New and Improved Innovation Blog Site

The Vital Part of the New Business Paradigm: An interview with Russ Schoen

New & Improved partner Russ Schoen was interviewed by Michelle James on the Innovation Tools Blog recently, and rather than try to create something similar or better (i.e. new and improved), here's a link to the interview: http://www.innovationtools.com/Weblog/innovationblog-detail.asp?ArticleID=1385&page=1&cat=

Russ answers such important questions as:

• What is the new emerging paradigm of work?
• What is the role of creativity in the new paradigm of work?
• What are the essential attitudes and behaviors for navigating work now?
• What is the one technique people could start applying today to bring more creativity to their work or organization?
• What is creative leadership and what does it look like?

Find out all this and more at: http://www.innovationtools.com/Weblog/innovationblog-detail.asp?ArticleID=1385&page=1&cat=

Free Computers: Creativity, Innovation and Good Deeds

So it's Friday, and the end of the official work week is at hand. Here's an innovation inspiration to make your weekend a great one.

Any of you who read this blog regularly know that one of the reasons we love helping our clients create new value through innovation is that their newly energized creativity & innovation skills don't disappear when they head home from work. We are as likely to hear stories of massive new revenue creation from our clients as we are to hear that they figured out a way to creatively solve a tough problem in their home or community. We're as likely to hear that a business unit is performing in a measurably better way as we are to hear that someone in that business unit has found a way to do something remarkably good in the world.

Our friends at Daily Good pointed me to a story out of NY City this morning, about a guy who is selling computers. Not for cash though. The currency he is requiring is a promise of a good deed. He's building a "Karmatocracy". He's figured out a way to take something he has of value, and convert it directly into creative good works from others. Now that's innovative!

Read the full story here: http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3868

I was a Scout when I was young, and I'm a Scoutmaster for my son's troop now. The Scout Slogan is "Do a Good Turn Daily" and the fellow in the story has innovatively leveraged his effort to "Do a Good Turn". He is an innovative altruist!

Have a great weekend and innovate for your family & community as you do so! Practice your innovation skills at home, and you'll come back to work ready to create great value on monday!

How Not to Communicate: A Delicious Example

As a follow-up to a blog I posted on August 20 on consciously listening and speaking, allow me to enter "Exhibit A. 

For a wonderful example of how not to instruct your co-workers on how to do something, please check out the "Cake Wrecks" blog at: http://bit.ly/mIML

(Thanks for Mariana Swallow for pointing me to this site!)

Ain't It AWFUL!

Most days, via the general media, we are bombarded with stories about how things are NOT working. How bad things are. Part of this has to do with the fact that our brain is structured such that there are far more neurons given over to sensing danger – looking out for stuff that can hurt us, or family, our clan – than there are neurons given over to looking for cool stuff. Stuff that can help us, our family, clan or business. The sad fact is that media and pundits have learned that they can get “mind share” from us far more easily with the negative than with the positive. Our brain goes on ALERT when someone tells a story with a bad /angry / danger/ they’re out to get us / look out for... kind of theme. Our brain gets comfortable, warm & fuzzy when we hear the good story. Mostly, after hearing a good story, we want to connect with people, be with friends, do good and solve problems wisely & creatively. Think about how the headline above caught your attention and got you reading. Would a headline like “Positive thoughts for the day” have sucked you into reading this rant as effectively? I bolded some of the words that hook our danger brain. My theoryy is that this kind of "editorial" work is how mainstream media keeps us attentive.

So. It’s important from the point of maturity development, becoming an elder, living a good life, and basic brain health, that we also find ways to get the stories that feed our sense of positive possibility. But you should NEVER do this. Here's why:

What Science Knows That Business Ignores About Incentives

Inevitably, when we're working with senior leadership to create a culture of innovation, one of the first ideas suggestion is to create an innovation award, or an incentive plan to reward successful ideas. 

This causes me to cringe.

I balk not just because of the inevitable unintended consequences, but mostly because incentives for extrinsic motivation for creative thinking and innovation (as well as most knowledge work) aren't effective.  Studies from Harvard researcher Theresa Amabile proved it, Alfie Kohn wrote a great book explaining it entitled, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's Praise, and other Bribes, and now Daniel Pink (who was a great sport when I punned off his surname during my introduction of him at the Innovation Immersion* a few years ago) wrapped it up in a 20 minute talk at the TED conference that is enlightening, humorous, and provacative. You can see the talk by Daniel Pink on the Surprising Science of Carrots and Sticks here:

So I'm curious: what's your experience with receiving rewards or punishments around your innovation efforts?

(*By the way, if you're interested in a GREAT conference on innovation, I highly recommend the Innovation Immersion.  Use registration code "SPKR2118" for a 30% discount on registration -- a little gift for you.  Or is it an incentive? Hmmmm.)

The Fundamental Secret of Innovation Leadership

Up next on N&I TV, is another one of our irreverent videos focusing on how to be an innovation leader.  This one minute edutainment video looks at the value of humility as a key driver of innovation.  We don't think you'll object to watching this:

What Really Drives Innovation?

If you boiled down what really makes innovation happen, it would be very hot and gooey.  Boiling does that.

But seriously folks...

In our roles as attendees/ presenters/co-chair/emcee at the Innovation Immersion over the past 10 years, We've seen a lot of presentations that offer up suggestions for "how to drive innovation."  We've enjoyed and learned from all of them, and revelled in the debates that ensued (two favorites, "Stage-gate doesn't work," (George Land) vs. "Stage-gate is the only way!" (Deloitte & Touche) and "Brainstorming doesn't work" (Larry Keeley, Doblin) vs. "We use brainstorming all the time for our outstanding results" (Tom Kelley, IDEO) .  We believe the presenters who advocate that their suggestions really work: systems, processes, procedures, tools, business models, alliances, arrangements, and so forth.  Especially in their organizations, with their challenges, in their context. But, as members of “People for The Ethical Treatment of Ideas” or PETI,  the gang at N&I believe that the moment someone takes one of these polarized positions, and claims it as Their Belief, they fall into the boiling vat of narrowminded arrogance. Curiosity dies. Arguments ensue. Productivity ends. Thinking evaporates.

The Truth About Creating a Culture of Innovation in Your Organization -- Download The Webinar Today!

If you missed the N&I webinar on Wednesday, 9/9/09, you missed some good learning!  (Not just for you about how to bring innovation into your organization but also for us, since it's our first webinar! Lesson #1 for us: don't worry about running out of content, worry about running out of time!)

Well, if you ran out of time and couldn't catch the website, don't worry!  You can download and listen/view the webinar by clicking the link below:

DOWNLOAD FILE

(Disclaimers/Glitches: 1) PC users should have no problems, Mac users MAY have compatibility issues depending on your configuration, 2) there's about 8 seconds of silence at the beginning of the recording, and then 3) for some reason, the title slide doesn't show up on the screen, but the visuals still show up after the first minute-and-a-half -- That'd be lessons #2-4 for us)