in Innovation
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is a fantastic movie, science and fantasy will entertain you. Go watch it!
But this blog isn’t about the movie per se, it is about how they made both the worm hole and black hole models realistic. This is the classic case of a happy accident where none of the collaborators knew what was going to happen when they brought their collective talents together. …
in Innovation
A key skill all innovators have is the ability to network with the objective of developing ideas, finding collaborators, bouncing ideas off others and overall just building their ideas. Rather than being individualists, innovators are collaborators. They understand that it takes a diverse community of people working on a single problem to drive breakthroughs; as opposed to a single hardworking individual:…
All great achievements came about through collaboration. But, sometimes too much collaboration inhibits our ability to think creatively.
Last week’s post about what impedes employees from being innovative in the workplace generated some discussion. My point that managers, meetings, emails and phone calls get in the way of inspiration was not well received because those are mechanisms we use to move ideas forward.
Yes, but most of the time you are not moving ideas forward because of those mechanisms. Rather, those mechanisms exist to keep “business-as-usual” in place.…
MIT’s Andy Pentland says the best decision-making environment for good ideas to spread is one with high levels of both “engagement” and “exploration.
The best decision-making environment, Mr. Pentland says, is one with high levels of both “engagement” and “exploration.” Engagement is a measure of how often people in a group communicate with each other, sharing social knowledge. Exploration is a measure of seeking out new ideas and new people.
in Innovation
Blu Maya office at IOS Offices Tijuana
Innovation Labs, either accelerators or corporate bunkers, are now becoming commonplace. As a result, workspace design is booming.
Browse around the web, and you’ll quickly see articles about startups that have designed their workspace to resemble their culture. For established companies trying to create a culture of innovation, this means copying the same design mantra of most startups, but more interesting is how they are using gimmicks to get people to collaborate.
Up there with “innovation”, “lean startup”and “design thinking”, the latest word to make it to buzzword-bingo is “Lab”. Whatever you think the definition of a Lab is, it is not what you think. I see them more as a workspace that let’s people collaborate right there on the spot, not at an offsite space where only a special few congregate. If a company calls their workspace a lab, it means anyone can take their gear, desk, and move it to be close to their collaborators.
This means that what in the corporate world used to mean that the R&D guys were the ones responsible for creating the future (aka innovation), they no longer hold the distinction of being the official innovators. No longer is everyone else, just everyone else.
No, today innovation is everyone’s job.…
This is the tenth of a series of weekly posts where I will answer a few common questions about innovation. Please feel free to add your own response. Also, if you have any questions you think we should discuss, let me know.
Organization get the behaviors they reward. And this is especially true when it comes to innovation. Let’s suppose you want to become more innovative (who doesn’t?), where would you start? Everyone will start at the front end of ideation. But before you go there, ask yourself these questions:
The answer: trust.…
This is the sixth of a series of weekly posts where I will answer a few common questions about innovation. Please feel free to add your own response. Also, if you have any questions you think we should discuss, let me know.
Stefan Lindegaard published a blog post recently about how to use Linkedin for innovation. It is a good post and you should definitely read it. Today, I aim to fill the gap with some tips for Twitter
There some fundamental reasons for using social networks. To connect with people, to share stuff you find interesting, to discuss things of interest, to participate, to contribute. With that said, if you really want to use social networks for innovation, you ultimately have to add value.…
