I posted not to long ago about organizations that don’t stay fit with regards to innovation. This, I said, would lead to an innovation infarction when an emergency crops up. Consider this post a “Yes+AND” as I’ve spotted a great piece by Scott Anthony that looks at that problem through a slightly different lens. Do read his excellent piece Negotiation Innovation and Control. Anthony’s point, in essence — leaders are geared towards minimizing mistakes. Nothing wrong with that, but it does run counter to the need for experimentation if you’re trying to build an innovation culture. Leaders have to allow mistakes, encourage experimentation if they want an innovative environment. In some areas of operation “no mistakes” is just where you

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The Huffington Post published this 40 second video featuring every Apple product ever made. It’s worth taking a look at this 36 year, 40 second history of innovation. First impression — while they’ve made some really beautiful products, looking back, they’ve made some butt-ugly ones as well. And there were some marketing duds sprinkled in with the winners. Their current success helps you forget the mis-steps, see pic of the Apple Newton. The lesson to be learned here isn’t about perfection it’s about persistence. Say what you will about Apple, they keep making things, they crank out products. That persistent “practice” of innovation is part of why they are so damn good at it. Can innovation be as simple as

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Hollywood creates stars and iconic faces, like George Clooney. These amazing faces on the big screen are a lot of fun, but sometimes I think they have us forgetting we are all good looking. Maybe not like a movie star, but nonetheless beautiful. From the inside out. And we are all as potentially creative as the biggest Hollywood actor. My Secret Wish cartoon caught this guy, Jim, wishing for a bit of glamor in his personage. Watching this man for a bit I got the sense he was average confident, and clever, but I also detected something, deep inside that was holding his self-expression back. That thing deep down was a wish for better looks. One of the glorious things

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I’ve been reading Steve Faktor’s Econovation, The Red, White, and Bllue Pill for Arousing Innovation. It’s been out since November, but I’ve avoided it because Steve’s an economist and I have bad memories of nursing hangovers in my 8:00 am Economics class at University of Cincinnati. I wish I had picked it up sooner because it’s a fascinating, erudite, bitingly funny, well researched, and I think important book. Americans — Buy one now and send it to your Congressman. Tell him or her that if they don’t read it you’ll lash them with wet Chinese noodles at the door to their office. European readers, there’s plenty to learn from Faktor’s manifesto about how to reinvent an economy. As the title

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I was invited by Tanner Christensen, author of the blog Creative Something to contribute a short piece to a free e-book on creativity. The assignment was to write a short response to the question “Why Creativity?” This is the first piece in ages that I wrote long hand first; maybe I should try that technique more often. See my answer below. I’m joined in Why Creativity by the likes of Julien Smith, David Meerman Scott, Patrick Algrim, Matthew E May, Mike Brown, and Frank Chimero. The e-book has just been made available for free download on Tanner’s Aspindle page. I’ve read the other bits and I think you’ll enjoy them, very inspirational — so download a shot of creativity espresso!

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Thank God for Susan Robertson. Susan is a friend and colleague, and a principal at the innovation firm Ideas To Go. I’m happy Susan took the time to respond to yet another article in a respected publication that downplays the value of collaboration in idea generation. I’ve written several pieces in this blogspace defending the value of well executed brainstorming, for once, somebody else wrote a rebuttal — and I’m so glad, thank you Susan! I can’t resist adding an additional two cents. The article, “The Rise of the New Groupthink” appeared in the New York Times Sunday Review — impressive eh? Author Susan Cain is a good writer — her piece flows like a hawk gliding on an updraft.

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As in-flight entertainment luck would have it, I’ve now seen the film Moneyball twice within a week. On the surface Moneyball is a true-story film about baseball — but it’s really an innovation story. I enjoyed the film but nothing about it struck me as profoundly good in terms of story, or character development. I always like the charming Brad Pitt, and he’s good here in a tailor-made part as Oakland Athletic’s General Manager Billy Beane. He keeps you interested, but this doesn’t feel like an Oscar worthy role. Same with Jonah Hill as the nerdy statistician and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the disgruntled coach — good work — and not notably so. We don’t quite see enough about what

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I get letters. A colleague of mine, Lisa Baxter, alerted me to an article recently published in Fast Company’s online Design section. The article, titled “Do Innovation Consultants Kill Innovation?” suggests that in fact, innovation consultants do indeed kill innovation. Authors Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen argue that innovation is too messy to be captured in any process. So how can big firms innovate? I could write 5000 words in response to the article, but let me keep it simple: BS. In their defense I would agree that an over emphasis on process is often a failing of an average innovation consultant — and even those very high priced firms who do innovation consulting. I also resonate with

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As the son of a coach, and full-on sports participant in years past, I am not a stranger to exercise. I was doing push-ups daily before I entered kindergarten. I was an average athlete at best, but Dad was proud of how fit I was. The modest success I had was entirely due to good conditioning. Once upon a time! I’m back into an exercise program again and after just a couple weeks of very hard work I’m feeling the positive effects. While far from perfectly fit, I’ve made progress, I feel more prepared for life! It occurred to me, as I reached near maximum heart rate last night, that there is a huge parallel between the concepts of exercise

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Practical matters are often given as reasons for not doing creative things. “I’d love to try painting, but I don’t have time for that silly stuff.” “Yeah, I love music, but who can spend an hour a day practicing guitar.” “I hate my job, but I dare not change in these troubled times.” It’s true, we have to be practical. We have to pay mortgages, school fee’s, taxes, car payments there is no end to the bills in a middle class life style. No end to the trouble you can get into taking risks in life, and yet, being practical — all the time — isn’t much fun is it? Yes, we need some stability in our lives, but past

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