Did you know that you’re multitasking at least several times a day? That’s right! It’s enough if you cook, listen to music, and check your Facebook at the same time. Fortunately, it’s not fatal.
Innovation can’t happen without education and inspiration. Stagnation is the absence of creativity, and far too many teams aren’t using education as a way to keep the fresh and creative ideas flowing.
Some years ago, I had read Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin, which detailed the importance of becoming a critical component of the workplace environment. I’ll spare you the details, but the idea was to learn and apply as much as you could so the business was reliant on your efforts.
As part of today’s changing technological landscape, it is vital to create a workplace culture that adapts to those changes. Doing so starts with having a comfortable workplace culture to begin with. Making your employees feel at ease in their current working conditions is the basis of creating a workplace that can adapt to changes.
Let’s face it, creativity separates humans from the rest of the animals. Our species has opposable thumbs and with that, it seems, the inborn drive and ability to alter our environment. No wonder the topic of innovation ability provokes such primal emotions. Yet — like speed, intelligence or artistic talent — innovation talent is NOT distributed evenly across humanity. Given this truth, what is the best approach to driving more innovation in your workforce?
In November, the United States Coast Guard presented at Open Nation on their Coast Guard ideas program. They talked about how lessons learned from previous extreme weather occurrences (Sandy, etc.) still hadn’t become institutional knowledge by the 2017 hurricane season when they were so desperately needed. The reason that this hadn’t happened was that all of the methods for collecting new ideas were slow and opaque.
Hiring is a deeply imperfect process that probably has as many misses as hits. You’ve probably seen it in action: a new hire looks perfect on the paper and interviews well but has mediocre performance or clashes with co-workers constantly. Finding the person with the right skills is hard, but there are ways to pick more of the right candidates for a job.
Big Data has had a big impact on the competitive landscape. Businesses that have embraced this explosive technology of digital media are better positioned to market faster with products and services that satisfy customers' needs adequately. Wise management of time is very critical in staying ahead of the competition. Utilizing Big Data solutions in processing digital data is one way of enabling managers or organizations and business owners to make quick, informed decisions that streamline efficient business operations. Here is an analysis of some of the real management applications of Big Data:
Expert innovators know from experience how to innovate while minimizing hassle, needless tasks and wasted effort – they’ve been successful (and unsuccessful) countless times through trial and error. Using flight simulators and surgical learning tools as examples, it’s been proven that teaching veteran skills to ‘newbies’ isn’t science-fiction, especially in more ‘exact’ disciplines such as medicine and math. But is it possible to design a crash-course that teaches young and inexperienced innovators the less-definable skills, attitudes and insights necessary to ideate, champion and implement without having to go through all the awkwardness of being a rookie? We think so, and here’s why.
In this podcast, Joshua Spodek discusses his journey from PhD student of astrophysics to launching and failing in the business world, and finally becoming a sought-after leadership coach and professor at NYU. He also touches on practical tools and exercises used to build the leadership muscles, and explores the importance of experiential learning or project-based learning for building leadership and personal skills.
Cross industry learning, the transfer of technologies across industry boundaries, can revolutionize technology landscapes. We will illustrate the advantages of cross industry learning with a case study.
Pamay Bassey is a multi-talented professional with deep expertise in learning theories derived from artificial intelligence research and practical experience designing and developing highly-rated learning solutions. In this week’s episode of the Innovation Ecosystem Podcast Pamay discusses how she went from employee to entrepreneur to intrepreneur, and how to provide engaging opportunities for employees where they feel like they’re being challenged or learning new things on a regular basis.
The potential of Design Thinking becomes more and more visible because organizations like Apple, Coca-Cola, IBM, Nike en Proctor & Gamble not only show overtly that they use it, but start showing significant results. They outperformed their peers in the last decade with 219%, measured by the Design Value Index (assessment by Design Management Institute).
The way we develop as children can greatly impact the way in which we conduct ourselves as adults. Our early experiences and discoveries have a significant influence on the growth of various personality traits, such as leadership, the ability to work as part of a team and communication, which can have a big impact on our professional lives.
Though companies invest into innovation they like results less and less. There seems to be a glass ceiling for driving innovation, which neither new tools and processes nor innovation consultants seem to crack. It is time to face the elephant in the room: company culture and its impact on innovation performance. Top management needs to learn deal with it. Then company culture will become a driver of innovation rather than getting in the way.
