Tag Archives: Innovation

What is the most important innovation skill I should practice?

in Creativity, Innovation, Question-To-Innovate, Questions

question to innovate

This the eighteenth 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.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to interview the authors of The Innovators DNA. One of the questions that I asked them was: Of the five skills, is there one skill in particular that is more important than all others? Why?

Before the other core innovation skills, the ability to associate is the most important innovation skill you need to master. Associating, or the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields, is central to the innovator’s DNA.…

Failure isn’t the goal for innovation

in Innovation
Cooking

Cooking (Photo credit: omarbercor)

What if you could predict with certainty that people will love your new product or service? What if there was a huge scoreboard that would tell you that a massive amount of people will like what you are cooking up before the expensive launch? Business owners, and managers, tell me that they would love to know that whatever they are cooking up will work with certainty. This is a fallacy.

I’ve also heard managers say, as you have, that they much rather copy competitors than taking the lead themselves to avoid failure. Not surprising in my neck of the woods…

So, what does one tell these people and organizations? The current line of thinking is that one should “fail fast”. But this line of thinking has gone overboard. Some believe that “failure thinking” should be accepted. Let me make it clear: failure isn’t the goal. It is learning.…

Innovation must reads of the week: The Right Ideas in All the Wrong Places

in Must reads of the week

 

 

 

If you like these links, check out all the previous “Innovation Must Reads of the Week“. And don’t forget to

10 ways leaders can ignite innovation

in Innovation, Leadership

ignite innovation

Here is a short article I wrote for a Mexican Business Magazine that will be published in a few weeks.

What would happen if your company could innovate consistently? This is a worthy challenge, and, one not many can meet. But, if you have the will and drive, you will.

Innovation is the only source of new value. Yet, a lot of organizations struggle to come up with new products and services that delight their customers. There are many reasons for this, and leaders must understand that it isn’t easy either. Innovation requires courage, but most importantly, it requires drive.

Here are ten things you, as a leader, can do right now to ignite innovation in your organization:…

Innovation must reads of the week: How to be the ‘disrupter’ and not the ‘disrupted’

in Must reads of the week

If you like these links, check out all the previous “Innovation Must Reads of the Week“. And don’t forget to

Anyone can innovate, but not everyone can

in Innovation, Leadership

Yes, anyone can. But now everyone can. Here’s why…

It is very simple. First of all, to innovate, you need skill combined with will. The skills needed are very straight forward, to begin you need to identify a problem, understand it and then have access to people and information that can help you solve the problem.

And, that is just the beginning…

Anyone can identify problems, but not everyone has the patience and will to dig deeper, and keep going. And, not many cultivate an idea network which constantly feeds them ideas and insights, therefore not everyone has access to diverse knowledge sources to help them see beyond the obvious. Which is critical.…

To foster innovation, what type of network do I need to create?

in Innovation, Question-To-Innovate, Questions

question to innovate

This the seventeenth 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.

One thing every innovator needs is access to people who can help him with specific knowledge and resources. And, social media can enable innovation in a variety of ways. Explicitly, one that is rarely talked about is that you can meet people from different backgrounds and collaborate. It is an opportunity to pick people’s brains in a very interactive and transparent way.

Twitter and LinkedIn are such networks that serve this purpose. Cultivating a network that provides you with insights and ideas is incredibly, and it is something every person and organization needs to do if it wants to come up with breakthrough ideas.

Five discovery skills that drive innovation

A few years ago Christensen, Clayton M.; Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen published some research where they outlined the five discovery skills that drive innovation in both individuals and organizations. These five skills are illustrated below (via WSJ):…