As this article from 1843 Magazine outlines, the world’s attention these days is focused on technology, yet there is a growing trend for craft and artisan companies that look more like workshops from the pre-industrial world.

If one of your team's goals is to increase creative thinking and innovative ways of working, here are four ways to focus on innovation from a team development point of view.

This Harvard Business Review video neatly explains the concept of Marketing Myopia, first coined by ex HBR editor Theodore Levitt.

Discussion of new ideas is often hampered by those who resist change (“That’s not how we do things around here” or “It’s always worked in the past”), or an expectation that complex issues can be resolved with a quick fix.

In recent times the British supermarket industry has been challenged by upstarts who don’t play by the old rules. Aldi and Lidl demonstrated principles of disruptive innovation. Here are some of the most powerful...

There's much to learn from Edison's approach to creative thinking. His vision for joint thinking and continuous iteration is clearly something that worked wonders to help 1,093 innovations come to light.

Google’s 20% time has gained a lot of attention over recent years. Employees can take up to one day a week to work on something unrelated to their work, something they are passionate about. But does it work? In asking that question, we have split it in two: how does it work and does it actually work? The latter can be interpreted to mean does it work for the employee and does it work for Google? As an employee incentive, Innovation Time Off (as it is formally known) can be taken by any member of staff. Some people save it up so it can all be used at once, some don’t take it at all. It has certainly caused a stir and marked Google out, yet again, as an innovative company that understands what clever people need to stay inspired at work. Apple and LinkedIn followed suit. Apple called theirs "Blue Sky" and lets employees take two weeks to work on projects outside their normal responsibilities. Software company Atlassian openly calls their programme '20% time'.

Creative Destruction is the silver lining in our tough economic times, some would have us believe. There is nothing like a bit of clearing out the old to make way for innovation and that’s exactly what the recession is doing. Or is it?