativity and a powerful imagination are at the heart of what makes us human and it's something that we are all born with - and loads of it. There is a spirit inside us that needs to connect with the world. We are designed to make, create and express ourselves and when we do, it feels great.  

Like anything (fitness, mindfulness, sport, writing, ) if we don’t feed our creative spirit,  we can easily forget about it  As such, one of my favourite things from the night was the 'Kickstart your imagination' wall where everyone wrote on a card their commitment to kickstarting their imagination again.

Things

Some of the things on that list were:  

• Have a craft-a-thon with kids 
• Journal and draw 
• Sing 
• Kayak to work 
• Write a song 
• Start the new 
• Put more time into playing the piano 
• Live and love more 
• Start a travel blog 
• Learn to tell stories  
• Start another venture with purpose 

I smile when I read these as if only 1-2 of these things were implemented, its the start of something beautiful.  

And why the title? (I spoke about this on the night)  

A Thousand Little Lightbulbs: How to kick start a culture of Innovation in your organisation 

Why a thousand little light bulbs? Why not just one lightbulb? Ideas are currency. I know you need lots of them crisscrossing, mashing up and high fiving each other to produce magic moments. I believe that these ideas already exist in large organisations. They exist in all of us, they exist in people.  When you have a thousand little moments going off all the time and combining together, the potential is huge.  

Why the word culture? Culture is the way we do things around here. If companies can shift from outsourcing their creativity, curiosity and innovation to an in house department or external agency to empowering everyone in their organisation to embrace their uniqueness, they can create a culture of a thousand problem solvers. They create a constant stream of a thousand little light bulb moments.  

I believe that when people confidently bring their most unique self to work and embrace their Creativity,  Curiosity and Imagination, then you have the essential ingredients to kick start a culture of innovation.  When ideas, great people and passion combine, great things can happen and arranged innovation book launch party.

I have given myself a goal of three books (anymore may kill me). Watch this space as I will start working on these soon.  

Last Word

If you are curious, you can read more about the book, what people are saying about it and download some free chapters right here.

Here’s to a more creative world.