At Scout Books, we feel like creativity is at the core of our business. It’s not just the beautiful designs on the books we see every day, it’s finding new ways to streamline our production process, reduce our environmental impact, and coming up with new products that remain true to our love of little books for big ideas. That’s why we were so excited to talk with InnovatorsBox® about what they do, and learn how they help companies incorporate creativity in every kind of business.
Can you tell us a bit about InnovatorsBox?
InnovatorsBox was founded because we believe everyone is innately creative and should be their best creative selves in their personal and professional lives. How would your organization be different if everyone felt they could do so much more than their job titles? How would the world be different if everyone believed their own creativity is limitless? These are questions that keep us up at night. We help companies tap into the critical and underutilized resource of creativity by helping professionals build a creative mindset. Whether the company is addressing a cultural shift, professional development, or leadership transition, we help them resolve their unique challenges through creativity. We achieve this through our customized solutions including workshops, speaking, consulting, products, and facilitation.
Creativity is at the core of your business. What does “creativity” mean to you?
Creativity is a state of mind. It’s a way of thinking, living, processing, and seeing opportunities at ALL times. It pushes you to think differently, ask more questions, and find connections in unexpected places. We believe that through developing this underutilized skill, society can do so much more.
How are you using the notebooks you created with Scout Books?
We are so excited Scout Books was able to bring our ReImagine notebook series to life! The ReImagine notebooks remind users to make time and space for creativity in their daily routine. This notebook is the perfect size for people to bring to their meetings, classrooms, brainstorming sessions, and even on vacation to write down new ideas, journal, or reflect. We’ll also be using them as takeaways at our workshops and speaking events so people have inspiration with them no matter where they go.
On your website you mention that 87% of all professionals do not feel very creative. Where does that info come from, and why do you think that’s the case?
The statistic is from Gallup’s annual employee engagement report in 2013 and 2014. In their work to better understand work life culture, they found that 87% of the workforce were disengaged or unhappy at work. As recent as 2017, research shows that 85% of the workforce still feel disengaged. Unfortunately, this is understandable because our workforce is heavily based on task-based jobs and structure-based reward systems. Most employees are hired to do a certain task under a certain title and are discouraged from doing something else in fear that they are not being productive. As a result, many employees are unhappy and feel stuck in jobs because of their limited time to wonder, create and explore.
If you could drive one point home from your various programs and curriculums, what would it be?
We are all more creative than we think and can have a greater impact on the world if we bring out more creativity in our daily lives.
Also, it’s always great to know how people found Scout Books. Where did you come across us?
I first learned about Scout Books in my early research online for customizable eco-friendly mini notebooks. I’m an organizer by nature and loved that you could both DIY, customize, and buy something from the same place. I first purchased some DIY green stapled notebooks in 2016 and loved it so much that I kept ordering more each year. I’ve wanted to do a customized design for our product line so I’m excited to finally make these come to life!
Huge thanks to Monica Kang and everyone from InnovatorsBox for taking the time to speak with us! You can find more about InnovatorsBox via their Instagram, and on their website.