Innovative Brain Food from New & Improved

Pandemic Risk Mitigation and Creative Problem Solving

Over the years, we've facilitated problem solving sessions focused on business continuity assurance for things as diverse as Y2K, competitive disruption, and cyberterroism. What we've learned is useful even at the family emergency planning level. So, if you want to apply some innovative thinking get yourself through the murkey swamp of this current influenza threat, they key is to follow the process below. If you've got an organization that needs to do this, and you want help, we're easy to find.

Set yourself a goal: Something like "It would be great if we could come through the current crisis as unscathed and healthy as possible"

Gather data: Explore the facts, opinions and dynamics around this current crisis. With respect to pandemic planning, we've learned to trust the following resources as frank, accurate, and not constrained by political considerations:

Companies Recognized for Innovation Leadership

Recently, Business Week recognized the world's most innovative companies including Apple, Google, IBM, Toyota.  As IBM's Chief Executive Samual Pamisano said, "Some may be tempted to hunker down, to scale back their investment in innovation.  While that might make sense during a cyclical downturn, it's a mistake when you're going through a major shift in the global economy."  For the complete Business Week article  see Is Innovation Too Costly in Hard Times?

Cheap Tricks to Energize Innovation

Unfortunately, keeping
a vibrant innovation culture alive is not a single effort deal. As
with a flywheel, there is entropy working against such a culture. And as with a flywheel, innovation leaders need to regularly do things to keep the innovative brains of their organizations challenged to remain fully awake. We have to regularly throw additional energy into the flywheel to keep itspinning creatively.

Our friend Ami Henriques at McCormick recently came up with a great way to energize the innovative brains in her colleagues. And it was cheap. As in responsibly frugal.

Do you have the "Right" to be an innovation leader?

A popular teaching story these days is about how Gandhi, when asked by a mother to help her son stop eating sugar, told her he could, but to bring the child back in a 2 weeks. She did, and he simply said "stop eating sugar." Astonished, the mother asked why he didn't just say that the first time if that's all he was going to do. His response? "Mother, two weeks ago I was eating a lot of sugar myself.”." Many folks mistake the lesson as only a person not eating the sugar can ask another to do the same. We think there is a deeper lesson, the lesson of "moral ground" and it has implications for innovation leadership.

Earth Day

We all know that "every day is earth day" but today we specially honor the intention to take better care of our biosphere. Bottom line truth is that it is our creativity and inventiveness that has caused us to be an overburden on our ecosystems, and it will need to be our creativity and inventiveness that will dig us out of the hole(s) we dig.

Creative Problem Solving Institute Blogfest

We're proud to be a part of the great Creative Problem Solving Institute Blogfest, where to help one of our favorite conferences, we're getting out the word with many of our fellow CPSI attendees/presenters including:

http://rosemaryrein.typepad.com/rosemary_rein_keynote_spe/
http://blog.latercera.com/blog/pmunoz

http://www.creativelyfit.wordpress.com 
http://blog.cpsiserver.com
http://paintingonwater.blogspot.com

http://segami2.blogspot.com

http://filedundermissylaneous.blogspot.com

We go because we always learn something about creative thinking from some of the masters.  And we also go to share what we're learning from our practice.  We'd love to chat about creative thinking over a meal at the conference!

The Difference Between Creativity and Innovation

A recent blog about the differences between creativity and innovation (http://lateralaction.com/articles/creativity-innovation/) has me reflecting on my long-term frustration at the fact that these terms are used interchangeably, when in fact there are distinct meanings.

Not being willing to be frustrated without doing anything about it, I started a little research project, which -- as usual -- turned into a big research project (for which I "blame" Dr. Mary Murdock, who encouraged this diversion).

Now, at some level, words mean what you say they mean, but when one starts digging into the literature, one finds that there are some real differences according to the scholars and researchers.  Which I did for an academic paper that I presented at the Creativity and Innovation Management Conference last year at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, and which was subsequently published in the proceedings. 

New and Improved Gets Juiced

I wanted to pass on what Big Ooga™ said in their most recent “The Big Ooga Morning Juice”. Big Ooga is a referral-based resource designed to connect entrepreneurs with the companies they need to succeed.

"Spotlight on a Big Ooga company we love. Jonathan Vehar & New & Improved http://www.newandimproved.com.

When Jonathan jumped into the first Big Ooga event and accepted control of the microphone and magic marker, we found ourselves in great hands. A consummate professional, New and Improved is a consulting company that helps leading companies create growth through innovation." 

-The Big Ooga Morning Juice 

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Learning about having a heart from the atomic bomb tests: Challenge your assumptions

This has nothing to do with compassion.  Deb Allen sent me an interesting report from NPR which detailed how researchers used levels of Carbon 14 in cadavers exposed to atomic bomb blasts to determine that heart cells regenerate, albeit very, very slowly.

So what?  Well up until this research, it was believed damage to the heart was permanent, which is significant if you've had a heart attack or an injury.

Smile & Move