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Innovation Essentials: A Fishing Analogy

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

Permit me to draw an analogy between fishing and innovation, one that I think provides some important insights. We’ve all heard the old saw about giving someone a fish versus teaching them to fish. But there’s an added level of expertise that goes beyond teaching someone to fish—and it’s the same kind of expertise that innovation requires.

An Innovation Lesson From American Idol

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

Singing is one of those skills that is difficult to evaluate in ourselves. We rely on feedback from others to determine how we’re doing. (Think of American Idol.) The personal capacity to innovate is a lot like that. It’s difficult to gain an accurate sense of our own creativity or analytical skills or insight. How often have you seen people either discount their creativity or exaggerate it? It’s quite common…and not just in singing competitions.

Avoiding Innovation Arrogance

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Uncategorized|

Expertise in the field of innovation, like any other expertise, can frequently become a hindrance to further progress. We get comfortable with what we know, what’s worked for us in the past, secure in the knowledge that has already brought us success—along with personal status and influence and income.

A Different Kind of Innovation Process Improvement

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Uncategorized|

We know from extensive research that idea generation can be enhanced—sometimes dramatically—by the in-the-room strategies that are employed. We’ve learned how to leverage our creativity by getting people to think in certain ways (and stop thinking in certain ways), by adopting a certain mindset, a mindset that produces measurably better outcomes. But what about the mindset outside the room? The same level of creativity and spontaneity, of improvisation and exploration that fuels those ideas in the first place, is needed throughout the innovation cycle...and is often lacking.

What’s Your New Year’s Vision?

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Uncategorized|

I’ve never been big on New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t find them very motivating and apparently I’m not alone, judging by the number of people who crowd into my health club in January who are gone by April. Resolutions just don’t stick with me. So I’ve been musing about finding an innovative way to practice this tradition. The answer I’ve come up with: Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, why not a New Year’s Vision?

To Innovate, You Have to Believe

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Uncategorized|

“There are no atheists in fox holes,” the old saw goes. It’s an assertion that no doubt offends atheists, who I assume hold their beliefs with the same conviction as anyone else. I have a similar observation to make about innovation (one that I don’t think will offend anyone): There are no unbelievers among innovators.

Creating an Innovation Mindset – It’s All About the Assumptions

2017-04-10T21:46:57-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

We don’t yet understand the inner workings of our brains well enough to guide the prescribe of innovation processes and techniques. But we do understand what attitudes, assumptions and beliefs are productive and counterproductive. And that may be even more useful.

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