Avoid these four communication landmines as you navigate the stages of innovation. Innovation can sometimes feel like a winding journey that includes steps forward, backward, and sideways. There are even landmines along the way that can stall or derail the process. These landmines are often communication points that, if not properly structured, will cause dysfunction,…
How to help everyone find their role in creating innovation. Does this innovation challenge sound familiar? Your team leaders and managers acknowledge the importance of innovation and even sing its praises— but if you ask them how they routinely champion innovation within their teams, you might get crickets. The problem is that most people managers,…
Here is a seven-point plan to create and sustain a culture of innovation. Your company is one disruption away from becoming irrelevant. A few years ago, I spoke at a conference where I told the leaders in attendance this exact statement. It struck a chord with one attendee: the chief innovation officer of the Great…
Data can be a powerful enabler for innovation, but when used incorrectly, it can be a paralyzing force. It’s a critical component in measuring and understanding the need for innovation—if you cannot measure something, you cannot improve it. Whether you collect data based on historical perspectives or through experiments, it can bring the insights needed…
Many companies find it hard to prioritize ideation. Here are five ways to break the pattern and gather a wealth of ideas for your organization. In today’s rapidly changing world, it’s easy to think that most companies are innovation factories—full of ideas for new products, services, and processes. They need to be, right? Unfortunately, the…
Problem-solving is an essential skill as an innovator. If problems stump your employees, how can your organization ever innovate for customers? Luckily, problem-solving skills can be learned, and as a leader you can create a team of master problem solvers and innovators. Most employees already apply some problem-solving skills every day. They just do so…
What happens after a productive brainstorming session depends on how you organize, develop, and prioritize all those ideas. This innovation strategist has a 7-point action plan. There is nothing quite as energizing as a well-run brainstorming session. When I work with clients on innovation projects, the ideation stage is one of my favorites. There is…
Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” He was certainly referring to leading in terms of industry: if your company is innovating, it will generally lead the pack. But I think he was also referencing positional titles in the workplace. If you are a leader, you are expected to innovate….
The case for making innovation contribution a part of every performance evaluation. Over the past several years, my co-author Ron Price and I have seen an increasing number of companies embrace innovation as part of their strategic plan, even going so far as to create new company roles such as chief innovation officer, innovation analyst,…
Learning how to pivot is a critical skill for leaders and innovators who will undoubtedly experience uncontrollable circumstances. What happens when you run an experiment and the outcome is not what you had planned? One of the traps of experimentation is expecting the testing to validate your thinking. It is natural to want the experiment…
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