Emma Collins writes a guest post for me today with an article on sustainable innovation — in education. Innovation in education has been slow to arrive, but recently there have been some significant shifts, for instance the free courses Stanford is offering. i’ve heard amazing things about the virtual course conducted by Tina Seelig.  As Emma notes, getting a good idea off the ground is often harder than it looks — even under ideal market conditions. Emma works for a web company that just released an MBA schools report 2012 on distance programs, and her expertise is in education; this article focuses primarily on ed-tech initiatives, but the lessons learned should apply to a much broader range of startups. So,

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It’s time to reach out to the lost souls around us. No, this is not a blog about innovation. I would like to share an idea. If it resonates, please pass this along. Like nearly everyone I’m working through complex emotions related to yesterday’s events in Newtown, Connecticut. The sad truth for me is that I’m not shocked. This kind of event has become normal. Death by gunfire is an everyday thing in America. As an American I am simply ashamed. My mind is flooded with memories of countless assassinations and other insane killings of my lifetime. JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Kent State, John Lennon, Columbine, Gabby Gifford — and so many more. As the years have gone

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Precious readers, greetings from the dark night, where I write, jet-lagged, arthritis-nagged, caffiene-jagged — but writing for you, once again, trying to provide insight, information, and ultimately value about this wacky idea of innovation. Please forgive the somewhat naval gazing aspect of this post. The good news for you is over the past year you may have missed some of my more interesting posts and the bullet list below provides some quick links to stuff you might find interesting. A request for help: Every year, Innovation Excellence, a premier portal for innovation content, has a popularity contest style “Top 40” Innovation Bloggers of the year listing. I admit, I wish to be on the list. I wasn’t last year and

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Life isn’t always easy is it? These past few weeks are notable for some rather sad and tragic events, both globally, and with myself. The simple point of this post is that creativity is not just for the good times. In fact, when you have the blues it might be an opportune time to create something. A nurse in London committed suicide last week. Why? We’ll never know the details but ostensibly she did it because she was so ashamed. Her crime? She was fooled by some pranking Aussie DeeJays into revealing private medical data of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. It’s such a sad story. The nurse, not a native English speaker, was easily fooled, and was apparently

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Back in those glory days at the University of Cincinnati, I was assigned a lovely little textbook to read for Freshman English class called “The Elements of Style” (by E.B. White and William Strunk). In a nutshell it’s all about how to write clearly. It provides succinct advice with spot-on examples. It’s a smallish book which easily fits into your jacket pocket. I read it, used it, and have refferred to it hundreds of times over the years. I treasure that slim little book. I’ve just found a similar treasure — but having to do with cross-cultural communications.  It’s official title is When Culture Matters, the 55 minute guide to better cross-cultural communication, by Indy Neogy.* True to its title,

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Guerilla Innovation Chapter Fourteen Run to the Jungle I’ve written what amounts to a short book on innovation for small business these last couple months. I’ve called it Guerilla Innovation (the starting post is here) and I’ve targeted those who want to create a start-up, or, are internal innovators at companies who have little experience with innovation (and innovation-speak). This is a basic, but I think highly useful, field-guide-like innovation book for small business. Every business starts as a small business, so, I’m not limiting the book to those who don’t have much ambition — I merely wanted to provide a more readable, more practical, approach to innovation without all the “MBA-speak”. In the spirit of providing real value in this

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Guerilla Innovation — Chapter Thirteen Isn’t it weird that this post on small business innovation survival is Chapter Thirteen? I didn’t plan it that way, but folks who go belly up usually didn’t plan that either. One of the most telling statistics about starting a business is that the longer you can hold out the more likely it is you’ll survive and do well. The literature will tell you that many fledgling new companies die due to lack of capital. Fair enough, but the reason behind that reason is that there was not a survival strategy that worked. A start up is a bit like that journey across the desert in Lawrence of Arabia — you know it’s going to

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I’ve neglected to write about a critically important aspect of creativity and innovation —  the value of training. Creativity and innovation training is a highly effective accelerant for business results. And yes, you can train creativity. And by the way, if you want brainstorming that works — don’t skip training. Much of the research that says brainstorming doesn’t work (ahem) studied groups with no training. You can also train people in the fuzzy front end of innovation. That difficult bit of  invention that analysis can’t quite solve on its own is especially challenging for corporations. Training can make a big difference in bridging the gap between market knowledge and… what could be. You’ll see immediate and positive results with creativity training.

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Guerilla Innovation- Chapter 12 Having a Healthy Money Mindset One major factor that stops people from making the jump into business ownership is their relationship with money. Before I get into ways in which entrepreneurs (aka ‘guerilla innovators’) can get funds, a blurb on the whole money mindset is in order. Money, because of its importance, is deeply entwined with our thinking. It is often an emotional relationship. These emotions about money can inhibit creativity and put a damper on innovation. Before you go out fund raising, think about these statements: Do you have a problem with asking for money? Do you have a fear of rejection? Do you worry you can’t prove or persuade others you and your concept are

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Guerilla Innovation – Chapter 11 Birthing the Baby Until now the focus of this online-blogged-book on small business innovation has been a guerilla innovation mindset. This includes thinking, idea generation, creating, amping, and planning for getting a new business going. I hope by now you’ve got a specific business idea in mind. The thing is, at some point, you actually have to start. You’ve got to pull the trigger, birth the baby, take the leap (add your own cliche here) but you must, jungle plan firmly in hand, get officially started. It’s the first step in creating momentum. It might be the single hardest thing you’ll ever do. I recall the words of the late, great comedienne, Lucille Ball who

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