Category Archives: Innovation

Creative awareness: Hidden innovation obstacle for organizations

in Creativity, Innovation

This is a guest post by Chris Grivas, principal of Chris Grivas Consulting (www.chrisgrivas.com) an organizational and leadership development consultancy focused on increasing the creative capacity of individuals, teams, and organizations. He is co-author of THE INNOVATIVE TEAM: Unleashing Creative Potential For Breakthrough Results.

A recent IBM study of more than 1500 executives around the world showed that an overwhelming majority of these seasoned leaders were not fully confident that they were prepared to respond effectively to rapid change and dealing with change was one of their biggest challenges. Their number one suggestion? Adopt creativity as a core leadership skill. As Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler observed, “Leadership is all about managing change – whether you are leading a company or a country. Things change, and you get creative.”

The faster things change, many experts say, the stronger your creative thinking and problem solving skills need to be. To successfully compete in the 21st Century, leaders are calling for increased training in creative thinking everywhere from boardrooms to elementary classrooms.…

pulsepad different

The Golden Rule of Strategy: Do what others are not willing to do

in Innovation, Strategy

Going against the grain can be a prerequisite for innovation. And in a time when internet companies show no commitment to customer service, there are a few who are making an attempt to do so.

Yesterday, I discovered Pulse. The app that lets us read our news in a very “eye candy” way. I started using it for a few minutes and decided that it was enough for me to switch:…

Focused enthusiasm leads to innovation success

Focused enthusiasm = innovation success

in Innovation

A recent article in Fast Company caught my attention. It isn’t anything you haven’t heard before, but it is very well worth pointing out again and again:

“The next best thing won’t come from a Fortune 500 company.”

Yes, there are exceptions to the rule. Google, Amazon, Apple, and others are talked about all the time. But for the most part, there are very few who will innovate.

Why is this?…

share your thought process

Why you should tell your colleagues how you come up with your ideas

in Innovation, Leadership

share your thought process

As the leader of your organization, do you ever think about how you come up with your ideas? Do you think about what your preferred creative style is? Do you think about how you could improve your thinking? Do you think about how you could improve your organization’s thinking?

When going through the creative process to arrive at a solution, I ask people to tell how they arrived at their solution. Or, how they got their idea. In detail. Yes, I’m that curious. Tell me how. I could care less about the “what”, I want to know how you came up with it.

What’s your insight? How did you arrive at it?

And, I also advice them to tell others how they got their idea.

Why do I do this?…

New innovation challenge: From managing complexity to facilitating simplicity

in Innovation

A few weeks ago I did pitch to a startup accelerator about a project I want to start. This project has to do with social media monitoring, or in my language, “a sense-maker”.

One of the questions that was posed to me at end was: What will make this different?

My response: I aim to make this as simple as possible. (At the moment all I have is a mock-up, no live app)

Hold on, don’t leave yet. This is not a post about my idea, although it kind of is 🙂…

Vote for the Top 50 Innovation Tweeters of 2012

in Innovation

Who are your favorite innovation tweeps to follow on Twitter?

Braden Kelley wants to create a list of the Top 50 Innovation Tweeters of 2012 on his blog and he needs your help to put it together. How? Vote on by:

  1. Leaving a comment on his blog
  2. Send a tweet to @innovate –

DEADLINE for nominations will be July 22, 2012 at midnight GMT.…