Monthly Archives: October 2012

New Thought Paper – Winning the War for Innovation

New Thought Paper - Winning the War for InnovationThere is a war for innovation brewing, and building a deep innovation capability is the only way to win it. The question is, will you lead the charge onto the innovation battlefield, or will you let your competitors bring the fight to you?

As an increasing number of industries become commoditized, innovation has become an important way to distinguish your company from the competition, and a necessary investment just to maintain your existing market position.

In this thought paper, I lead the charge against the status quo. I explore how your organization can stay relevant, grow, and thrive with an innovation framework that addresses four key areas: Leadership & Structure, Processes & Tools, People & Skills, and Culture & Values.

To download my new FREE thought paper on Winning the War for Innovation, please visit the link below.

Download a copy of Winning the War for Innovation

And grab a copy of my book designed to help you build a continuous innovation infrastructure!

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Eight I’s of Infinite Innovation – PDF Version

Eight I's of Infinite Innovation - PDF VersionIn the wake of my hugely popular article on Innovation Excellence I’ve decided to make it available as a PDF.

Download the Eight I’s of Infinite Innovation PDF now

Some authors talk about successful innovation being the sum of idea plus execution, others talk about the importance of insight and its role in driving the creation of ideas that will be meaningful to customers, and even fewer about the role of inspiration in uncovering potential insight. But innovation is all about value and each of the definitions, frameworks, and models out there only tell part of the story of successful innovation.

To achieve sustainable success at innovation, you must work to embed a repeatable process and way of thinking within your organization, and this is why it is important to have a simple common language and guiding framework of infinite innovation that all employees can easily grasp. If innovation becomes too complex, or seems too difficult then people will stop pursuing it, or supporting it.

Some organizations try to achieve this simplicity, or to make the pursuit of innovation seem more attainable, by viewing innovation as a project-driven activity. But, a project approach to innovation will prevent it from ever becoming a way of life in your organization. Instead you must work to position innovation as something infinite, a pillar of the organization, something with its own quest for excellence – a professional practice to be committed to.

So, if we take a lot of the best practices of innovation excellence and mix them together with a few new ingredients, the result is a simple framework organizations can use to guide their sustainable pursuit of innovation – the Eight I’s of Infinite Innovation. This new framework anchors what is a very collaborative process. Here is the framework and some of the many points organizations must consider during each stage of the continuous process…

To continue reading, download the PDF

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Simple Process Innovation – School Bus Style

Simple Process Innovation - School Bus StyleI was speaking with a friend recently about school, and the topic of tired teenagers came up. He said he mentioned to a member of the school board that they should start high school later so that the teenagers could sleep in. The school board member replied sorry, we can’t do that because we need the school buses to bring the elementary school kids to school at that time. Apparently this is how it works now in most places around the United States:

  1. School buses go and pick up the high school kids and bring them to school
  2. School buses go and pick up the middle school kids and bring them to school
  3. School buses go and pick up the elementary school kids and bring them to school

Which got both of thinking. Why not change this around to fit the children’s natural rhythms? After all, a lot of parents put their younger children to bed early, which means they wake up early anyways, and teenagers tend to naturally go to bed late and as a result of having to get up early to get to school, end up tired all of the time (making it harder to learn). So, why not flip the school run order around using the same school bus resources?

  1. School buses go and pick up the elementary school kids and bring them to school
  2. School buses go and pick up the middle school kids and bring them to school
  3. School buses go and pick up the high school kids and bring them to school

Elementary schools could swap out their before school and after school care for longer after school care, the high school kids could start and finish later, and all of the kids would be in school during times when they have better natural energy.

Maybe I’m oversimplifying things, or maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but as far as I can tell it would be worth trying this simple fix.

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