CHILDREN take creative problem-solving in their stride, so why do adults resist?

In one weekend, a room full of seven-year-olds can dream up a new retail product, design it, work out how to take it to market and mock up a social media presence.

"It's cool, right?" says Vanessa Garrard, chief executive and founder of Queensland based E3 Style, a company that develops consumer products for retailers.

"They won't be able to run a business, but the idea is that in one weekend they can go and create a new product."

Image: Vanessa Garrard: "I think there are very few companies in Australia that actually innovate."

When it comes to intellectual property, knowledge is not just power — it is also big business.

According to the Partnership for American Innovation, a patent rights industry group, intellectual property in the United States is worth more than $5 trillion dollars, and it helps support more than 40 million jobs in industry sectors such as telecommunications, biotech, agriculture and software applications.

Even in my relatively short foray into office life, I notice that few people bring a pen and notebook to meetings. I’ve been told that over the years, the spiral notebooks and pens once prevalent during weekly meetings have been replaced with laptops and slim, touch-screen tablets.

Making the right investments in learning and development programs has never been more important – or more of a challenge – for business leaders.

Unfortunately, despite spending approximately $164.2 billion dollars on learning and development programs, many executives still grapple with how to improve and enhance their effectiveness. As research shows, the need to revamp and improve learning programs is an important concern among HR executives.

Startup founders take note: In entrepreneurship, as in real estate, location matters. A lot.

According to a new study by consumer finance site NerdWallet, smaller cities provide just as much fuel for startups as larger metro areas. Crunching Census data on 463 U.S. cities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000 revealed that would-be business owners have options and resources in places from Alpharetta, Georgia, to Corvallis, Oregon, that aren’t necessarily on everyone’s radar.

As they move into leadership positions, we're going to hear less about "rowing" and "steering" and more about engaging the public.

I was talking recently to Jack Madans, one of the founders of the "civic hacking" group Code for America, about community engagement, and we lamented the state of public participation in government.

President Barack Obama recently challenged us to think about why we call Johnny back for a job interview, but not Jamal. Johnny and Jamal are competing for more than jobs, however; they’re also competing for investors. You can probably guess who’s winning.

As the world of work continues to evolve at a rapid pace, innovation continues to become both a top priority and a top challenge. For most companies, innovation is handled behind closed doors in a secluded part of the company that only a few have access to. This type of innovation is no longer practical, scalable or effective when thinking about the future of work. In order to succeed and thrive in this rapidly changing world, organizations must adapt by implementing five innovation models, all five of these are crucial and are part of a broader innovation ecosystem. The five innovation models are:

In four small schools scattered across San Francisco, a data experiment is under way. That is where AltSchool is testing how technology can help teachers maximize their students’ learning.

Founded two years ago by Max Ventilla, a data expert and former head of personalization at Google, AltSchool runs schools filled with data-gathering technology.

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com

August is one of the best months for produce, according to Chris Romano, an associate produce coordinator at Whole Foods. “In summer there are a lot of good choices out there,” he says. Based on where you live in the U.S., your produce offerings can vary, but in August there are several fruits and veggies that are in-season and tasty nationwide.

I want you to imagine that you’ve been working on a string of projects, and they’ve all gone very well. You’re talented, hardworking, and ambitious, and you’re on a roll.

Then, your next assignment comes along. It’s a big challenge like the ones before. You’ve got a tight deadline, a limited budget, and lots of pressure to make it a big success. Then, something bad happens. You were faced with a critical decision. You knew ahead of time that you didn’t have all the information, but you made a decision anyway...and it was dead wrong.

Image: http://www.innovationinpractice.com

In 2004, Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman came out with Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. This volume was a significant contribution to psychology, a sort of antidote to the DSM's focus on mental illness, and an important reminder to psychologists that humans aren't only full of illness. Humans also have a lot of character.

The book laid out the following 24 character strengths:

From Chattanooga to Omaha to Las Vegas, many cities in the US – and around the world – are building startup communities. An important part of doing this to attract, retain, and mentor more young people. Behind every successful startup community is a group of young people with their entire life ahead of them. These youngsters aren’t afraid to take on projects bigger than themselves and won’t take no for an answer. They come from all different walks of life, places around the globe, and with varied experiences and knowledge. And they all come with enthusiasm and a desire to learn. Over time, as they learn who they are as young adults, they grow the communities they are a part of into something unique.

A motorbike surfing the waves of Tahiti: it’s the kind of thing that seems like the result of a drunken bet. But for Australian stunt rider Robbie Madison, it’s actually the culmination of two years of hard work and planning.

Maddison, a world record holder across a number of disciplines, completed the ride seen in the video on a modified KTM 250 SX. Speaking to Transworld Motocross, Madison’s mechanic Buddy Morgan said that the output of the bike wasn’t as important as the size of the paddles on the back wheel and the shape and angle of the skis.

Image: http://memeburn.com

The only constant is change and today this has never rung truer. We are in an age of change where disruptive technologies are not only changing lives, but transforming markets. Two critical elements become important – that your company is not being made obsolete and that rather than seeing chaos, businesses see the opportunity.

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding.

In today's diverse work world, it's important to know as much as possible about yourself and your strengths — and that includes knowing your personality type.

Are you an ambitious ENTJ? A grounded-in-reality ESFJ? An analytical INTP? A recent study of the 16 Briggs Myers personality types in the workplace by my team at Truity suggests that if you haven't yet explored your personality type, you may be missing key information that can help you reach your potential.

Image: http://mashable.com

A debate is raging about whether we are in a technology bubble, with sky-high valuations for businesses such as Uber and Airbnb.

Are investors overpaying for businesses that aren't really worth it?

Kauffman Foundation Director of Research and Policy E.J. Reedy addresses members of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the role of entrepreneurship in creating economic opportunities for Americans.

Congressman Hoyer and other distinguished members of the Democratic Caucus, thank you for inviting me to speak to you about the work of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the changing economy, and the central role of entrepreneurship in creating economic opportunities for all Americans.

It’s turning into a big year for readers. Though highly-anticipated releases from authors such as Jonathan Franzen and Harper Lee remain on the horizon, 2015 has already produced enough great books to topple a nightstand.

To help you sort through the year’s offerings or choose which titles to add to your summer reading list, TIME has ranked the best books of 2015 (so far). The picks span genre and form — including a darkly enchanting collection of short stories, a delightful novel featuring a dysfunctional bride-to-be and a singing memoir chronicling both grief and, yes, taming a hawk. Happy reading!