How to Solve 7 Challenges in Employee Driven Innovation
The collective wisdom of your co-workers is a huge asset in the fuzzy front end. But which challenges do you need to address and solve in order to create a structured and effective employee driven innovation process? Read more about a method using idea markets as a powerful incentive. And it has already proven its worth in a number of large Scandinavian companies.
How to Accelerate Innovation through Challenge Driven Innovation
Challenge Driven Innovation enables companies to tap into diverse perspectives and talent to solve problems faster, more cost-effectively and with less risk, ultimately resulting in accelerated innovation outcomes and improved business performance. In this article Steve Bonadio introduces the concept of “Challenges” and their role in the emerging innovation management framework called Challenge Driven Innovation (CDI).
How to Start the Practice of Collaborative Innovation
Today, many seek ways to transform the manner in which their organization convenes to solve problems and to reach a shared understanding of strategic intent. The practice of collaborative innovation offers a path forward. In this article innovation architect Doug Collins suggests a place for people to start their journey focusing on how to work with the enquiry led, internally focused form.
Solve Customer Frictions
Good ideas are most successful when they're not just a modern novelty, but fulfill an unmet customer need. Gis van Wulfen describes how to find innovation opportunities by identifying customer frictions.
Design Thinking: The Rumors of its Death are Greatly Exaggerated
Recently, Bruce Nussbaum declared "design thinking is dead." Tim Ogilvie, CEO of innovation strategy consultancy and co-author of a new book on design thinking, disagrees.
Observe and Learn
Getting fresh insights is a crucial step in the ideation process. Gijs Van Wulfen shares his suggestions on sourcing inspiration.
Asking the Important Questions: A Guide to Design Thinking And a Better Way to Serve Customers
Design thinking should be a way of life for senior managers. Melba Kurman spoke to Sara Beckman, design and innovation expert at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, about how to apply design thinking to the innovation process.
Structure Your Ideation Approach
The fuzzy front end of innovation confronts you with a lot of questions. In my new book ‘Creating innovative Products and Services’ I try to solve them. This time I like to introduce a structured ideation method, which combines both creativity and business reality.
Finding Fantastic Solutions in Unexpected Places
This week IM caught up with Klaus-Peter Speidel, who has embraced open innovation in the company he co-founded - hypios, a social marketplace for solutions. Klaus-Peter tells us more about the need-oriented approach to innovation and the importance of multiplicity and open-mindedness in the idea creation process.
How to Combine Innovation with Lean and Six Sigma
Innovation never takes place in a vacuum cut off from other initiatives to improve performance. Doug Collins takes a look at how to team up with people in the Lean and Six Sigma processes.
Design Thinking in new Product Development
What is design thinking's role in the new product development process? Michael Fruhling explains.
7-1/2 steps to innovation
Over the past year or so there have been more and more lists available online on how to "do innovation." Since the world is becoming extremely sound-bite driven and people are trying to perform multiple jobs simultaneously, this is probably the inevitable result. If you are charged with, or interested in approaches to delivering new value to the market, you may want to consider these following thoughts.
Why Diversity is the Mother of Creativity
Diversity is the key to creativity. Not just diversity in your workforce, but in your personal life, the teams you form and the managers whom you hire and promote, explains Jeffrey Baumgartner.
The Man who Innovated the Postal Service
Looking back through history, innovation has often occured when one big thinker envisioned a new way to solve a customer's problem in an elegant way. A case in point: mail delivery.
How to Leap over the Shortcomings of Traditional Group Brainstorming
Brainstorming can be effective if it is performed properly. In this article, Jeffrey Baumgartner explores some of the weaknesses of traditional brainstorming and explores several potentially fruitful alternatives.
Embrace Mistakes as a Source of Learning and Invention
How does your company deal with mistakes? If continuous learning from your employees, innovation and even breakthrough innovation are important to you, it is critical you embrace mistakes, at least as sources for learning and invention.
Personal Innovation: We Need to Stop and Think
Innovation experts love to make lists of obstacles to innovation. These lists include issues like lack of time, resistance to change, poor communication, middle management and so on. Employees like to cite obstacles such as these in part because they place the blame on the organisation and their mangers rather than on themselves. And, indeed, can you imagine a middle manager responding to a questionnaire on obstacles to innovation with the answer: “Why, I believe I am a major obstacle to innovation in this firm.”? But the truth is, possibly the biggest obstacle to innovation is simply that people do not stop and think!
Creativity: How to Retrain Your Inner Censor
If you want to make the most of your creative potential, you need to learn how to override your inner censor so that it does not stifle your most imaginative ideas. Here are several techniques you can use to do this.
A more creative approach to educating future leaders
In economically and socially advanced societies, education is the leading industry going forward. Yet it continues to operate as if it is still 1950. If education is the imperative in our societies, it needs to use new techniques, new methods, new tools, and creativity to make the educational experience more rewarding. It is time for education to catch up with society once again.
The Power of Provocative Questions for Creative Problem Solving
Many of us don't give questions a second thought. They're a part of how we gather information from others on a daily basis. But did you realize that asking yourself provocative, thought-provoking questions can be a powerful catalyst for creative problem solving? Here's how.
Innovation Strategy: Hurdles are for Leaping Over
The biggest hurdle to innovation is probably allowing hurdles to become insurmountable. The thing to remember, however, is that hurdles are for jumping over. The best method of jumping over innovation hurdles is through creativity and innovation.
Stumped by a problem? Try adopting a different perspective!
If you're faced with a seemingly intractable problem and you've tried everything you can think of to solve it creatively, perhaps you need to try a different perspective.
Immunize your team against the spoilers of creative thinking
Research has shown that people solve problems in a more creative way and turn out work with more creative surprises if they are able to focus their attention on their daily enjoyment and fun that comes from the challenge, and their total immersion in the work.
How to Strengthen your Organization’s Creative Core
Most of us don't invest enough time to develop our core muscles. Organizations, too, tend to have an under-exercised core: the creativity of their people. To strengthen this area of your corporate culture takes a commitment of time and resources, says Carol Kobza.