Page 18 - Free the Idea Monkey

DO YOU MANAGE THESE KINDS OF PEOPLE?

Or maybe you were once an Idea Monkey, but something changed

you along the way and you banished your inner Idea Monkey to the

attic, basement or wherever it is you put things

you think are part of your past.

That occurs an awful lot. We’ve all heard

the story about what happens to creativity

once we start school. Ask any first grade

class to raise their hands if they can dance,

draw and sing, and all the hands go up. By

the fifth grade, the same question will result in Have you lost your
a few hands, a few laughs and a lot of snickers. Idea Monkey?

Some would call this reality setting in. I call it Monkey genocide.

Okay, I am being overly dramatic, but this is the opening chapter

and I need you to keep reading because a) whether you are (or once

were) an Idea Monkey, or b) you manage Idea Monkeys, this book is

for you.

How do I know? As I said, I am one of you. I manage Idea Monkeys

for a living—the company I founded and run, Maddock Douglas, is

a global innovation leader (that is not me bragging; we’ve been hired

by 25 percent of the Fortune 100 to help them innovate)—I am an

Idea Monkey myself, and, more importantly, I know what it is to

have someone try to banish my creativity and individuality. It began

in grade school. The first day of fifth grade at St. Joseph’s Catholic

School in Homewood, Illinois, to be exact.

G. Michael Maddock
Age 11

3C H A P T E R 1