Category Archives: Innovation

7 Steps to Building Stronger Sales Relationships with Human-Centric Problem Solving

by Braden Kelley and Adam Radziszewski

Building strong sales relationships is all about trust and demonstrating how the product/solution will make the customer’s life better. But is traditional selling getting you where you want to go?

If you’re looking to close more business and feeling stuck, try injecting some human-centric problem solving into your sales process.

What is human-centric problem solving?

Human-centric problem solving goes beyond what people say they do. Instead, it looks for what people actually do.

The approach helps you investigate the distinctly human elements that go beyond what sales tools can tell you about a prospect. It can also help you discover the true problem worth solving for the prospect.

Sometimes, you’ll even find a new problem the customer doesn’t even know they have.

Click here to continue reading on Sales Hacker

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25 Free Futures Research and Futurology Resources

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25 Free Futures Research and Futurology Resources

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

One of the biggest barriers to getting started in futurology or futures research is knowing where to go to find information to educate and inform oneself about some of the basics of becoming a futurist and for raw materials to use in support of your first future studies or futurology efforts.

To help with that I have compiled a list of twenty-five resources to get you started in addition to this web site and Braden Kelley’s very excellent FutureHacking™ tools. So, without further delay, here is the list:

1. The Institute for the Future:

https://www.iftf.org/ – The Institute for the Future is a research organization that is focused on understanding emerging trends and long-term changes in the world.

2. The World Future Society

https://www.wfs.org/ – The World Future Society is a global network that works to explore and shape the future.

3. The Millennium Project

http://www.millennium-project.org/ – The Millennium Project is an independent global think tank that works to create a vision and action plan for a better future.

4. The Foresight Institute

https://www.foresight.org/ – The Foresight Institute is an organization that seeks to promote the responsible development of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies.

5. The Institute for New Economic Thinking

https://www.ineteconomics.org/ – The Institute for New Economic Thinking is a global think tank that works to promote critical economic analysis and new economic models.

6. The Hub of Futurism

https://www.hubof-futurism.com/ – The Hub of Futurism is a platform that brings together and connects futurists, thinkers, and innovators.

7. The Center for Science and the Imagination

https://scifi.asu.edu/ – The Center for Science and the Imagination is a research center dedicated to exploring the intersection of science and culture.

8. The Future of Life Institute

https://futureoflife.org/ – The Future of Life Institute is a research center that works to study, protect, and promote the future of life on Earth.

9. The Futurist Magazine

https://www.wfs.org/futurist – A magazine published by the World Future Society that features articles on technological, social, and economic changes and their implications on the future.

10. IEEE Spectrum

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ – A magazine published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers that covers the technological advances and their effects on the future.

11. Singularity Hub

https://singularityhub.com/ – A website featuring articles on topics related to artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology and their implications for the future.

12. Futurism

https://futurism.com/ – A website featuring news and opinion pieces about developments in science, technology, and the future.

13. The Futurist Podcast

https://thefuturistpodcast.com/ – A podcast featuring interviews with leading experts and thought leaders on topics related to the future.

14. The Institute for the Future

https://www.iftf.org/ – A research organization that provides resources and research on the future of technology, work, and society.

15. World Economic Forum

https://www.weforum.org/ – A platform featuring reports and discussions on topics related to the global economy and the future of work.

16. The Long Now Foundation

https://longnow.org/ – A foundation providing resources about long-term thinking and decision making for the future.

17. The Technology Review

https://www.technologyreview.com/ – A website featuring news and opinion pieces about emerging technologies and their implications for the future.

18. The Future of Life Institute

https://futureoflife.org/ – A research institute providing resources and research on the implications of emerging technologies on the future.

19. Futurism.com

https://futurism.com/ – A website dedicated to exploring the world of technological advances and the future of humanity.

20. Futurum Research

https://futurumresearch.com/ – An independent research firm that provides insights, analysis, and forecasts about the future of business and technology.

21. The Futures Agency

https://www.thefuturesagency.com/ – A consultancy dedicated to helping organizations, leaders, and individuals identify and prepare for the future.

22. Future of Life Institute

https://futureoflife.org/ – A research and outreach organization dedicated to exploring the potential of artificial intelligence and its implications for the future of humanity.

23. Long Now Foundation

https://longnow.org/ – A nonprofit organization that works to inspire long-term thinking and foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

24. Center for the Study of the Drone

https://dronecenter.bard.edu/ – A research center that provides analysis, education, and policy advice on the use of unmanned aerial systems (drones).

25. Massive Change Network

https://massivechangenetwork.org/ – An international network of organizations, cities, and individuals working to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

This is of course not an exhaustive list of all the futurology and futures research resources out there, but it is a good start to supplement all of the futurology articles here on this website.

Bottom line: Futurology and prescience are 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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Top 5 Innovation Movies According to Artificial Intelligence

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Top 5 Innovation Movies According to Artificial Intelligence

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In recent years, filmmakers have explored the concept of innovation and its impact on the world in a variety of ways. From biopics about trailblazing inventors to stories about the consequences of technological progress, these movies have not only entertained audiences, but also provided thought-provoking insights into the world of innovation. Here are our top 5 innovation movies that will leave you feeling inspired.

1. The Social Network (2010)

This biopic chronicles the rise of Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. The movie paints a vivid picture of the challenges and successes of an ambitious young innovator who changed the way people interact with each other.

2. The Imitation Game (2014)

This biopic focuses on the life of Alan Turing, the British mathematician who was instrumental in cracking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II. The movie explores the power of innovation and its potential to save lives and shape our future.

3. Moneyball (2011)

This movie tells the story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who revolutionized baseball by employing advanced analysis to build a winning team on a tight budget. This movie is a wonderful example of how innovation can be applied to any field to improve performance.

4. Hidden Figures (2016)

This biopic tells the inspiring story of three African-American women mathematicians who played a crucial role in the successful launch of the first US space mission. The movie highlights the importance of diversity and the power of innovation to break down barriers.

5. The Man in the White Suit (1951)

This classic comedy stars Alec Guinness as a young inventor who develops a revolutionary fabric that never gets dirty or wears out. The movie explores the power of innovation and how it can disrupt entire industries.

Conclusion

Each of these movies provides a unique perspective on innovation and its power to change the world. They are sure to leave you feeling inspired to pursue your own innovative ideas.

Personally, I was surprised to see ‘The Man in the White Suit’ on the list, and not my favorite ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, so I guess I will have to see if Netflix or Prime Video has this movie from the fifties. It sounds intriguing.

Another favorite of mine is ‘Flash of Genius’, a movie about the inventor of intermittent wipers and his painful fight against the patent infringement of the major car companies.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What Leaders Need to Know About Organizational Innovation

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What Leaders Need to Know About Organizational Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Organizational innovation is an essential component of any successful business. In an ever-changing business environment, having the ability to develop and implement innovative solutions can be the difference between success and failure. But what do leaders need to know about organizational innovation?

First and foremost, leaders need to understand the importance of fostering a culture of innovation. Creating an environment where employees feel comfortable to come up with creative solutions and take risks is essential for any business looking to stay ahead of the competition. Leaders should be willing to provide resources and support to help employees come up with new ideas and solve problems.

Leaders should also be aware of the potential risks associated with innovation. While new ideas can bring great rewards, they can also come with a certain degree of risk. Leaders should have a strategy in place to mitigate these risks, and make sure that any new initiatives are thoroughly tested before implementation.

Leaders should also recognize the importance of collaboration when it comes to innovation. Working together to come up with creative solutions can be a great way to foster team spirit and drive the business forward. Leaders should encourage employees to work together to come up with new ideas and solutions, and should provide resources to help facilitate this process.

Finally, leaders should have a clear vision of where they want the business to go. Having a clear direction and a plan to reach it can help ensure that the organization’s efforts are focused on the right goals. Leaders should be willing to challenge the status quo and embrace new ideas to drive the business forward.

Organizational innovation is an essential component of any successful business. It is important for leaders to recognize the importance of fostering a culture of innovation, being aware of the potential risks associated with innovation, encouraging collaboration, and having a clear vision of where they want the business to go. By taking these steps, leaders can ensure that their organization is well-positioned to take advantage of new opportunities and remain competitive in an ever-changing business environment.

Image credit: Pexels

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The Role of Intellectual Property in Innovation

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The Role of Intellectual Property in Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

The role of intellectual property in innovation is becoming increasingly important. Intellectual property is defined as the legal right to a creative work or invention, which includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. It is a way to protect the creativity and innovation of individuals and organizations, ensuring that they can benefit from their innovations and protect them from potential competitors.

Intellectual property can be used in a number of ways to encourage innovation. For example, a patent can be used to protect an invention from being copied or used without permission. This incentivizes companies to invest in research and development, as they know that their innovations will be protected. Similarly, trademarks can be used to protect a company’s brand, preventing others from using their name or logo without permission.

Copyrights are also an important form of intellectual property, allowing creators to protect their work from being reproduced or used without their permission. This gives creators control over how their work is used, and ensures that they are properly compensated for their efforts.

Trade secrets are also used to protect valuable information about a company’s products and processes. This prevents competitors from gaining access to a company’s confidential information, which can give them an unfair advantage.

Intellectual property is essential in encouraging innovation, as it provides a financial incentive for individuals and companies to invest in research and development. It also helps protect the creativity and hard work of individuals and organizations, which is essential for a healthy and vibrant economy. Without intellectual property, it would be much harder for innovators to benefit from their creativity and inventions.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Latest Interview with Voltage Control’s Innovation Series

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Latest Interview with Voltage Control's Innovation Series

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Douglas Ferguson of Voltage Control, to speak with him for their Innovation Series about my work as a popular keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and thought leader on the topics of continuous innovation and change, and some of my work with clients to create innovative strategies, digital transformations, and increased organizational agility.

But mostly in this information-packed interview, I reveal key lessons from the Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™ and my books Charting Change and Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, including what’s hard about making innovation sustainable, the difference between invention and innovation and how the human elements are the key to successful innovation.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Start with the end in mind

Measurement provides a good starting point for establishing a strong foundation. “No innovation idea emerges fully formed. What people come up with are idea fragments and you have to collect and connect those dots to create a fully formed idea.” Based on those ideas, begin by identifying the value you want to create.

In order to make sure an initiative creates all the value it intends to, Braden advocates for the use of experiments with checkpoints. “You can have checkpoints that you establish along the way in terms of getting from what you’re able to do now versus your vision for the full value that you hope to create.” When thinking through experiments to validate assumptions about feasibility, viability, and desirability, also consider the flaws that might be present in your experimentation process.

“Start plotting out all the different experiments that you plan to run and the learning that you hope to get from each one. Those are the things that you can measure against to show that you’re making progress, to show that you’re going to get to the end and that you’re on track.”

The Experiment Canvas was designed to help with this:
— Click here to get The Experiment Canvas™ (11″x17″)
— Click here to get The Experiment Canvas™ poster (35″x56″)

Planning with the end in mind also includes consideration for scaling the invention. “Make sure you’re laying out checkpoints around your ability to scale it, because if you can’t get to that [wide] adoption point, then most likely you’re not going to get your investment back.” Think through what you’ll have to work against in order to scale so that profitability is part of the long-term plan from the beginning. Braden looks to companies like Tesla as an example of the potentially disastrous effects an inability to profitably scale can have on a product and a company’s viability despite having strong ideas and exploration practices.

Click here to read the entire interview

Here are some additional links:

1. Click here to visit the Voltage Control interview page

2. Click here to get your copy of Charting Change

3. Click here for more information on the Change Planning Toolkit™

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CyberMonday Specials on Valuable Tools for Innovation and Change

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CyberMonday Specials on Valuable Tools for Innovation and Change

You can now get a Lifetime Commercial License for the Change Planning Toolkit™!

Thank you to everyone that has already:

1. Gotten the 10 Free Tools to sample the power the toolkit
2. Purchased my book Charting Change and gotten 16 more tools to use
3. Considered purchasing a license to all 50+ tools in the Change Planning Toolkit™

Previously there were three options for using the Change Planning Toolkit™ to make money:

Option 1 for companies — $99.99 per year per user
Option 2 for companies — $299.99 + $2 per employee per year*
Option 3 for cities/states/countries — $0.01 per resident per year ($1,000 minimum)*

* These special licenses give full access to every person in the company or in the region.

BUT,

Now I’m super excited to announce the availability of a fourth option for people – the Lifetime Commercial License!

Available now for only $999.99 per user
(a $36,999.00 value)

FLASH SALE!

First FIVE (5) people get a special price of $249.99 per user on a lifetime license
with coupon code 250LIFETIME

Next FIVE (5) people get a special price of $499.99 per user on a lifetime license
with coupon code 500LIFETIME

AND as a special bonus,

I will credit any educational license investment towards the purchase of a commercial or city/state/country license
If you refer a company or a city/state/country to me and they purchase a bulk license, I will share 20% of the year one revenue with you

** NOTE: Lifetime refers to lifetime of the individual person or company

Thank you for continuing to support the change revolution!

SPECIAL OFFER: Become a Disruptive 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. AND, we can negotiate a period of advance exclusivity, allowing you to get access to the tools as they are completed and get exclusive access to the complete toolkit for an exclusive period of time in advance of the general public (exclusive period TBD).

Please contact me if you are interested in accelerating your innovation efforts and getting a competitive edge over your competition.

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Interview with Launchstreet About How to Increase Organization Agility and Speed of Innovation

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Interview with Launchstreet About How to Increase Organization Agility and Speed of Innovation

I was fortunate enough to join Tamara Ghandour of GoToLaunchStreet, a TED speaker and entrepreneur recently for an interview for her Launchstreet podcast. From building and running multi-million dollar businesses, advising Fortune 500 companies like Disney, Procter and Gamble and RICOH on fostering innovative ideas and people, Tamara’s life is about breaking through the status quo for game-changing results, and that’s what her keynotes, online programs and assessments can do for you. Obviously we’re kindred spirits so check out the lively conversation we had on her podcast!

Listen now to this episode on Inside LaunchStreet:

Download Link | iTunes | Stitcher Radio

Click the links below to find out more about the resources mentioned in the podcast:

The Experiment Canvas™

The Change Planning Toolkit™

Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire: A Roadmap to a Sustainable Culture of Ingenuity and Purpose, by Braden Kelley

Charting Change: A Visual Tool Kit for Making Change Stick, by Braden Kelley

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Fix the Problem or Design it Out?

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Fix the Problem or Design it Out?

Let’s start with the problem.

According to The Plastic Pollution Coalition (January 3, 2017) – “It’s National Drinking Straw Day! Each day, more than 500 million plastic straws are used and discarded in the U.S. alone. Plastic straws consistently make the top ten list of items found, according to Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup data. In the last three years, plastic straws have climbed the list to the Number 5 spot.”

The Paper Straw Movement

In response to this growing problem, in January California made it illegal to give customers plastic straws unless they expressly request one.

Another way some restaurants have tried to to fix this problem has been to replace plastic straws with paper straws.

Or then there is the tasty fix to the problem, the cookie straw.

Starbucks Cookie Straw

But there is another way to approach problem solving, and that is to design out the problem instead of trying to fix it.

Recently a barista at Starbucks accidentally gave me a lid on my water cup that I wasn’t expecting.

I had heard that Starbucks was planning to reduce their use of the iconic green plastic straw, but I kind of assumed that meant they were shifting to paper straws like some other quick serve restaurants, but that is not what they have in mind at all.

Starbucks is instead planning to eliminate the plastic straw.

Instead of focusing on the straw they instead chose to focus on the lid and design it in a way that a straw isn’t even necessary.

Starbucks Sippy Cup

So, next time you’re wrestling with a problem and trying to solve it, look at it in a slightly different way just for fun, try asking yourself how you could design the product, service, or experience (or all three) in order to design out the problem.

You may or may not get to a more viable, desirable, and feasible solution than trying to fix the problem.

But, looking at the problem from a range of different perspectives is always worth the effort.

Keep innovating!

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Challenging Orthodoxies – Flying High

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Challenging Orthodoxies - Flying High

With a new Top Gun movie coming out soon, I thought this might be an appropriate share.

It used to be in the early days of military aviation that a pilot’s head only served as some level of protection during a crash or a battle. Then with the introduction of radio communications an additional function was added to allow the pilot to communicate with the ground and then eventually with other pilots. The arrival of jet airplanes necessitated the integration of breathing capabilities via a facemask attached to the helmet.

Things remained relatively unchanged for many years until miniaturization and advancing computer science and display technologies made it possible to introduce heads up displays for pilots, first into the cockpit and then into the visor of the pilot, allowing pilots to see key flight data in their field of vision without having to find the relevant instrument on their instrumentation panel.

But pilots still had to look out all of their different windows and event turn the airplane in order to see what was going on around the aircraft.

The latest helmet for pilots of the F35 changes all of that now however. Designers have challenged this orthodoxy that a pilot has to look out the window or turn the airplane to see what is going on outside the airplane AND the orthodoxy that a pilot must put on night vision goggles to see what is going on at night by creating a helmet that uses sensors on the outside of the airplane and feed the visual data to the pilot in their new $400,000 helmet for the F35 that allows them to see in every direction just by looking around, day or night. The pilot can now effectively see right through the walls and floor of the airplane with this helmet.

This helmet challenges orthodoxies, but it also leverages two other lenses from Rowan Gibson’s Four Lenses of Innovation to achieve the solution – harnessing trends (sensors, etc.), and understanding needs.

Despite Lockheed Martin holding the primary contract for the F35 Lightning, the helmet will be manufactured primarily in Israel by Elbit Systems with some final assembly work done by Rockwell Collins in the United States.

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