The Creative Challenge of Changing Culture at IBM
Key Strategy: Facilitating Genuine Employee InvolvementExcerpted from the book: Idea Stormers, How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs (Wiley Jossey-Bass) by Bryan Mattimore There is no tougher organizational challenge than changing a culture. Just ask any CEO or company president. Even the most powerful executive can feel surprisingly powerless when it comes to changing a well-entrenched corporate culture. Nevertheless, my coworkers and I are occasionally called on to design and facilitate events to either launch a culture change initiative or help operationalize an initiative that is already underway. For the facilitating leader tasked with creating organization-wide change, the following example might provide some inspiration and encouragement as you travel down the challenging culture change road. As you’ll see, the [...]
Generative AI can Augment Creativity
One of the co-founders of IdeaScale, Josh Folk, (disclosure: I am CEO of IdeaScale) recently co-authored a front page article published in the Harvard Business Review, describing how the explosion of generative AI can be used to augment human creativity and productivity. Here's the full article link at HBR. To practice what I preach about using AI as a tool to improve human product, I actually had chatGPT summarize Josh's article, with light editing by me to make it less marketing-y. -------------------------------------------------------- Introduction: In the contemporary digital landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated various industries, profoundly impacting the realm of creativity. Harvard Business Review presents a thought-provoking article titled "How Generative AI Can Augment Human Creativity," which explores the profound [...]
Leveraging the “Pamplemousse Principle” in Creativity Training
Leveraging the “Pamplemousse Principle” In Creativity Training For more than a dozen years my innovation agency has taught customized creative problem-solving workshops (what we now call “Un-Think” programs), to senior managers in medium and large organizations. Evaluations from the literally thousands of executives who have taken the workshop average 4.8 out of 5. Why such high ratings? I think it’s in part because we’ve questioned many of the most basic assumptions of learning and development workshops. To encourage greater participant engagement, for instance, we don’t use any PowerPoint slides. We also only tell original stories from our own innovation consulting work so we can speak authoritatively about how business creativity and innovation successes really happen. (No cliché Post It [...]
Four Traits Your Next CEO Must Have For Your Organization to Thrive
Want to ensure your organization will thrive over the long run? If so, then your next CEO must have these four traits – 1) relentless focus on the long-term future; 2) inherently entrepreneurial mindset; 3) solid grounding in reality and the fundamentals of business; and 4) behavior of a consummate diplomat.
How Can Enterprises Think and Execute Like a Startup?
Around the world and across industries, enterprises are facing tremendous market upheaval. Transformation and disruption were the new normal well before the pandemic, but the coronavirus crisis accelerated certain trends toward innovation and digitization and led to the fundamental rewiring of old business models.
The Biggest Adaptations We Need to Make to Accommodate Climate Change
In 2020, for the first time ever, solar and wind made up the majority of the world’s new power generation. In 2021, the US alone committed to protect 30% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030. And as of Earth Day this year, more than 30% of the Fortune 500 have made commitments to a carbon-free future.
Whitepaper: Stimulating and Measuring Open and Cross Innovation
As two intermediaries from Hamburg that foster open and cross innovation processes, Science Scout (an initiative of Hamburg Innovation) and Cross Innovation Hub (Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft) joined forces to start a discussion around the stimulation and measurement of open and cross innovation processes.
Create a Team of Master Problem Solvers
Problem-solving is an essential skill as an innovator. If problems stump your employees, how can your organization ever innovate for customers? Luckily, problem-solving skills can be learned, and as a leader you can create a team of master problem solvers and innovators.
What is the New Model for Innovation Success?
In this series I’ve been critically examining the significant changes impacting the corporate innovation competency, which leads to how organisations drive future growth and impact.
In Search of the Perfect Brainstorm: An Update of Collaborative Ideation
Imaginary scenario: you have been invited to a meeting to explore new approaches to a wicked problem. Loudmouth Number 1 describes his solution. Loudmouth Number 2 vehemently disagrees. A heated argument ensues. Some people take sides. Others remain silent. There are bruised egos. You are not the only one who feels frustrated. All that time just one single idea has been considered. Have you ever experienced such a meeting? Have you ever wondered why brainstorming came to be? Brainstorming Today: Why It Needs an Update These days the noun “brainstorming” and the verb “to brainstorm” are used (and misused) extensively and in many different ways. Our working definition in this article is that brainstorming is a “process to enable purposeful, [...]
What are the Challenges to Government Intrapreneurship?
Government innovators face specific challenges: regulations, compliance issues, cooperation with numerous other branches of government...but they also access some of the most technical and influential trends of our time.
Unleashing Virtual Creative Collaboration at The Sonophilia Foundation: What Can a Nonprofit Teach Us About Virtual Creative Collaboration
Does creativity suffer in our virtual world, or could working virtually actually lead to more collaborative environments, better ideation and heightened interaction?
Is South Africa the Next Silicon Valley?
When you think of the most innovative places in the world, what do you picture? Silicon Valley and its array of tech startups? Tokyo, because it has the highest number of patents filed worldwide? London, where over 15% of the workforce is employed in the tech sector? Or are you imagining somewhere else?
Trending Questions
What is a trend, and other questions answered by Sébastien Van Laere, Co-founder of Superframe, an agency using insight and foresight to develop brand-, innovation- and business strategy for some of the biggest global brands.
Five Questions to Answer Before Crowdsourcing
As the director of the IdeaScale Crowd community, I recently had the opportunity to share some insights and best practices for innovators who are new to crowdsourcing, and may not have conducted their first campaign yet. We discussed five questions to ask as you prepare for your first campaign, why those questions are important, and some examples of good and bad answers to those questions.
Why People Buy Innovation Management Software
Every year, IdeaScale analyzes our system and customer data and releases a report on crowdsourced innovation trends and benchmarks. You can find this year’s report here, but one of the questions that we pay a lot of attention to is why people are looking to purchase an innovation management platform in the first place.
Who Are the Creators Among Us?
For a long time, the prevailing theory was that the creators, ideators, or innovators among us were a special type of person that had an innate gift for inspiration. The idea that creativity could be taught was much debated, but it is also one of the most commonly debunked myths in the innovation space.
Building an Imagination Machine: Exclusive Interview with Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller
Imagination is one of the least understood but most crucial ingredients of success. It’s what makes the difference between an incremental change and the kinds of pivots and paradigm shifts that are essential to transformation — especially during a crisis.
SWICH – The Six Week Innovation Challenge
The Six Week Innovation Challenge is becoming the method of choice in corporates. And it's not only innovators who love the sprint - leaders embrace it just as much.
Leveraging Alien Thinking: Exclusive Interview with Cyril Bouquet, Jean-Louis Barsoux, and Michael Wade
For the past decade, Cyril Bouquet, Jean-Louis Barsoux, and Michael Wade, professors of innovation and strategy at IMD Business School, have studied inventors, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, and artists. These people, or “aliens,” as the authors call them, are able to make leaps of creativity, and use five patterns of thinking that distinguish them from the rest of us.
Let’s Settle the Debate – Innovation Both Is & Is Not Everyone’s Job
Is ‘innovation’ everyone’s job – as so many claim it is? Or is it not everyone’s job – as the counterargument goes? The reality is not quite so simple. Dive in as we examine the three cases of significance here – two in which innovation is everyone’s job, and one in which it isn’t.
DNA of an Innovative Business: Is It Yours?
With the acceleration of modern economic, societal and environmental changes, new opportunities are created everywhere, and often where we least expect them.
Breaking the Innovation Stereotypes: The Case of Curry Express
We often hear about the concept of innovation and its importance in enhancing the competitiveness of an organization---however, the excessive use of this term has distorted its true meaning and content.
The Secrets to Making Open Innovation Projects Work
Open innovation often requires global teams with national culture differences to work together, which presents some challenges. Here’s how to navigate them.
How to Ensure Crowdsourcing Works for Product Innovation
Many enterprise organizations use crowdsourcing to find ideas in their blind spots - but how do you launch your first crowdsourcing challenge, and what sorts of questions do you ask? IdeaScale Crowd is hosting a webinar for first-time crowdsourcing innovators who want to engage a large group of collaborators in solving their problems.
The Three Horizons of Innovation Training
What if everyone in your organization came to work believing they could shape the destiny of your company? Learn more in this new post, and find out how it's possible with a 30-minute consult.
How to Select Your Best Value Innovation Project – The Secret is in a Well-Managed Product Project Portfolio!
Innovation is on everyone's lips as a solution to post-COVID economic recovery. The world of innovation has a very broad definition: It’s often referred to as an information technology innovation... but our worldwide economy is still very reliant on manufacturing. How you select your best innovation project is undoubtedly a starting point!
How To Make Sure Your SMB Is Being Energy Efficient
Making your business environmentally sustainable does not mean reducing total material demand. Still, it does require more effective use of energy and resources and the mitigation of current waste streams.