Five Reasons Why You Should Think Like a Criminal
Have you seen the movie The Day of the Jackal? In this 1973 film directed by Fred Zinnemann, Edward Fox plays a professional assassin, the "Jackal," who is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle. It is a compelling thriller in which it is hard not to admire the cunning and guile of the ruthless killer. In the end you feel disappointed that he did not succeed with his audacious plan. It is an example of a genre of storytelling in which the main protagonist is a clever criminal. We seem to find them fascinating. Breaking Bad is about a chemistry teacher who becomes a master drugs dealer. The Sopranos is about a Mafia family. Ozark concerns a money [...]
Human Creativity: The Critical Survival Skill of the 4th Industrial Revolution that Cannot be Automated
While 4th Industrial Revolution technologies are fast becoming the way to go in the world of the "new normal," they are driven by something far superior to robots: human creativity. Let's have a look at the importance of creativity in this article.
Knowledge Creation and Management within Organisations
This article discusses the types of knowledge within a case organisation and mechanisms to abstract this knowledge to therefore drive innovation within an account management team.
The Eternal Battle Between Important & Urgent – Can be Solved
Do you often find yourself procrastinating on important, yet non-urgent matters in order to take care of the stuff that needs immediate attention? This all-too-common circumstance also takes place on a larger scale. Bengt Järrehult walks us though how to deal with the incremental and breakthrough projects at the same time
How the Individual’s Groupthink Tendencies can Affect Innovation
What do attending a business lunch or going to Catholic Mass have to do with groupthink? Susanna Bill discusses the notion of groupthink and how experiencing something for the first time helps you snap out of it.
The Innovation Knowing-Doing Gap
If you scrutinize the theories on innovation they seem to conclude for example, that ambidextrous organizations are best at handling incremental innovations rather than radical, and if we would focus more on learning, experimental organizations we would be better off… So why don’t we act accordingly? Bengt Järrehult takes a closer look at the reasons why we act against better knowing regarding innovation.
Wicked Problems Demand Various Viewpoints
All organizations face wicked problems – highly complex issues demanding multiple viewpoints to be solved. In this blog Susanna Bill argues why innovation needs to leave the single product dominant perspective behind and take social aspects into consideration.
How to Understand the Notoriously Irrational Consumer
Companies put in lots of Market Research efforts to nail down the needs, wants, wishes and whims of the elusive consumers. But, how reliable are the results? Are there logical – or illogical – reasons why consumers sometimes say one thing and still do the other? In this blog, Bengt Järrehult uses the findings of Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Laureate in Economy 2002 to understand more of this in the area of innovation.
How to Change Perspective and Make Magic Happen
Why is it so hard to open up to other perspectives when “thinking outside the box” is the one of the mantras of innovation? In this blog, Susanna Bill provides concrete advise for how to practice in order to make other perspectives less scary, using the experience of Cirque du Soleil as a mini case.
Growth and Stagnation – Similarities Between Ant and Man
Sometimes we find ourselves unwillingly obeying unwritten laws and rules that hinder us from growing our business the way we want to. In this blog, Bengt Järrehult looks at studies done on ant societies and draws different parallels to human organizations. Is stagnation a natural phenomenon after a period of growth?
For Innovation to Happen it Makes Sense to Sensemake
The level of innovation capability within organizations is connected to the ability of making the right sense of collective experiences, especially in uncertain or ambiguous times. In this post Susanna Bill delves deeper on the importance of sense making and the effects it has on the level of innovation capabilities. And addresses a personal dilemma.
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!
Does your Firm Have an Innovation Czar?
It never ceases to amaze me. I’m meeting with the executive committee of a major global company. I’ve just asked if innovation is one of their top strategic priorities. Their unanimous answer is “yes”. I then ask about their individual responsibilities. “Which one of you is the CFO?” “Who is head of HR?” “Where’s the CIO?” One by one their hands go up. Yet when I ask to see their global director of innovation, nobody raises a hand. Everyone just looks at me with a blank expression. So, sure, this company understands the innovation imperative. But nobody in its leadership team is directly responsible – or accountable – for making innovation happen across the organization. And they don’t even seem to be aware of the paradox.
To Re-invent Your Company, Reinvent Yourself
Companies are increasingly recognizing that today’s turbulent times require nothing short of continual reinvention. Weathering today’s storm isn’t enough. Companies need to develop repeatable processes that regularly renew their firms before the next crisis hits. This kind of renewal must begin with the leaders themselves.
The people focus in innovation
Blogger Stefan Lindegaard recently threw down a challenge to innovation practitioners: Where are people in your innovation processes? Here are some of the many ways you can focus on the people part of your innovation initiatives.
Innovation strategy: Five steps to make change happen
Here are five steps to help you develop your change strategy based on my work with innovation leaders and intrapreneurs.
Rethinking the role of HR as the Catalyst for Sustainable Innovation
With many companies downsizing, rightsizing and reorganizing lately, human resources is about as popular as bird flu these days. But savvy companies have a real opportunity to rethink the role of HR - into the engine that drives the cultural changes needed to achieve sustainable innovation, according to Rowan Gibson.
Tom Kelly explains how to cultivate personal innovation for life
Thanks to my friends on Twitter, I recently came across an excellent series of video clips from a lecture by Tom Kelly of Ideo to a class of college students at Stanford, in which he shares five essential strategies for cultivating and nurturing personal innovation throughout life.
How to use creative problem solving to get a job – even during an economic downturn
The late Earl Nightingale, known as "the dean of personal development," once related this story in one of his audiotapes that speaks to the challenges we face today, and why creative problem solving is more important than ever.
Building an Effective Framework for Innovation
How do you turn innovation from a marketing concept into something tangible with an impact on the bottom line? There is of course no simple answer, and to succeed a different way of thinking and working is required
10 Rules for Creative Teams
Under the right circumstances, a team can be significantly more creative than any individual team member and is often better able to push creative ideas through the implementation process so that they may become innovations. Here are ten quick rules for ensuring your teams are effective creative teams from Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Who should manage innovation projects?
At many organizations, innovation projects are often assigned to young, ambitious junior executives. But these efforts tend to be doomed to failure, according to Paul Sloane, writing in his new book, The Innovation Leader: How to Inspire Your Team and Drive Creativity.
Harnessing the energy of change champions
The most successful change and innovation efforts are often accomplished by a change champion, a 'mono-maniac with a mission,' according to Jim Clemmer. Here are some strategies that will help you to support your organization's change champions.
Put your Best People on Innovation
Many businesses make the mistake of giving innovation projects to junior executives. It seems natural to hand innovation opportunities to enthusiastic and promising upstarts. But generally it is the experienced heavyweights who can overcome all the process and political obstacles that will occur, explains Paul Sloane.
Unleash your inner genius: Ten great ways to boost your personal creativity
Let’s say you are wrestling with a tough issue – maybe at work, at home, with your children or in your social life. You have been stuck for a while and you can’t seem to make a breakthrough. You want to come up with some really creative ideas. What can you do? Here are ten great practical ways to boost your inventiveness and to crack the problem: 1. Ask why, why? Ask, "why has this issue arisen?” Come up with six different reasons and for each of them ask, “why did this happen?” Keep asking why for each cause. This helps you to better understand the different reasons why this is a problem and so in turn you will see [...]
Innovating to Benefit your Company – and Your Employees
To what extent does an employee work – and innovate – to benefit the organization and to what extent does she work and innovate to benefit herself? Senior managers would like to believe that employees are a team of selfless workers who – in exchange for a monthly wage and odd benefits – work exclusively to the benefit of the organization. As the organization grows, the employee receives promotions, salary increases and additional benefits that encourage her to continue serving the company 100%.
How to nurture your creative passion
Do you have a big idea that you feel confident will change your world? Are you willing to take the risk of being audacious? According to Sandy Nelson, passion is the key to unleashing your creative energy.
Cultivating the habit of innovation
By cultivating the habit of innovation, you can use your unique abilities to make a difference. This article by change management expert Jim Canterucci explains how.