Category Archives: Innovation

Navigating Innovation and Change Like a Visionary Leader

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, companies are constantly facing the pressures of innovation and change. The leaders who can effectively navigate these waters not only secure their companies’ survival but also thrive through dynamic market shifts. Visionary leaders—those who cultivate a culture of creativity while managing change—are becoming indispensable. Let’s explore how some have successfully harnessed innovation and change to propel their organizations forward.

The Power of Purpose-Driven Leadership

Visionary leadership begins with a clear understanding of the organization’s core purpose. This is more than just a mission statement; it’s a guiding light that informs strategy, drives motivation, and fosters resilience amidst change.

Case Study 1: Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo

Under Indra Nooyi’s leadership, PepsiCo underwent a transformative change balancing profit with purpose. Her ‘Performance with Purpose’ vision not only refocused the company’s portfolio towards health-conscious products but also embedded sustainability into its business strategy. Nooyi recognized that long-term success depended on aligning business practices with the changing expectations of society. The introduction of healthier product lines and sustainable packaging are testaments to her visionary leadership, resulting in increased market shares and brand loyalty.

Nooyi’s approach illustrates how visionary leaders integrate their organization’s core purpose into innovation strategies, ensuring that change efforts resonate with both consumers and stakeholders.

Fostering a Culture of Innovation

Visionary leaders know that innovation doesn’t just happen; it requires a supportive environment where creativity is encouraged and risk-taking is tolerated. Creating such an environment involves more than installing bean bags and coffee machines—it requires a fundamental shift in how failure and success are perceived within the organization.

Case Study 2: Satya Nadella at Microsoft

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, Microsoft was seen as a technology behemoth that had lost its innovative edge. Nadella committed to fostering a culture of learning and collaboration. The ‘growth mindset’ philosophy he introduced encouraged employees to embrace challenges and learn from failures. Under Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft shifted its focus to cloud computing, AI, and open-source software, areas where it has since become a dominant player.

This cultural transformation at Microsoft showcases how visionary leaders can reinvigorate innovation by altering organizational mindsets and encouraging cross-departmental collaboration.

Embracing and Managing Change

While innovation sets the stage for what’s possible, it’s the ability to manage change that ensures its implementation. Visionary leaders understand the human side of change—recognizing that people are at the heart of every successful transformation.

To delve deeper into effective change management techniques, consider exploring my articles on The Change Curve Model and Emotional Commitment to Change. These resources provide valuable insights into leading your team through the complexities of change.

Conclusion: The Legacy of Visionary Leaders

Visionary leaders leverage their foresight to drive transformative changes, fostering innovative solutions while ensuring alignment with organizational values. They balance stability with flexibility, profit with purpose, and short-term wins with long-term objectives.

The legacy of leaders like Indra Nooyi and Satya Nadella demonstrates that with the right vision, a commitment to cultural shifts, and a keen understanding of change management, any organization can navigate the tumultuous waters of innovation and emerge stronger. As we look to the future, it is clear that the leaders who can navigate these challenges with foresight and empathy will continue to shape the world of business.

Extra Extra: 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.

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Why Charities Should Do Annual Donor and Recipient Experience Audits

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Why Charities Should Do Annual Donor and Recipient Experience Audits

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In today’s rapidly changing world, the landscape for charities is evolving with increasing donor expectations and the need for demonstrating tangible impact. To stay relevant and effective, it’s crucial for charities to perform annual donor and recipient experience audits. But, it is important to remember that an experience audit goes beyond mapping the donor and recipient journeys to document, score and even benchmark key elements of the experiences. This article explores the importance of these audits and highlights how they can significantly enhance the operations of charitable organizations. We will explore two insightful case studies and provide additional resources for further reading.

The Importance of Experience Audits

Experience audits focus on understanding and improving the emotions and reactions of donors and recipients during their interactions with an organization. These audits provide a thorough evaluation of touchpoints, communication effectiveness, and overall satisfaction. By implementing these audits, charities can identify strengths and areas for improvement, ultimately fostering trust and loyalty among stakeholders.

Case Study 1: Charity Water

Charity Water, an organization dedicated to providing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries, conducted a donor experience audit in 2021. The audit revealed that while donors appreciated transparency in fund allocations, they desired more personalized communication. As a result, Charity Water introduced a new donor portal offering customized impact reports and regular updates on specific projects funded by the donors. This change led to a 25% increase in donor retention within a year.

Case Study 2: Feeding America

Feeding America, a network of food banks, conducted a recipient experience audit in 2022 to better understand the needs and preferences of the individuals and families they served. The audit highlighted the need for more culturally diverse food offerings and simplified access to services. Implementing these insights, Feeding America revamped their supply chain to include diverse food options and launched a user-friendly mobile app that improved service access. As a result, recipient satisfaction scores increased by 30% in eight months.

Integrating Audits with Innovation Strategy

Annual audits should not be isolated events. Instead, they should be intricately linked with a charity’s innovation strategy. By doing so, organizations can ensure continuous improvement and adapt to changing needs efficiently. This approach of integrating experience audits into strategic planning aligns with key principles discussed in Catalysing Change Through Innovation Teams, which explores cultivating an innovation-friendly environment.

The Path Forward

Conducting comprehensive donor and recipient experience audits enables charities to remain connected and relevant to their target audiences. By doing so, they align their missions with the needs of those they aim to serve and those who support their cause. These audits offer a strategic advantage, as evidenced by the successful implementations by Charity Water and Feeding America.

For charities eager to harness the power of these audits, starting with a clear roadmap and involving all stakeholders will be crucial. For further guidance on implementing successful audits and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, consider exploring The Role of Leadership in Successful Change Management.

Conclusion

The charitable sector’s challenges are numerous, but through strategic audits focusing on donor and recipient experiences, nonprofits can not only survive but thrive. Investing in understanding these experiences provides the bedrock for greater impact, increased trust, and sustained growth.

Image credit: Pexels

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The Link Between Innovation and Customer Experience Audits

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The Link Between Innovation and Customer Experience Audits

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In today’s fiercely competitive market, organizations strive to outshine their competitors not only through groundbreaking products and services but also by transforming their customer experience. One approach that has gained significant traction is the integration of innovation and customer experience (CX) audits. This integration helps in uncovering hidden opportunities, thus driving continuous improvement and differentiation.

Customer experience audits go beyond traditional market research by diving deeper into the customer journey blueprint. They scrutinize each touchpoint where a customer interacts with a brand, paving the way for innovative solutions tailored to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Let’s delve into two case studies illustrating how companies have leveraged CX audits to propel their innovation capabilities.

Case Study 1: Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s “Mystique” Innovation

Ritz-Carlton, a name synonymous with luxury and service excellence, constantly reinvents itself to keep meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Conducting regular customer experience audits revealed an opportunity to innovate within their guest experiences. Through in-depth assessments, they discovered that personalization was a cornerstone of remarkable guest experiences.

With insights drawn from these audits, Ritz-Carlton developed its “Mystique” data-driven platform. It innovatively gathers and utilizes customer preferences to tailor guest interactions, from preferred room settings to curated dining experiences. This innovation not only elevated customer satisfaction but also set a new standard in luxury hospitality, distinguishing Ritz-Carlton from their competitors.

Case Study 2: Starbucks’ Drive-Thru Redesign

Starbucks has long been a leader in customer experience innovation. However, they realized their drive-thru services lagged in providing a seamless experience. Through thorough customer experience audits, Starbucks identified bottlenecks and areas of friction in their drive-thru operations.

Inspired by these findings, Starbucks redesigned their drive-thru lanes, implemented digital menu boards, and integrated a real-time queuing system. These changes minimized wait times and allowed for a more personalized approach to orders via the Starbucks mobile app. This innovation not only improved customer satisfaction but also boosted sales during peak hours.

The aforementioned cases clearly demonstrate that innovation and customer experience audits go hand in hand. By understanding customer pain points, needs, and desires through audits, companies can ideate impactful innovations that lead to superior experiences.

For more insights on innovation and customer experience, check out these other articles:

In conclusion, to stay competitive and relevant, companies must consistently audit and innovate their customer experiences. Are you ready to conduct your next customer experience audit and uncover the innovation opportunities waiting for your organization?

Image credit: Dall-E

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Dare to Think Differently

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Dare to Think Differently

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

As many of my colleagues are aware, I am at heart, a maverick, an unorthodox or independent-minded person. Who is curious and inquisitive, and finds change and challenging the status quo exciting, fascinating and stimulating. I am also, considered, by some, as a misfit, someone whose behaviors and attitudes sets them apart from others in an uncomfortably conspicuous way, that often rocks the boat. There is a range of consequences for people like me, who dare to think differently, especially now that I have also achieved the status of a Modern Elder – “the perfect alchemy of curious and wise, with curiosity leading to expansive inquiry while wisdom distills what’s essential.”

Coupled with both the challenges and constraints of the currently disrupted Covid-19 and digitized world, I am finding that the consequences of being different have intensified, become more impactful, and are often, quite confronting. Where differences cause resistance to change, divisiveness, and conflict, rather than maximizing differences in ways that embrace our humanity, diversity, to harness collective intelligence to make the organization, or world a better, more inclusive, and safer place.

Diversity is of the Essence

According to Jonathan Sacks, in his book “The Dignity of Difference- How to avoid the clash of civilizations,” he states that “we are living in the conscious presence of difference”.

Which exists in the home, in the street, in our workplaces, communities, and countries where we constantly encounter groups and cultures whose ideas and ideals are unlike ours. “That can be experienced as a profound threat to identity. Identity divides.” Considering that “the world is not a single machine, it is a complex, interactive ecology in which diversity – the biological, personal, cultural and religious – is of the essence.”

“When difference leads to war, both sides lose. When it leads to mutual enrichment, both sides gain.”

As is currently being evidenced by the tense and tentative Ukrainian and Russian border confrontation, with its potentially tragic consequences. Where Yuval Noah Harari states in a recent article in The Economist – “At the heart of the Ukraine crisis lies a fundamental question about the nature of history and the nature of humanity: is change possible? Can humans change the way they behave, or does history repeat itself endlessly, with humans forever condemned to re-enact past tragedies without changing anything except the décor”?

People Who Dare to Think Differently

Adam Grant, in his book “The Originals – How Non-Conformists Change the World” describes an original (n) as “A thing of singular or unique character; a person who is different from other people in an appealing or interesting way; a person of fresh initiative or inventive capacity”.

The book goes on to explain strategies, through studies and stories how to champion new ideas and fight groupthink, in constructive ways that maximize diversity and differences and promote dissent, as the basis for cultivating original thought to effect positive change.

Ray Dallio, in his book Principles explores this further, suggesting that “if you are like most people, you have no clue about how other people see things and aren’t good at seeking to understand what they are thinking because you’re too preoccupied with telling them what you yourself think is correct.” Often causing divisiveness rather than inclusion, resistance to change, and as a consequence, missing the possibilities and opportunities that may be present.

This also impedes our overall adaptiveness and creativity in an exponentially changing, world, to make real progress, and constructively change and limits the potential for innovation, growth and ability to contribute to the common good.

Change Management Has Changed

In a recent article from the Boston Consulting Group, they stated that “Effective change management requires leaders to shift away from one-size-fits-all approaches and develop an expanded set of context-specific strategies”.

Which are truly adaptive, collaborative, energize, catalyze change, harness, and mobilize people’s and customers’ collective intelligence, in ways that are appreciated and cherished by all, and contribute to the common good.

To ultimately collectively co-create a set of different, empowered future-fit leaders, teams, and organizations – who courageously, compassionately, and creatively contribute toward an improved future, for customers, stakeholders, leaders, teams, organizations as well as for the good of the whole.

Welcoming Dissent and Thoughtful Disagreement

At ImagineNation™ we dare to think differently and teach train, and coach people and teams to maximize their potential to lead, manage, coach, through implementing and embedding change and innovation, differently.

We enable people to lead in the imagination age by empowering, enabling, and equipping them to be and think differently to:

Flow with some people’s need to be “right” and in control, when they are being defensive, abusive, and divisive, even when disagreement and conflict occur.
Artfully and skillfully use cognitive dissonance and creative tension to pull people towards a new possibility and envision a new and compelling future.
Be inclusive to support mutual enrichment, through co-sensemaking, that helps them create “order” (in their own context) and simplicity from complexity and change.
Self-regulate and self-manage emotionally in the face of uncertainty and volatility.
Be relatable, empathic, inspiring, and artfully and skillfully influential in helping people open their minds and hearts toward co-creation, collaboration, and experimentation that ensures a shared contribution for mutual gain.
Be creative and inventive to maximize their multiple and collective intelligences through learning, contrarian thinking, constructive debate, and creative conversations that generate discovery.

In ways that engage deep generative listening, inquiry, questioning, and differing that uses cognitive dissonance to unleash the creative energy that triggers and generates thinking differently.

When people are trusted and empowered to think differently, they co-create a frequency that allows, awakens, and activates their adaptive and innovative leadership qualities, consciousness, states, and qualities of mind and heart, to effect positive change.

Taking wise and intelligent action

It also enables them to wisely choose the most intelligent actions that result in adaptive and innovative outcomes.

This helps creativity to flourish and disrupts and interrupts those people, whose complacency, conformity, and rigidity create divisions, and feelings of desolation and exclusion that kill our capacity and competence to collaborate, create and invent.

Leaving me to wonder and inquire;

What if the “strangers” among us simply listen, with open minds and open hearts to the thought, feelings, and opinions of others, with both curiosity and detachment?
What if we could collectively co-create safe containers and collective holding spaces, that maximize our differences and diversity, and simply share a creative conversation about what could be possible?
How might we maximize our diversity of thought, to enable us to think differently about the issue, opportunity, or problem in ways that supported differences for mutual enrichment?

There is no wisdom on one point of view

Might this result in a deeper connection when there is polarization between people?

Might it be possible to co-sense and co-create a sense of inclusion, and an opening for a deeper philosophical exploration and discovery for thinking differently about the role, nature of and impact prescriptive points of view on how people truly feel, really think, and deeply act in our globalized and connected world?

Might it help us collectively to co-create making it a better place?

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation™

Find out about our learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deep personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, May 4, 2022. It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and to upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more.

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Stop Fooling Yourself

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Stop Fooling Yourself

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

Early in my career I was working on a natural gas trading desk and found myself in Tulsa Oklahoma visiting clients. These were genuine roughnecks, who had worked their way up from the fields to become physical gas traders. When the NYMEX introduced “paper” contracts and derivatives into the market, however, much would change.

They related to me how, when New York traders first came to town offering long-term deals, they were thrilled. For the first part of the contract, they were raking in money. Unfortunately, during the latter months, they got crushed, losing all their profits and then some. The truth was that the trade was pure arbitrage and they never had a chance.

My clients’ brains were working against them in two ways. First, availability bias, caused them to value information most familiar to them and dismiss other data. The second, confirmation bias, made them look for information that would confirm their instincts. This, of course, isn’t at all unusual. It takes real effort to avoid believing the things we think.

Becoming a Square-Peg Business in a Round-Hole World

When I was researching my book, Mapping Innovation, I spoke to every great innovator I could find. Some were world class scientists, others were top executives at major corporations and still others were incredibly successful entrepreneurs. Each one shared with me how they were able to achieve incredible things.

What I found most interesting was that the story was different every time. For every one who told me that a particular approach was the secret to their success, I found someone else who was equally successful who did things completely differently. The fact is that there is no one “true path” to innovation, everybody does it different ways.

Yet few organizations acknowledge that in any kind of serious way. Rather, they have a “way we do things around here,” and there are often significant institutional penalties for anyone who wants to do things differently. Usually these penalties are informal and unspoken, but they are very real and can threaten to derail even the most promising career.

You can see how the same cognitive biases that lost my gas trader friends money are at work here. In a profitable company, the most available information suggests things are being done the “right” way and everybody who wants to get ahead in the organization is heavily incentivized to embrace evidence to support that notion and disregarding contrary data.

That’s how organizations get disrupted. They stick to what’s worked for them in the past and fail to notice that the nature of the problems they need to solve has fundamentally changed. They become better and better at things that people care about less and less. Before they realize what happened, they become square-peg businesses in a round-hole world.

Silicon Valley Jumps the Shark

Nobody can deny the incredible success that Silicon Valley has had over the past few decades. Still mostly a backwater in the 1970s and 80s, by the end of 2020 four out of the ten most valuable companies in the world came from the Bay Area (not including Microsoft and Amazon, which are based in Seattle). No other region has ever dominated so thoroughly.

Yet lately Silicon Valley’s model of venture-funded entrepreneurship seems to have jumped the shark. From massive fraud at Theranos and out-of control founders at WeWork and Uber to, most recently, the incredible blow-up at Quibi, there is increasing evidence that the tech world’s “unicorn culture” is beginning to have a negative impact on the real economy.

One clue of where things went wrong can be found in Eric Ries’s book, The Startup Way. Ries, whose earlier effort, The Lean Startup, was a runaway bestseller, was invited to implement his methods at General Electric and transform the company to a 124 year-old startup. Much like with the “unicorns,” it didn’t end well.

The fundamental fallacy of Silicon Valley is that a model that was developed for a relatively narrow set of businesses—essentially software and consumer electronics—could be applied to solve any problem. The truth is that, much like the industrial era before it, the digital era will soon end. We need to let go of old ways and set out in new directions.

Unfortunately, because of how brains are wired for availability bias and confirmation bias, that’s a whole lot easier said than done.

Breaking Out of the Container of Your Own Experience

In 1997, when I was still in my twenties, I took a job in Warsaw, Poland to work in the nascent media industry that was developing there. I had experience working in media in New York, so I was excited to share what I’d learned and was confident that my knowledge and expertise would be well received.

It wasn’t. Whenever I began to explain how a media business was supposed to work, people would ask me, “why?” That forced me to think about it and, when I did, I began to realize that many of the principles I had taken for granted were merely conventions. Things didn’t need to work that way and could be done differently.

I also began to realize that, working for a large corporation in the US, I had been trained to work within a system, to play a specific part in a greater whole. When a problem came up that was outside my purview, I went to someone down the hall who played another part. Yet in post-Communist Poland, there was no system and no one down the hall.

So I had to learn a new outlook and a new set of skills and I consider myself lucky to have had that experience. When you are forced to explore the unknown, you end up finding valuable things that you didn’t even know to look for and begin to realize that many perspectives can be brought to bear on similar problems with similar fact patterns.

Learning How to Not Fool Yourself

In one of my favorite essays, originally given as a speech, the great physicist Richard Feynman said “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that,” and goes on further to say that simply being honest isn’t enough, you also need to “bend over backwards” to provide information so that others may prove you wrong.

So, the first step is to be hyper-vigilant and aware that your brain has a tendency to fool you. It will quickly grasp on the most readily available data and detect patterns that may or may not be there. Then it will seek out other evidence that confirms those initial hunches while disregarding contrary evidence.

Yet checking ourselves in this way isn’t nearly enough, we need to actively seek out and encourage dissent. Some of this can be done with formal processes such as pre-mortems and red teams, but a lot of it is cultural, hiring for diversity and running meetings in such a way that encourages discussion by, for instance, having the most senior leaders speak last.

Perhaps most of all, we need to have a sense of humility. It’s far too easy to be impressed with ourselves and far too difficult to see how we’re being led astray. There is often a negative correlation between our level of certainty and the likelihood of us being wrong. We all need to make an effort to believe less of what we think.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credit: Pixabay

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Metrics for Assessing Organizational Readiness for Innovation

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Metrics for Assessing Organizational Readiness for Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, innovation is not just an option but a necessity. Yet, before diving headfirst into the innovation process, organizations need to assess their readiness. However, evaluating readiness isn’t straightforward. This article explores key metrics for assessing organizational readiness for innovation through the examination of two case studies and valuable internal links.

The Importance of Readiness Metrics

Innovation efforts fail not because of lack of ideas but due to unprepared environments that stifle creativity and execution. To avert this, businesses must establish readiness metrics that gauge various crucial aspects such as culture, resources, leadership, strategy alignment, and market adaptation.

Key Metrics to Assess Readiness

Cultural Alignment

An innovative culture thrives on openness, risk-taking, collaboration, and learning. To measure this, factors such as employee willingness to experiment, leadership support, and cross-department collaboration are vital.

Resource Availability

Assess the availability of time, talent, and technology. Readiness involves having the necessary infrastructure and dedicated personnel that can focus on innovation without overstretching existing resources.

Case Study 1: Tech Giants Inc.

Background: Tech Giants Inc., a leading technology company, embarked on a mission to assess their readiness for a major innovation drive. Previously, the company faced hurdles due to resource constraints and lack of alignment among teams.

Metrics Used: They applied readiness metrics focused on cultural alignment by surveying employee openness and leader support, and resource availability metrics by auditing their talent pool and technology infrastructure.

Outcome: With the insights gained, Tech Giants Inc. implemented structural changes that placed innovation champions in each team and dedicated resources strategically. As a result, they successfully launched breakthrough products.

Case Study 2: Healthcare Innovators LLP

Background: Healthcare Innovators LLP struggled with integrating innovation across its rigid hierarchical structure.

Metrics Used: By adopting strategy alignment readiness metrics, they assessed leadership’s communication of innovation goals and market adaptation readiness by studying emerging healthcare trends.

Outcome: They initiated training programs for executives to better communicate and champion innovation, leading to a more agile organization that adapted swiftly to industry advancements.

Conclusion

Organizations must establish and continually refine their readiness metrics tailored to their unique environments. By doing so, they increase their chances of successful innovation endeavors.

In crafting this article, the focus is on delivering insights into understanding what makes an organization ready for innovation. It includes case studies that show practical application of metrics and the resulting outcomes, providing a comprehensive perspective. Additionally, you might also want to check out Braden Kelley’s free innovation maturity assessment, also known as an innovation audit.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What You Must Know Before Leading a Design Thinking Workshop

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What You Need to Know Before Leading a Design Thinking Workshop

GUEST POST from Douglas Ferguson

Leading a design thinking workshop can completely transform your company for the better. According to the 71% of brands that champion design thinking, making a shift to a design-centered mindset will dramatically improve productivity and work ethic amongst your staff.

Are you ready to take your team to the next level?

If you’re ready to take your team to the next level by leading a design thinking workshop, it’s essential to know the basics of design thinking first. Having a deeper understanding of this human-centered approach will make it easier to get your team on board with this process.

In this article we’ll cover the basics of design thinking and the best way to approach leading a workshop for your team with the following topics:

What is Design Thinking?
A History of Design Methodology
The Six Phases of Design Thinking
Leading a Design Thinking Workshop

Understanding Design Thinking

Design thinking is a creative problem-solving method that centers on the needs of the end-user, by considering them first when creating products or services. When you authentically understand the wants and needs of the consumer, you can develop successful products and services they value and use to improve their lives.

Ultimately, a design thinking approach helps you understand the experience of the end-user by adopting the end user’s mindset and creating your product or service from this perspective.

A History of Design Thinking

The human-centered design process is an extension of the design thinking methodology. Though scientists, creatives, scholars, analysts, and engineers have studied this methodology for the past several years, the idea to apply a design mindset to problem-solving as a business strategy didn’t exist until the cognitive scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon coined the term in 1969. Simon explained the modern idea of design as an applicable way of thinking about business in his book, The Sciences of the Artificial.

Whiteboarding

Since Simon began the conversation about the design thinking methodology, many academic elites and experts have adopted this concept and expanded upon it. Yet one thing remains the same: the user should be at the core of any design process. The human-centered process is an exploration of how to accurately and innovatively create a product or service that satisfies consumers’ wants and needs.

“We must design for the way people behave, not for how we would wish them to behave.” –Donald A. Norman, Living with Complexity

Women with Laptop Pexels

The Six Phases of Design Thinking

Let’s take a look at the six phases of the human-centered design process to learn how to create with purpose as you prepare for leading a design thinking workshop.

1. Observe & Understand Users’ Behavior

The first phase of the design thinking process is to observe and understand the end user’s behavior to learn as much as possible about their needs. This allows you to better understand the people you are designing for as you approach problem-solving from their perspective. Doing so will allow you to deeply empathize with them and identify opportunities to better cater to and address these issues.

By identifying the end user’s behavioral patterns you’ll have a clearer understanding of what your customers enjoy and what they are dissatisfied with. This phase allows for greater innovation as you build trust and connect to your consumers.

Women Collaboration Pexels

2. Ideation

The ideation phase focuses on brainstorming new solutions based on what you learned by observing the end-user. Remember to stay focused on a human-centered design process while generating ideas. The use of divergent thinking is critical in this stage to foster creativity and generate as many ideas as possible.

In the ideation phase, everything is fair game. For example, instead of worrying about the details of how your potential ideas will work, focus on “why not?”

There are no right or wrong answers, only potential creative solutions to the problems you’ve identified. When you prioritize the needs and desires of the people you are creating for, you’ll arrive at the most successful solutions that you’ll continue to refine through the rest of the design thinking process.

3. Prototype

Now that you have potential solutions, it’s time to bring your best ideas to life with rapid prototypes. In this phase, you’ll test your ideas in real-time with real people to get their feedback. Rapid prototypes are quick and easy versions of the ideas you want to create. Their role is to ensure that your vision is on target and it allows you space to make amendments based on feedback before you make the final product.

This experimental phase isn’t about perfection. The goal is to create a quick, tangible prototype so that you can test it.

Group of People Whiteboarding Pexels

4. Feedback

In the feedback phase of the design process, you’ll test your prototype. This is perhaps the most vital part of the human-centered design process as it will determine whether or not your idea works for the people you are designing for.

Get your prototype in the hands of your target consumer and ask them: how and why does this product/service achieve or fail to reach your needs and desires? During this stage, you’ll want to collect as many details as possible from testers as you’ll use this feedback to finalize your solution.

5. Integration

The integration phase of the design thinking process helps you to identify the usefulness of the proposed solution. Consider the feedback you receive and how you can implement it into your design to make it better. This is a fluid process: integrate, test, and repeat until you reach the best version of your idea. Once your solution is fully-fledged and replicable, it’s time to share it.

6. Application

It’s time to send your idea out into the world! During this last stage of the design thinking process, make the final prototype and share it. It’s important to keep an eye on changes in your target audience and their needs and desires as time progresses so that you can make adaptations to your design as necessary.

With each new update, return to phase one and repeat the process for best results. Remember that the user’s needs change over time, so it is important to anticipate future alterations to best serve consumers’ changing needs.

Leading a Design Thinking Workshop

When we approach innovation with a human-centered design process, we are able to empathize with and therefore better understand the end-user and what they truly desire. Everything we create is an extension from t

When we approach innovation with a human-centered design process, we can empathize with and therefore better understand the end-user and what they truly desire. By leading a design thinking workshop, you’ll encourage your team to innovate in this human-centered way. As you create everything from this level of self-awareness, you’ll ultimately develop better products and services as you improve your company and team as well.

Once you have a clear understanding of the design thinking process, you’ll be able to lead your design thinking workshop with your team. Whether your design sprint is a few days or a few hours, a well-executed design thinking workshop will help you keep your customers’ needs top of mind.

Hiring a professional facilitator is one of the best ways to lead a design thinking workshop at your company. At Voltage Control, our team of facilitators is happy to assist you in your design thinking needs. With a clear understanding of this methodology and an effort to lead your team with the same mentality, you’re sure to see the benefits of adopting a design thinking approach.

This article originally appeared on VoltageControl.com, you can find it HERE.

Do you want to learn more about human-centered design?

Voltage Control facilitates design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out at hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

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Overcoming Challenges in Sustainable Innovation

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GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

Sustainable innovation is the frontier where ecological responsibility and business ingenuity meet. However, pioneering in this field often involves overcoming significant challenges. This article delves into how leading organizations have successfully navigated obstacles in sustainable innovation through three revelatory case studies.

Case Study 1: Patagonia’s Eco-Friendly Supply Chain

Patagonia has long been a beacon for sustainable business practices. Their commitment to environmentally friendly production processes required a radical re-imagining of their supply chain. By investing in alternative materials, such as recycled polyester and organic cotton, Patagonia not only lessened its ecological footprint but also tapped into a growing market of environmentally conscious consumers.

One key challenge was converting suppliers to sustainable practices. Patagonia tackled this by developing strategic partnerships with companies committed to sustainability, thereby transforming their entire supply chain. This case demonstrates how aligning business goals with environmental stewardship can lead to a competitive advantage.

Case Study 2: Tesla’s Electric Vehicle Revolution

Tesla faced numerous hurdles in its quest to revolutionize the automobile industry with electric vehicles (EVs). From initial skepticism about EV technology to considerable capital requirements and infrastructure development, Tesla’s journey was fraught with challenges. However, by focusing on cutting-edge battery technology and expanding supercharger networks, Tesla has steadily increased the adoption of EVs.

The key takeaway from Tesla’s approach is the importance of innovation in product design and delivery. By pushing the boundaries of technology and ensuring availability of charging infrastructure, Tesla addressed both practical and perceptual barriers to driving EV adoption.

Case Study 3: IKEA’s Circular Economy Model

IKEA’s mission to create a circular economy exemplifies how large enterprises can overcome sustainability challenges. Recognizing the environmental impact of its operations, IKEA has implemented strategies like furniture take-back programs and product recycling initiatives, aiming to become fully circular by 2030.

One challenge for IKEA was shifting consumer behavior towards participation in their circular model. By providing incentives and convenient options for customers to recycle, repair, and reuse products, IKEA not only enhanced sustainability but also deepened customer engagement and loyalty.

Conclusion

These case studies illustrate that overcoming challenges in sustainable innovation requires a blend of strategic partnerships, groundbreaking technology, and comprehensive customer engagement. For more insights into innovation, check out the Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit page and discover helpful resources on innovation execution, or check out the free innovation maturity assessment (aka Innovation Audit).

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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.

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High-Performing Innovative Culture Case Studies

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High-Performing Innovative Culture Case Studies

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In today’s fast-paced business environment, cultivating a high-performing innovative culture is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity. Organizations that manage to embed innovation into their cultures can harness the creativity and problem-solving capabilities of their employees to deliver sustained competitive advantages. Here, we explore three compelling case studies of organizations that have successfully fostered such cultures. To deepen your understanding of fostering innovation in a work environment, check out my innovation strategies page.

Case Study 1: Google

Google has long been heralded as a paragon of innovative culture. With its famous ‘20% time’, where employees can dedicate a portion of their workweek to personal projects, Google encourages creativity and exploration. This policy has led to the creation of products like Gmail and Google News. Google’s culture emphasizes psychological safety, allowing team members to express ideas without fear of ridicule. To understand more about managing successful innovation programs, explore our deep dive into innovation programs.

Case Study 2: Spotify

Spotify’s organizational model is known for its flexibility and adaptability, encapsulated in what it calls “squads, tribes, chapters, and guilds.” Spotify encourages autonomous teams, or “squads”, to develop and iterate quickly while maintaining alignment with broader company goals through cross-functional “tribes”. This decentralized model enables rapid innovation while fostering a strong sense of team ownership and accountability.

Case Study 3: 3M

3M is often cited as a pioneer of innovative culture, with its commitment to innovation deeply embedded into its history. The company dedicates a significant percentage of its annual revenue directly to research and development. Known for its ‘15% culture’, 3M allows employees to allocate 15% of their working time to developing projects of their own choosing, which has been instrumental in creating breakthrough products like the Post-it Note. This approach highlights 3M’s focus on long-term innovation and sustained market leadership.

Conclusion

As demonstrated by these organizations, a high-performing innovative culture does not materialize overnight. It requires deliberate strategies, such as promoting psychological safety, decentralizing decision-making, and encouraging creative freedom. The success stories of Google, Spotify, and 3M offer valuable insights into the elements necessary to create such an environment. For more insights into innovation and culture, visit more of the articles here on the Human-Centered Change and Innovation blog.

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Innovation Theater – How to Fake It ‘Till You Make It

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Innovation Theater - How to Fake It 'Till You Make It

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

The overwhelming number of doctors, engineers and scientists don’t have an entrepreneurial mindset. What’s more, when they have an idea, they don’t know what to do with it since they will not learn those competencies in their formal training. They just don’t know how to innovate their way out of our sick care mess.

But, that hasn’t stopped lots of them from trying, include non-sick care entrepreneurs. They just improvise.

Now that Elizabeth Holmes has been convicted, many are commenting on the pros and cons of the “fake it ’till you make it” ethos of entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley. But, is this really a black and white issue? Is it true that “You have no business being something you are not, or doing something without proving your worth.” I venture to say many of us, including me, have done something that was not a good fit and we have all tried things when we simple did not know what we did not know.

Here’s how to fake it when you don’t know what you are doing or you forgot your lines:

Avoid these wannapreneur rookie mistakes.
If you are a female, find a male wing man so someone will invest in your product
Surround yourself with people who are way above your pay grade at lots of Meetups
Practice Therantology
When you inevitably fail, make a big deal out of it and about how much you learned from your mistakes and include them on your Linked profile. Rinse. Repeat
Wear a fleece vest with your company logo
Plead ignorance about how hard it is to get anybody in sick care to change and the long sales cycles.
Be sure you have lots of hood ornaments (doctors with fancy titles) on your advisory board prominently posted on your website
Hire a virtual assistant that answers all of your calls and says that she/he will not be able to immediately connect you because you are in an investor meeting
Get your co-working space guy to allow you to use more space than you are actually paying for when people come for meetings. Bribe interns with pizza to come and look busy.
Forget being your authentic self. “You are generally better off coming across as likable, which will generally require some effort, restraint, and attention to what others expect and want to see. Seeming authentic in the process is the cherry on top of the cake, but it requires a fair amount of faking.”
Try being a good rebel even if you are a bad one.

During these times, we are supposed to wear a mask. Most of us wear a mask all the time to hide our insecurities or avoid being outed as an imposter or physician wannapreneur, so none of this should be new to you.

In a follow-up to their February 2021 article challenging the commonly understood definition of imposter syndrome, authors Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey offer actionable steps managers can take to end imposter syndrome in their organizations. Doing so will require work at both the interpersonal and organizational levels, and success will depend in part on gathering data and implementing real mechanisms for accountability. The authors call on managers to stop calling natural, human tendencies of self-doubt, hesitation, and lack of confidence “imposter syndrome.” Those who want women to lend their full talents and expertise must question the culture at work — not their confidence at work.

These things come with practice. But, since you are part of innovation theater, practice your lines, be sure you are wearing the right costume and that the stage is set properly. Break a leg.

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