The Power of Intrinsic Motivation
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)
August 28, 2010Cultivate a Garden of Innovation!
Innovation, the endless effort to find a better way, cannot be achieved by robotically lining up best practices and imitating them. The real catalyzing agent for innovation is the ground from which these best practices spring -- the confluence of purpose, people, and processes better known as culture.
From where will the next wave of groundbreaking innovation come?
Not from organizations mechanically mimicking each other's best practices, but from organizations with the commitment to take their stand on ground that has been cultivated for breakthrough.
If you check the contents of the most popular books on innovation, the same topics show up again and again: strategy, systems, process, leadership, customer focus, risk, speed to market, prototyping, metrics, mass collaboration, market intelligence, technology, and creative thinking.
Yes, all of these topics are important. But none of them can take root in an organization without one fundamental element being in place -- a consciously created culture of innovation.
Is such a culture simple to create? Yes. Is it easy? No. And the reason why it is not easy is because the ground of most organizations is hard, untilled, and in major need of clearing.
The metaphor that most clearly conveys the effort required is creating a garden.
To experienced gardeners, the steps needed to create a garden are simple. To the inexperienced gardener, it is a tangle of complexity.
Yes, gardening demands sustained and methodical effort. And yes, sweating comes with the territory. But getting a yield -- something to harvest -- is a fundamentally straightforward task.
If your company is clear about the effort required, creating a culture of innovation (lets just call it a garden of innovation) is simply a matter of taking the time to execute each step thoroughly -- in the time honored way gardeners have always practiced their craft.
1. WHET THE APPETITE
If you are serious about being a gardener of innovation, the first thing you will need is hunger -- a real appetite for results.
Growing a garden takes sustained effort. It is hard work -- most of it unglamorous and unappreciated. Hunger for a yield is the serious gardener's real motivator. Yes, the serious gardener likes being outdoors and, yes, the serious gardener likes getting exercise, but the ultimate product of his/her labors -- the harvest -- is what it is all about.
Without this level of commitment, the gardening effort remains only a hobby and does not have the roll up your sleeves and get dirty quality so essential to reaping a result.
If your workforce has no appetite for innovation, you will need to find a way to whet it. If you choose not to, people will sit idly by, waiting for R&D, senior leadership, or the tooth fairy to lead the charge. And while they may talk about growth, shovels, and the need for bulk purchase of mulch, talk will not put food on the table.
Fortunately, somewhere, deep inside everyone in your organization is the impulse to create. This impulse is innate. Your task is to awaken this impulse and help people own the effort to innovate. If they do not own the effort, the only thing you will be eating at harvest time will be your own words. (P.S.: Winter is on the way.)
2. STAKE and PREPARE THE GROUND
Amateur gardeners, fueled by visions of ripe tomatoes, have a tendency to plant before they are really ready. Unclear about how large a garden they can sustain, unsure about what is needed to prepare the ground, unable to resist the impulse for a quick yield, they rush in willy nilly.
The result? Lots of wasted effort and the kind of sweating that signifies almost nothing. The same holds true for organizations who claim they want a culture of innovation.
The antidote is a simple, two step process (though the description of the process is much simpler than the execution).
First, an organization needs to get clear about the scope of the effort they want to make. It needs to stake its territory or, more precisely, define the fields in which it wants to innovate. (If it tries to innovate everywhere, all the time, it will only deplete its resources and exhaust its workforce.)
Secondly, it needs to prepare the ground for planting.
This task includes removing obstacles that will interfere with growth, as well as enriching the fertility of the soil. Weekend gardeners cringe at this kind of preparatory effort. It does not feel like fun and there is nothing immediately to show for it. But without this effort there will be no foundation -- no ground -- for future success.
3. FIND THE SEEDS
You can have ample space to plant a garden. You can know exactly where that ample space is. And you can have lots of fertile soil in this ample space. But unless you have healthy seeds to plant, space is all you will ever have.
If you want a garden of innovation, you need seeds. Not just one kind of seed, but many. Indeed, the more varied seeds you have, the greater your chances for an interesting yield.
In the realm of innovation, ideas are the seeds. All innovation from the inside out with an idea. Ideas are the fuzzy front end of the innovation process -- the alpha and omega of new growth. No ideas, no innovation. Its that simple.
The big question, then, is this: Where will your company get its new ideas? Is there an existing process? And if so, is this process working? Can you count on your workforce to deliver high quality, game changing ideas? Or is there something else you need to be doing in order to tap their brilliance?
4. PLANT THE SEEDS
While it is true that some seeds, spontaneously carried by the wind and landing on fertile soil, find a way to plant themselves, most gardens require that seeds be planted in a more dependable way.
If your company is sincere about its intention to create a culture of innovation, it will need to refine its seed planting process. More specifically, it will need to establish a more effective way for the carriers of seeds to increase the odds of those seeds taking root.
Yes, aspiring innovators will need to become more adept at pitching/planting their ideas. But at the same time, the people to whom new ideas are being pitched will need to become more receptive to the possibility that something new is worthy of taking root.
Having a silo of healthy seeds is a good start, but ultimately those seeds need to be planted -- and they need to be planted in a way that will radically increase the odds of them growing into seedlings.
5. FENCE THE GARDEN
If you have ever planted a garden, you have experienced the phenomenon of uninvited predators showing up at all hours to devour your tender, young seedlings. Deer, raccoons, moles, rabbits, and a host of other unidentifiable varmints seem to have no other mission in life but to downsize your dreams of winning the state fair or, at the very least, eliminate all possibility of you having fresh lettuce for dinner. It comes with the territory. And it will continue to come with the territory unless you fence your garden.
Organizations of all shapes and sizes experience the same phenomenon.
Promising new business growth ideas -- the tasty indicators of breakthrough innovation -- are routinely devoured by ravenous corporate naysayers. That is, unless the organization finds a way to protect their aspiring innovators.
Your role, as a gardener of innovation, is to fence your garden and protect your people from the overly acidic scrutiny, doubt, and premature evaluation of predominantly left brained, metric driven, analytical inhibitors of innovation. It can be done. It must be done. And you are the one to champion the process.
6. TEND NEW GROWTH
Conceiving a garden is relatively easy. It requires no special skills, discipline, or education. Anyone can do it. Indeed, anyone does do it every single Spring and Summer. Getting a harvest, however, is an entirely different matter. It is not so easy -- and unlike conception, requires skill, discipline, resources, and the ability to learn on the job.
In the same way, conceiving new ideas is relatively easy. It happens every day of the year to millions of people. Bringing them to fruition is not so easy. Along the way, they get neglected, mishandled, and trampled on. What starts out as a brilliant new possibility, often shrivels on the vine. Most organizations have no conscious process for nurturing the growth of new ideas.
As a result, many powerful, new ideas never mature.
They may break new ground, but they do not necessarily flower and bear fruit. The good news? It does not have to be this way. With the right kind of sustained effort, gardeners of innovation can dramatically increase the odds of exciting new ideas becoming part of the harvest and making it to market.
7. THIN and TRANSPLANT
Inexperienced gardeners, intoxicated by their need for a big harvest and overcompensating for their fear of having nothing to show for their efforts, tend to plant too many seeds too close together. Their fear usually dissipates in a few weeks when the first sprouts emerge, but then another challenge surfaces -- what to do with the apparent bounty of new growth?
While the profusion of greenery certainly looks good to the untrained eye, the reality is different. New seedlings start competing with each other for water and nutrients. Roots entangle. Left unaddressed, the results are disappointing -- row after row of stunted, scraggly plants.
Savvy gardeners respond quickly, thinning out new growth to make room for a select number of the healthiest plants to flourish.
Really savvy gardeners go one step further -- transplanting the healthiest of the thinned out plants to new, roomier locations.
Organizations trying to raise the bar for innovation face the same challenge. Intoxicated by their need for impressive growth (and wanting to involve as many employees as possible in the process), they get overwhelmed by a profusion of ideas and initiate too many projects -- ideas and projects that end up competing for the same, finite resources.
The result? Scraggly, stunted, and undeveloped ventures.
The antidote? A clear strategy for how their organization will evaluate, select, and fund new initiatives -- along with a process for identifying promising new growth to be transplanted for future development.
8. CELEBRATE THE HARVEST
All cultures around the world have a holiday, ritual, or ceremony dedicated to expressing gratitude for the bounty of the harvest. In their bones, they understand the purpose, power, and privilege of giving thanks. Their recent harvest may have fed the body, but the collective acknowledgment of the harvest feeds the soul, strengthening everyones resolve to begin the growing process again the next season.
Corporate cultures could learn a lesson or two from this age old practice.
Historically, organizations have been severely lacking when the time comes to acknowledge the harvest and the people whose efforts were essential to manifesting that harvest. The endless demand for output drives most business leaders to conclude that acknowledging successes is a waste of time -- a luxury no bottom line watching organization could afford. Somehow, deep within the collective psyche of senior leaders, lurks the fear that celebrating successes will invariably lead to a fat and lazy workforce.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
People flourish when their efforts are acknowledged -- not only individually, but as an entire workforce. If you are serious about establishing a sustainable culture of innovation, remember to take the time to acknowledge your gardeners. For their effort. For their resilience. For their collaboration. And for whatever harvest they are able to manifest.
Food for thought?
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:10 PM | Comments (8)
August 19, 2010To Create the Future, See Hidden Patterns (and Challenge Them)
C_n y__ r_ad th__ se_t_nc_ ?
Probably.
And do you know why you can? Because you've been given just enough information to deduce a meaning.
Your brain, drawing on past experiences of letters, words and sentences, recognizes a pattern -- or at least thinks it does.
Human beings are masters at "filling in the blanks." We see something, compare it to our storehouse of past memories, reach a conclusion and then act on it.
This pattern-recognizing ability of ours is very useful tool. It saves us time, lets us to make decisions on the fly, and helps us interpret our world.
For example, when driving up a hill, your pattern recognition ability allows you to keep on driving rather than stop your car to make sure the road continues on the other side.
Past experience has taught you that roads continue, even when you can't see where they're going.
"A genius is only that one who discerns the pattern of things within the confusion of details a little sooner than the average person," explained Ben Shahn.
True. But not always.
After an earthquake, for example, some roads do not continue. In that case, it would not serve you to keep on driving. A routine habit that saved you time in the past might now lead to your quick demise. (Bye bye car payments. Bye bye world).
Indeed, more than a few patterns that we live our lives by turn out to seriously mislead us.
Stereotyping is the most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon, causing us to jump to conclusions. But our conclusions are not always true. In our hurry to make sense of the world, we prematurely "fill in the blanks," trading in reality for reactivity.
The past, instead of serving us, becomes our ruler.
Patterns are neither good nor bad. They're simply the raw material from which we interpret our world.
Weathermen make their living interpreting patterns. So do stock market analysts, futurists, and astrologers. All of them infer a future based on past trends.
Sometimes, however, they misinterpret the clues. Or even more insidiously, cannot detect new patterns inconsistent with their present worldview.
If you want to be more creative, start making a commitment to look for, learn from, and challenge existing patterns. It will help you see the world (and all your problems) in wonderful, new ways -- the fertile ground from which all innovation springs.
AN EXERCISE FOR YOU:
1. What patterns or trends intrigue you?
2. What can you learn from these patterns or trends?
3. What new ideas for a product or service come to mind when you reflect on these patterns or trends?
BONUS QUESTION:
What pattern or trend in your business is not going the way you want it to -- and what can you do to shift it?
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:46 AM | Comments (3)
August 14, 2010The List of Lists
Of the 410 postings on this blog, the most popular ones have been our lists. Many have "gone viral" (which, I guess, is better than "going postal.")
Anyway, just in case you want to see what all the fuss is about, here is a list of our lists -- something for everybody -- even a list about WHY lists are so compelling.
1. 26 Reasons Why Most Brainstorming Sessions Suck
2. 50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation
3. 20 Reasons Why Many People Get Their Best Ideas in the Shower
4. 56 Reasons Why Most Innovation Initiatives Fail
5. 100 Ways to Be More Creative on the Job
6. The 10 Top Reasons Why the 10 Top Reasons Don't Matter
7. 100 Reasons Why You Won't Read This Blog Posting
8. 41 Ways Business Leaders Can Foster a Culture of Innovation
9. 100 Awesome Quotes on What It Really Takes to Innovate
10. 50 Awesome Quotes on Risk Taking
11. The Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating
12. 23 Reasons Why Nothing Happens After a Brainstorming Session
13. 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas
14. The Top 18 High Tech Excuses
15. 20 Qualities of an Innovator
16. The 10 Personas of a Good Brainstorm Facilitator
17. 20 Quotes on the Relationship Between Humor, Play, and Creativity
18. 20 Ways to See the Invisible
19. 101 Creativiteas for the Knew Age
20. 10 Ways to Help Left Brainers Tap Into the Best of their Creativity
21. The Top 100 Learning Tools of 2009
22. The Top 10 Reasons Your CEO Sabotages Innovation
23. 15 Awesome Quotes on Creative Collaboration
24. 6 Ways to Go Beyond Your Assumptions
25. 17 Reasons Why We Love Lists
26. The 4 Currents of a Culture of Innovation
27. The 8 Irresistible Principles of Fun
Who We Are
Our FAQ list
Franz Liszt
Listverse
Wikipedia's rap on lists
History of David Letterman's Top Ten List
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:41 PM | Comments (2)
August 12, 2010WOW! First Review of Free the Genie
Here is a wonderfully comprehensive review of Free the Genie (our new, online brainstorming tool), by Chuck Frey, of Innovation Tools -- one of the leading innovation portals on the web.
If you are looking for an engaging way to stir the creative juices, spark new ideas, and discover unique ways of approaching big challenges, this is your ticket.
And it only takes a few minutes...
To sign up for your free 10-day trial, click here. Or here. Or here.
Client testimonials about the producers of Free the Genie.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)
August 11, 201035 Creative Thinking Techniques
Those of us at Idea Champions have been designing and facilitating creative thinking sessions for a wide range of organizations since 1986.
We've worked with left-brained people, right-brained people, and air-brained people -- all of whom have been interested in "getting out of the box."
In the process of providing our service, one thing has continued to astound us: No one has any time, or more precisely -- thinks they have any time. And because they don't, the need to "cut to the chase" remains paramount.
Speed rules -- and along with it the desire for "tools and techniques."
Now, we have nothing against tools and techniques. They can be very helpful. Golf pros give them out all the time. But tools and techniques are never enough -- especially in the realm of creative thinking.
Can they be useful? Yes, they can -- in the same way that jumper cables can be useful if your car won't start. But first you need a car -- and after that, someplace to go! Without a car and a destination, jumper cables are just a meaningless prop.
If you are committed to birthing a BIG IDEA, first understand that the car is you and the engine that powers the car is your passion for bringing something new into the world.
Only when that is in place, will tools and techniques make sense.
Some of the methods described in Awake at the Wheel will be right up your alley. Some will not. Some are so common-sensical you'll think you could have invented them. Some are so non-sensical you'll dismiss them as trivial.
Don't worry about loving them all. You won't. Just find the ones that interest you and give them a shot -- whatever it takes to get those wheels inside you turning once again.
Two different parts of you will be activated by these methods: the subconscious and the conscious.
The sub-conscious tools will increase your receptivity to new ideas, helping you access the part of you that already knows. Using the subconscious tools will feel a bit like walking into a dark room. At first there will seem to be nothing to see. But after a while your eyes will adjust and you'll begin making sense of what is there.
The second set of tools is less about receptivity than proactivity.
This approach presumes it is possible to quicken creativity by purposefully shaking things up in various ways. Experimentation is an important part of this approach. Trial and error, too -- much in the same way that chemists mix and match elements in the hopes of synthesizing new discoveries.
Is there a perfect technique? No. Just like there's no perfect diet, place to live, or relationship. What works for you on Monday may not work for you on Sunday. What works for you in the morning may not work for you at night.
But that's what makes the world -- just like the wheel -- go round and round.
And that's why we offer you 35 different methods to choose from. Is there an organizing principle? Yes, there is. The tools fall into five categories:
1. INTEND: To have in mind as something to be done or brought about; to have a purpose or design.
2. ATTEND: To be present at; to take care of or wait upon; to listen and give heed to.
3. SUSPEND: To defer opinion or evaluation to a later occasion; to render temporarily void.
4. EXTEND: To stretch out; to place at full length; to enlarge the scope of or make more comprehensive.
5. CONNECT: To join or unite; to establish communication between; to associate, attach or place in relationship.
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Or call us at 845.679.1066 and learn more about how we can help you and your organization get out of the box, the lamp, AND the cave. "If not YOU, who? If not NOW, when?"
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2010Getting Down to the Business of Creativity
Here's a terrific article on creativity, based on the work of three Harvard researchers/professors.
According to Teresa Amabile's research, "inner work life" is one of the biggest determinants of creative output. In other words, a positive mood is a pre-condition for creativity in the workplace.
If you are attempting to establish a sustainable culture of innovation in your organization, you (and everyone else) would be well-served to do everything humanly possible to positively impact the mood (i.e. tone, feeling, atmosphere, vibe, spirit) of the environment in which you work.
And that begins, of course, with the individual.
When you treat people with respect, acknowledgment, and genuine positive reinforcement, you significantly increase the odds of creativity -- and by extension, innovation -- flourishing in your organization.
Common sense? For sure. But common sense is all too uncommon in most organizations these days. In our rush to produce, get an edge, and accomplish, we forget the most important thing -- and that is the quality of our interactions with others.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:35 AM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2010The Paradox of Innovation
My big insight about innovation these days would make Nobel Prize winner, Niels Bohr, proud.
"Now that we have met with paradox," explained Dr. Bohr, "we have some hope of making progress."
Innovation is full of it -- paradox, that is.
On one hand, organizations want structures, maps, models, guidelines, and systems. On the other hand, that's all too often the stuff that squelches innovation, driving it underground or out the door.
The noble search for a so-called "innovation process" can easily become a seduction, addiction, or distraction whereby innovation is marginalized, deferred, over-engineered, and worn like a badge.
True innovation is about allowing room enough for paradox to be a teacher and guide -- and to accept, at least for a little longer than usual, ambiguity, dissonance, and discomfort -- the age-old precursors to breakthrough.
Remember, there's a big difference between Six Sigma and Innovation.
Six Sigma is about reducing variability. Innovation is about increasing it-- and that often means allowing the kind of "messiness" that process-mavens interpret as a problem needing to be fixed, rather than a pre-condition to breakthrough and the resulting commercialization of that breakthrough that most people refer to as "innovation."
Yes, process, structures, systems are necessary, but they don't have to become overly pre-emptive. If you stay in an innovative mindset and can adapt to emerging needs, they will eventually become self-organizing when the soul of innovation is allowed to flourish.
Can we help the "innovation process" along with the right application of strategy, infrastructure, and planning?
Of course we can.
But beware! "Helping" the process too much often becomes counterproductive -- much in the same way that attempting to catch a milkweed floating through the air with a bold reach of your hand actually repels the object of your desire.
Innovation Physics 101.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:24 AM | Comments (2)
