Seems like our past postings on quotes have been a big hit in the blogosphere (and maybe New Jersey). So, here ya go -- links to all the cool quotes posted on The Heart of Innovation in the past year.
1. 100 Awesome Quotes on What It Really Takes to Innovate
2. 50 Awesome Quotes on Risktaking
3. 15 Awesome Quotes on Creative Collaboration
5. 20 Awesome Quotes on the Relationship Between Play, Humor, and Creativity
6. The Timeless Wisdom of Einstein
7. Famous Last Words
This is the first in a series of creative thinking techniques -- simple ways you can spark new insights, ideas, and ahas. The techniques are excerpted from my award-winning book, Awake at the Wheel.
Leonardo DaVinci got his idea for the airplane by watching birds in flight.
The creators of Kung Fu developed many of their techniques by watching animals fight.
The pharmaceutical industry develops many of its "miracle cures" by studying the natural healing properties of herbs and plants.
Bottom line, nature is a great source of breakthrough ideas.
The secret for meeting your biggest challenge, in fact, may have already been worked out thousands of years ago by a cockroach.
]]> THE TECHNIQUE1. Look to nature for clues about your challenge.
2. Everywhere you walk today, notice how nature "gets things done." (i.e. bee hives, ants, sunflowers, etc.)
3. Make a connection between the natural world and a still unresolved challenge of yours. (i.e. "What can I learn about my challenge from an ant colony?")
4. Jot down your ideas.
A whole website about my book.
]]>
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 begins 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?
For more on this topic, click here.
]]>
As your organization continues rebounding from the financial meltdown, here are 50 ways to ensure that it becomes increasingly conducive to ongoing innovation. Commit to a few of these today and make some magic. Your next step?
1. Remember that innovation requires no fixed rules or templates -- only guiding principles. Creating a more innovative culture is an organic and creative act.
2. Wherever you can, whenever you can, always drive fear out of the workplace. Fear is "Public Enemy #1" of an innovative culture.
3. Have more fun. If you're not having fun (or at least enjoying the process) something is off.
]]> 4. Always question authority, especially the authority of your own longstanding beliefs.5. Make new mistakes.
6. As far as the future is concerned, don't speculate on what might happen, but imagine what you can make happen.
7. Increase the visual stimuli of your organization's physical space. Replace gray and white walls with color. Add inspiring photos and art, especially visuals that inspire people to think differently. Reconfigure space whenever possible.
8. Help people broaden their perspective by creating diverse teams and rotating employees into new projects -- especially ones they are fascinated by.
9. Ask questions about everything. After asking questions, ask different questions. After asking different questions, ask them in a different way.
10. Ensure a high level of personal freedom and trust. Provide more time for people to pursue new ideas and innovations.
11. Encourage everyone to communicate. Provide user-friendly systems to make this happen.
12. Instead of seeing creativity training as a way to pour knowledge into people's heads, see it as a way to grind new glasses for people so they can see the world in a different way.
13. Learn to tolerate ambiguity and cope with soft data. It is impossible to get all the facts about anything. "Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that can be counted counts," said Einstein.
14. Embrace and celebrate failure. 50 to 70 per cent of all new product innovations fail at even the most successful companies. The main difference between companies who succeed at innovation and those who don't isn't their rate of success -- it's the fact that successful companies have a LOT of ideas, pilots, and product innovations in the pipeline.
15. Notice innovation efforts. Nurture them wherever they crop up. Reward them.
16. When you're promoting innovation in-house, always promote the benefits of a new idea or project, not the features.
17. Don't focus so much on taking risks, per se, but on taking the risks OUT of big and bold ideas.
18. Encourage people to get out of their offices and silos. Encourage people to meet informally, one-on-one, and in small groups.
19. Think long term. Since the average successful "spin-off" takes about 7.5 years, the commitment to innovation initiatives need to be well beyond "next quarter."
20. Create a portfolio of opportunities: short-term, long-term, incremental, and discontinuous. Just like an investment portfolio, balance is critical.
21. Involve as many people as you can in the development of your innovation initiative so you get upfront buy-in. This is the "go-slow now to go-fast later" approach. (The opposite approach of having a few people go off to a desert island and come back with their concept is almost always doomed to failure).
22. Improve the way brainstorming sessions and meetings are facilitated in your organization. Create higher standards and practices.
23. Make sure people are working on the right issues. Identify specific business challenges to focus on. Be able to frame these issues as questions that start with the words, "How can we?"
24. Communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate and then communicate again. Deliver each important message at least six times.
25. Select and install idea management software for your intranet. (Or, if you've got an intranet and certain directories available to everyone, set up your own idea depository/database and make it as interactive as you want).
26. Don't focus on growth. Growth is a product of successful innovation. Focus on the process of becoming adept at taking ideas from the generation stage to the marketplace.
27. Make customers your innovation partners, while realizing that customers are often limited to incremental innovations, not breakthrough ones.
28. Understand that the best innovations are initiated by individuals acting on their own at the periphery of your organization. Don't make your innovation processes so rigid that they get in the way of informal and spontaneous innovation efforts. Build flexibility into your design. Think "self-organizing" innovation, not "command and control" innovation.
29. Find new ways to capture learnings throughout your organization and new ways to share these learnings with everyone. Use real-life stories to transfer the learnings.
30. Stimulate interaction between segments of the company that traditionally don't connect or collaborate with each other.
31. Develop a process of trying out new concepts quickly and on the cheap. Learn quickly what's working and what's not.
32. Avoid analysis paralysis. Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.
33. Before reaching closure on any course of action, seek alternatives. Make it a discipline to seek the idea after the "best" idea emerges.
34. Know that attacking costs as a root problem solves nothing. Unreasonable costs are almost always a sign of more profound problems (e.g. inefficient structures, processes or training).
35. A great source of new ideas are people that are new to the company. Get new hires together and tap their brainpower and imagination.
36. Get customer feedback before committing resources to a product's development.
37. Seek diversity of viewpoints. Get people together across functions. A diversity of views sparks more than conflict -- it sparks innovation.
38. Invite outside partners early on when exploring new opportunities. Find ways for your company to partner with others and actively share ideas, technologies, and other capabilities.
39. Avoid extreme time pressures.
40. Don't make the center of your efforts to help people be more creative a physical "creativity center." Fold your innovation resources into your business units.
41. Don't make innovation the responsibility of a few. Make innovation the responsibility of each and every employee with performance goals for each and every functional area.
42. Give your people specific, compelling, and measurable innovation goals.
43. Try to get as much buy-in and support from senior leadership as you can while realizing that true change NEVER starts at the top. How often does the revolution start with the King?
44. Realize that "resource allocation" is the last bastion of Soviet-style central planning. Think of new innovation opportunities as "resource attractors."
45. Pay particular attention to alignment. Ensure that the interests and actions of all employees are directed toward key company goals, so that any employee will recognize and respond positively to a potentially useful idea.
46. Reward collective, not only individual successes, but also maintain clear individual accountabilities and keep innovation heroes visible.
47. Do your best to ensure that linear processes give way to networks of collaboration.
48. Remove whatever organizational obstacles are in the way of people communicating bold, new ideas to top management.
49. Systematize. Find problems (not only with products, but with processes, customer service, and business models) and solve them.
50. Drive authority downwards. Make decisions quickly at the lowest level possible.
NOTE: This list co-authored with Val Vadeboncoeur
Thanks to Michael Plishka, of ZenStorming, for his refinement of #25.
]]>
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?
Since 1986, I have asked 10,000 people where and when they get their best ideas.
Less than 2% have said "the workplace."
Based on my 25 years of working with a ton of innovation-seeking organizations, here's my interpretation WHY:
Recognize any?
1. Too much to do, not enough time.
2. Too many distractions and interruptions.
3. Constantly changing priorities.
4. Sleep deprivation.
5. Mental clutter.
6. Fear that someone will steal your idea.
]]> 7. You don't think of yourself as creative.8. Boring meetings that put you in a bad mood.
9. You're not measured for the quantity or quality of ideas you generate.
10. Stultifying routine.
11. You are worried about layoffs and don't want to draw undue attention to yourself.
12. Poor ventilation -- not enough oxygen.
13. The last time you came up with a great idea, you were either ignored or ridiculed.
14. It's not in your job description.
15. It's not in the strategic plan.
16. It's not in the cards.
17. It's not in the Bible.
18. Your manager has made it clear that he/she does not have the time to consider your ideas.
19. Lack of immersion. Lack of incubation.
20. No one's ever told you that they want your ideas.
21. You are understaffed and don't have the time to try an innovative approach.
22. You are angry at the company.
23. You get no input from people outside your department.
24. Your company has just been acquired and you don't want your new overlord to succeed.
25. You know there's no one to pitch your new ideas to -- and even if there was, it's a long shot they would listen.
26. You're concerned that your great idea is so great that it will actually be accepted and then you will be expected to work on it in your spare time (which you don't have) with no extra resources made available to you.
27. All your great ideas are focused on trying to get Gina or Gary, in Marketing, to give you the time of day.
28. You're a new parent.
29. You've got other projects, outside of work, and have no energy left to think about anything else.
30. They don't pay you enough to think creatively.
31. You're expected to leave your mind at the door when you come to work.
32. No incentives or rewards.
33. You don't have the intrinsic motivation .
34. Actually, you don't want to be working at all -- and you wouldn't be working if the financial meltdown didn't happen.
35. You have not identified a challenge or opportunity that inspires you enough to think up new ideas.
36. No timely feedback from others.
37. There's no one to collaborate with.
38. You work in a risk averse organization.
39. "Work," for you is synonymous with things you have to do not want to do, thus creating two parallel universes that never intersect.
40. You haven't read my award winning book yet.
41. It's too noisy.
42. Endless hustle and bustle.
43. You can't stop thinking about new ways to improve your Match.com profile.
44. You're too busy tweeting.
45. You have the attention span of a tse tse fly.
46. Just when a good idea pops into your head, you dismiss it as "not good enough".
47. Your left brain has become a kind of Attila the Hun in relation to your Pee Wee Herman-like right brain.
48. You didn't get the memo.
49. You are too busy deleting spam.
50. The brainstorming sessions you attend are pitiful.
51. You believe that new ideas are a dime a dozen.
52. You're not paid to think. You're paid to DO.
53. Actually, you don't have a job.
54. You are hypoglycemic.
55. You're not allowed to listen to music at your desk.
56. You have no sense of urgency.
57. Your office or cubicle feels like a jail cell.
58. You're too busy filling out forms.
59. Not enough coffee.
60. Drugs are not allowed in the workplace.
61. Existential despair.
62. There's a call on Line 2.
63. You have no time to incubate or reflect.
64. You've got to show results fast.
65. You know your boss will, eventually, get all the credit for your great ideas.
66. You've just been assigned to another project.
67. Brain fatigue.
68. You haven't tried Free the Genie yet.
69. You don't feel valued or appreciated.
70. You deciphered a much talked about sighting of a Crop Circle in England as meaning: "Stop coming up with good ideas at work."
71. Every extra minute you have is spent on Facebook.
72. There's too much stress and pressure on the job.
73. Naysayers and idea killers surround you.
74. Inability to relax.
75. It's summertime.
76. You've got this weird rash on your leg and you think it might be Lyme's disease or leprosy.
77. What you think of as a great idea and what your manager thinks of as a great idea are two entirely different things.
78. You know you won't get the funding, so why bother?
79. You're just trying to get through the day.
80. Every time you get a great idea, it's time to go to another meeting.
81. You only get your great ideas in the shower and there are no showers at work.
82. Your head is filled with a thousand things you need to do.
83. Relentless deadlines.
84. Too much input from others.
85. You have to stay focused on the "job at hand".
86. You'll only end up making the company richer and that is not what you want to do.
87. Those bright, annoying, overhead fluorescent lights.
88. No one besides you really cares.
89. You've just been assigned a project that is boring the hell out of you.
90. There is no one to brainstorm with.
91. Your husband/wife is complaining that all you ever do is work -- or talk about work.
92. No alcohol.
93. Your cultural upbringing has taught you that it is not your place to conjure up new ideas.
94. Your job is too structured to think outside the box.
95. People seem to be staring at you and that makes you self-conscious.
96. You're too busy complaining about the organization.
97. Wait! How come they're taking so much out of your paycheck?
98. You're only working there to beef up your resume for the next job.
99. A vast right wing conspiracy.
100. You actually believe the preceding 99 reasons are true.
A big thank you to Jim Aubele, Fran Tyson-Marchino, Nirit Sharon, Cindy Pearce, Robert Fischaleck, Deborah Medenbach, Amy de Boinville, Glenna Dumay, Bert Dromedary, and Sally Kaiser for their contributions to this list.
Idea Champions
A virtual way to get new ideas
Our no BS creative thinking training
Photo
Photo
Photo
Photo
Illustration
Photo
Photo
Illustration
Photo
Photo
More about the subconscious
]]>
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 Job6. 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
The word "innovate" can be traced all the way back to 1440. It comes from the Middle French word "innovacyon," meaning "renewal" or "new way of doing things".
Exactly what innovations actually happened in 1440 (rounder oxcart wheels?) is anybody's guess, but whatever they were, it's likely they improved the quality of life for more than a few people.
These days, the "innovation thing" is something of a no-brainer. Every company worth its low-salt lunch has identified innovation as a core competency needing to be developed.
Who in their right mind (or is it right brain?) can deny the value of improving things? Isn't this what human beings, those grand inventors of the microchip and the chocolate chip, are supposed to do?
]]> True. But who has time?And so begins the search for the magic pill -- the system, formula, or blueprint that will make innovation a done deal.
Innovation, unfortunately -- unlike audits, re-engineering, or your high school penmanship teacher -- is not given to systems, formulas, and blueprints. It is given to people -- restless, inspired, fascinated people with an almost cellular need to change things for the better.
And while it can certainly be supported by systems, it can never be reduced to systems.
If you want to ignite innovation in your organization, forget about slick formulas for a minute and pay attention to what's happening on the inside. Because that's where innovation starts. With the innovator -- the inspired individual, compelled to make a difference.
And the key to the innovator? The special blend of qualities that allows him or her to succeed while their co-workers are bitching and moaning on their way to their next unnecessary meeting?
Is it tools? Techniques? Metrics?
Sure, they're useful. But without the user of them having the right stuff, they're merely decoration -- like having a shiny set of new jumper cables, but no car.
And so... if you are one of the self-chosen few who are willing to stop blaming your organization, the economy, your boss, your industry, the government, HR, your mother, your astrological sign, the Board, and the bored, now's the time to start taking personal responsibility for innovating.
Now's your chance to kick things in high gear.
Now's the time to get the lead out -- to lead the revolution wherever you happen to be working at the time and make some magic.
Yes, it begins with you. But where does it begin with you?
With awareness.
In the words of the great psychologist, Fritz Perls, "awareness cures." Yes, it does.
Still with me?
If so, take a few minutes now to try the following exercise to get the party started.
All you need to do is rate yourself, on a scale of 1-10, for how much you manifest the following qualities in the workplace. Note which ones are your strengths -- and how can you build on them. Then note which ones are your weaknesses -- and how can you strengthen them.
You might even give them to your team and ask them to rate themselves. Then get together and talk about what you've all come up with.
And don't forget to floss.
20 Qualities of an Innovator
1. Challenges the status quo
2. Curious
3. Self-motivated
4. Visionary
5. Entertains the fantastic
6. Takes risks
7. Peripatetic (moves about)
8. Playful/humorous
9. Self-accepting
10. Flexible/adaptive
11. Makes new connections
12. Reflective
13. Recognizes patterns
14. Tolerates ambiguity
15. Committed to learning
16. Balances intuition and analysis
17. Situationally collaborative
18. Formally articulate
19. Resilient
20. Persevering
This posting is excerpted from It's AHAppening, a series of five, 16-page creative thinking guidebooks.
Idea Champions
Keynotes 'R Us
Our values
Our clients
Our latest product
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.
]]>
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.
Buy the book here.
Read more about the book here.
Watch old Jews telling jokes here.
Get your Innovation Kit here
Discover Woodstock's most beautiful B&B here
Read about Mozart here
Check out one of my son's favorite online cartoons here.
Learn more about Spiro Agnew here
Take ten minutes to get a breakthrough idea here
Don't click anything on this line.
Play with our online Genie here
Read our entertaining FAQ here
Discover why most corporate innovation efforts fail here
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?"
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.
]]>
During the past 25 years, I've asked more than 10,000 people where and when they get their best ideas. I get all kinds of answers, but the one that has always fascinated me is "the shower" -- maybe because I also get so many of my good ideas there.
And so, at the risk of overstating my case, I hereby offer you 20 reasons WHY the shower is so conducive to new ideas.
1. Showering signals "a new day" or "new beginning."
2. You're usually alone, with time to reflect.
3. Interruptions are rare.
4. The rush of water creates a kind of "white noise" that makes concentration easier.
5. Shower stalls look like little incubation chambers.
]]> 6. Water is associated with "contemplation" (i.e. sitting near a river, lake, or ocean.)7. Showering is a metaphor for "getting rid of the dirt" -- the stuff that covers up what's beneath.
8. Showering is a ritual. Lots of creative people like to have little rituals to get their head in the right place.
9. You can write your ideas on the walls with a water soluble pen.
10. There's not a lot of judgment or analysis going on in a shower.
11. A hot shower opens the pores -- and by extension, maybe the mind.
12. Showering wakes up you. It makes you more alert.
13. Showering is a relaxing and stress free experience. With nothing to stress about, your mind is free to roam new territories.
14. If you shampoo, you're massaging your head. That's gotta be good.
15. It's hard to check your iphone or Blackberry in a shower.
16. Albert Einstein also did his best thinking near a shower. ("Why is it I always get my best ideas while shaving?")
17. Water is associated with "flow." Being in the "flow state" is often a precursor to creative thinking.
18. There is no deliverable expected of you.
19. If you shower with a friend, and he/she happens to be in a brainstorming mode, lots of great ideas get sparked.
20. Showering is easy. Not a lot of thinking is required to make it happen, which frees your mind to think about other things.
Any other possibilities come to mind?
Another catalyst for great ideas.
Photo
Photo
Idea Champions
In olden times (pre-Starbucks, pre-Twitter, pre-Lady Gaga), the quickest way to get your wishes fulfilled was to get a magic lamp, rub it, and wait for the genie to appear.
Times have changed.
Now, it seems, you need a life coach, an iphone, and a social media strategy.
Me? I long for simplicity.
Breakthrough is not about complexity. It's about getting out of your way long enough to arrive at extraordinary, new possibilities.
Which is why I'm thrilled to announce the launch of our new, virtual Free the Genie tool -- a powerfully engaging desktop catalyst that makes it easy for anyone with a challenge or opportunity to generate, develop, and share their inspired ideas with others.
And all for 10 cents a day -- or less...
]]> You've heard of the One Minute Manager? Well, this is the One Minute Innovator. Or five. Or ten -- depending on how much time you have to noodle at any given moment.
Here's what Choice Magazine has to say about it:
"Free the Genie is a perfect tool to facilitate brainstorming and problem solving for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and corporate teams."
Intrigued? Please accept our gift of a free 10-day trial subscription.
If you decide to subscribe after your free 10-day trial, we invite you to NAME YOUR OWN PRICE for the first 90 days. Or, you can simply choose to subscribe for a year.
So, go ahead. Rub our lamp. Kick our virtual tires. Do whatever it takes to free your genie and get the results you want.
www.freethegenie.com
Free the Genie cards
Idea Champions
What organizations say about the creators of Free the Genie