Tim Sharp

In previous blogs here on ChoralNet I have addressed the "why" of innovation in general, but for this blog I would like to address the “why” of innovation in terms of my own personal motivation.   If I had to reduce the description of my choral conducting work to a single line, it would be […]

One of my favorite movie scenes is from the 1995 film Apollo 13. In this clip, it is discovered there is a potentially fatal filter problem on the orbiting Apollo 13 rocket that must be corrected. The problem is, there are no replacement parts on board the space ship. In a moment that calls for […]

Over the last month I have outlined two levels of innovation. The first was core innovation, which is the sort of retooling and improving good ideas that happens on a recurring basis in one’s area of work. The second type of innovation was adjacent innovation. Adjacent innovation takes place when you join your work in […]

Last week I blogged about core innovation—that level of innovation that draws upon what anthropologists call cultural ratcheting. Core innovation requires, first and foremost, the ability to pass on knowledge from one individual to another, or from one generation to the next, until someone comes along with an idea for an improvement. We take ideas […]

My definition of innovation is “a sustained act of creativity.” We innovate every time we make a creative change for the better to an existing pattern of behavior or pattern of operation, and then continue to sustain this creative change. As I work through my various levels of activity and engagement, I have learned to […]

I want to frame innovation in a three-tiered classification system that helps me as I direct the work of the American Choral Directors Association. Using the categories of core innovation, adjacent innovation, and transformative innovation, my aim in my work is to survey “Promising Practices” in the choral art, as well as survey innovation taking […]