Leadership

  • How to Start an Innovation Initiative

    I was in France a couple weeks ago and was delighted to help someone learning English. They asked what is the most useful phrase in the language. I knew immediately. The phrase? “It depends.” It’s the answer to nearly any complex question. It buys you time to think, and actually, it’s nearly always true. And of course it allows you to pretend to know something you don’t. So, when I am asked how to begin an Innovation Initiative, the ultimate complex question, this is my answer — it depends. If I know context I can do better than It Depends, but it takes time, effort, and money to know context well enough to give a good answer. What does it

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  • Keeping Your Employees Happy on a Shoestring Budget (Six Ways!)

    One of the great things about going to conferences like FEI is the people you meet. Orin Davis might be the most interesting guy I met at the conference. He studied with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — and yes, knows how to pronounce the name. We got talking and he mentioned the piece below, and asked if he would like to guest post on the blogg. Delighted to present this very practical and well thought out piece on employee happiness (an essential key to innovation). Now, Orin, next guest piece is on hypnosis okay? The following is by Orin C. Davis, Ph.D. One major issue that companies face, especially during a recession, is the perception of having to choose between saving money

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  • Tennessee Innovation, Gonzeaux #6 – Persistence Personifies Nashville

    Nashville, Tennessee — Saturday May 12, Gonzeaux #6 Nashville is throwing the recession out of town. The building boom cut short by the downturn seems to be back in full swing here. A huge new convention centre is going up, downtown residences, and an extension to the already way cool Country Music Hall of Fame is nearly done. Good stuff, but for me, beside the point — not Gonzeaux Innovation material. The innovation story here has more do do with persistence of effort and entrepreneur’s who simply don’t stop until they make something happen — persistence personifies Nashville innovation — two cases in point: 1. Snappy Auctions: Debbie Gordon had a fairly brilliant idea a few years back to help people

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  • Indiana Innovation, Gonzeaux #2, Who is Nick Tippman?

    Bloomington, Indiana, Tuesday May 8, Gonzeaux #2 Indiana is the state of Nick Tippmann. Who’s Nick Tippmann? The future of Indiana Innovation that’s who (and not Bobby Knight). More on Nick and Bobby below, but first, Observations: Indiana is very flat. Driving south on I-65 — farms in all directions as far as the eye can see. Farms are small business, in a way, the first small businesses, that tradition lives here. Driving through small towns with the Dairy Queen’s, feed stores, beauty shops and all the other specialties you can imagine…more small business. People work hard here, long and hard. At the hotel I’m staying at I’ve been served by two people who were clearly over 70, doing the

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  • Would Steve Jobs Have Fired Thomas Edison?

    My last blog post, by far, was the most viral piece I’ve written in four years of blogging. Provocative titles and edgy content seem to win readers. And it would appear that creative style is a hot topic. If Steve Jobs Worked For You, You’d Probably Fire Him, is about a concept called Creative Style. Creative style can be measured, there are a couple of great assessments available. One is the KAI (Kirton Adaptor-Innovator Inventory) and the other is FourSight. Creative style is about how you think, how you solve problems. Steve Jobs was probably a high Innovator on the KAI. Innovator’s think “different”, while Adaptors think “better.” And listen carefully —both are creative. Edison was thought to be a

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  • If Steve Jobs Worked For You, You’d Probably Fire Him

    There is a great deal being said and written about the late, great, Steve Jobs. He was a complex personality — and a remarkable leader. Folks often overlook the personality piece and focus on the leadership. After reading another article about his leadership style, it got me thinking, What if Steve Jobs Worked for you? Imagine if you will a young Steve Jobs, fresh out of not graduating from college, twenty something, energetic, but not expert. You might hire him because he’d probably interview well. Once onboard your company you give young Steve something lower-level to do. You might not see he works long hours because you’re not there at the same time he is. You might get upset that

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  • Innovation Infarction #3 — Dodging Hard Work

    It might be the most obvious innovation infarction of all. Nonetheless, quite deadly. The latest innovation self-suicide factor is simply avoiding hard work. People, innovation is Never easy. You might be fooled now and then when something goes smoothly, but I’ll bet you a dime to a dollar (a pence to a pound) it’s an incremental innovation. Nothing wrong with that, but breakthrough’s require hard work — blood, sweat, and tears. Cue Paul Robeson  singing Old Man River. Or maybe we recall the famous words of Ringo Starr “Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues, and you know it don’t come easy.” Innovation — it don’t come easy. I’ve observed recently an organization that has done

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  • Maybe = A Culture of Caution & No Innovation

    I had an interesting conversation recently about innovation culture. Comparing notes of various organizations with a friend, one of us remarked about organization X — “they never say yes, they never say no, it’s always…maybe.” We both concluded that maybe is a bad place to be as a culture looking to innovate. I wrote in a blog post last year about the one question survey to assess innovation culture — Are you having fun?” If I had to ask a second question, it would now be, “Is your organization a Yes, a No, or a Maybe?” The answer is telling. A Yes organization likes to try new things, is open to ideas and possibilities, and holds back from saying No. Ideas

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  • Technology Trend Tracking – Fast Path to Innovation Glory

    Innovators need to keep an eagle eye on new technology trends. Things are developing so quickly now and in so many areas that keeping tabs on what’s happening is daunting. These new developments offer a constant stream of opportunities (if you think and take action on them), but it’s a bit like that famous clip of Lucille Ball on the chocolate line — all that tasty stuff can quickly overwhelm you. You need a radar screen — a wide view of what’s inbound. Today’s post is to provide you with a great tech watching tool — Gizmag — and a few other tech watching resources. But first, a word or two on why and how. In the most obvious way,

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  • The Four Pessimistic P’s that Prevent Innovation

    It’s March 5th 2012. Nearly 20 Percent of 2012 is already behind us. How are your 2012 Innovation efforts going? Are you “hanging-ten” or barely hanging on? The only purpose of this post is to have you look at your operation and simply admit to yourself whether you’ve wasted two months or you’ve got a good start. Of course, if you’ve wasted two months I would urge action, now! I’ve been reminded as of late just how much companies get in their own way. They spend so much time fussing over the Four Pessimist P’s* of Non-Innovation: Process — “We’d love to start an innovation project but we haven’t made up our mind how to move forward yet, we must

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