Author Andrew Carey shares with us the inside story of an innovation initiative at The Economist magazine that experienced a mixed bag of success and failure - and learned much in the process.
Random word stimulation is a powerful technique that provides a flexible, easy-to-use, self-guided method of generating new ideas by directly stimulating the brain
Creativity flows best when we don't try to channel it, but give ourselves the freedom to explore and play, according to Michelle James. In this article, she explores the parallels between cultivating creativity and the free-flow that takes place during an improvizational play.
Boris Pluskowski provides us with an overview of the current state of innovation in this guest post.
Within larger organizations one of the biggest obstacles to innovation is poor internal communication. Every organization has to find ways to promote internal communication and collaboration and to fight internal division and competition. Here are some ideas from Paul Sloane for breaking down barriers to communication.
Our fears narrow our perceptions, limit our potential, stifle our creativity and exhaust the energy for innovation, according to Andrew Papageorge.
Constructive criticism from managers can take the wind out of employees ideas and can undermine your organization's innovation efforts, warns Carol Franczek. Here is a four-step process that supports more productive conversations, and creates space to both support ideas and raise issues that need to be addressed about them.
These days, it seems as if the entire global economy is headed for the doldrums. A number of countries and regions stand at the brink of recession. What
Every time that we approach a problem, in any walk of life, we bring to bear assumptions that limit our ability to conceive fresh solutions, warns Paul Sloane. Brilliant thinkers are always aware of assumptions and are always happy to confront them.
Derek Cheshire offers some advice on how to identify the drivers of future trends and develop new product and service ideas to drive your innovation program and your business.
Every business operates in an environment of written and unwritten rules. Many of these boundaries and restrictions are self-imposed and accepted without questioning. Here are some examples from Paul Sloane of contrarians who broke "the rules" and uncovered breakthrough innovations.
The fourth major issue to be tackled by our distinguished panel of innovation practitioners is innovation processes: How do you implement them and integrate them into your day-to-day operations to drive sustainable innovation, and what are the best strategies and tools to support these efforts?
We have to deliberately take a different point of view and come at the problem from a new direction before we have a chance of creating a radical solution, advises Paul Sloane.
Which will help your business to be more successful: statistics or probability? Underwriters at insurance companies use statistics to assess future risks. This is based on years of collected data. Probability is what card counters in Vegas use to increase their odds of success. This is based on real-time, real-life experience. If you want to play it safe, use statistics. If you want to win big, use probability.
If you want to drive innovation in your organization, then Paul Sloane has some suggestions to help you succeed.
