Five Innovation Practices for Building & Managing an Innovation Program
There is no “one size fits all” formula for innovation management success. Demystifying innovation takes experiments and practices. In this article, we'll explore five tactics to use in order to develop and manage a successful innovation program.
Innovators, How Do You Find Your Next Problem to Solve?
If you’re working in innovation there’s nothing as rewarding as making the long journey from inspiration to implementation.
Four Innovation Themes from Open Nation 2019
Every year, IdeaScale hosts innovation leaders and creative thinkers from around the world in a global summit that shares innovation best practices. These leaders share success stories, failures, challenges, and solutions as they get to know each other so that they can call on one another throughout the year (long after the event is over).
What’s the Best Idea Criteria for Innovation Programs?
One of the most popular webinars that IdeaScale has ever hosted is our webinar on how to select the best ideas. We are constantly being asked by our customers and prospects, “how do I know a good idea when I see one?” Some people are looking for financial predictions, some people want to know how an idea measures up to their organizational objectives, but everyone is looking for the perfect set of criteria so that they can evaluate ideas at some point during the innovation process and validate them.
The 3 C’s: Complex Problem Solving, Creativity and Critical Thinking – Core Soft Skills Required in the Workplace of the 4th Industrial Revolution
The next in our series on the 4th Industrial Revolution, from the Business Optimization Training Institute (BOTI). Start with Part I here.
Innovation Via the Customer Journey
Innovation is usually spoken of in relation to products, research, and development. However, every aspect of your business can be innovated. In fact, one of the most important – and often overlooked – is customer service. Innovative customer service helps you build loyalty, encourages repeat business, and can also bring in new buyers as they observe how you care for your consumers.
Psychology Tips to Get Honest Feedback from Your Employees
Learn four essential tips that employers and HR departments should consider when trying to get honest input from their employees.
How Many Types of Innovation Are There?
Innovation thought leader Nick Skillicorn recently did a pretty good job summarizing all of the innovation theories. And we noticed that there are a few key similarities between most (or all) of these theories that we think are interesting! Download this infographic to learn more about the 15 Theories of Innovation.
Five Business Shifts That Will Put Learning at The Heart of The Agenda
In our recent book The Future Reinvented, we are argued that, in the face of seemingly unprecedented change across society, learning at every level is central to survival and growth.
Recent Innovations in Healthcare
From patient care technology and equipment to public health research and new alternative treatments for sufferers of chronic pain, the healthcare field has always relied on innovation.
Five Perspectives of Innovators
Innovators are among us and within us, spot them by how they think and do things differently.
How To Effectively Deal With Unhappy Clients
No matter what the nature of your business is, you will inevitably encounter unhappy clients. Whether this is because it’s the fault of the company or something that couldn’t have been prevented – your first priority needs to be solving the problem.
A More Innovative Europe? Think Different About Innovation!
In Brussels, the Research & Innovation Program Horizon Europe (FP9) is the talk of ‘EU town’. Horizon Europe is hoped to be the great leap forward of Europe to close the innovation gap to the US and stay ahead of the emerging innovation giant China in the coming years.
Why Aptitude Tests Are Important for Jobs in Innovation
Innovation is one of the main ways in which a business can differentiate itself from the competition. Innovation could take place by improving business processes or by entering new markets after upgrading current product and service offerings. To be innovative, companies need creative employees who have the ability to transform ideas into reality.
What Role Does Research Play in Innovation?
A lot of innovation programs have naturally grown out of research and development groups, but most true innovation is a departure from what’s come before so what role does the “research” in “research and development” play in innovation?
The Role of Innovators at Large Organizations
In-house innovation programs continue to proliferate and our concept of the innovator has evolved alongside them. Now we no longer think of a creative genius sitting alone in their tower coming up with creative ideas. Now, innovators can play a number of different roles within an innovation program beyond idea author. A lot of interest and attention is being paid to this concept, because organizations that are looking to sponsor and train innovation skills at their organization need to understand what skills matter most when it comes to creating meaningful change. After all, it’s an important part of professional development nowadays. Every employee at any organization needs to be able to keep up with the rapid pace of change. So here are a few of the roles that innovators play at large organizations.
5 Top Careers for Innovative Problem-Solvers
For some, problem-solving comes naturally, and others most develop the skill. In any case, there are some careers that are especially suited for people who enjoy managing people, events and things to create positive outcomes. These professionals are highly skilled at using information and knowledge to resolve issues and engineer solutions. Certain fields require just this kind of heightened skill in problem resolution, and they reward professionals who are up for the task handsomely.
The Six Step Innovation Lifecycle
Innovation isn’t a one-time project. It’s a continuous activity. Which is why we are seeing numerous organizations adding an innovation department to their company infrastructure. In fact, in a recent survey of our client base, we were surprised to learn that almost 40% of our customers operate out of a dedicated innovation group.
To Transform Your Business, Do This
When the Commission for Environmental Cooperation launched a challenge to the youth of North America, they received hundreds of unique, green business proposals. The young entrepreneurs competed for seed funding and came up with some truly disruptive ideas.
Impact Assessment: The Innovation Paradigm Shift that is Coming
In the context of business management and economics, innovation has mainly been considered as a source of profit and growth. But innovation can also have a transformative role and recently more and more innovators and entrepreneurs are not only considering the financial returns of their projects, but also the societal impacts that they might bring with them.
How to Choose the Right Technology for Your Startup
In today’s era of hyperconnectivity, technology is the backbone of every successful business, irrespective of its size. For your startup, the choice of right hardware and software pieces means not only managing your team properly, but also boosting their productivity, getting the most of every project, and saving a lot of time and money.
What’s Keeping CInO’s Awake at Night: The Latest Corporate Innovation Trends From a Range Of Recent Conferences
Over the past couple of weeks, I have participated in several conferences / events, to better understand key trends in corporate innovation. Each event was excellent, but also very different in scope, audience and approach.
Don’t “Fiddle” with the Crowd – Ask it Better Questions Instead
As the examples of successful use of crowdsourcing to address complex technical, business and social issues grow in numbers, so do the instances of failed crowdsourcing campaigns. To make crowdsourcing a widely recognized idea-generating and problem-solving tool, it’s imperative to understand the reasons of why this tool can fail or underperform.
How Quantum Computers will Advance Machine Learning, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence
Quantum computers will allow artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning to become far more advanced. Many researchers are working on the advancement of quantum computers, and it won't be long before their use becomes widespread.
Learning to Communicate With Difficult Co-Workers
No matter where you work, there's always some difficult co-workers you're going to have to deal with. Instead of wishing the situation away, which never works, it's time to learn how to perfect your skills for dealing with them.
Making Innovation More of a Science And Less of an Art
One of the greatest challenges facing innovation professionals is to find the right approach to a given innovation problem. Whether that’s instilling the innovation mojo in a large corporation or simply helping teams become more innovative, the ways to do this seem to be more of an art than a science. However, during the last ten years there has been a strong push to turn this art form into more of a science.
The Catalyst Network: Expanding the Reach and Impact of your Innovation Team
To amplify your company's presence and scale your influence, innovation teams need to harness informal networks and not simply rely on formal structures to create a thriving innovation eco-system. Enter Innovation Catalysts: natural champions who are believers, idea generators, problem solvers, mentors and sponsors in your organization.
The Frustrated Innovation Team: What Should They Do?
Many executives talk a lot about innovation, but they don't really know how to make it happen. A corporate innovation team asks themselves: How do we "educate" our executives on innovation management and develop stronger corporate innovation capabilities together?
The Dynamic Duo of Innovation: Ethnography and Big Data
The combination of Big Data and ethnographics can be a potent toolset for uncovering innovation opportunities, as a growing number researchers are discovering.
A Simple Exercise in Anticonventional Thinking
Anticonventional thinking forces out of our normal pathways of creative problem solving to consider a wider range of potential solutions. Jeffrey Baumgartner explains how it works via a simple example.
Creativity: Why it’s Better to Turn your Problems into Goals
When it comes to creative problem solving, which is more effective? Focusing on the problem at hand, or on setting goals for what we'd like to accomplish? Jeffrey Baumgartner explores this perplexing question and comes to a very clear conclusion.
Get Innovative in Helping Employees to Accommodate Change
You can find in this article a grasp overview of reasons for change in our organization and how it could be boosted by applying innovative approaches.
Designing the Perfect Ideas Competition
What's the most effective way to design an idea competition that doesn't just result in a huge pile of ideas, but enables teams to implement ideas that will help to make your organization more creative? Jeffrey Baumgartner shares one practical framework for making this happen.
Creative Problem Solving Technique: Become the Problem
When we are trying to generate ideas in order to solve a problem, whether through anticonventional thinking, brainstorming or another method, we typically distance ourself slightly from the problem. We look for ideas on how to improve our company’s product, how to deliver better customer service, how to cut costs or alternative business models. In all of these cases, we separate ourselves from the problem and, by so doing, we potentially limit our understanding of the problem. Why not take a different approach and become the problem?