InnovationCreation

No reason not to get involved! From Gerald "Solutionman" Haman via LinkedIn:

• More than 1100,000 people are members of the Top 20 (LinkedIn) Innovation Groups
• 1,000 people per week are joining the Top 20 Innovation Groups
• The Marketing/PR/Sales Innovators Group is the 11^th largest LinkedIn Group with over 65,000 member
• The Twitter Innovators Group is the largest Twitter-focused on LinkedIn with more than 11,600 members who tweet
• Over 9,700 people belong to the fast-growing Green & Sustainability Innovators Group
• More than 8,500 people belong to the helpful InnovationPeople Group

1. Marketing, PR, Sales & Word-of-Mouth Innovators
2. Green & Sustainability Innovators
3. InnovationPeople Expert Network
4. Brand & Branding Innovators
5. Sales & Selling Innovators
6. New Product & Service Innovators
7. HealthCare, Wellness, Medical, Pharma & Biotech Innovators
8. Learning & Education Innovators
9. Leadership & Change Management Innovators
10. Communication Innovators
11. Meeting & Event Design Innovators
12. Association, Convention & Conference Innovators
13. Twitter Innovators
14. Facebook Innovators
15. Technology & Mobility Innovators
16. Government & Political Innovators
17. Fundraising & Philanthropic Innovators
18. Innovative Networkers
19. “GTD: Getting Things Done” Innovators with David Allen
20. “Experience Economy” Innovators with Pine & Gilmore

Labels: community, innovation

Problem-solving... This is something we all do every day. Some problems are not earth shattering ("when will I buy groceries?") and others have impacts that can change the way you live ("I lost my job and need to find a new one"). But the act of problem-solving itself is not (usually) something we learn directly as a skill. Yes, we do learn to solve problems, but most of us tend to "discover" problem-solving in the course of solving real problems. This means much of problem-solving learning is ad hoc and we miss out on the discovery of tools that can help us through the problem-solving thinking processes.


Problem-solving 101, by Ken Watanabe, a former McKinsey & Company consultant, is a short book that goes a long way toward helping everyone learn a few basic problem-solving tools and techniques. Ken shares several stories in which problem-solving tools and techniques are introduced. One example problem: the Mushroom Lovers rock band wants to drive up attendance at their shows. Ken lays out how the band seeks to identify the root cause of the low attendance and develop a series of hypothesis and solutions. While sharing the story of the band, Ken introduces techniques and tools like logic trees, action prioritization matrices, and problem-solving design plans.


The the book can be read in about an hour or two. When you are finished, you will have several methods that you can immediately use in any situation. The stories Ken shares are entertaining and you can relate to main characters' real problems. The book's graphic design enhances the stories and makes comprehending the concepts easy.


One final note: This is the type of book you will re-read and be reminded of some of the practices and skills needed to solve problems. I will have this book on my desk next to books I regularly re-read: The Mythical Man Month, Orbiting the Giant Hair Ball, and The Pursuit of Wow!

Labels: book, cool, creativity, fun, innovation, innovation tool

Christopher Alexander has a set of books, all of which have super info for innovation, especially about learning design patterns and how to bring design elements together.

These three are a set that were written together: The timeless way of building, easy to get through; The Oregon experiment, also easier to get through; A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction... Thick thick book with the really good stuff. Fortunately all the books are written, on purpose, to be read where you want; Christopher suggests reading the header titles/section tiles straight through then go back to where you want to dig deeper.



Karen McGrane recommended these books during a talk at Do It With Drupal (2008 in New Orleans) as a way to learn about design patterns: Creating Usable Websites: Do It With Drupal!

Labels: book, deign patterns, drupal, ideas, innovation

What is this? Is is a tennis ball at the end of a wooden broom handle that is used to quickly buff out scuffs on the floor of the Indianapolis, Indiana airport. The lady working the floors says this things works very well to remove floor scuffs and that all the cleaning staff have one of these. This is truly the implementation of "necessity is the mother of invention".

This week in the Financial Times there was an interview with Sir. James Black on "An acute talent for innovation". Sir. Black made an interesting statement with respect to pharmaceutical companies; “It’s a kind of obscenity. Very few of the drugs classified as blockbusters retrospectively were designed in that way. The people who know about markets can’t even predict what next year will do.”

Also of interest were his comments about small teams (25 people or less), that creativity is "not a method that can be learnt and taught", and there is no shortage of scientific talent, he says. “But [I am] much less optimistic about the managerial vision [of the pharmaceutical industry] to catalyse these talents to deliver the results we all want.”

The pending merger of Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical group, of Wyeth, highlights the focus of the need for "blockbusters", in the vein that a blockbuster is predictable. And yet the real energy in merging Pfizer and Wyeth will be spent on wringing out costs, making the two groups efficient, and corporate politics. One wonders if the real innovation of the Pfizer and Wyeth mereger will create is not within that combined company but outside, by those that can bring together those people "released" due to the merger, into small groups, and flying low under the radar.

My favorite line from the interview is "Anonymous peer review is the enemy of scientific creativity"... When something that is truly unique and market breaking, can you really have a peer review that is meaningful? Imagine the iPhone being reviewed by Motorola or Nokia before it was released. Peer review is great for that research or product improvement that is well known and incremental movement is being done. But in disruptive work there are few peers (hence the disruption).

“Peer reviewers go for orthodoxy...Many of the great 19th-century discoveries were made by men who had independent wealth – Charles Darwin is the prototype. They trusted themselves.” said Sir. Black

Labels: business, creativity, culture, deep thought, innovation, invention, pharmaceutical, trends

I just stopped by Goodwill to donate some books and decided to go in to see this store. It is labeled the "Goodwill Outlet Store" and I was thinking "Outlet store, Goodwill, uh???".

Was I amazed! Inside the store is a large open format space, large ceilings, and lots of floor space. Huge! And the merchandise? It is only organized in to large rolling bins by rough kind (shows, books, large items, clothes) and that is it. Normal Goodwill stores sort and order and hang items so you can shop like any other retail store. However, this outlet store, all the sorting and ordering is really done by the shoppers.

Turns out the outlet stores are the end of the line for all the items and stuff that does not get sold or moved at the normal stores. About every two hours a new batch of things arrives at the outlet store and placed in the low, long rolling bins. And you just hunt and search for things.

You can identify the "pros" right off. They are wearing gloves and moving pretty quickly. This is a treasure chest waiting for the right person to find the treasures. I asked one gentleman about this. He was wearing rubber yard gloves and was moving pretty fast through the bins. He was looking for a power supply to a laptop he bought several days ago. He says he spends a few lunch hours a week at the outlet store combing and sorting, mainly looking for great finds on electronics. He said the gloves are needed because there are items in the bins that do break and are sharp.

How is this stuff priced? By the pound! You truck your goods up to the register and they have a scale to weigh your haul.

What is really a whack in the head moment is the brilliance in how Goodwill is tapping the wisdom of the crowd to sort out the goods; You as an interested buyer will do the searching and sorting. Anything of value is sold and anything left over after several cycles is eventually hauled out as the really truly junk of the junk.

Labels: crowd source, design, environment, great, innovation, tap the crowd

Just so you don't think I was a bit off on writing something about crumbs, I found these bits of crumb related items:

• From Patent 7,375,141, Soluble carob, The depolymerization may be carried out in a reactor provided with a mixing system suitable for handling fine powder, that is to say powder with a particle size of around 20 to 200 .mu.m, so as to prevent the formation of crumbs. As nonlimiting examples, mention may be made of LODIGE-type reactors, and ribbon mixers.



• Patent 7,353,952, Insulated compartmented lunch bag, Additionally, any crumbs or stains from eating are contained on the interior side or surfaces of the major compartment 120. Thereafter, major compartment 120 may be closed to hide the said crumbs or stains therein and out of sight.
  

and two I thought were interesting:

• Space Station Christmas, She looked at the swarm of crumbs and saw why NASA packaged crumbly foods in bite-sized morsels -- or avoided them altogether.



• Astronauts wrap up space station work, Reisman, meanwhile, can’t wait to get back to his wife, Simone Francis, and, to a lesser degree, their cat Fuzzy. He’s also looking forward to “a good slice of pizza” and some bread, banned from the space station because of crumbs. He’s had to settle for tortillas in orbit.
  

And if you really want to learn more, NASA Facts: Space Food, has some info on crumbs.

Thanks to Kim Williams, Amy Stark, and Lorraine Ball for their additions to the crumb list.

Ok, brainstorming, the kids way...

I spent last week at Camp Invention at Pike Township's Fishback Elementary School. This is a program by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, run all over the country, to provide kids age 7 to 12 with hands-on activities, brainstorming, experimentation, and unbelievable action. My involvement was to help the kids during the invention time.

All the kids (and parents) were told to bring a "take apart" item, from which they would, over the course of the week, build an invention. The younger kids (ages 7 to 10) were to think about some job or activity that really bugged them and come up with an invention to do the job or make the activity fun. The invention did not have to actually work, they just had to build a concept.

The older kids had to build a Rube Goldberg device, in a team setting, that would break a water ballon on a target, using at least four steps, two simple machines, a part from each of the team member's take apart item, and once the machine was started its process no additional human assistance could be given.

Some interesting observations about the kids:

• Kids will try anything. One boy insisted on using white glue to hold together material (LOTS of glue:) even though nothing was sticking (the items were too heavy for the glue. So he used more glue! One team of older kids found some foam tubing to make a marble launching system as part of their balloon breaking system, even though the foam tubing was not originally part of the supply kit.



• Older kids start to get constrained by implied teacher direction but younger kids don't let directions get in the way. Some of the direction by teachers and coaches seemed to bind the teams in a design direction they may or may not have realized was needed. I found my self imposing my view of design on the kids works by the way I responded to how a kid would build something.



• Scope creep occurs even in kids projects! The older kids rules received a few implied rules: the balloon had to go through the air (fly) and the target could be horizontal or vertical. These new implied rules came out during a discussion on what is to happen. When one kid asked about if the balloon has to fly through the air, a teacher said "yes" even though it was not stated on the rules.

It was a fun week and the kids learned some things. Hopefully they will get to practice their abilities to make things as school starts up in the next few weeks.

Pics and video of inventions.

Labels: creativity, deep thought, innovation, innovation tool, invention, thinking

In the past I have mentioned the need to practice brainstorming (The terrible word of "Brainstorming"). It is important to practice, like anything you do, otherwise you will loose skill or never learn any new ones.

So to really get in the habit you need to practice regularly. This means finding opportunities to practice generating (the brainstorming part) ideas. The opportunity can be everyday issues. I recommend finding something simple at first; don't overwhelm yourself with the major things yet ("Increase revenue by 50% in Q4"...:) Also, don't stress out. It is just practice... But do try to push yourself a bit every time you work through a problem/idea generation session.

Here are some working rules:

• State your issue or problem and be clear in the issue/problem statement.



• Number all your ideas as you capture them; this is good to help know where you are in the generation process (have I reached 100 ideas?) and it helps when refering to a specific idea.



• Aim for a specific number of ideas in a set amount of time, just to set a goal. It's like setting your marathon time goal; you need something to target.



• Do not evaluate the ideas as you capture them. Just capture them. Evaluation is a different activity.



• Build on captured ideas to create new ideas.

Fast Company has an article (Seven Secrets to Good Brainstorming) with the rules expanded a bit and with much better copy around why the rules are needed.

Ok, here is my first challenge.

Crumbs on the floor irritate me. It just bugs me. Some foods crumb (is crumb a verb?) more than others. Couscous is a major crumb generating food (by definition!). Those folks with any kids knows the truth about crumbs: kids are super crumb generators! My seven year old son somehow always misses eating over his plate and food crumbs hit the floor like steel to a magnet: fast. So my problem is personal (should I loosen up a bit?). To help define my problem a bit more: The crumbs bug me because I walk around the house in socks and crumbs that collect on my feet feels all wrong to me.

So the problem can be looked at several ways: How can I stop crumbs from happening, How can I prevent them from sticking to my feet, or how do I make the crumbs just "disappear"?

1. Just clean up the crumbs.



2. Serve crumb free food.



3. Have person who make the crumbs clean them up.



4. Have a crumb eating pet.



5. Have a floor with a grate in it to allow crumbs to fall through to the crumb pit.



6. Have vents on floor that suck up crumbs as they fall.



7. Let the crumbs fall on the floor and build up the floor to a solid footing.



8. Have another person clean up the crumbs to remove self from the annoyance.



9. Have a strong suction pull crumbs off the food as it is eaten.



10. Have a plate that has ability to make crumbs stick the the plate.



11. Have a built in sucker on the plate for the crumbs.



12. Buy a Roomba robot cleaner.



13. Have a device worn by person while eating food that sucks crumbs up as food enters mouth.



14. Put down a crumb matt to catch them all up.



15. The fork has the crumb sucking device build in.



16. Waiter comes by after each bite and cleans up (is this what crumb waiter is?).



17. Floor has ability to absorb the crumb due to some fluid / crumb dissolving agent; crumbs disappear when they hit floor.



18. The floor is a conveyor belt that whisks the crumbs away.



19. Slats in the floor rotate every few minutes to dump crumbs in to the crumb pit.



20. Electrostatic crumb attraction device grabs crumbs as they fall.



21. Crumbs are cleaned up with a special "crumb duster", sort of like a feather duster for crumbs.



22. I have special crumb vacuums in my "socks".



23. After reading this list I am sure a few of you have some ideas to pitch! Remember, don't evaluate, just get those ideas flowing.

After reading this list I am sure a few of you have some ideas to pitch! Remember, don't evaluate, just get those ideas flowing.

Labels: experience, ideas, innovation, innovation tool, practice

In 1992 I discovered a game called Capitalist Pig, a Mac based business simulation. It was simple in its approach yet still allowed for discovery of running a business. Beside the software, the designers included a funny and yet practical book with business terms explained through selling lemonade. It told the story of starting a company whose initial core product is lemonade and expanded to talking about franchising, hiring employees, and competition.

I was reminded of this book this morning when I was on my way home from IUPUI. On the corner of Barn Hill and Michigan, a group of summer students from the IUPUI Center For Young Children (CYC) (ages 5 to 7) were waving a banner and shouting "Free Lemonade! Free Lemonade!". I recognized the teacher, Mr. Patrick, and pulled up to see what was up. The kids were on a campus field trip to "sell lemonade". However, their tactic was to give the lemonade away and ask for donations for kids programs! According to my son (he attends summer camp at IUPUI CYC) they raised about $190 today!

This is an interesting connection; Yesterday I spent time with some friends in the Smaller Indiana Indy Business Book Club discussing Smaller Indiana's role in the community. One of the questions on Pat Coyle's mind is if Smaller Indiana might be better as a non-profit entity or as a full speed, for profit business. The really interesting dialog was what Smaller Indiana is doing today: groups of people are meeting, going to events together, putting on events, having coffee, etc. The people within Smaller Indiana are pulling together for common activities, interested in helping others, and seeking to make a living (make money).

The connection from Capitalist Pig, to IUPUI CYC kids giving away lemonade to make money, to Smaller Indiana? Smaller Indiana is "giving away" the pipes (lemonade) to connect people and conversations. These people happen to be a pool of people that non-profits like to engage for community good (looking for volunteers, donations, ideas, and action : the donation). Smaller Indiana is a conduit to these engaged people. Non-profits need to invest in Smaller Indiana because the "pipes" of conversations, ideas, and actions is leading to community good.

Another angle to think about: for non-profits to engage a marketing or PR firm to create messages and marketing campaigns to engage people would cost more than if the pipes of conversations were put in place for free and have community people utilize them. Something to think about.

Labels: innovation, iupui, kids, lemonade, marketing

When I hear the term "new media" I think of cool and interesting, possibly fun and something I want. Interestingly, the term new media is about media that is new today. In the mid 1990's there was a magazine called "NewMedia" which covered all the things happening on the web. At that time, the new media of the day was what ever was on the web. Any web site could claim to be new media. The ability to put up information on a network that allowed anyone in the world to see it was way different than the current media of the time; print, radio, TV.

Think about how you were informed of events in the agriculture industry in the late 1980's or early 1990's: newspapers, magazine, radio, TV. National Association of Farm Broadcasting, Farm Journal, or Feedstuffs anyone? These networks of media brought to you via snail mail or the airwaves info you needed to manage your agribusiness. Piles of papers and audio reports on the hour required you to pick and choose, pull info together, and make sense of it all manually.

As technology advanced, so did the ability of ag information to get to you in a streamlined fashion. Companies like DTN tapped into early electronic networks to bring all the information you needed straight to your computer (everyone remember those Apple II's?). While this still required some personal effort to integrate the information, electronic services started to remove the barrier to information access and understanding. This became the "new media" of the time. The same types of information yet presented and discovered in a whole different manner.

Today the new media has evolved to include finding and delivery of audio and video. While audio and video on the internet has been around since the mid 1990's, the process by which this type of media reached you has changed. No longer do you need to concern yourself with figuring out what to do with the files and how to listen. Service like DirectTV, Tivo and iTunes make obtaining shows like SwineCast or AgToday simple.

New media has also expanded on how information is presented. A great example is weather information: weather reports used to be static; look on the back page of the paper and see the 5 day forecast. Or, tune into a Brownfield Network radio station to get the recent weather report. Now weather reports come in all sorts of flavors, from old school media (the 5 day forecast in the Indianapolis Star still is handy), to the Weather Underground, the Weather Channel, and the US government's Aviation Weather Center. Each of these are pulling from a standard set of data sources and adding new methods for interpreting, understanding, and using weather information.

There are even services that supply, for a fee, weather information to speciality industries in a form that is delivered faster, provides usable analytics, and expert option on actions to take. Planalytics and Weather Services International are two such weather information service companies, offering to the ag industry tools to help make decisions. These methods of discovery, presentation, and understanding are the "new media" today.

Labels: cool, creativity, ideas, information, innovation, new media, software

There is great interest in Indiana on life sciences. Over the last five (or more?) years there have been many local groups formed (Indiana Health Indutries Forum, BioCrossroads, Indiana Biomedical Entrepreneur's Network, Indiana Life Sciences Initiative ) and some VC / grant money (21st Century Fund, Indiana Seed Fund, more...) raised to capitalize on hidden / latent resources and talent within the state's life sciences hot spots.



As part of the next phase in creating life sciences companies in Indiana there are educational resources being applied to help raise awareness and interest in starting companies within the research community. In Indianapolis this means the Indiana University School of Medicine and other schools/departments at IUPUI.



Recently there was a seminar series on IUPUI's campus on starting a life sciences company. Krieg Devault, an Indianapolis law firm, had a panel present information to IUPUI students, staff, and faculty on company legal structures, intellectual property, and venture capital. Good intentions possibly bored to death the audience... Yes, it is important to know about company structure (LLC vs S Corp vs C corp) and intellectual property. But these are dry topics at best and are not really the core of starting a company.



The real core of starting a company is: what is the product, how do I develop it to a product that can sell, who is going to buy it, and how to I find those people interested in buying my product? With out a product idea and an understandting of how to advance that product then corporate structure and patents on research techniques do not a company make.



How to help those really interested? Gather up a few people really interested in taking an idea to market, coach them regularly, give them some cash to get things done, and work through the idea development to product development.



One great model is Y Combinator. Paul Graham formed Y Combinator after selling Viaweb to Yahoo! His goal was to create a whole new, fresh approach to turning ideas into products by investing in small teams with low dollars and bringing great, smart people together for several months in a campus setting to build out multiple ideas. Sure, there was venture capital and legal structures were setup plus intellectual property was created (and protected). But the core of the Y Combinator purpose is to bring people together to percolate and filter out the ideas to usable products.



Can we create idea teams or idea camps that form around possible marketable ideas to prototype, explore, refine, weed out, and advance ideas to real things? What is needed?

• Space: idea teams need a space to mess around with their ideas and a place to tinker. Nothing big but it needs to be theirs for a few months.



• Small funds (initially $1,000 to $5,000). Money to help get stupid stuff, things to get ideas moving, prototyping tools, etc. More on money below.



• Coaches to poke and prod. Cheerleaders to encourage. There is always a need for optimists and idealists. And people that are able to bring out the left turn of an idea.



• Carrots to pull people out of their shell of research. Indiana is a conservative state when it comes to "risk" and "taking a chance". Y Combinator lives in communities where starting a company on a whim of an idea is normal. Indiana is not that place so there is a need to intice the hesitant.



• Action and speed. Take idea, prototype it, experiment on product, and get to a decision point (kill or move on) as quick as possible. Not every idea will work and not everyone is cutout to start companies. This needs to be discovered soonest and move on.

Small note on money: Yes, VC money is needed at some point but within a university research environment there is a need for small dollar funding to help move lab research to a possibility of a viable product. Examples include spending small dollars on market research and business plans, product development, mock-ups, prototypes, etc. Not all ideas are suited to being commercial products but there is no need to seek large scale dollars to discover this.

Labels: ideas, innovation, pipeline, startup

About three weeks ago Starbucks rolled out their "Get more of what you love with a Starbucks Card" campaign. Simple enough: register your Starbucks card and get free syrup and milk for your coffee. Since I tend to get soy mochas this meant saving 40 cents every cup. Easy sell for me.

So I immediately registered my card. That was easy.

But these last several weeks has been a poor experience for me. At every Starbucks since (about 8 to 10 times since registering), I have had to remind the barista about the program. Three times I did it after they rang it up, not realizing that the register card program does not go all the way to Starbucks point of sale system and "know" to not charge me for the soy milk... Each barista was very helpful and refunded the 40 cents, but the process took about 5 min because of the "refund to card" process.

After three times I started to advise the barista that I had a registered card before the sale. This confused several baristas as they did not know about the program. After I showed them the promotional material sitting on my side of the cash register, they had to figure out how to ring up the order then account for the soy milk being "free". This took several minutes and in some cases a manager/team lead had to assist. At least twice the barista gave up on the process, refunded the whole drink, and gave it to me on the house.

This is not an "Ah Ha" innovation but more of an incremental innovation. The design of the card campaign is not that revolutionary. Certainly it will capture more customer loyalty and data about people from the registration. And it offers real value over time to the customer at little cost.

However, this straight forward incremental innovation fails in the experience. I dread having to tell the barista about something they should already know. I feel irked that the technology of the card should already "know" my card is registered and make the transaction invisible. And for the baristas the experience is one of frustration as they try to live up to their mission ("Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.")

Innovation score

• concept: great
• design: good
• execution: so so
• experience: irk-some
  

Labels: coffee, design, experience, innovation, starbucks

Quick note, just back from seeing several examples of Translating Research into Practice at IUPUI. One person, Mark Kelley, shared a story of how companies are working to leverage university medical research and making it easy to do.

Genentech has a program that helps university researchers request proteins, antibodies, and cDNAs from Genentech for their studies via their Affiliate Research Programs. Easy to do, web based, and it works! Genentech realizes they can not do all the research themselves and there is probably someone out there doing research from which Genentech might benefit.

This is compared to companies like Eli Lilly and Company that would require you to know someone personally inside Lilly and that inside person would have to know how to get a material transfer agreement setup, approved, and executed. This requires time to call, meet, and meet some more. Not web based; not focused on reducing the barriers to discovering new data, research, or ideas; and not tapping that crowd of people already working on problems Lilly might need solutions to!

Labels: disruption, innovation

I found some really interesting and entertaining material put together by Legg Mason Capital Management. These are a series of thought leader forums that have some really cool presentations and sketches by Sente Corporation.

Of interest are the talks by Alph Bingham (Extracting Information from Networks) and W. Brian Arthur (Nonequilibrium Economics and Where the Economy is Heading).

These seminars span from 2004 to 2007 and several have video available on web. The concept cards and posters by Sente add a really helpful function of pulling out the big ideas/concepts and make them visual. Great stuff!

Labels: cool, innovation

So you want to leave Lilly... Here is my list of things to know before doing that.

• Family support is important! This usually means being able to provide basics things like health insurance, money to buy food, making the house payments, etc. It also means helping your family understand why you leaving Lilly, a place you may have been with for many years, is important to you.
• Be honest with your reasons for leaving. The grass is not always greener "out there".
  
• Have several plans in play. If you are leaving with a job already in hand, great! If it means leaving with several startup ideas being developed, great! Don't leave to just quit and get away. Planning helps.
• Be flexible. Things may not pan out. Plan B or C may be needed. Don't stick to a plan if the plan is not working; adjust and move forward.
  
• Who you going to call (think theme from Ghost Busters here)? Nothing you do can be done alone, period. You will need the help of many people. Getting a job, developing an idea, finding resources... They all require some help from someone else. Knowing who to call before you need to call helps. This would also be called "build your network". Some local (central Indiana) networks to join: Women & Hi Tech, IBEN, IHIF, TechPoint, Smaller Indiana. Each of these groups have many smaller sub groups that will certainly have something of interest to you.
• Who you going to call, part 2... Many others have left Lilly and done well. Seek them out to learn their story.
  
• Be persistent. Getting people's attention is always difficult. You need to be persistent and committed.
• Let go of the culture of Lilly as soon as you can. This one is a hard one to do. You need to operate as your own person, not an extension of what you were while at Lilly. The longer you were at Lilly the harder this might be.
  
• When you leave, stay connected to Lilly... Huh??? Yes, many of the connection you made at Lilly while there are still connections to maintain and develop. Lilly may become your customer, may be a source of ideas, or may be a place to work in the future! Lilly even started a group for those that had left Lilly, the Lilly Alumni Network, to help maintain your connection.
  

I used to work for Eli Lilly, first as a contractor then as an employee from January 2000 to March of 2006. Working at Lilly provided lots of exposure on how organizations work, access to many people, and venues to discover and participate in new ideas.

I started at Lilly in the law division, helping support product liability litigation. Over the course of my time at Lilly I was loaned out to the Indiana Information Technology Association (INITA, now part of TechPoint) to lead the careesINsite program, went in to the depths FDA regulation and computer systems validation implementations, and I helped create innovation via the e.Lilly organization.

e.Lilly is where I discovered that I really wanted to pursue ideas that were not core to Lilly's business. I did not consider myself a Lilly lifer (i.e.; I did not plan to retire from Lilly). I knew I wanted to start a company and and the many projects at e.Lilly were input to helping me understand what was involved and what the potentials were.

Here are a sample of several of the companies started at e.Lilly: InnoCentive.com, YourEncore, Scienteur, Coalesix, maaguzi, Chorus, Seriousity, Collaborative Drug Discovery, and Indigo Biosystems. I was also exposed to discussion and project design around information markets (NewsFutures), internal wikis, effects of people networks, application of Wisdom of Crowds, and podcasting.

After about 2.5 years at e.Lilly, Alph Bingham (e.Lilly's VP), announced his retirement and by the fall of 2005 new management was running e.Lilly. The philosophy and approach of e.Lilly changed and I realized that it was no longer the warm, cozy home that I enjoyed. This was the time to launch out and take on some ideas to develop.

I had some contacts, some ideas, and I put in place the steps to leave by March of 2006. My family was supportive of me leaving and starting a company so in March of 2006 I started full time on developing an innovation consulting company. Using what I learned while at e.Lilly, careersINsite, and my five years as a volunteer with the National Center for Creativity (helping kids with creativity, problems solving, and team building), I set out building InnovationCreation. It took perseverance, boldness, luck, and regular practice to get clients. Starting a small business has many hurdles but I felt I was prepared to tackle them.

Along the way I had the opportunity to develop one of the ideas started at e.Lilly as a stand alone company. The idea experimented at e.Lilly was utilizing the internet and iPods to deliver relevant information to swine vets and large swine production farm managers. In mid 2006 I helped form Truffle Media Networks to commercialize the idea. By the end of 2006 I felt that Truffle Media Networks would be better suited to me spending 100% of my time on. So I slowed down the InnovationCreation development and concentrated on Truffle.

Here it is April 2008 and I am still running both companies and both are paying well enough to continue my current path. Share your story or your three key points on leaving Lilly. Let's have lunch or coffee!

Labels: innovation, lilly, startup

I wrote about the Tyvek Wallet from Dynomighty Design Inc in early February and mentioned I received lots of questions and complements:

• "Is that a wallet?"
• "Wow, that is a cool wallet!"
• "Tyvek??? What's that?"
• "Is that an envelope?"
• "That is a pretty neat wallet, where did you get that?"

I still get questions and comments about it. Just this morning the Hubbard & Cravens barista asked me what my wallet was made of. I told her about the wallet, how I got it, who made it, and where she could get one. So in one conversation I mentioned Dynomighty Design, Tyvek, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, and my family. So one product elicited a connection multiple interests and levels, to me of course. When was the last time you got that from your wallet?

Labels: conversation, idea virus, innovation, tyvek

After my post on spaces to think, do design, and innovate, Mark Henson, chief imagination officer for sparkspace, sent me a note with info on other design/innovation/thinking spaces in the USA and a few outside the USA that I had not mentioned.

What makes a great space? The space certainly has to be inviting, big enough for your team, not be too distracting yet inspiring for you to want to be there. Some adjectives from personal observation: open, light, fun, inviting, playful, colorful, surprising, wants to be utilized, supportive.

• open: This means open space, freedom to move, not confined by a barrier (desks, walls, etc).
  
• light/colorful: Colors do play an important part in the way you feel and act within an environment. Having light from the outside helps people feel better.
  
• playful/fun: When people get together to design and think requires an element of fun. The space has to help support and even generate the opportunity for fun.
  
• wants to be utilized/inviting: The space must beg you to step in and participate.
  
• surprising: Spaces that surprise can help generate ideas or off shoots to ideas that might not have occurred in other settings. Surprise can come from what the space has (food, toys, gadgets, oxygen bars) or the way the space operates (super staff, space lay out, space reconfiguration).
  
• supportive: All spaces must have the basics that when they don't exist become annoying or inconveniences. Pen, paper, bathrooms, food, drink, ability to park, lunch / dinner spots away from the space, etc.
  

Labels: deep thought, design, innovation, space, thinking

My wife gave me the Tyvek Wallet from Dynomighty Design Inc. for Christmas. I have received more comments and compliments about this wallet than any other wallet I ever had. Its one major distinctive feature is that it looks like an an envelope. When I first opened up the wallet I thought it would not be big enough. Surprisingly, this wallet has sucked in all the cards and such (about 20 cards plus paper stuff, one book of stamps, several receipts, and some cash bills) and it fits just fine in my front pocket! It also is very durable (Duh! Tyvek!). I will be in Brooklyn late April, I will see if I can stop by their office to take a look / chat with them.

Labels: cool, design, innovation, product

Where do I get away to do all this innovation? What about space helps make creativity, idea generation, and innovation work?

In the last 10 years there have been changes in how office workers are organized to help enhance creativity and innovation. What do these spaces look like? Where are they?

Here is a list of several spaces companies can travel for off site collaboration:

• Spark Space, Columbus, Ohio
• Suite-D, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Infinium, Kansas City, Missouri
• Eureka Ranch, Cincinnati, Ohio
  
• Catalyst Ranch, Chicago, Illinois
• The Thinkubator at the Solution People, Chicago, Illinois
• Jump Associates, San Mateo, California and New York, New York

Each space offers its own unique blend of space, service, culture, and character. A common theme for all is open spaces, plenty of Post-it notes, candy, toys, and lots of wall space (for all those Post-it notes!). Oh, don't forget the ever popular white board/white wall!

What really distinguishes them is the support staff and facilitation. A great physical space can be ruined by poor facilitation. All the sites will work with a client to setup the site to fit the needs of the group and work to create a plan to help gain value from the experience.

On the topic of spaces, Alexander Kjerulf wrote a blog post on October 2006 about
10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces, which highlights what some companies are doing to engage employees. The pictures of the slide at Red Bull HQ in London looks fun.

If you are going to build a space, please read the article "Stimulating Innovation with Collaboration Rooms" By G. Lynne Snead and Joyce Wycoff. They do a great job to define why a space is important and what characteristics of the space to keep in mind.

Personally speaking, I have been to several of the spaces listed above for various events. Here are some of my thoughts on them.

The Thinkubator at the Solution People space in Chicago is a fun space. The mix of toys is impressive and the giant "Abacus" sculpture from Arthur Andersen's former collection is a great conversation piece. Handling 40 people in the space could happen but it would be cramped. There is not much in the neighborhood so outside excursions would be limited. The Solution People staff are super in helping you with your needs.

The Spark Space in Columbus, Ohio is in a great location of the city to allow for outdoor exploration and to get away during those week long innovation immersions. The Spark Space staff are really excellent (! super !) and will go to great lengths to get what you need for your group. It is large enough for 50 people and can be configured into several rooms so sub groups can break out.

The Infinium site in Kansas City is a very elegant space with several smaller rooms for groups to meet. The mix of toys is more aligned with facilitation techniques than just fun but this emphasis helps you bring to mind why you are there. This space is in an art district of Kansas City, which offers many escapes to interesting ethnic restaurants and art galleries.

Suite-D in Indianapolis is a smaller site tied to Insight2's office and innovation consulting. It would fit comfortably about 25 to 35 people. There are several smaller rooms available to help breakout, plus the main space has an observation window (one way kind) that can be used for various focus group sessions.

Labels: design, innovation, office, space

I have been watching where and how I receive advertisements over the last several months. If you really pay attention, you will see ads everywhere! I mean everywhere! Last week I was in a Starbucks restroom and there was an ad on the toilet and toilet roll dispenser for Indymojo.com. I had met Ryan "Hup" Hupfer, one of the founders of Indymojo, in December during the Indy Masters of Business Online seminar, and thought he would get a kick to know his marketing material is showing up in the rest room.... Turns out he was in the Starbucks and said he was the one who put the Indymojo stickers in the restroom "Old habits die hard." No place is sacred.

Which leads me to the Yellow Pages. This is an icon of marketing and advertising, starting in 1883. Most people still think of the Yellow Pages as a paper thing. It still is printed and delivered to almost everyone (it seems to come to our house a lot!).

So here I am listening to a Yellow Pages sales rep talk (yes, a real person) to perspective ad buyer about buying space in this thick book. And going through my mind is "does anyone still use the Yellow Pages?". Our phone books at home sit in a drawer that, on occasion, get pulled out to look up the phone number of a mower repair shop. So I have used it. But it is so not the internet; it's paper! Thin cheap paper at that. And to search it requires page flipping. And the ads in the book are low tech in terms of color options that can be printed.

It is true that the data in the print edition is also on the web version. As I listen to the sales pitch, the Yellow Pages will offer, for a price, the ability to get your ad on the web via their site. "On the inetrnet, we will give yo a full page for your ad." shows even their digital sales model is physical based on print paper.

And the delivery model is time bound; Yellow Page books are only printed once a year; miss the window and you have to wait 12 months; I can imagine the sales push those last few months before the to print dead line.

Another interesting aspect of the Yellow Pages is they sell "by the inch". The more physical space you want the more dollars to spend.

What about the tracking and metrics? Do you ever say "I found your number in the Yellow Pages" when you actually do and then call a business? And would the business really track this; no human code (software for people) for "called from Yellow Pages".

So why would a business use the Yellow Pages? What are the aspects of this that make the marketing spend worth it? I have no answer; Post your thoughts!

Side note: it is these types of things that are ripe for a business model disruption. We take for granted the Yellow Pages, it is just "there". It is boring, normal, not exciting, dull. This is where a great design and delivery of something new would catch people's eye!

Labels: disruption, innovation

A great blog and podcast to follow on innovation is Phil McKinney's Killer Innovations podcast and blog. He is VP at HP and has been featured many times on innovation. I find his
podcast very actionable; I can listen to his stuff and go do things!

• Blog http://www.philmckinney.com/blog.html
• Podcast http://www.killerinnovations.com/blog/index.html

I highly recommend these two shows:

• Podcast: Existing Methods Versus New Ways To Innovate http://libsyn.com/media/philmckinney/KI_20071112.mp3
• Podcast: Why is innovation important? http://libsyn.com/media/philmckinney/KI_20071216.mp3
  

The podcasts present the material in this slide set:

• Presentation: An Introduction to the Killer Innovation Approach.

Labels: great, innovation, innovation tool, speaker

Here are some good innovation shows to catch up on:

• MITX Fireside Chat with IDEO CEO Tim Brown: http://www.peapodcast.com/danbcast/MITX-2007-12-05-TimBrownIDEO.mp3. This one was with Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. IDEO is a famous design firm known for helping with the original Apple mouse, the Palm V, and more. Recently they worked on the Eclipse jet. Questions were asked by Brian Bergstein of the Associated Press and audience members. The audience included lots of people from IDEO and Google, as well as from MIT, Harvard, and local companies.


• Killer Innovations: http://www.killerinnovations.com/blog/index.html. Killer Innovations is a source of tools, tricks and lessons about creativity and innovation. The goal of the podcast is to show the listeners that being creative and innovative is a skill that can be learned. This show is by Phil McKinney
  

Labels: innovation

From OLPC HQ. Soon to arrive before X-mas a couple OLPC computers. I'll post what I discover late Dec.

----

Welcome to the OLPC community!

Thank you for being one of the first to participate
in Give One Get One.
All of us at One Laptop per Child were inspired by the number of people who joined our Give One Get One program on its very first day! Your participation makes you part of the growing community of people working to give children all over the world new opportunities to grow, explore, learn and express themselves.

----

If you want to follow the stories, read OLPC News.

Labels: innovation, innovation tool, olpc

I normally an not one to jump into new technology right away but in this case this is very relevant to what I am trying to do: build community in a very niche area. So I tested out one example of Google's Open Social framework, Shelfari. The app is basic, it allows me to find my favorite books and share those titles / covers through as many social network sites as I want.

Smartly, Shelfari also has a Facebook widget that taps into my Shelfari data. This means I do not have to use just Facebook to update my book list and my list, even when updated in Facebook, is shared out to the other social network sites I choose.

A good quick brief on Open Social and its implications can be heard on Chris Penn's and John Wall's Marketing Over Coffee podcast, episode from 8 Nov 2007.

Labels: innovation, social intelligence, social networks, social science

Got your attention didn't I? Yes, I have about 800+ mouse balls. Not real mice balls but those balls in computer mice that roll and tell the computer where to point the cursor. I just have the balls, not the whole mouse.

Huh? Why do I have them? I started collecting them in 2005 as part of an experiment on tapping the wisdom of the crowds (see James Surowiecki book ref). I worked in an innovation disruption group at large company and wanted to demonstrate some of what Surowiecki talked about.

Over the course of 12 months I accumulated from the corporate salvage area these computer mice balls, 20 or so at a time. I used them in much the same way James Surowiecki did with jelly beans except with, uh, mice balls. The balls worked, I got the point across, and the experiment helped refine the discussion on tapping the crowds (for more info on this group see crowd sourcing interview).

So here I am with all these balls... And I need to give them a new life. This new life focus is being driven by the fact that I now have two sons needing space for their things. Priorities ... :)

I am looking for ideas. What should I do with them? What worthy cause would benefit from these mouse balls?

Labels: balls, ideas, innovation

I love going to office supply stores. I think of Staples and Office Max as great places to browse for ideas and sparks of innovation. Why?

Close your eyes.

Think about paper.

Think about pens, pencils, envelopes, paper clip. If what you initially thought in your mind's eye was just paper, pens, pencils, envelopes, and paper clips then you most likely thought about bland items. Would you want to go shopping for these items if these were bland? No.

So to get people to want to come in to buy, papers, and other office stuff, designers take the pen and make it a PEN. Or paper turns into cool paper with fun pictures and colors. What about note pads? Note pads of interesting sizes, covers, and shapes. Just last week I found these cool little notepads from myndology.

The office supply industry has to take a common product and make it so remarkable that you just want to buy that neat little note pad right then and there. And they have to frequently create new designs of "old" things so that every time you visit there are new pens, pads, and paper.

Addendum: Sharpie is one of those common products. How do you take this mature common product and make it interesting and remarkable that makes you want to buy more every time you are in Staples? Here are some their tactics:

• Customized personalized Sharpies=> "Put this back where you found it!" or "Happy Halloween 2007" or your name can be printed on the side of each Sharpie. This is made interactive by the Sharpie website which shows you the custom pen before you say yes.
• Sharpie line extensions with new colors, pen sizes, pen point sizes, and function. You can get metallic colors, chisel pen tips, and markers for autographs or china.
• Co-branding: Dale Earnhardt, Jr's signature style Sharpie!
• Sharpie name product placement: Getting Sharpie on TLC :: Clean Sweep and other media places.
  

So, take an afternoon off and visit the office supply place. Take a note book (buy one there!) and note how many items that you take for granted are actually interesting products.

Labels: generators, ideas, innovation

During Gnomedex 2007, Justin, from Justin TV, was calm but he did show a bit of quick on the spot thinking with respect to advertising. After Justin talked about how he got to this point in time and the tech equipment origins, he sat for a bit and then asked if anyone was interested in having their logo/company name on his hat. He proceeded to auction the bit of white space starting at $5. How he handled that was a great bit of self promotion and hucspaugh (sp? bold, direct, brave, daring). The bid finally ended at $750 and Justin committing to wearing the hat with the ad for the rest of the month. Amazing.

b5media won the auction...

Labels: gnomedex, innovation, marketing, thinking, tv

If you have never heard Guy Kawasaki (blog at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/) "evangelist" talk, here is audience capture audio from Gnomedex 2007 (MP3 audio link). Apparently others had already heard this talk word for word and was not as fun for them. But I enjoyed the presentation. It was entertaining and thoughtful. Some of his points about being an evangelist:

1. Make meaning
2. Make mantra
3. Roll the DICEE

• Deep
• Intelligent
• Complete
• Elegant
• Emotive

4. Niche thyself

• Showed 2 x 2 grid; ability to provide unique product or service by value to customer=> be in the upper right quadrant

5. Let a hundred flowers bloom
6. Make it personal
7. Find the true influencers
8. Enable a test drive
9. Look agnostic, not atheist
10. Provide a slippery slope
11. Don't let the bozos grind you down

Here is PDF of the presentation used by Guy.

Guy also used the phrase "Don't worry be crappy", told of his Yahoo story, and mentioned obtaining the presentation by sending email request to Gina@garage.com.

Labels: business, gnomedex, innovation, kawasaki

At Gnomedex 2007 the Ignite Seattle was an excellent session. Ignite Seattle folks provided great entertainment and poked our brain. My favorite Ignite Seattle session was Elan Lee's "LIFE: if you’re bored, you’re doing it wrong".

My other favorite Ignite Seattle sessions were "Make Art Not Content" by Scotto Moore and the very practical "Venture Capital Term Sheets" by Leo Dirac.

Labels: entertainment, fun, gnomedex, innovation

At Gnomedex 2007 Michael Linton spoke about the current monetary systems in place and how they really don't make us "free". Michael advocated open money as a way to organize and really be in control. I am not an economist nor able to speak about monetary policy. But what I found interesting is how to view money in a different light (new perspective) and what ideas can be generated and acted upon.

The Open Money Project explains what open money is about. Of interest are the way people behave and act when the idea of money is shifted from centralized systems to localized systems.

Labels: innovation, money, people, society, systems

Quick note from Seattle: Are you a photo site user (Flickr, Shutterfly, etc)? When these all started I wondered what you could do with collecting tons of pictures... Obvious was the print them to photo paper. Now...

Shutterfly allows you to design and create a photo album and then send you a bound version of as a gift. My wife did that for her grandmother's 90th birthday party. I shot the pics and she arranged them into a book. Shutterfly really has taken the plain old photo and turned it into an enhancement to a variety of products.

Moo allows you to take your Flickr pics and create mini cards or sticker books. Chris Brogan showed me at Gnomedex his sticker book of Flickr pics; he used the stickers to supplement his business cards. Add a sticker while you are handing your card to someone and they will remember it more.

CafePress turns this a bit around... Like Shutterfly it allows you to create products but then goes further by providing a you a way to create products and sell them to others. Take pictures and then get people to buy stuff with your pictures on them.

Labels: innovation, new uses, photo

I have recently made an observation: Every on is interested in innovation, cool ideas, seeing tangible things occur because of "innovation". However, those same people are not taking the commitment steps required to make innovation happen.

Are these happening to you and your innovation efforts:
People attend initial innovation seminars and express great interest but can not be found when innovation work is requires (yes there is hard work !).
Weeks in advance Really Cool People (RCP) setup interesting gatherings to share ideas yet the day or two before the event people beg off due to "work".
Clients appear to seriously be interested in getting their employees immersed in the innovation world but when it comes time to hold activity sessions greater issues take precedence.

What actions are you taking to make the commitments?

Personally, I have taken the approach that if I am invited to an innovation event of value, with enough lead time, then I make the commitment to myself that I will attend. I will treat that meeting as if it is a paying customer meeting and show up.

Sure, issue crop up, time becomes an issue and somethings need to adjust. But if you believe innovation actions are important for your future (you, your company, your industry, etc.) then you must be serious and step up to take action.

Labels: innovation, leadership

I just returned from a group discussion around the ideas from Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. One of the first thoughts when I read the book was a sense of panic: oh my, the world infrastructure around energy, food, and life style (my life style) is crashing down and we are in deep doo-doo.

Certainly not true that everything is crashing down today, but Bill does provide thoughts on what is occurring and saying that if you don't do something, things will get bad for humans.

Another thought I keep having was, ok, I believe most of what Bill write, but what can I do about it (energy, health, food, life style, etc.)? And if I do anything what will actually change?

Energy: If I change cars it will actually cost me money. Buying a Toyota Prius might make me feel somewhat better about the "environment" but it will hurt me in dollars because of the expense of selling cars that are paid for and work fine for a car that is perceived to be energy freindly. But I do wish for something (and would pay for) that would know when I was in a room and when I was not, with lights turning off / on automatically. An how can I tap the extreme solar energy in my car when it sits outside?

Food/health: We (my family) made a change there, mainly for health reasons. Several years ago we switched from standard fare of spaghetti pie and heavy cheese oriented foods to things in the Joslin Diabetes cook book and looking for foods at stores and local markets that fit the habit change. We are not doing this out of concern for the environment, Earth, or the farmer's well being, but for our own.

Life style: Humm, a hard one to figure out. I did stop buying books, but due to home space restrictions, not out of some need to stop buying stuff. I go to the local library more often, which provides a sense of connection to the area. I cringe at Christmas time and wish to issue a general statement to all that I wish them a happy holiday and don't buy me any stuff (can you recall what you got last year from your mother in law?).

The group discussion was great for its different perspectives. But I still need some thoughts on taking action. So here is a challenge:

• Don't buy "stuff" for a whole month. "Stuff" means the doodad at the hardware store, the kids toys that get used once, the random Target purchase that you really don't need.
  
• Walk to the library. Ok, could be a difficult thing to do. So walk somewhere farther than your car.
  
• Drink more water.
• Do less lawn work (I'm all for that).
• Don't throw that dead battery away, recycle it.
• Talk to your neighbors more than once a month.

How does this relate to innovation? When you think about the products your company creates ask if it contributes to some of the issues brought up in Deep Economy. Do you make doodads? Are there ways to turn the issues of energy consumption into ideas that reduce energy and provide value? Think of the issues as boundaries you don't want to cross and opportunities you want to build upon.

Another way to look at these Deep Economy issues is to utilize the issues in an assumption challenge setting. Here is an example: Challenge the assumption around the need to design and create products and services just to grow your company (Sell Sell Sell/Buy Buy Buy). What if you took out your company growth assumptions and were able to concentrate on designing products or services that helped address the "buy less" desires of your customers? Sounds odd, wanting your customers to buy less from you. But think about the desires of the customer? If you can meet those desires and make a really personal connection to your customers then you will gain value in non-monetary ways.

Labels: health, innovation, life style

In 2005 I had the fun time of listening to Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO) and Tom Kelley (Art of Innovation and IDEO) at Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly was a customer of IDEO). Before the start of the talk I took the chance to ask Tim this question: How do innovation and 6 sigma coexist?

His rule of thumb:

When he is approached by a company that has just started a 6 sigma process, he tells them to come back in about 18 months. He said 6 sigma, mainly, is about efficiencies, and that it takes about 18 months for the 6 sigma programs on those efficiencies to get through the system. Then the company is ready for that next level of tapping the innovation mind set. This is, assuming, that the 6 sigma processes are well absorbed and that it was not a flavor of the month/"one shot" program.

I found this interesting at the time because of the six sigma activities Lilly had just started, and I wondering what my role within a disruptive innovation group (eLilly or e.Lilly) might turn into.

Tim's rule of thumb is interesting today because of the cover story about 3M in Business Week: "At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency And Creativity". In short, 3M took on in a big way six sigma when James McNerney, a former GE executive, became the CEO of 3M. Early on the outside world rewarded this with higher stock price and certainly internally with large cost savings. However, the six sigma activity, according to the article, also changed the 3M culture (one of mythology!) to the point that the innovation took second place to efficiency and process.

"In some cases in the lab it [six sigma] made sense, but in other cases, people were going around dreaming up green-belt programs to fill their quota of green-belt programs for that time period. We were letting, I think, the process get in the way of doing the actual invention." said Dr. Larry Wendling, a 3M vice-president who directs the "R" in 3M's R&D operation.

So can innovation and process improvements co-exist? I think so, if the groups practicing six sigma and innovation are well defined and understand that application of six sigma or innovation tools must not be applied globally and equally.

Labels: ideo, innovation, six sigma

I am working on some "social networks" projects and "viral" like projects. I quoted these words because what I am really working on is getting people together around a specific idea/product and keeping them engaged over time. Some of what I am working on is old fashioned marketing and PR linked with newer tools to spread the word quicker and get some sense of how the word spreads.


Check out Forward Track & HBR Idea Cast podast w/ Duncan Watts about viral marketing.

Labels: idea virus, innovation, marketing, viral

I want to provide a perspective on change and innovation, as a follow up to the post Innovation leadership model.

One of the companies I have been working with on creating an innovation environment has kicked off an innovation game plan with an innovation assessment, a several day work shop, and then the formation of several teams to tackle some innovation projects.

While they have been happy with the kick start of their innovation efforts, they have not been satisfied with the initial innovation project teams' progress. "They have money, each team has a manager, and still they are not going anywhere" said my contact person. When I asked further, the issue seems to be one of being dragged back to doing execution of things of their "day" job.

This as the "97%" trap; all their main time (97% of their time) of the project team members in the organization is about execution. While the project teams all believe the innovation projects are important to move forward, their management and senior leadership agree with the projects' need/importance, and they have money(!), the need to get "things done now" creeps back in. Habit of the past is strong!

The project team members are being pulled: they continue to get the message "execution first, get products today finished and work on the innovation project in addition" (implied: in your "free time") => leadership is talking the talk but not walking the talk (either not enough walk or they are doing the walk in a way that is not being recognized by the staff).

I want to chat with you about the leadership model: How does one implement what is advocated in the leadership model? What can help move management and leadership from the walk to the talk?

Interestingly, I am reading Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life that talks about this very thing. The book's topic is: to really change requires one to relate to the people (build a new relationship with the staff), repeat (learn, practice, and master), and then reframe thru practice and learning, reframe the point of view and / or approach to create a new way to operate.

Labels: book, innovation, innovation tool, model, social science, thinking

The Myths of Innovation is a good read; shows that innovation is not cut and dried, there is not innovation silver bullet, and innovation is not a loan activity or process.

Labels: book, innovation, magic

I am working on recommendations for a client on innovation leadership models. I have been thinking about this for a couple weeks and have developed the following guides:

• The model has to be dirt simple to understand.
• The model is for people and about people so the model actions must take that into account.
• Like all models, it will not be perfect. The more resolution (detail) the model must have the harder it will be to change and adapt.
• The model should have no more than seven items. Why? Seven is a magic number in human cognition. The ability to recall and process information seems to be bound by a limit of 7 (+- 2).

With those parameters in mind here is my draft leadership model (7 (+1)):

1. Be positive, smile, and have fun. Smile, its infectious. See Social Experiment.
2. Build and share ideas. Get ideas out to people, have conversations about them, refine and adjust. Fail faster. Try and learn, try and learn, try and learn. If you are going to be innovative, you are going to fail. Then share and celebrate those failures. Repeat.
   
3. Become more visible. Get on the ground with the people doing the work and developing ideas.
4. Recognize and reward peoples' actions and behavior.
5. Learn about and practice innovation.
6. Look. Listen. Learn. Observe your customers (Don't survey them. Don't watch your competitors. Don't focus group them.). Tap your employees (People that work with you have ideas and ability to act; engage them). Ask questions.
   
7. Be Firm, Fair, and Consistent (used to be "Be steady, consistent, and methodical"). There is no magic bullet, no quick fix, no magic moment so don't create a 'crisis', an 'event', or a 'program'.

While this is at 7 items, some of the items have multiple concepts within them. Can this model be simple (simple=short, easy to consume, not complex) yet not be formulaic? Just doing these seven things, by themselves, will not make innovation happen. There are some complex people stuff in several items.

Here are some research papers and white papers that provide (deeper) thoughts on leadership and innovation.

• The Ten Faces of Innovation, by Tom Kelley.
  
• The Power of Ordinary Practices, chat with Teresa M. Amabile
  
• The Way of the Innovation Leader, from New and Improved
• Building Innovative Teams, from New and Improved
• Good to Great article in Fast Company, by Jim Collins
• Thoughts from Susan Lucia Annunzio, author of Contagious Success
• The Business of Innovation, CNBC series.
• Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. From All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum.
• Five different types of thinking to jolt creativity, by Chris Penn, co-founder of PodCamp.
  

Labels: create, creativity, innovation, leadership, manage, model