Gregg Fraley

Innovation is Learning For many years I kept the concepts of innovation and learning in separate boxes. I thought innovation was creating new things of value, and, learning was understanding new things. I always suspected there was a closer connection. I now believe that learning and innovation are joined at the hip. You can’t innovate without an exploratory learning process. It’s a two circle Venn diagram with a large intersection set. Deliberately embracing learning — as part of the innovation process — can lead to better ideas and improved innovation results. It may seem like an obvious connection, but when I made the “innovation is learning” statement at a recent presentation — thinking everyone would agree — I got a

Read More..

Off-Site Innovation can indeed spur creativity I like what Cardinal Health and Crimson Cup are doing in Columbus, OH with offsite innovation spaces. I like the attention they’ve paid to team diversity and on a customer-centered process. P&G’s Innovation Gym is another great dedicated off-site innovation space. I think these organizations are doing the right thing — for their contexts and purposes. Yes… AND,  Not every organization can afford separate innovation lab facilities, or, can innovate away from their business location. Or, can even have a dedicated innovation team. Smaller organizations have to innovate Where They Are (and with who they have). There are a lot of benefits to an outside innovation space, but if that’s not in the cards financially

Read More..

Innovation Intensive  Thursday, September 13, 2018, The Keith House, Chicago Master Innovation Trainer: Gregg Fraley Register Now: gregg@greggfraley.com Course Description: Innovation Intensive is a one day, deep dive, into fundamental and advanced concepts in innovation. It immerses participants in the relevant theory and systematic practices critical to organizational growth. It examines culture assessment, strategy, and on-going project management. It includes an overview of key frameworks (Design Thinking, Agile, Lean, TRIZ, Synectics, Stage-Gate, CPS) and their essential tools. Participants learn classic pitfalls and how to avoid them using best practices and emerging advanced practices. In addition, it covers management mandates, project cycles, resourcing, idea management systems, idea generation, concept development, prototyping, and pitch presentations. Innovation team leaders and project managers learn what it

Read More..

Training Accelerates Innovation 94% of managers are unsatisfied with their companies innovation performance. 70% of CEO’s see innovation as a key driver of growth. That’s what McKinsey says in this article. Why then is corporate America so woefully undertrained in innovation fundamentals? Energy is Not Enough, Get Training in Innovation  When I step into a room to facilitate a strategy, innovation, or idea generation session I usually find a great deal of energy. Almost always. People really want to do good work. What I also often find is inexperience that cripples their desires. Specifically: No fluidity in free-associative divergent thinking necessary to innovate — people do not know how to think like innovators! And yes, this can be trained. Inappropriate

Read More..

Six Considerations for Inclusive Innovation The Wall Street Journal published an article this week, Why Innovation is a Team Sport.  It reveals a broad based study on innovation done by the research firm Great Place to Work. You can download the entire white paper at Great Places website. Nicely done survey GP2W! Essentially, the survey says that companies that are more broad-based and inclusive in innovation have better growth prospects. Across industry sectors and sizes of companies, those who include more of their people in innovation efforts tend to do better. Where people feel included, notice the word “feel” — they also worker harder and longer. Who doesn’t want more growth potential and harder working, more involved, people? YES! AND… This

Read More..

New Service Offering for Digital Technology Innovation Discover Ideas for Long Term and Tactical Innovation Projects Chicago, IL, August 1, 2018 — The MoshPit Innovation Service is an innovation project discovery service marketed by GFi (Gregg Fraley Innovation). It’s designed to uncover unlikely, but useful, combinations of technologies, products, services, trends, and insights that lead to breakthrough innovation. GFi is now offering a new version of MoshPit to discover ideas that exploit new digital technologies. The new service is called Digital Technology MoshPit. The primary benefit of Digital Technology MoshPit: Faster and more creative integration of new digital technology, leading to efficiencies and growth. The MoshPit system finds combinations of concepts that lead to innovation. From the printing press to the iPhone, “concept blending” creates value.

Read More..

Innovation Fundamentals for Leaders First of Seven Blogs Invest in Frameworks, But First, Establish a Culture Where Innovation Thrives Leaders — How Are You Doing With These Basics? Success is built on doing the basics well. For results, leaders need to foster innovation fundamentals and integrate them into organizational culture. More structure is needed as fundamentals take hold, and that means an innovation process framework. This series of posts on innovation fundamentals is not about frameworks. It’s about the cultural basics underlying them, and all innovation. Innovation has a lot of frameworks (and theories, methods, tools) that leaders can choose from, and you’ll want to choose. However, frameworks have built-in assumptions, such as, there’s motivation to innovate, and that the culture is aligned with an

Read More..

Learn 4 Ways to Amplify Digital Innovation in 2018 Alignment, Team Diversity, Knowledge & MoshPits The challenges facing innovation leaders, as we confront the reality of 2018 is — how do you integrate new digital capability? This is not innovation as we once knew it. This is not your Dad’s innovation. It’s not even Your Innovation of five years ago. How do you innovate across your entire value chain? If you’re just focused on products you’re going to miss the boat. How do you integrate all this new fancy stuff into strategy and ideation to create actual projects? Why is this challenge so different from previous innovation challenges? Has there ever been a moment in time when so many new

Read More..

Innovation Intensive How to Create Continuous Innovation at Your Organization Join Gregg Fraley at Workspring in Chicago — on October 27th for this high value workshop. Register: gregg@greggfraley.com Workshop Overview Is your organization innovating? How would you assess your innovation culture? Are you happy with your results? Are they sufficient to sustain and grow your organization? This half-day intensive course in innovation theory and practice provides a roadmap. It’s a hands-on workshop for project managers who are heading up innovation projects. Blending theory and practice, the content provides deep background, and the tools, techniques, and frameworks that will accelerate your progress. Learn how to avoid common pitfalls and increase your chances of growth-oriented results. This course enables leaders to start-up

Read More..

Want an Innovation Breakthrough? Prepare, Then Brainstorm Most brainstorming doesn’t work. The literature bashing brainstorming is extensive. Sessions often fail, and there are many reasons. Ideas are still needed to fill pipelines! I’m going to focus on one problem with brainstorming in this post: lack of preparation. The Boy Scouts have it right. Be Prepared. There is not enough mental preparation done with participants before brainstorming/idea generation sessions. Nor is there enough attention paid to planning and facilitating the exercises and stimulus in the session itself. Start thinking of idea generation as a project that takes a few weeks, not a one day session. Use Diverse Springboards to Scaffold Thinking. Fresh combinations of concepts are what creates breakthrough ideas. This

Read More..