Category Archives: Government

Bureaucracy and Politics versus Innovation

Bureaucracy and Politics versus Innovation

Innovation in military hardware is really hard.

I wanted to call this article “Corruption versus Innovation” but I sailed back from the precipice to a more forgiving title to give the government and military contractors the benefit of the doubt that the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program – aka Little Crappy Ships – was not corporate welfare but merely a poorly executed military contract.

Back in 2004 the Bush administration decided it wanted to increase military spending.

One of the ways they decided to do this was to initiate a new shipbuilding program that benefited Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. The initial phase of the project called for two ships of each design to be built at an estimated cost of $220 million each. The initial phase of this suspect shipbuilding program went so poorly that congress canceled the second ship each company was scheduled to build and re-opened bidding.

The government pushed for fixed price contracting, and despite agreeing to a fixed price of $432-437 million each, the first ship set sail at a price of $637 million and the second at a whopping $704 million. This for a ship that was initially envisioned to only need a crew of forty sailors (eight officers and 32 enlisted) to operate. This was later changed to a crew of 73 sailors and 20 airmen to operate helicopters, UAV’s or other special equipment.

After beginning the LCS program in 2004, it wasn’t until 2013 that the initial LCS achieved its first deployment – to Singapore. That’s nine years from initiation to product launch. Think about how much has changed in the last nine years – we’ll come back to this point later.

The continuing poor performance of both the program (never-ending cost overruns), and the ship itself, forced the US Navy to reduce its orders from 55 of the ships to 32. Despite this reduction in the number of ships, the Navy chose to still take delivery of all 120 of the helicopters designed to pair with the ships, deeming it more expensive to cancel the contract for the excess helicopters than to go ahead and take delivery.

You can probably see now why I was going to call this article “Corruption versus Innovation” as the billions of dollars siphoned from the taxpayers to the military contractors and their shareholders pile up.

What’s worse, not only have the ships proven to be THREE TIMES more expensive to acquire than advertised, but they break down all the time and cost nearly as much to operate annually as an Arleigh-Burke Destroyer AND they have still yet to deploy their mine countermeasure and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

The situation is so bad that the Navy is abandoning the program and looking to replace its little crappy ships (LCS) with a new Frigate program – the FFG (X) to be constructed by an Italian shipbuilding firm.

So, what went wrong?

Through the eyes of both a U.S. Navy Veteran, and as an innovation professional, here are my thoughts about how the U.S. Government can require its contractors to leverage more innovation best practices in their provision of services on behalf of the American people. Here are five places to start:

1. Pick the Right Time Horizon for Your Design Challenge

One of the biggest mistakes that organizations make is not consider how long it takes to develop, launch and market a new product or service without considering how an identified customer insight might change over that timeframe. For example, if it takes you two years to launch a new product and you’re developing that product based on a customer insight identified today, there is a chance that two years from now the customer may no longer value the key elements of the solution you’re designing. So, you must make sure that you’re designing against a customer insight that will still be relevant at the end of your product development and launch timeline.

Innovating for the Future Present

For more, see my article Are You Innovating for the Past or the Future?

2. Make Sure You’re Solving a Problem Worth Solving

It is really easy to latch on to a single problem and decide to solve it. But is it the right problem to solve?

Smart organizations don’t jump to problem solving too soon, but instead start with problem finding in a divergent manner before converging via problem prioritization, then diverge again in a problem deep dive and finally converge into a problem summary and a research brief focused on a carefully chosen problem worth solving.

Preparing to Solve the Right Problem

For more, see my article Picking a Problem Worth Solving From a Sea of Problems

3. Identify Potential Fatal Flaws

No idea is perfect, and so when you can identify the potential fatal flaws or the high hurdles that have to be overcome, you can challenge them, you can solve for them, you can unleash the passion of your team on trying to find a way around them.

The fatal flaws are always there, and the wise innovator doesn’t ignore them or assume that they will overcome them at some point in the future, but instead invests energy upfront into both trying to identify the fatal flaws of their idea and into identifying whether they can isolate the solutions before moving the idea forward.

For more, see my article Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fatal Flaws

4. Create an Experimentation Strategy and a Plan for Learning Fast

When it comes to innovation, it is not as important whether you fail fast or fail slow or whether you fail at all, but how fast you learn. And make no mistake, you don’t have to fail to innovate (although there are always some obstacles along the way). With the right approach to innovation you can learn quickly from failures AND successes.

The key is to pursue your innovation efforts as a discrete set of experiments designed to learn certain things and instrumenting each project phase in such a way that the desired learning is achieved.

The central question should always be:

“What do we hope to learn from this effort?”

The Experiment Canvas

My Experiment Canvas is a great free tool you can download from this web site to help you design and execute a series of carefully selected experiments to help you get the right learning and to help identify early on whether or not you can realistically solve for the potential fatal flaws – as early as possible – while investments are low.

For more, see my article Don’t Fail Fast – Learn Fast and download your free Experiment Canvas poster to print or to use as a background to lock down and put virtual sticky notes on top of in online whiteboarding tools like Miro, Mural, LucidSpark or Microsoft Whiteboard.

5. Design for Modularity to Reduce Obsolescence

The LCS was promised to be a modular warship capable of performing multiple missions, but the contractors have failed to deliver on this promise.

It takes a really long time to put a new ship design to sea and into service. So, if you get it wrong, like with the LCS program, it will be many more years before you can replace a faulty design with a new design.

We rarely successfully predict the future, so it is important to design in the capability to adapt solutions as they are developed to match emerging realities. Otherwise, you can end up designing a solution for a problem that goes away.

To reduce the chances of designing a new ship for a mission that may no longer be needed by the time it is put to sea, it is imperative that each ship is designed to be intentionally modular. It is imperative that each ship is designed as a platform of platforms.

The automobile industry has gotten really good at designing in this way. Different trim levels have different stereo options, for example, or a dealer can install a spoiler or a luggage rack pretty easily if a customer desires it.

Designing with modularity and upgradeability in mind to change out key components to different mission needs that may emerge over time or new technologies that may create new or enhanced capabilities, is an incredibly powerful way to extend the usefulness and lifespan of each new maritime defense hull.

Conclusion

The U.S. Navy is in a quandary about what to do with the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) it already has.

So much so that it has reached out to fleet commanders to inquire what missions the ships should be deployed against – according to Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener.

The Navy should consider opening up their queries for help even wider, perhaps to the global innovation community.

But, with that said, as a U.S. Navy veteran I think the perception of the success or failure of this program would be seen much differently if they had successfully deployed the Anti-Mine Countermeasure and Anti-Submarine Warfare capabilities BEFORE the Surface Warfare capabilities.

Frigates and Destroyers are much more capable surface warfare platforms, and in hindsight the billions of dollars wasted on this program could have been much better spent for the benefit of the American people.

So, I hope that military contractors and the U.S. Government will improve their ability to deliver increased value at a decreased price as they pursue future shipbuilding programs and leverage some of the innovation best practices above.

Grabbing a copy of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire would also be a great place to start.

Go Navy!

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (ship photo)
All other images: Braden Kelley (All Rights Reserved)

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The Rise of Telemedicine

A Game-Changer in Healthcare Access

The Rise of Telemedicine

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In recent years, the advancement of technology has revolutionized various sectors, and healthcare is no exception. Telemedicine, the practice of using digital communication technologies to provide remote medical care, is rapidly emerging as a game-changer in enhancing healthcare access. By bridging geographical barriers and minimizing logistical challenges, telemedicine has the potential to transform the way we receive medical treatment. This article explores the rise of telemedicine and presents two case studies to demonstrate its impact on improving healthcare access for both urban and rural populations.

Case Study 1 – Urban Accessibility: Dr. Smith’s Virtual Clinic

In bustling urban areas, long wait times, traffic congestion, and limited availability of quality healthcare professionals tend to be common issues. Dr. Michelle Smith, a general practitioner based in a metropolitan city, recognized these challenges and decided to launch a virtual clinic utilizing telemedicine.

By leveraging video conferencing platforms and mobile applications, Dr. Smith was able to connect with her patients remotely. Patients were able to schedule virtual appointments, receive consultations, and even share diagnostic reports or lab results with her through secure online platforms. To further personalize the experience, Dr. Smith integrated wearable devices and health monitoring tools to remotely track her patients’ vital signs and symptoms.

The implementation of telemedicine not only eliminated the need for patients to travel long distances, but it also reduced waiting times significantly. Additionally, Dr. Smith could effectively manage a larger patient base, providing healthcare services beyond the traditional office hours. As a result, her clinic experienced increased patient satisfaction, improved health outcomes, and reduced overall healthcare costs.

Case Study 2 – Rural Access Enhancement: The Texas Telehealth Initiative

In remote rural areas, access to healthcare services is often limited due to the scarcity of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals. The Texas Telehealth Initiative demonstrates how telemedicine has tackled these challenges and improved healthcare access.

The initiative aimed to provide comprehensive healthcare services to rural communities across Texas through a network of telemedicine clinics. Patients living in isolated rural areas could now consult with specialists located in urban cities without the need for long journeys or expensive travel arrangements.

For instance, a patient suffering from a cardiological condition in a small town could remotely access a cardiologist in a big city for both diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Implementing high-definition video conferencing systems, medical professionals could examine patients virtually, review their medical history, and make accurate assessments. Moreover, real-time collaboration between specialists reduced the chances of misdiagnosis and improved treatment outcomes.

By reducing the barriers caused by geographical distance, the Texas Telehealth Initiative effectively enhanced healthcare access in rural communities. Patients who previously faced limited services or were compelled to travel long distances for specialized care could now receive top-notch medical attention from the comfort of their local clinic. This initiative undoubtedly resulted in improved patient outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, and reduced healthcare costs for both patients and healthcare organizations.

Conclusion

The rise of telemedicine presents a unique opportunity to transform healthcare access for vast numbers of individuals. As demonstrated by the aforementioned case studies, telemedicine offers immense potential in improving accessibility for both urban and rural populations. By leveraging digital communication technologies, healthcare professionals can overcome geographical barriers, reduce waiting times, and optimize the utilization of healthcare resources.

However, it is essential to ensure the responsible and ethical integration of telemedicine into existing healthcare systems. Policymakers, regulators, and healthcare providers must collaborate to establish clear guidelines, address privacy concerns, and tackle potential technical challenges. Only through careful planning and implementation can telemedicine truly transform healthcare access worldwide, making quality healthcare available to everyone regardless of their geographical location.

Bottom line: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Rethinking Urban Development

Smart Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure

Rethinking Urban Development: Smart Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

As the world population continues to urbanize at an unprecedented rate, cities are faced with the pressing need to redefine urban development strategies. To meet the demands of growing populations, smart cities and sustainable infrastructure offer innovative solutions that can optimize resources, enhance livability, and mitigate environmental impacts. This article explores the paradigm shift towards smart cities and highlights two impactful case studies that showcase the successful implementation of sustainable infrastructure practices.

Case Study 1: Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative:

Singapore, a leading global city, has embraced smart city technologies and sustainable infrastructure to address its unique challenges. The city-state’s Smart Nation Initiative leverages advanced technologies and strong governance to enhance urban livability and efficiency. Key projects, such as the Smart Traffic Lights system and Smart Nation Sensor Platform, demonstrate the integration of data and technology to optimize urban mobility and resource utilization.

One notable achievement is the “Smart Traffic Lights” project, where data analytics and real-time sensors have been deployed to dynamically control traffic lights based on traffic patterns. This has resulted in significant reductions in congestion, travel times, and carbon emissions. Singapore’s holistic approach to urban development combines smart mobility, low-energy buildings, and eco-friendly infrastructure, making it a remarkable case study.

Case Study 2: Barcelona’s Superblocks:

Barcelona, Spain, has pioneered the concept of “superblocks” to transform the urban landscape and prioritize sustainable modes of transportation. Superblocks involve transforming selected neighborhoods by restricting vehicle movement and creating pedestrianized areas, green spaces, and cycle lanes. This approach aims to reduce air pollution, noise levels, and traffic congestion while encouraging active mobility.

The Poblenou Superblock project demonstrates the transformative impact of this approach. By re-imagining the city grid, reclaiming street spaces for pedestrians and cyclists, and promoting mixed land-use development, Poblenou has become a thriving, sustainable neighborhood. The project showcases how urban redevelopment can create vibrant communities that prioritize public spaces, active transport, and social interaction.

The Benefits of Smart Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure:

1. Enhanced Quality of Life: Smart cities provide residents with improved access to essential services, efficient transportation systems, and connected infrastructure, resulting in enhanced quality of life.
2. Efficient Resource Utilization: Sustainable infrastructure optimizes energy consumption, reduces waste, and promotes the use of renewable energy sources, leading to greater resource efficiency and resilience.
3. Environmental Sustainability: By leveraging data analytics and internet of things (IoT) technologies, smart cities generate actionable insights to tackle environmental challenges, promoting sustainable practices and reducing carbon footprints.

Conclusion

The implementation of smart city technologies and sustainable infrastructure is revolutionizing urban development around the globe. The case studies of Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative and Barcelona’s Superblocks exemplify the successful integration of technology, data, and sustainable principles to create livable and prosperous cities. As urbanization continues to accelerate, it is imperative that cities rethink their development strategies to build smart, sustainable, and inclusive future communities. Through concerted efforts and innovative approaches, cities can ensure a high quality of life for their inhabitants while preserving resources for generations to come.

Bottom line: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pexels

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America Drops Out of the Ten Most Innovative Countries

America Drops Out of Top 10 Most Innovative Countries

The latest Bloomberg Innovation Index is out (2021 edition), and South Korea has risen to first place, taking the title back from Germany, while the U.S. fell out of the Top 10 completely.

Seven of the top 10 places went to European countries while the USA and China slipped.

“Intensifying competition between the U.S. and China is reshaping the innovation landscape. For the U.S., fears about losing intellectual property to a geopolitical rival are undermining support for the open innovation system. For China, fear of being cut off from foreign technology is accelerating investment in R&D capacity at home.” — Bloomberg Chief Economist Tom Orlik

The rankings are based on dozens of criteria centered around seven metrics:

  • For patent activity
  • For research personnel concentration
  • For tertiary education
  • For technology company density
  • For productivity
  • For manufacturing value added
  • For research and development expenditures

Bloomberg Innovation Index 2021 Chart Part 1
Bloomberg Innovation Index 2021 Chart Part 2
Bloomberg Innovation Index 2021 Chart Part 3

The Bloomberg Innovation Index tries to measure and rank countries on the ability of their economies to innovate, which will be a key theme at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland taking place Jan. 26-29.

While spending on research and development continues to be important, shifts in productivity and education effectiveness (among other factors) will continue to encourage significant changes in the index from year to year.

“In the year of Covid and facing the urgency of climate change, the importance of innovation fundamentals only increases. Innovation is often measured by new ideas, new products and new services, but its their diffusion and adoption that is the real metric of success.” — Catherine Mann, Global Chief Economist at Citigroup Inc.

What do you think?

Does Bloomberg get it right or are there other innovation rankings or indexes that do a better job?

Which is more important to the relative innovativeness of a country, efforts by the government or by industry?

Which countries do the best job of achieving successful public/private partnerships to encourage innovation?

Click here to see the full 2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index rankings

 
Build a Common Language of Innovation

Image credits: Bloomberg

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The Power of Design Thinking in Government

Transforming Public Services

The Power of Design Thinking in Government: Transforming Public Services

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

Design thinking is a human-centered problem-solving approach that empowers organizations to create innovative solutions. While traditionally associated with the private sector, design thinking has found a significant role in government organizations to transform public services. This article will explore two case studies that highlight the power of design thinking in improving government services and its potential to drive positive societal change.

Case Study 1: Redesigning the User Experience of a Government Website

In 2017, the Australian government embarked on a project to redesign their official immigration website, aiming to provide a more user-friendly experience. The initial website was complex, cluttered with excessive information, and used technical language that confused and overwhelmed users. Consequently, people struggled to find relevant information and complete application processes efficiently.

Applying design thinking principles, a multidisciplinary team comprising government officials, designers, and user experience experts collaborated to re-imagine the website. They conducted extensive user research, including interviews, focus groups, and user testing, to gain insights into the pain points and frustrations of website users.

Based on these insights, the team simplified the navigation structure, reorganized information, and revamped the language to be more accessible and user-friendly. They implemented a streamlined application process that focused on user needs, reducing redundancies and unnecessary steps. Additionally, they incorporated interactive elements and improved search functionality to enhance the overall user experience.

The redesigned website was rolled out, and its impact on user satisfaction and efficiency was immediately evident. User feedback indicated higher levels of understanding, reduced confusion, and a significant decrease in time required to complete tasks. This case study demonstrates how design thinking can drive the transformation of government services by prioritizing the needs and experiences of citizens.

Case Study 2: Improving Public Transportation Systems

Public transportation plays a crucial role in the daily lives of millions of citizens. Recognizing the need for an improved public transportation system, the Singapore government utilized design thinking principles to initiate a holistic transformation. They aimed to create a seamless and user-centric experience for commuters, thereby increasing overall public transportation usage.

The government engaged with citizens and stakeholders through surveys, interviews, and immersive empathy exercises to understand their pain points, desires, and aspirations related to public transportation. This comprehensive research informed the creation of personas representing different commuter profiles, which became the focal point for designing solutions.

Design thinking techniques were applied to various aspects, including bus stop design, route planning, mobile applications, and fare collection systems. Bus stops were redesigned to provide shelter, seating, and real-time information, catering to the needs of different user groups. Route planning was optimized based on commuter data, and mobile applications were developed to provide live updates on bus timings, route changes, and fare information.

The result was a remarkable enhancement in the overall public transportation experience. Commuters reported reduced wait times, improved convenience, and increased ridership. The government’s successful implementation of design thinking principles demonstrates its potential to transform public services by incorporating user needs into the core of service delivery.

Conclusion

Design thinking has an unrivaled power to transform public services by prioritizing citizen needs and experiences. The case studies discussed above exemplify how governments can leverage this approach to drive positive change. By emphasizing empathy, collaboration, and iterative problem-solving, design thinking can revolutionize the way governments design and deliver public services. It is time for governments worldwide to embrace design thinking as a catalyst for innovation and citizen-centric transformations.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Braden Kelley’s Problem Finding Canvas can be a super useful starting point for doing design thinking or human-centered design.

“The Problem Finding Canvas should help you investigate a handful of areas to explore, choose the one most important to you, extract all of the potential challenges and opportunities and choose one to prioritize.”

Image credit: Pixabay

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The Leading Country for Innovation for 2020 is…

The Leading Country for Innovation for 2020 is...

The latest Bloomberg Innovation Index is out (2020 edition), and Germany has risen to first place, breaking South Korea’s six-year winning streak, while the U.S. fell one notch to No. 9.

“Innovation is a critical driver of growth and prosperity. China’s move up the rankings, and the U.S. drop, is a reminder that without investment in education and research, trade tariffs aren’t going to maintain America’s economic edge.” –Tom Orlik, Bloomberg Economics chief economist

The rankings are based on dozens of criteria centered around seven metrics:

  • For patent activity
  • For research personnel concentration
  • For tertiary education
  • For technology company density
  • For productivity
  • For manufacturing value added
  • For research and development expenditures

2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index

The Bloomberg Innovation Index tries to measure and rank countries on the ability of their economies to innovate, which will be a key theme at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland taking place Jan. 21-24.

While spending on research and development continues to be important, shifts in productivity and education effectiveness (among other factors) will continue to encourage significant changes in the index from year to year.

What do you think?

Does Bloomberg get it right or are there other innovation rankings or indexes that do a better job?

Which is more important to the relative innovativeness of a country, efforts by the government or by industry?

Which countries do the best job of achieving successful public/private partnerships to encourage innovation?

Click here to see the full 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index rankings

Image credits: Bloomberg


Accelerate your change and transformation success

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Empowering Every Resident with Tools for Change and Innovation

Empowering Every Resident with Tools for ChangeWhat if you could empower every citizen with tools that will help your city, state or country innovate and change faster than the competition for a penny a person?

Well, now it’s possible…

A revolution is beginning, and the smart cities, states, countries, and even organizations, are arming themselves with the tools they need to win…

The Change Planning Toolkit™ has been designed to create a more visual, collaborative and agile method for getting everyone literally all on the same page for change. The Change Planning Toolkit™’s collection of tools, frameworks, and worksheets and the approach outlined in the book Charting Change operate together in a spirit built upon the standards created by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) and the interactive approaches that the Lean Canvas and Business Model Canvas have made comfortable for people.

ACMP Standard Visualization

The Change Planning Toolkit™ is anchored in the best practices of organizational change and project management. At its center is the Change Planning Canvas™, a powerful tool that will help you beat the 70% change failure rate by enabling you to quickly visualize, plan, and execute projects and change initiatives alike. The more than fifty (50) tools in the Change Planning Toolkit™ will help you deliver projects and change efforts on time, while simultaneously accelerating implementation and adoption.

Change Planning Wall

If the benefits are not clear, be sure and get your 10 Free Change Planning Tools and you’ll get a better sense of the power of the Change Planning Toolkit™ (it is visual after all) and check out the additional benefits in the image below:

Change Planning Toolkit Benefits

The Change Planning Toolkit™ is breaking away from the business model where people traditionally license intellectual property in the innovation and management information space by the named user, where fees for example are:

1. Gartner — $20,000-30,000 per year for a single user
2. Forrester — ~$20,000 per year for a single user
3. BeingFirst — $975 per year for a single user
4. ProSci — $350-400 per download (for a single user) or $4,000+ per user for training
5. MarketingProfs.com — $279 per year for a single user
6. Skillsoft — $150 per year for business skills training for a single user

… or you can hire a top consultant to do some knowledge transfer to your organization for $400-$1,000 per hour (or more).

Change Planning Toolkit Valuable Tools

Now, what is Change Planning Toolkit™ offering that is different?

First, the Change Planning Toolkit™ provides an integrated system of tools far more powerful and far more capable of increasing organizational agility than any other.

Second, the Change Planning Toolkit™ is now available using two business model variations not usually offered in the intellectual property space, which include:

1. Access for Every Employee (aka the Site License option)

  • Access for EVERY employee in your organization, priced at a very affordable $2/yr per employee plus a $299.99 annual fee
  • Includes access to a QuickStart Guide to get you up and running quickly
  • Includes access to POSTER SIZE versions of key tools, including the Change Planning Canvas™ and Visual Project Charter™
  • SPECIAL OFFER – The next three (3) firms to purchase a full-day training session (which includes train-the-trainer) will receive a free* Change Planning Toolkit™ site license

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Book a Training Session and get a free* site license
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2. Access for Every Resident (aka the City/State/Country License option)

  • Access for EVERY resident of your city, state, or country. Priced at a very affordable $0.01/yr per resident ($1,000/yr minimum)
  • Yes, that is right. Cities, states and countries are all eligible for a license that makes these tools available to all residents for just a PENNY per year per resident!
  • SPECIAL OFFER #1 – Purchase a city, state, or country license worth more than $25,000 and get up to 50 people trained to use the toolkit and how to train others to use it (training fees waived for one session, expenses still to be reimbursed)
  • SPECIAL OFFER #2 – Purchase a city, state, or country license worth more than $100,000 and get up to 200 people trained to use the toolkit and how to train others to use it (training fees waived for four (4) sessions in up to two (2) locations with two adjacent days per location, expenses still to be reimbursed)
  • SPECIAL OFFER #3 – Purchase a city, state, or country license worth more than $1,000,000 and get up to 1,000 people trained to use the toolkit and how to train others to use it (training fees waived for twenty (20) sessions in up to ten (10) locations with two adjacent days per location, expenses still to be reimbursed)

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CONTACT ME to get access for all of your residents
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Some educational institutions may be able to apply for grants from the government to cover the cost of the license and training as part of their efforts to raise the skills of their local residents. Central Wyoming College is an example of an educational institution that won a Federal grant to do just that. It’s possible.

And these licenses are available for both the:

  1. Change Planning Toolkit™
  2. Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™ (coming soon)

Become a Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™ Patron

The Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™ will be coming soon, and you can become a Patron by helping to fund its completion through a site license or a city/state/country license and as a reward get instant access to the POSTER SIZE version of The Experiment Canvas™ and the many other tools I’ve already completed. You’ll then of course get access to the rest of the toolkit as I complete it. You’ll get this instant access at a permanent 50% discount off the normal $2/yr per employee or $0.01/yr per resident, meaning your cost will be a paltry $1/yr per employee or $0.005/yr per resident for the lifetime of the license.

SPECIAL BUNDLE DISCOUNT:

— Get instant access for both the Change Planning Toolkit™ and the Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™ (coming soon) for all of your residents for a low bundle price of $0.014/yr per resident ($1,000/yr minimum) – that’s less than a penny-and-a-half per resident (a full 60% discount off the second license).

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CONTACT ME to get a jump on the competition
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Empower Your Residents and Employees to Cope with the Accelerating Pace of Change

So don’t wait, act today and get access for all of your employees or all of your residents to these powerful, intuitive and beautifully visual and collaborative tools that will help increase the speed of innovation and change in your organizations to cope with the accelerating pace of change in the world all around us. Countries all around the world are fighting to be the destination of choice of aspiring entrepreneurs and bold innovators and to rise in comparative rankings like the:

World’s 50 Most Innovative Countries (license cost based on population)

  1. Switzerland ($84,541)
  2. Sweden ($99,206)
  3. Netherlands ($170,328)
  4. United States ($3,264,740)
  5. United Kingdom ($655,111)
  6. Denmark ($57,118)
  7. Singapore ($57,845)
  8. Finland ($55,413)
  9. Germany ($806,361)
  10. Ireland ($47,492)
  11. ————————————–
    State of California ($392,500)
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  12. South Korea ($507,050)
  13. Luxembourg ($5,841)
  14. Iceland ($3,343)
  15. Japan ($1,260,452)
  16. France ($649,387)
  17. Hong Kong ($74,019)
  18. Israel ($83,232)
  19. Canada ($366,261)
  20. Norway ($53,308)
  21. Austria ($85,924)
  22. ————————————–
    State of Texas ($278,625)
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  23. New Zealand ($46,049)
  24. China ($13,882,327)
  25. Australia ($246,417)
  26. Czech Republic ($105,551)
  27. Estonia ($13,058)
  28. Malta ($4,205)
  29. Belgium ($114,438)
  30. Spain ($460,701)
  31. Italy ($597,980)
  32. Cyprus ($11,876)
  33. ————————————–
    New York City ($85,504)
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  34. Portugal ($102,648)
  35. Slovenia ($20,713)
  36. Latvia ($19,446)
  37. Slovakia ($54,322)
  38. UAE ($93,976)
  39. Bulgaria ($70,453)
  40. Malaysia ($311,642)
  41. Poland ($385,636)
  42. Hungary ($97,879)
  43. Lithuania ($28,306)
  44. —————————————
    Chicago ($27,205)
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  45. Croatia ($42,098)
  46. Romania ($192,375)
  47. Turkey ($804,175)
  48. Greece ($108,929)
  49. Russia ($1,433,750)
  50. Chile ($183,135)
  51. Vietnam ($954,146)
  52. Montenegro ($6,263)
  53. Qatar ($23,381)
  54. Ukraine ($444,051)

Are you happy with your country’s position on the World’s 50 Most Innovative Countries list?

Are you happy with your company’s level of organizational agility or level of innovation success?

Is your organization or country keeping up with the accelerating pace of change?

If not, then you need these tools. And if you are satisfied with your competitive position, then you need these tools to maintain your current position…

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CONTACT ME to get access for all of your residents or employees
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Accelerate your change and transformation success

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Confessions of a Business Artist

Confessions of a Business Artist

I am an artist.

There, I’ve said it. This statement may confuse some people who know me, and come as a shock to others.

Braden, what do you mean you’re an artist? You’ve got an MBA from London Business School, you’ve led change programs for global organizations, helped companies build their innovation capabilities and cultures, are an expert in digital transformation, and you can’t even draw a straight line without a ruler. What makes you think you’re an artist?

Well, okay, that may all be true, but there are lots of different kinds of artists. I may not be a painter, a sculptor, a musician, an illustrator, or even a singer, but I am an artist, a business artist.

What is a business artist you ask?

A business artist sees through complexity to what matters most. A business artist loves working with PowerPoint and telling stories, often through keynote speeches and training facilitation, or through writing. A business artist loves to share, often doing so for the greater good, sometimes to their own financial detriment, in an effort to accelerate the knowledge, learning, and creating new capabilities in others. A business artist is a builder, often creating new businesses, new web sites, and new thinking. A business artist is comfortable stepping into a number of different business contexts and bringing a different energy and a different approach to creating solutions to complex requirements. Part of the reason a business artist can do this is because a business artist values their intuitive skills just as much as they value their intellectual skills, and may also consciously invest in getting in touch with higher levels of intuitive capabilities, enabling them to excel in roles that involve a great deal of what might be termed ‘organizational psychology’.

A business artist often appears to be a jack of all trades, sometimes bordering on what was portrayed in the television show The Pretender, and can be an incredibly powerful addition to any team tackling a big challenge, but a business artist’s incredible ability to contribute to the success of an organization is often discounted by the traditional recruiting processes of most human resource organizations because of its emphasis on skill matching and experience, skewing hiring in favor of someone with a lot of experience at being mediocre at a certain skillset over someone with limited experience but greater capability. A business artist often appears to be ahead of the curve, often to their own detriment, arriving too early to the party by grasping where organizations need to go before the rest of the organization is willing to accept the new reality. This is a real problem for business artists.

Now is the time for a change. Given human’s increasing access to knowledge, and the shorter time now required to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills required to perform a task, people who are comfortable with complexity, ambiguity, and capable of learning quickly are incredibly valuable to organizations as continual change becomes the new normal. Because experience is increasingly detrimental to success instead of a long-lived asset, given the accelerating pace of innovation and change, we need business artists now more than ever.

So how do we create more business artists?

Unfortunately our public schools are far too focused on indoctrination than education, on repetition over discovery. Our educational system specializes in creating trivia masters and kids that hate school, instead of building a new generation of creative problem solvers that love to learn and explore new approaches instead of defending status conferred based on mastery of current truths (which may be tomorrow’s fallacies). We are far too obsessed with STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) when we should be focused on STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Music). Music is creative math after all. My daughter’s school has a limited music program and NO ART. How is this possible?

To create more business artists we need to shift our focus towards art, creative problem solving and demonstrated learning, and away from memorization, metrics, and repetition. Can we do this?

Can we create an environment where the status quo is seen not as a source of power through current mastery and instead towards a system where improvements to the status quo are seen as the new source of power?

Organizations that want to survive will do so. Countries that want to stay at the top of the economic pyramid will do so. So what kind of country do you want to live in? What kind of company do you want to be part of?

Do you have the courage to join me as a business artist or to help create a new generation of them?

Image credit: blogs.nd.edu

This article originally appeared on Linkedin


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Whither Innovation in Indiana?

Whither Innovation in Indiana?Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s talk about homosexuality and whether it has any impact on innovation. There probably are two no more polarizing topics in the United States than homosexuality and abortion. But the truth is that if both sides of the political and religious spectrum focused on the golden rule, there would be less corruption, we’d all be a lot happier, probably have more innovation, and our politics would be more productive.

Today we have another great case study for how short people’s attention spans have gotten, how the government can help or hinder innovation, how little investigative journalism still remains in the United States, and how easily people are swayed by a soundbite that runs contrary to (or in support of) their own personal religious or political beliefs.

But this article isn’t going to be some diatribe in support or opposition to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) legislation (referred to by the media as an anti-gay law) because I freely admit I don’t fully understand all of the implications of a similar federal law and whether federal protections for gays apply to the state law.

Instead I’d like to focus briefly on what this controversy brings to mind for me in regards to the efforts of hard-working folks attempting to stimulate innovation in Indiana (and elsewhere).

Point #1: People Must Feel Safe to Innovate

If we take Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs as gospel (okay, maybe that’s dangerous word choice), then safety is one of the most important needs for people, and in order to innovate people must feel safe. True innovation usually requires taking risks and doing things in a new way, and if people feel that trying something new or even just being different has a high price, then people won’t step out of their comfort zone and push the boundaries of conventional wisdom. So if we are truly trying to do everything we can to inspire innovation in our region, shouldn’t we also try to do everything we can to make it feel like a place where it is safe to be different and where that difference is potentially even celebrated?

Point #2: Diversity is Important (to a point)

We all look at the same situation through different eyes and a different history of experiences, values and beliefs. This diversity can help create different idea fragments that can be connected together to create revolutionary new ideas with the potential to become innovations. But at the same time, having some shared experiences helps to make it easier to communicate and to have a higher level of trust (assuming those experiences were good ones). So if we are truly trying to do everything we can to inspire innovation in our region, shouldn’t we also do everything we can to make different groups of people look to our region as a good place to move to so we have a diverse talent pool?

Conclusion: If Culture Trumps Strategy, Environment Trumps Startups

The world is changing. It used to be that companies started and grew in the community where they were founded, hiring increasing numbers of people from the surrounding areas and attracting others from elsewhere. Now, an increasing number of companies (especially digital ones) are moving to more distributed models where they create satellite offices where the talent is rather than trying to attract all of the talent to a single location.

Economically this is meaning that it is becoming less important that the next Facebook starts in your town than it is for the next Facebook to want to have an office in your town. This means that for cities, counties, states and countries, the greater economic impact is likely to be made not from trying to encourage lots of startups, but instead from trying to create an environment that young, talented people choose to live in.

And when you create a place that is attractive for smart, creative people to move to, you know what, you’re likely to end up not just with more growing digital companies seeking a presence, but also a larger number of startups than if you started with the goal of specifically trying to encourage startups.

Does your region focus on creating startups as the primary goal or on making itself an attractive place for a young, diverse and talented population to live?

Does this uproar help Indiana establish its as an attractive place to be, or work against that perception?

I’ll let you decide!

P.S. If you’re curious, here are The Metro Areas With the Largest, and Smallest, Gay Populations (for what it’s worth, Indianapolis isn’t on either list)


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Powering Monday Night Football with Feet?

Shell Kinetic Soccer Field in BrazilElectricity.

It’s not exactly cheap, and in rapidly modernizing countries (or even U.S. municipalities with budget woes) the idea of illuminating a neighborhood soccer field so kids and adults can play at night (especially in a poorer neighborhood), might seem like an impossibility.

But a couple of weeks ago Pelé (the Brazilian soccer player) and Shell (the global oil – ahem energy company) this week showed off a soccer revolution, a field located in the heart of Morro da Mineira, a Rio de Janeiro favela, capable of capturing the kinetic energy created by the movement of players around the field and combining it with nearby solar power to provide a source of renewable electricity for lighting the field.

The field uses two hundred high-tech, underground tiles to capture the energy created by players running around the field, along with energy created by solar panels next to the field and stores it in batteries next to the field. These new floodlights provides the players with a lit field and everyone else in the favela a safe and secure community area at night.

Until it was redeveloped by Shell, the soccer field was largely unusable and many young people were forced to play in the streets. The Morro da Mineira project shows how creative ideas delivered through committed partnerships can shape neighborhoods and transform communities.

The effort is a component of the Shell #makethefuture program, which endeavors to inspire entrepreneurs and young people to see science and engineering as potential career choices, and hopes to inspire both to use their minds to develop energy solutions for our planet’s future. The kinetic technology used at the soccer field was developed by a UK Shell LiveWIRE grant, which is designed to be a catalyst for young students and entrepreneurs seeking to grow promising ideas into viable and sustainable businesses.

Could we someday see a World Cup match lit by the players or maybe even a Monday Night Football game?

Only time, and a continued commitment to advancements in renewable energy generation and storage, will tell.

For other interesting kinetic energy inventions (and potential innovations), continue reading here (link broken).

Image Source: Treehugger


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