We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Nixon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Everyone is trying to innovate- but few corporations are investing in the # 1 essential skillset necessary to consistently innovate. That skillset is the creativity capacity of the company’s individuals, teams so that the entire organizational culture becomes creativity-centric. The main reason it is important to start with creativity is because creativity is the engine for innovation.

An innovation is an invention converted into scalable value- financial, social and cultural value. How do you go from an invention to an innovation? That conversion factor is creativity. And creativity is not something that only artists are great at- the best engineers, coders, lawyers, accountants and farmers are super creative. Specifically when they are “toggling between wonder and rigor to solve problems”. That is how I define creativity in my book “The Creativity Leap” and then explain how to consistently activate creativity by applying the 3 I’s: inquiry, improvisation and intuition.

Creativity DOES have a business ROI. There’s not a fuzzy dotted line between creativity and business impact- there’s a solid bold line!

Natalie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m referred to as “the creativity whisperer to the C-Suite”. I’m a global speaker, advisor and author.

I have a loopy background in cultural anthropology, fashion and design thinking. I was a professor for 16 years and my PhD grounded me in becoming a qualitative researcher. I started Figure 8 Thinking, LLC as a side hustle while I was still a professor. After giving a TEDx Philadelphia talk in 2014 I began getting invited into companies to speak, facilitate and advise about this idea that “the future of work is jazz”. In other words, I was helping organizations develop and design more improvisational ways of working so that they could consistently innovate.

I’ve been ranked as 1 of the top 50 keynote speakers in the world and I’m an advisor and critically acclaimed author of “The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation and Intuition at Work”. I’m also the editor of “Strategic Design Thinking”. I help companies reframe the ways they think about their futures- by applying the lenses of wonder, rigor and foresight. I help leaders work through questions such as “What’s our next?”; “What’s our purpose?”; and “What’s the business we should be in, versus the business we’ve been churning in?”

The highest praise I get about my keynotes is that they are equal parts energizing, as well as actionable. I help you to dream AND do!

I have lived and worked in 5 different countries and I currently live in my hometown of Philadelphia with my husband, John. I’m also a lifelong dancer and love taking classes in hiphop as well as ballroom genres such as salsa, bachata, west coast swing and hustle.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I love what I do- so much so, that it doesn’t feel like work. I’m a frameworks nerd and I dig in deeply to my work through original research and experiments as well as reading the research and work of others on the subjects of creativity, innovation, future of work, foresight and the neuroscience of creativity.

Because I love diving deeply into understanding the problems that people and organizations have around consistently applying creativity, I end up developing content that resonates. I first fall in love with people’s problems. I believe this approach has helped me build my reputation as a go to expert on applied creativity. My content is both energizing and practical.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Figure 8 Thinking is a result of what I call “following the bread crumbs”. I started it as a side hustle while I was still a professor. In that time I was essentially prototyping it, developing a proof of concept, understanding the questions and problems companies were working through to build cultures of innovation. By the time I decided to leave a 16-year career as an associate professor I had developed a proof of concept, a great reputation and a budding client list.

Was it easy to do? No! But if you feel 50% terrified, and 50% exhilarated, then leap! Because the terror will ground you and the exhilaration will keep you buoyant.

Leaving academia when I did to fully focus on building Figure 8 Thinking was one of the best choices I have made- second only to marrying my husband, John!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.figure8thinking.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natwnixon/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalienixonphd/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/natwnixon
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NatalieNixon
• Other: PLEASE USE THIS LINK TO BROWSE PHOTO/HEADSHOT OPTIONS: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/kbyagv2uttvhq7bwp4nua/h?dl=0&rlkey=ho1yu0wgu6e9gvd0fj4a51swo FOR “ACTION SHOTS” PLEASE USE THIS LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/3km762gs9z2z6gz84faif/h?dl=0&rlkey=nz50xk607m39ko3e6e3g8j76e

Image Credits
PHOTO CREDITS SHOULD GO TO Sahar Coston-Hardy: https://www.saharch.com/