Focused on communicating to and influencing leadership (ex: “How do I get funding for this project?”)

Engaging Collaborative Innovation’s Losers

Change benefits some more than others. The practice of collaborative innovation, which by design offers transformative change, is no different. In this article innovation architect Doug Collins advises campaign teams on engaging people who find themselves on the losing end of the practice. Ignoring their concerns jeopardizes the initiative.

5 Steps to Increase Innovation Skill Sets

"This company needs to be more innovative!" Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But what happens next? Because a true change in how innovative a company is must also reflect a change in the skills of employees that are related to innovation. Which, of course, begs the question: Is innovation a skill set that all employees can acquire? Can employees that are not innovative learn how to be? And, if so, what are these skills? How are improvements in them measured? In this article Dr. Mark Juszczak attempts to provide HR practitioners with some guidelines and a background into the competencies linked to innovation and the extent to which such competencies are teachable.

Bringing Your Balanced Scorecard Alive with Collaborative Innovation

Robert Kaplan and David Norton popularized the Balanced Scorecard twenty years ago. Its simple, visual framework helps organizations depict linked sets of goals that define strategy. Today, with new mindsets, practices, and technologies, people have more opportunities to engage in helping their organizations envision the future. The scorecard, however, can at times seem like an Easter Island statue, offering mute, impenetrable witness to firm performance. In this article Doug Collins explores opportunities for people to bring alive the scorecard by applying the practice of collaborative innovation.

How Appreciative Inquiry Can Help you to be More Creative: Interview with William E. Smith, Ph.D.

Appreciative inquiry gives us the power to transcend current models, thinking, judgements and structures, so we can realize more of our creative potential, explains William E. Smith Ph.D, President of ODII. Bill is an innovative thinker and practitioner in the field of leadership, organization and social development. He's developed new, creative approaches to organization for multinational corporations, governments, and villages all over the world.

How Strategic Planning Smothers Innovation: One Organization’s Story

The story of a once-innovative financial services firm illustrates the perils of substituting 'messy' innovation with a logical, orderly strategic planning process.

Become a creative artist whose medium is everyday life, urges improv expert

As an accomplished improv performer, singer and actress, Cathy Rose Salit believes we all get too stuck in our 'scripts,' too comfortable with our 'stock characters.' We need to try new things, to expand our personal repertoire, to become more creative in our work and lives.

Copycat Innovation: A Practical Route to Profitable Innovation

Copycat innovation, the act of adapting a solution that has been used successful in another industry or profession, is a more reliable, affordable route to innovation, suggests Dr. Yew Kam Keong, Ph.D.

Want your Organization to Thrive? Create a Supportive Environment for Creativity

Employees have tremendous creative capacity. If properly harnessed with a supportive culture, it can help companies to thrive in today's turbulent business world.

The Elastic Enterprise: How to Move Beyond Innovation (and Live Happily for a Change)

Innovation, the act of creating novelty, has become omnipresent whereas what we really need to know is how to change enterprises, how to transform them, how to make them Elastic Enterprises, urges Haydn Shaughnessy in this provocative article.

Seven Managers Struggling with Innovation

Managers may come in all shapes and sizes, but almost all of them struggle with innovation or the lack there of in their organization. Gis van Wulfen introduces us to seven different managers who explain their views on innovation. Do you recognize any of them?

Five Strategies to Light a Fire Under Your Innovation Program

How can we introduce a culture of radical innovation into our companies before we get to the brink of bankruptcy? Harvey Briggs shares strategies to make sure your company feels the heat before it's too late.