Innovative Thinking

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?

The Universal Challenge of Entrepreneurs and Innovators

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

Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, “There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things.” He was talking about politics and government but it applies equally well to any new venture. It is the universal experience of everyone who has ever tried: It’s not going to go exactly like you think it will. You will have to make adjustments.

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.

Innovation Requires Mass Customization – of Ourselves

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

We hear a lot these days about mass customization as a consumer trend, about how technology now allows us to mass produce products that are customized to the needs and desires of individual consumers. So, why stop with consumer products? To fuel innovation, we need to be talking about mass customization...of people.

Innovation Essentials: Knowledge as Answers or Possibilities?

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

What’s your personal theory of knowledge? Is it something that gives you answers or possibilities? Of course, the short answer is, “Yes.” But if you had to choose, if you had to state a preference, I suspect you could, and for many it would be: answers. Not that most of us have given this a great deal of thought. It’s what’s known as an implicit theory, a largely subconscious belief, but one that nonetheless impacts how we think and behave—and how well we innovate.

Teenagers in Our Midst: Why Are World Class Innovators So Surly?

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

With the passing of Steve Jobs and with it recent reminders of how not only bright and creative, but arrogant and obnoxious he could be, I got to thinking: Why are great innovators at times so insufferable?

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.

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