Category Archives: Leadership

You can’t mandate innovation

state of global innovation report 2015Pretty much every “state of corporate innovation” report confirms what we already know about corporate innovation:

  • Innovation matters more than ever and organizations view it as a priority.
  • Most organizations have plenty of ideas, but struggle mightily to convert promising ideas into real-world innovations.
  • More than leadership, or funding, or anything else, corporate culture is the primary impediment to innovation success.

Imaginatik’s most recent state of innovation 2015 report isn’t that different.

There is nothing inherently wrong with doing these reports, the problem is that most nothing changes from one report to another.

What’s the difference between crap and good enough?

What’s good and what’s crap? Why do celebrate crap? This is the topic of this week’s podcast, and a discussion on our journey through embracing crap making and coming out better for it.

I saying I repeat early and often is “Ok-ness is the enemy of greatness”. You see, most stuff that exists is good enough, and that goes for people too. 

The attitude needed to be a better forecaster…and innovator

SuperforecastingPeople who are good at forecasting, including innovators, are good at changing their minds; an uncommon attitude. Changing ones mind contradicts the conventional wisdom of relying on experts for right answers. Truthfully, experts have no place in predicting future events because when it comes to discovering and predicting the unknowns, experts are overrated.

How so?

Storytelling: Where to find the best stories

storytellingWe all have stories to tell. But it isn’t always obvious. So, how do you find stories to tell? Good question, but they’re very much like coming up with ideas: you have to work hard to develop them.

I listen to quite a lot of podcasts, including The Gist from Slate. In their latest edition they interviewed professional storyteller Matthew Dicks on where he finds the best stories; he talked about ad a daily technique he used everyday to find those stories.

It’s the little things that kill

Our society tends to focus on the big ideas. We love them, me included. But since big ideas have no precedent, no path to follow, the challenge is they require uncommon action; little details that need to be figured out beforehand.

So, everyone likes talking about big ideas. But a very small number of people are actually motivated to figure out the little things that need to be right for that big idea to be delivered.