// archives

innovation

This tag is associated with 21 posts

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Change and the Crop Duster

Drive south through the state of Indiana on I-65, and before you hit Indianapolis you will come across an impressively large array of wind turbines, the new vertical symbols of energy self-reliance and innovation. I remember not so long ago, when this section of the road was just miles of cornfields, as far as the [...]

Inspiration
External Radiance Projection 2010: A Christmas / Upgrade Story

No, I’m not a Christmas fanatic – but when you live in Chicago, you learn to look for nice weather in the weeks approaching Thanksgiving, to put up the lights before the wind and cold conspire to make it a painful experience. Basically, I gotta burn a vacation day – but why not? It’s an [...]

Art, with some elements of Inspiration
Design Thinking and Process – Is It In You? (1 of 2)

Continuing a bit on my recent Design meme; I talk about the current relevance of design thinking, and the impact it can have on change management – but if it feels a bit foreign, how can you tell if you have it in you? Do You Think Visually? Interesting how Design always seems to have [...]

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A Little Too Literal (or, How to Teach Innovation)

Spoiler alert: It can’t be taught … One of the questions I get – and I’m getting this a lot lately – is how to get people to think more analytically, less literally. We need folks to stop focusing on the mechanical task of manipulating reports with Excel just to compute some answers. How about [...]

Execution, with some elements of Inspiration
What Really Motivates Us? Insights for your Tech Team

Over the last month or so, a large number of authors in my RSS reader called attention to Dan Pink’s ‘Drive’ video … Props to Cool Infographics (home of the Caffeine Poster!) with the post that introduced me to the video. Key insight from Randy Krum: is this a video? A well done presentation? Or [...]

Art, with some elements of Inspiration
Managing Change: Inspiration, Art, Science, and Execution

Often, when trying to figure out how to “make things happen”, your focus switches between multiple targets. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? And How can I get the others to understand what I am doing? Real change happens along a continuum that stretches from The Big Idea to Real Results, and [...]

Inspiration, with some elements of Science
Managing Change: Pick Something, and Do It Well

This is the first in an series of posts on Managing Change … look for more over the course of the next few weeks … A common way of expressing the holistic nature of a project is to talk about “People, Process, and Technology”. I’m not sure who came up with this little gem, or [...]

Art, with some elements of Inspiration
Underwhelming experiences with Google Wave

Took some time today to work with the new communication meme – Google Wave. I wouldn’t call it a fundamentally new way to communicate – well, not yet. I think Google is safe to continue with a “preview” label – clearly not even “beta” yet. No horrible bugs – at least on the Windows platform [...]

Inspiration
Business Benefits of Social Networks Exist, but …

When I see / read articles like this, or hear the breathless claims of vendors, pundits, and True Believers, I’ll privately chuckle to myself. All of this stuff – social networking, collaboration, and innovation – are 21st century takes on good old Knowledge Management (KM), circa 1998. Do these sound like presentations from your recent [...]

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Facilitating Innovation: Establishing an Environment of Possibilities

I’m exchanging email with someone interested in establishing a skunk works, and they are asking some very interesting questions about the nature of innovation and the ingredients for an “environment of possibilities” … … things are … [as they are] because someone already tried unsuccessful alternatives … [This] begs the question: when it is required, [...]