Natalie Nixon, PhD

Did you know that you can apply your soft skills as a creative to be a better leader? In today’s workplace, engaging and retaining your employees requires a new mindset for thinking about leadership. In this course, instructor and creativity strategist Natalie Nixon offers a fresh approach to leadership skills development so you can be more impactful in your role.

Learn why today’s leaders need to lead by inquiry, improvisation, and intuition—all at once—especially if they want to be… Show more

Did you know that you can apply your soft skills as a creative to be a better leader? In today’s workplace, engaging and retaining your employees requires a new mindset for thinking about leadership. In this course, instructor and creativity strategist Natalie Nixon offers a fresh approach to leadership skills development so you can be more impactful in your role.

Learn why today’s leaders need to lead by inquiry, improvisation, and intuition—all at once—especially if they want to be effective in a constantly shifting workplace. Get an overview of the 3I Creativity model to harness the power of each skill, exploring inquiry with questions and curiosity, improvisation with thought and action, and intuition to trust your own instincts and interpret signals as you go. By the end of this course, you’ll be better prepared to lead without fear and manage change more creatively. Show less

Contributing writer to Fast Company on topics about creativity, future of work and innovation.

"Natalie Nixon’s new book provides a fresh primer on how to cultivate creativity in the workplace.” - Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable

Too many people associate creativity solely with the arts, even though to be an incredible scientist, engineer, or entrepreneur requires immense creativity. And it’s the key to developing breakthrough products and services. Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist with a background in anthropology, fashion, and service design, says… Show more

"Natalie Nixon’s new book provides a fresh primer on how to cultivate creativity in the workplace.” - Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable

Too many people associate creativity solely with the arts, even though to be an incredible scientist, engineer, or entrepreneur requires immense creativity. And it’s the key to developing breakthrough products and services. Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist with a background in anthropology, fashion, and service design, says that in the 4th industrial revolution a creativity leap is needed to bridge the gap that exists between the churn of work and innovation.

Nixon says that since humans are hardwired to be creative, it is a competency anyone can develop. She shows that it balances wonder (awe, audacity, and curiosity) with rigor (discipline, skill-building, and attention to detail), and that inquiry, improvisation, and intuition are the key practices that increase those capacities. Drawing on interviews with 56 people from diverse backgrounds—farming, law, plumbing, architecture, perfumery, medicine, education, technology, and more—she offers illuminating examples of how creativity manifests in every kind of work.

Combining creativity tools and techniques with real-world stories of innovative people and businesses, this book is a provocation, an inspiration, and an invitation to unleash the innate creativity that lies within each of us. It offers a more dynamic and integrative way to adapt and innovate, one that allows us the freedom to access our full human selves.

Table of Contents

1: Create Like Your Life Depends on It 5: Intuit: Put Bravery Before Mastery
2: Flow Between Wonder and Rigor 6: Commune: Come Together to Create
3: Inquire: Ask a Better Friggin’ Question 7: Forecast: Amplify What is Uniquely Human
4: Improvise: Leverage Organized Chaos 8: Remix, Reframe, Repurpose
9: Get Out of the Building: Final Thoughts on Increasing Your CQ
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I blogged for INC.com on topics related to creativity and human centered design.

Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant “creative types” and left-brain dominant “analytical types.” Such a division is not practical for preparing students to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. Strategic Design Thinking guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between.

This book is an introduction to an integrative… Show more

Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant “creative types” and left-brain dominant “analytical types.” Such a division is not practical for preparing students to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. Strategic Design Thinking guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between.

This book is an introduction to an integrative approach using the lens of design thinking as a way to see the world. The focus is on process instead of solution, and on connecting disparate ideas instead of getting bogged down by silos of specialization. Through this book, people will be introduced to design management, strategic design, service design, and experience design. Show less

Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant "creative types"​ and left-brain dominant "analytical types." Such a division is not practical for preparing students to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. Strategic Design guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between.

This book is an introduction to an integrative approach… Show more

Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant "creative types"​ and left-brain dominant "analytical types." Such a division is not practical for preparing students to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. Strategic Design guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between.

This book is an introduction to an integrative approach using the lens of design thinking as a way to see the world. The focus is on process instead of solution, and on connecting disparate ideas instead of getting bogged down by silos of specialization. Through this book, students will be introduced to design management, strategic design, service design, and experience design. Show less

Today the role of curating extends beyond the museum field: websites are curated, commercial firms establish functional roles entitled “curator”, and individuals in the creative economy use social media platforms to curate their lives and cultural product as brands. Curating has been extended and elevated today because design has become a more critical and integrative factor in brand development on both the organizational and individual levels (Kennedy, 2012). Curating is one way to manage the… Show more

Today the role of curating extends beyond the museum field: websites are curated, commercial firms establish functional roles entitled “curator”, and individuals in the creative economy use social media platforms to curate their lives and cultural product as brands. Curating has been extended and elevated today because design has become a more critical and integrative factor in brand development on both the organizational and individual levels (Kennedy, 2012). Curating is one way to manage the brand’s meaning. It is a chaordic system (Hock, 2005; van Einatten, 2001) that situates the complex process of editing, merchandising and documenting the brand’s offering in co-created situations with the customer. Yet, the literature is lacking in explicitly exploring and documenting how curating is used in branding.
Building on the perspective of Mark & Pearson (2001)
that brands are about managing meaning; and the work of Gloppen (2011) and Lee, Chung and Nam (2013), this paper extends the brand touchpoint wheel and the designable touchpoints model as a heuristic to explore the ways in
which curating is a methodology used by creative brands
to operationalize the brand experience. The research methodology used is a series of interviews with curators
in three creative organizations. Ultimately the authors propose that intentionally curated brands establish a strategic means to scale the brand and extend its scope. The paper will explore the role of curation in two fashion brands
and a not-for-profit arts organization and identify significant shifts in branding within creative markets.
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Sustainability in a fashion context is often discussed in terms of regenerative materials and the supply chain. What is missing is how a fashion business with environmental ecology goals can be an inspiring business model for other sectors. In fact, the ways in which a sustainable-oriented fashion business can be a model for fiscal and environmental sustainability and economic viability for a range of industries is an underexplored area. Sara Van Aken is a clothing designer and retailer based… Show more

Sustainability in a fashion context is often discussed in terms of regenerative materials and the supply chain. What is missing is how a fashion business with environmental ecology goals can be an inspiring business model for other sectors. In fact, the ways in which a sustainable-oriented fashion business can be a model for fiscal and environmental sustainability and economic viability for a range of industries is an underexplored area. Sara Van Aken is a clothing designer and retailer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with a unique business approach. She seeks to scale the social and environmental sustainability values embedded in her apparel business beyond fashion apparel; she is interested in how those values may provide a prototype for economic development for a variety of industries.
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Van Aken brands her fashion products in two ways: as a model for sustainability and as a model for economic development. Her business, SA VA, is comprised of a flagship store and design studio in downtown Philadelphia, an adjacent garment production centre, a wholesale brand, and an on-line fashion community and online store. SA VA’s brand diffusion includes: 1) the SA VA private label, 2) manufacturing for other designers, 3) custom shirts, 4) restaurant/chef uniforms, 5) a retail line, and 6) a wholesale line. In this interview, Van Aken discusses the origins of her business, her decision in 2008 to move production from Bangladesh to Philadelphia, her interpretation of sustainability, and her expansive goals for a fashion business in a major urban American city as a model for economic development for other industries. Show less

Spinelli and McGowan integrate a broad network of international leaders on innovation to demonstrate the tight linkages between innovation and opportunity recognition. Building on the award winning Philadelphia University curriculum redesign that is reshaping how innovation is taught worldwide, these experts highlight how to identify relevant opportunities more effectively than ever before. The team covers every facet of innovation, including design processes, team development, ethnography… Show more

Spinelli and McGowan integrate a broad network of international leaders on innovation to demonstrate the tight linkages between innovation and opportunity recognition. Building on the award winning Philadelphia University curriculum redesign that is reshaping how innovation is taught worldwide, these experts highlight how to identify relevant opportunities more effectively than ever before. The team covers every facet of innovation, including design processes, team development, ethnography, audits and charrettes, opportunity shaping and assessment, business models, value delivery, systems thinking, and more. Master the art of innovation in teams! Disrupt Together introduces a breakthrough transdisciplinary, team-based approach to innovation that integrates business, design and engineering, and can deliver powerful results for both new ventures and existing companies with case study examples from education, healthcare, branding, and consumer product and service design. The book will serve as the definitive companion text for a growing number of innovation and entrepreneurship programs that either follow the Philadelphia University model or have been influenced by it. This guide will also be an indispensable resource for every business practitioner seeking to build innovative new organizations or reinvigorate innovation in existing firms. Contributors and Interviews from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Continuum Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, Becton Dickinson, Sapient Nitro, Ontario College of Art and Design, Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT Media Lab, Smart Design, and more. Foreword by Steve Blank. Show less

In this commentary, I discuss how the design thinking concepts of empathy, related worlds, prototyping, ethnography, and story could enhance Ascension Health’s organizational design and ultimately its delivery of healthcare services. When organization design integrates a design thinking lens, more meaningful and innovative processes are developed both internally among organizational actors and externally with end users.

Improvisation belongs not only in the realm of music, dance or theatre. In times of uncertainty and ambiguity, being able to agilely anticipate change is critical. In this article, the author explores two experiential service design lessons to learn from a luxury hotel that is in the business of designing memorable experiences. - See more at: http://www.service-design-network.org/products-page/article/designing-experiential-services-with-an-improvisational-stance/#sthash.9Iuny1Sb.dpuf

Through multiple case study analysis, the authors explain what fashion thinking is and how, as a methodology, it can inform innovation for a broad range of consumer products and services. Fashion thinking includes an actionable set of principles emerging from current fashion apparel business practices. Fashion thinking is a paradigm of critical thought and creative agency utilizing technology, story, experimentation, and open-sourcing in order to add meaning and value to the functional and… Show more

Through multiple case study analysis, the authors explain what fashion thinking is and how, as a methodology, it can inform innovation for a broad range of consumer products and services. Fashion thinking includes an actionable set of principles emerging from current fashion apparel business practices. Fashion thinking is a paradigm of critical thought and creative agency utilizing technology, story, experimentation, and open-sourcing in order to add meaning and value to the functional and experiential spheres of products and services. The authors identify five distinct features of fashion thinking: its engagement with temporal, spatial, and socially discursive dimensions, as well as the priority it places on the articulation of taste and balancing commercial goals with artistic innovations. Organizations whose goal is to be creative innovators and leaders in complex and ambiguous environments would benefit from incorporating fashion thinking into their product development and marketing cycles. Fashion thinking values flexibility, responsiveness, and open-source solutions—qualities that more sectors will need to embrace as digital technology accelerates the shift from physically-fixed products to the modular, just-in-time products and services that will define the twenty-first-century consumer landscape. Show less

This is my doctoral dissertation, successfully defended in 2010. This dissertation was completed for my PhD degree in Design Management from the University of Westminster's School of Business. My principal advisors were Dr. Alison Rieple and Dr. Richard Harding. I conducted qualitative research to identify a new framework for analyzing experiential service design at a luxury hotel using a jazz heuristic developed by Frank Barrett.

The Ritz-Carlton has evolved by implementing rigorous self-analysis based on institutional structures, working in tandem with creative customer-experience management. The hotel began reevaluating its service design in 2001, well before the global recession in the latter half of 2008 made its full impact. There were several moments that served as catalysts, prompting The Ritz-Carlton to shift from its status as a formally structured organization with a centralized hierarchy and delivery of… Show more

The Ritz-Carlton has evolved by implementing rigorous self-analysis based on institutional structures, working in tandem with creative customer-experience management. The hotel began reevaluating its service design in 2001, well before the global recession in the latter half of 2008 made its full impact. There were several moments that served as catalysts, prompting The Ritz-Carlton to shift from its status as a formally structured organization with a centralized hierarchy and delivery of consistently high-quality operations. Instead, it became an emergent organization that extended those systems to encourage self-organizing among employees, as well as customized hotel design. One way of understanding emergent properties and adaptive systems is through chaordic systems thinking, or CST. The chaordic view of an organization studies the balance and flow between the firm’s structures and frameworks (order) and the emergent creative self-organizing among employees (chaos). Viewed through the lens of chaordic systems thinking, the qualitative research undertaken for this article examines The Ritz-Carlton as an evolving organization that has re-evaluated its service design processes in order to deliver more experientially-based employee and customer engagement. Show less

I am a regular contributor to INC.com's online magazine on topics around the intersection of creativity & strategy, and design & business.
http://www.inc.com/author/natalie-nixon