The Innovators Monologue with profound apologies to William Shakespeare by Gregg Fraley To innovate or not to innovate — that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to stagnate or create while feeling the slings and arrows of peers and loss of fortune or to take up arms against inaction and seek to disrupt or improve and if I fail to find sweet perfection or green fields, I die — no more to market, sell, deliver, enrich, enable — the end of the enterprise, alas rarely mourned but the heartache, the thousand friends who lose jobs and life stations that families, tribes, regions, spirits, depend on. ‘Tis a grand frustration devoutly we pray to avoid, the death, and

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Edition #2 of An Innovation Minute Qualitative Research in B2B With Host, Gregg Fraley The message of this edition of An Innovation Minute is simple: Use of qualitative research techniques in business to business companies (B2B) is woefully under-utilized. Click here to view. The opportunity in using qualitative techniques is more focused innovation. Focus Groups, interviews, ethnographies, and observational research all can provide insights, at a reasonable cost, to feed innovation pipelines. Qualitative techniques are usable within frameworks like Design Thinking, Agile, Lean, and CPS. These insights cannot be gained through use of survey research. Gregg Fraley, CEO of GFi shares his thinking in this short video, the second in an on-going series. An Innovation Minute is a copyright of Gregg

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Basic Innovation Messaging to Operational Employees Keep it Straight Forward and Clear Live Up to Your End & Keep Communicating After doing a recent short video (“Innovation Minute”) on basic innovation training for operational employees, I was asked a number of questions. Leaders asked: Where to start? The next was, how much detail should we provide? And then there was the question of what, exactly, to communicate about innovation. It depends. It depends on your goals as an organization, and on how your innovation program is structured. It also depends on your leadership style, and the current state of your innovation culture. What does not depend is if you should. If you’re a leader and you’re not communicating clearly about innovation, you’re not

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Improv is a Swiss Army Knife for Problem Solving I just completed another workshop for high level executives in the use of Improv for Problem Solving. Most of the group were skeptical at the start. It shows up in their body language; arms folded across chests, quizzical looks, and self-conscious laughs. I get it. When I was in their shoes I would have resisted games too, I would have been afraid to act silly (or vulnerable). Here’s the thing: the results aren’t silly. Improv games are a swiss army knife for solving complex problems. When you have a serious problem to solve, it’s time to “play” with the concepts involved. Improv is that vehicle. Games Get You To Insights Classic

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Hope is a Four Letter Word in Innovation Hope — the cornerstone of innovation culture Hope is inspired by successful projects; the lesson of Washington at Trenton In the innovation space there is a great deal of discussion about mindset. Rightfully so, attitude and thinking patterns have everything to do with setting the table for a productive innovation culture. Leaders and followers with the right mindset have a chance to create and succeed with innovation. There’s a lot to learn about inspiring hope from American history, but before we look at that George Washington “crossing the Delaware” example, let’s examine what mindset means, and let’s see what is systematically left out (hint: it’s hope). When people talk about mindset, they are

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The Benefits of Innovation Training for Operational Employees 85% of CEOs put Innovation as a Top Three priority Consider a Brown Bag Innovation Training or Immersion in Innovation Concepts Why is it that organizations don’t invest in training operational employees? It’s an opportunity to improve innovation culture that few are taking up. Imagine the impact that basic training in Creative Problem Solving* and innovation concepts would have — more innovation across the entire value chain of the business. Don’t this large group of employees deserve a Brown Bag Innovation Training? Or better yet a full immersion in Innovation Concepts?  Forbes says innovation training is one of the 12 factors a company needs, to establish a more inventive culture. Companies are investing in innovation

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Brown Bag Innovation “Innovation is everybody’s job.” Gregg Fraley, keynote speech, circa 2006 “Innovation is everybody’s job, but you have to provide smart ways to contribute.” Gregg Fraley, keynote speech, 2019.  I’m excited to talk to you about a new offering, Brown Bag Innovation Training. It’s a lunch & learn workshop for those who are typically not involved in focused innovation efforts. It’s designed to help change cultures. But first, some background… Innovation is everybody’s job, but many employees think the opposite is true. When they hear a message like the first quote above they write it off as a meaningless slogan and ignore it. Why? Because we’ve trained people to ignore things outside their job description. Unless you’re actively involved

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What You Should Be Learning in Innovation Training But you probably are not! Eleven Innovation Bullets to Dodge, in no particular order. Lack of Managment support will effectively kill any innovation program no matter how well conceived. If you don’t have Talent, superior talent, you’ll fail. Design Thinking alone will not guarantee success (or any other framework, Agile, Lean, etc.). Very few organization’s are any good at all at Brainstorming/Idea Generation. If you don’t take calculated risks, and continue to take them, you will fail. Most organization’s don’t have the guts to actually reinvent. Innovation team leaders who avoid conflict are doomed to fail. B to B organization’s need to learn what qualitative research is all about. B to C

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Idea Generation Fails How to Hose Your Next Idea Generation Project* If you want to improve , get the training This post is a self-explanatory graphic for the most part. Those who regularly do Idea Generation don’t need my text below (but don’t be smug, even one of these fails can do you in).  I posted this graphic on LinkedIn a couple days ago it got so much attention I thought I’d do a bit of explaining. These fails — and solutions — are the result of 30+ years of research and hands-on innovation consulting work. And these fails are democratic — they will hose a session or project in any industry, in non-profits, associations, or in economic development. Start-ups

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80% Of Brainstorming Sessions Don’t Work Seven Idea Generation Fails Redefine Brainstorming and Get Better Results I might be getting to old to hold back on saying this about ideation, aka idea generation, aka brainstorming. My inner skeptic and snarky soul wants to scream it. Based on my experience, about 80% of idea generation doesn’t work. It might be worse than that. In spite of the efforts of many people to train others in how it ought to be done, it’s getting worse, not better. The Failure Rate is partly because the game’s changed, again. Also partly because the lessons of how it ought to be done have simply never been learned. As the drawing suggests, please, let’s redefine brainstorming.

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