Real Innovators Sail Off the Map

Innovation is often regarded as a journey of discovery. Small steps or large, its purpose is locating and conquering new innovation territory. When incremental explorations are not enough though, it might be time to sail off the map. In this article, Gijs van Wulfen takes a look at Christopher Columbus’ example, and how urgency, courage, new technology, teamwork and perseverance can help corporate explorers reach the New Found Land.

The Innovation F-word

Fail fast. Fail cheap. Fail early. Go out to fail. We have all heard these words numerous times in connection to innovation and how to create radical innovation, the ultimate dream for all of us involved in the field. In fact the f-word is used so frequently in connection to innovation that it is about to become yet another meaningless slogan. Why is failure so hard? In this blog post Susanna Bill takes failure out of slogans and into a human orientated perspective.

2021-12-05T08:21:53-08:00September 25th, 2012|Categories: Innovation Psychology|Tags: , , , , , |

Being First: Ten Innovation lessons from Mount Everest

Reaching the highest point of the Earth is one of the greatest expeditions of mankind. It made Edmund Hillary famous. After reading Hillary’s ‘View from the Summit’ Gijs van Wulfen shares ten innovation lessons on being 1st.

Cognitive Biases Inhibiting Innovation in Top Management Teams

The top management team of an organization is arguably the most important team for deciding and implementing innovation strategies. They typically decide which markets to be entered, which markets to be exited, and which new technologies to pursue. But decision making is fraught with biases – errors in judgment that affect the quality of decisions. Sometimes with devastating results. In this post we will see how basic human psychology affects the decision making of top management teams.

Innovation and the Art of Riding an Elephant

In trying to understand why we act in a predictably irrational ways, for example choosing short-term instead of long-term rewards, Bengt Järrehult uses the metaphor of the mahout and elephant to depict the different parts of the human brain and it's processes. In an innovation effort, how can you direct the mahout and motivate the elephant?

2021-12-03T11:27:45-08:00June 22nd, 2012|Categories: Innovation Psychology|Tags: , , , , |

How to Build Your Innovation Skills

In the 21st century economy, having strong innovation skills is critical. This year, instead of the proverbial New Year’s resolution to lose weight or get a new job, why not commit to building your innovation ability? This article discusses the urgency for building your innovation skills, and outlines some simple and effective ways for doing it.

One Out of Seven is Ridiculous

Suppose you are a professional soccer player, chosen to kick the penalties for your team. And you scored only one out of seven penalties. Would you be satisfied? How long do you think your trainer and fellow players let you take penalties? They would probably kick you out of the team after the second failure in a row.

2021-12-02T17:56:30-08:00December 20th, 2011|Categories: Front End of Innovation, Idea Management|Tags: , |

Putting Higher Principles into Innovation Management: How to Be Guided by The Classical Approach to People

As innovation becomes a prevalent activity in organizations is it time to rethink how we approach the culture of innovative people? Deborah Mills-Scofield who previously worked with Bell Labs and now consults on innovations practice, argues we need a return to timeless values if we are going to make innovation sustainable.

The Cave Model of Innovation

It is time to rethink the main drivers of innovation. The key activities for successful innovation are not just company research and participating in innovation systems. One activity that is just as important is skilful information search directed towards opportunities in the world outside the organizaton or innovation system. To understand this line of thinking, we introduce the cave model of innovation.