Innovator Mindset

About Dennis Stauffer

Innovation Expert, Independent Researcher, Author

Innovation Essentials: Which Direction is Your Flywheel Turning?

2017-04-10T21:46:58-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Innovation Culture|

In his acclaimed bestseller, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about what he calls the “Flywheel Effect.” He describes how small actions and decisions, made over a period of time, add up to sustained momentum and success for great companies—like small nudges building momentum on a flywheel. I agree and riffing on his metaphor, I would add that our flywheel can be turning in either direction. It’s possible that a series of seemingly small decisions and incremental actions can gradually undermine our success. So the key question becomes: Which direction is your flywheel turning?

Innovation Essentials: Persistence is Overrated

2017-04-10T21:46:58-06:00By |Innovation Behavior, Uncategorized|

There’s a prevalent and long-perpetuated myth about innovators, that they are persistent; they don’t give up. Renowned innovators like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison have even said it of themselves, crediting their success in part on their persistence. But it’s at best a poor choice of words and at worst a fundamental misunderstanding of what innovation entails, even by some of its best practitioners.

Mindset: Innovation’s Third Way

2017-04-10T21:46:59-06:00By |Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

What most distinguishes the innovation high performers from the less innovative is not some indiscernible secret sauce of mental faculties. What distinguishes them is their mindset. That is to say: their attitudes, assumptions and beliefs—their mental models—about how the world works. These mental models are often subconscious. Yet they can have a huge impact on someone’s behavior and therefore how well they perform—and innovate.

Innovation Essentials: Testing Our Intuitions

2017-04-10T21:47:08-06:00By |Innovation Strategies, Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

Great innovations are often based on powerful intuitions, but we all know examples of someone thinking they have a great intuition and being misguided. So where does intuition fit into innovation and how do we know when we can rely on it?

The Innovation Killer: “I’ve got mine!”

2017-04-10T21:47:08-06:00By |Innovation Culture, Leading Innovation, Uncategorized|

There’s always a risk, when floating any innovative idea, that it will crash against the rocky shores of personal fiefdoms, entrenched power bases and cronyism, both public and private. The often intense resistance to anything that might require real change often comes down to the same silent refrain: I’ve got mine. Don’t mess with it. It’s a stance that can stop innovation dead in its tracks. There may be no better example of how not to innovate than the current state of American politics.

Innovation Essentials: Are You an Assimilator or an Accommodator?

2017-04-10T21:47:09-06:00By |Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

Innovation is different from other business competencies because it’s not about extending our expertise; it’s about repeatedly revising our expertise, at times rethinking our most fundamental assumptions and beliefs about our business. We need to recognize that when we encounter new information and observations, we must constantly check to be sure that when we see a cat we don’t assume that it’s just another doggie.

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