New and Improved Innovation Blog Site

Innovation requires tenacity, not wheel-spinning

Here’s our irreverent look at tenaciously working to promote new ideas, but not in an insane wheel-spinning way! 

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Leadership in Tough Economic Times

Great article featuring interviews with 14 CEOs about enterprise leadership during an economic mess at: http://bit.ly/33Cck

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Leadership Lessons for Tough Times

A great article from the McKinsey Quarterly showed up in my mailbox while I was away on vacation.  As much as I wanted to delete it along with piles of emails awaiting me upon my return, the title was too interesting to pass up. 

And it's defintely worth reading.

In short, after interviewing 14 CEOs about the recent economic challenges, researchers came up with a list of "Six Leadership Musts,"  which correspond with what we've been advocating about Innovation Leadership:

• Confront Reality (be Courageous)
• At Board meetings, Put Strategy Center Stage (be Humble and Curious when working with your board)
• Be Transparent with Employees... (demonstrate great Integrity in your communication)
• ...And investors (Integrity with ALL stakeholders)
• Build and Protect the Culture (focus on Core Values)
• Keep Faith with the Future (Tenacity in the face of tough obstacles)

The leaders interviewed for this article acknowledged that doing the right thing is even harder when times are tough, but there's no doubt that it is the time when the value of strong leadership shines.

Imagination, Empathy & Compassion

Each day, as a way to start out in as positive a mindset as possible, I read an e-mail from a service known as "Daily Good". It's usually a quick quote, and a story about some positive, altruistic deed that someone has done somewhere in the world.

I find it inspiring and motivating to read about people who are choosing to make a positive difference. This need to make a positive difference is, in large part, why the folks at New & Improved work to help individuals and organizations improve their creativity and problem solving skills. Now here's the thing:

Imagination is what makes empathy possible....

Innovation Requires Insanity? Nope, Tenacity!

Here’s the New & Improved take on the need for tenacity when trying to bring innovation into the organization, and how it’s different than just bugging the heck out of someone in hopes of wearing them down.  It speaks to the need for creative thinking when trying to sell a new idea into the organization.  Oh yeah, and as you might expect, it’s a bit irreverent.  span

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To Find New Solutions, Phrase Problems as Questions!

Ever have a situation where you were trapped in a problem?  Well, one simple strategy for getting unstuck is to phrase them as a problem.  Here’s an irreverent take on how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0gskzpBpJs

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Brain Building for Innovation

Remembering back to my Pre-Med days, we were taught that three neurotransmitters did all of the work in the brain (hundreds are identified now) and that we were born with all of the neurons we'd ever have -- not true. From then on, we just degrade into adulthood-- not my plan!  We were also told things like "You only use 10% of your brain's capacity in your lifetime"  (false again, we use all we've got) and "Drinking alcohol kills brain cells." Our collegiate take on that is that the excess 90% was our personal "neural slush fund." But I digress.

Over the years, we've come to a far more complex understanding of all of this neurology stuff.

• Creative thoughts arise from the connection of two previously unconnected thoughts.

• Being curious (attempting to receive more thoughts) fuels your brain's ability to create.

• Particular kinds of learning increase the connections between neurons. (A connection is called a synapse)

• Choosing to exercise will in thinking... i.e. choosing to think certain thoughts and not think others, can actually grow new neurons.

Taken together, these tidbits connect in our brains to form a powerful conclusion: You can grow a more creative brain. And both the research and our anecdotal experience confirms this amazing opportunity.

P&G, Unilever Aiming for Banner Innovation Year, Wal-mart Focuses on Goals, Not Monthly Results

Great article from the World Advertising Research Center
about the significant focus on innovation from P&G, Unilever
and Wal-mart.  A few excerpts:

• “Bruce Brown, P&G’s CTO argued that next year will be
  ‘the largest innovation year for us in the last decade.’"

• “Stephen Quinn, Wal-Mart's CMO in the US, argued the recession is ‘actually causing us…to think about…how do
  we use this opportunity to keep [customers] with us for the long haul.’"

• “Unilever's ceo, Paul Polman, has also recently announced that the company would stop giving earnings forecasts for the foreseeable future.  This, he said, will allow the consumer goods giant to utilize its budget more flexibly, such as by adapting its marketing spending to meet changing requirements.”

Paul Polman, has also recently announced that the company would stop giving earnings forecasts for the foreseeable future.  This, he said, will allow the consumer goods giant to utilize its budget more flexibly, such as by adapting its marketing spending to meet changing requirements.”

Read the entire story at:  http://www.warc.com/News/TopNews.asp?ID=25341&Origin=WARCNewsEmail

Is your sense that your organization is putting more or less
into innovation?

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Whose Pain Is Most Important?

Hint: it’s not yours.

Here’s a -- to me -- fresh perspective on what to do about innovation in a down economy, courtesy of Michael Wedman, Associate Director of IT with KPMG, whom we met during a session on “Leading Innovation in Turbulent Economic Times” at the Creative Problem Solving Institute.  Perhaps it shouldn’t be a new way of looking at things, but it just slapped me across the face as a good articulation of what I wish I’d said.

In Wedman’s words, “Focus on customer core or pain -- Michael Raynor sees the downturn as a time to focus on the customer’s core rather than the company’s core. This is counter to the traditional reaction of hunkering down and becoming introspective – sometimes overly so – in times such as these. Frey and Callahan make the point that, ‘Customers always have problems to solve, even in a downturn.’ Choosing to focus innovation on customer pain has a couple of positive impacts for an organization. First, there is the obvious ability to increase revenues through the introduction of highly targeted products. This is similar to the ‘less [of an offering] for less [money] strategy,’ but differs in that it is not necessarily directed just toward customers whose only other option is nothing. Second, an external focus provides a more hopeful outlook for employees, providing them with the opportunity to help customers as they face their own challenges.”

Another way to say it is, stop worrying about what you’re going to do, and start worrying about solving your customer’s needs.  To quote Cecil Day, the founder of Days Inn Hotels when asked for advice to give those who wanted to make a lot of money, “Find a need, then fill it.”

 It’s still good advice no matter what the economic outlook.  What's your best advice for success in a tough economy?