Uncategorized Archives - Page 10 of 11

Being an Innovative Team Player

2017-04-10T21:47:13-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Behavior, Innovation Culture, Uncategorized|

Being a team player in an innovation culture doesn’t mean playing along to get along; it means asking the tough questions and carefully considering the questions raised by others. It means challenging the sacred cows and unwritten assumptions that too often impede progress. It means making connections for the sake of making connections, because that’s the essence of creativity and no one can predict what new insights might result. Sometimes, it even means courageously challenging authority, when there’s a legitimate reason to do so.

It’s Not Just About Ideas; It’s About Culture

2010-05-03T07:00:01-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Culture, Innovation Strategies, Uncategorized|

An idea campaign may be a great idea—and there are some great technologies available to help you launch and administer one. But it’s just as important to launch an innovation culture campaign. One that will help your people better understand how to think and work creatively.

Place Your Bets

2017-04-10T21:47:13-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Behavior, Innovation Strategies, Uncategorized|

With innovation, the odds favor the gambler. The longer you play, the more likely you are to win. Each calculated risk that fails, if carefully evaluated and used to learn, brings us closer to a successful solution, by teaching us what won’t work and hinting at what does. It’s those who stop gambling, who fail to experiment long enough and often enough, who give up too soon, who lose.

Hiring Innovation

2017-04-10T21:47:13-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Behavior, Innovation Strategies, Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

Anyone can become a successful innovator, but some of us are more predisposed to creative change than others. Ironically, companies tend to stack the deck against their own innovation efforts by predominantly hiring those who are most conformist and most competent at doing what’s already being done, rather than those who embrace new ideas.

Asking Questions

2010-04-12T07:00:30-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Behavior, Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

In science, there’s always another question. No matter how many questions a good researcher answers, or how much data is gathered, there are always more things to ask. In fact, there seems to be a geometric relationship between answers and questions, with each answer prompting multiple new questions. Richer, more subtle, more complex questions. Sometimes [...]

Setting Boundaries

2017-04-10T21:47:13-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Culture, Innovation Strategies, Uncategorized|

What would it do to your company to have to ask permission from the government before anything could change? Yet isn’t that what large corporations routinely require of business units and employees? Do you think maybe it has the same effect?

Innovation vs. Education

2010-03-29T07:00:57-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Behavior, Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

Life is not a multiple-choice test and neither is business. The insights we need are not found in brief lists of options. Knowing what worked last time isn’t the same as knowing how to face a new challenge or find a new solution. It doesn’t give someone the courage to experiment, or the confidence to chart a new path. Indeed, the surest way to short circuit innovative thinking is to conclude that you already have the answer.

The Insight Economy

2010-03-22T07:00:28-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Uncategorized|

Are you creating the sort of innovation-friendly environment that generates and implements attractive ideas? You need to be, because the ability to become a source of great new ideas is your most critical business asset—in the insight economy.

Turn Things Upside Down

2017-04-10T21:47:13-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Culture, Leading Innovation, Uncategorized|

Even after years of breaking down silos and decentralizing decision-making, most organizations still cling to the organizational chart. It’s perhaps flatter but it’s still there. So maybe we still need it. If that’s true, let me humbly suggest that at the very least it’s time to turn it upside down.

Creative Education?

2010-03-08T07:00:14-06:00By Dennis Stauffer|Innovation Behavior, Personal Innovation Skills, Uncategorized|

There is no shortage of research on creativity, what it is, how to cultivate it, and how to integrate it into our schools’ curriculum. It certainly needs to entail much more than teaching students to be “artistic.” We probably have some sorting out to do to determine what approaches will be most beneficial, but let’s at least start sorting.