Tag Archives: Innovation

Must read innovation posts of the week: Don’t innovate. Just be better

in Must reads of the week

. I agree with this statement. You don’t really say ‘there’s a more innovative way’, you say ‘there’s always a better way’. As :

 

Instead of asking "How can we be innovative?", a toothless and vague question with mostly useless answers, we should be asking "How can we make great things?"

 

Failure is an idea not an outcome

in Innovation, Strategy, Success

the eagle

We are all failures – at least, all the best of us are. – J.M. Barrie

As a society, what keeps us from creating anything worthwhile?

FEAR.

Rock climbing requires a tremendous amount of focus. You need to keep your emotions in check in the ever present fear of falling to your death. If don’t control your fear, you die. It’s that simple!

For climbers falling isn’t failing, falling is just part of succeeding. …

For breakthrough ideas read the unreadable

in Creativity, Innovation, Strategy

chaos

Chaos, where brilliant dreams are born.

Do you ever get this feeling that when you read the same stuff over and over and then you try to read something completely unrelated you become bored very easily? Well that’s a very bad problem to have if you want to get into the business of ‘doing innovation’ because breakthrough ideas rarely come from looking in the same place.

You want some new ideas everyday? Read stuff that’s unrelated to your field. John Jantsch calls this ‘’ and he’s right, the best ideas come from the intersection between ideas from different domains.…

Why should people learn to innovate?

in Innovation, Strategy

In my entrepreneurial journey I’ve come across people who pretty much don’t care about ‘innovation’ but what they do care about is how they can extract (notice I said extract and not create) more value from their customers. It’s fair to say that those of us who preach the ‘there’s always a better way’ gospel run into this type of thinking all the time.

Yet how do we explain to these people that they too should learn to wield the sword?

Here’s my answer:

 

Because .

We all have the innate ability to be creative and therefore with help, collaborate towards something better. Innovation is a team sport and is something and not outsource it to a special few. Anybody can and should contribute and I believe (leaders) to bring them with us.

Sure there’s risk involved but then again when has anything worthwhile been done without risk? We don’t have to minimize risk, we have to manage it to push us forward.

Bottom line is innovation is something that results in something that is bigger than ourselves and this in turn brings society together in new ways towards progress.

 

What say you?

Innovation: respect the process

in Innovation, Strategy

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Master the instrument, master the music, then forget all that shit and play. – Charlie Parker

Some say innovation is predictable, I agree. But to a larger degree it is not because you can’t really tell where it’s going to come from and who will be holding all the cards. Right now you’re probably in the ‘innovate or die’ mindset, you’re also probably feeling frustrated because you’re reading blogs, following innovation consultants on Twitter to try and do innovation but you are not getting anywhere.

Let me help clear things up for you, . It needs to be nourished, it needs to be practiced, it needs to be mastered.…

Must read innovation stories of the week: A culture of innovation starts with us

in Must reads of the week

Any change we want to see in ANY domain starts with the man in the mirror:

 

I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change

 

Guess who said that…

 

 

Weekend innovation tip: WTF is innovation to you?

in Innovation tips

Innovation is about change and progress not great ideas.

 

I get two responses to that question: dull faces or some lunchbox definition.

Businesses like the sound of the word of ‘innovation’ appearing in their vocabulary yet rarely can everyone in the organization come to a collective definition of what is means to them and this is a BIG problem. They’re chickens running around without a head because they don’t know where they’re headed and this is because they’re adopting someone else’s definition for themselves and fail to see that it doesn’t fit them.

 

There are but I will take a different approach and start with questions to help you construct your own definition of innovation instead. These questions will absolutely stretch your thinking around what’s important to you, your customers and the world which, and this my friends is what innovation is all about: change and progress.

 

 

  • What will we do differently of better than our competitors to achieve greater value for our customers and superior profits for our firm?

  • What’s missing in the world of our customers that we could create to make their life a lot more fun and easier?

  • What do we want to create?

 

 

Let me put it to you this way: if you’re not changing something then you are NOT doing innovation.

 

Does your definition of innovation answers these questions?