Here is my paper “Establishing Innovation Culture”, about installing Innovative Climate in big oragnization. I presented it on the Conference for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Maribor, 2 days ago, and got a great feedback. Hope that you’ll like it! Please comment! Here is the link on issuu. Continue reading establishing innovation culture
I’m just back from first course on Innovations and Creativity. It was a day and half long course on creative thinking and innovation. I got great feedback from participants and I’m sure that in future I will go on with this course. As I expected attendees are the most interested in the creativity examples such as some thinking techniques and pointing out the examples, like coincidental inventions. But, also the chapter “Open Innovations” was very interesting for them as they didn’t know nothing about it. Open Innovation Web-Sites like Innocentive was the complete novelty. New website created (Croatian) which supports … Continue reading course on creativity and innovation
Have you heard your friend, father or uncle how he make fun of his boses or to management in his factory because they are doing something „stupid“, and when you ask him „why won’t you propose a solution?“, the answer is: „they wouldn’t listen to me, they dont care for my thoughts“ or „let them do whatever they want!“. This barrier between employee and the firm, or call it ‘learned helplessness’ is the spirit when the employee don’t need to think and it’s the example which kind of culture should be completely changed. This kind of examples can be heard … Continue reading innovation culture barriers
Again, very interesting article in Business Week: How 3M Forged a Culture of Collaboration Some excerpts from: “What can executives learn from 3M’s approach to collaboration?“ “Support networks. Build Web-based social networks that help employees with a problem find those with an answer. Support grassroots networking initiatives such as 3M’s TechForum—an employee-run group that organizes speaker events to stimulate thinking and also serves as a kind of mixer, where scientists from different labs or divisions can connect in person. Encourage curiosity. 3M allows employees to spend 15% of their time on projects of their choosing, giving them permission to develop … Continue reading culture of collaboration – thoughts on int.article
I’ve just read Wall Street Journal article: “The New, Faster Face of Innovation” and there are two very interesting quotes: “Five years ago, for instance, a leadership team might have reviewed two or three “big” innovation proposals from consulting gurus; executive teams today might compare the outcomes of 50 or 60 real-world experiments to decide which ones to act upon.” – the innovation process becomes faster. “And there’s a subtle shift in how people view innovation. People don’t talk about running experiments months into the future—they’re into immediacy, because they see that they can test ideas right away, and the … Continue reading faster innovation
I’ve just read interesting article on Business Week: about Whirpool’s innovation process that evaluates and screen thousands of ideas. Whirlpool’s three-pronged definition of innovation: “It must meet a consumer need in a fresh way; it must have the breadth to become a platform for related products; and it must lift earnings.“ The final section of the article: “What can executives learn from Whirlpool’s approach to screening ideas? • Define Innovation A brief, concrete definition of innovation will help employees evaluate new concepts at the front end, screening out those that just don’t fit. As a concept progresses, keep returning to … Continue reading innovation process article
When you have a group of people and you need to take their ideas from selected topic I can give you few tips: 1. start with mentioning expected results 2. use existing examples of realized ideas to avake inspiration 3. smile and mention funny ideas from past 4. write down every idea 5. try to include every participant 6. never focus to much only on one/two participants who have most ideas 7. after session send titles of all ideas to participants 8. send your notes to idea creator and ask for details 9. be boring when it comes to get … Continue reading 10 tips for successful brainstorming session
Second post from Top10 series: 1. Try to have fun, that’s the right way for creativity. 2. It’s ok to make mistakes, without mistakes, there will be no new ideas as there is a need for lot of ideas to have successful innovation. 3. Fear is your first enemy! Push away the fear from your workplace and innovation can replace it! 4. Promote successful ideas and their creators with brochures, intranet… 5. Try to keep process of idea-evaluation as simple as posible and as fast as posible. 6. Use piece of software for idea generation and evaluation 7. Customers are … Continue reading 10 ways to achive innovative climate in your organization
Main roles for the person selected as innovation-driver in organization: 1. well-known in organization as innovation-driver and open for any kind of questions 2. running innovation system and improving it 3. be sure that everyone knows about idea process(how to submit idea) 4. taking care for ideas that waits for any decision for long time 5. knows about each submitted idea and keep an eye on innovation metrics, such as no. of submitted ideas, no. of realized ideas and other metrics + creating new inno.metrics if needed Other roles such as connecting intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs with innovators, can be the … Continue reading local idea hero in organization
1. write-down your ideas! Every idea has to be written, because it will wipe out from your head 🙂 Later you can give to the written facts new features. 2. don’t be afraid to submit your idea If your company has innovation system, the idea should be submitted through norm innovation process. In a case that you company doesn’t have inno-system, you should inform yourself how your idea can be proposed to someone who can help you to realize it. 3. read Inform yourself everyday with the news from your interests, but also from the topics you never thought about … Continue reading 10 things you shouldn’t forget
Innovation Metrics are crucial for Innovation Managers to stay on the right track. This metrics should include all submitted ideas and decisions regarding these ideas.So, you can see the numbers and make nice charts :), but also see what’s happening with innovation climate in your organisation and see are you on the same way like half a year ago or not. As, I’m speaking from the role of inno-manager I must admit that metrics are the most important data which alarms me if there is no enough activities in some part of organisation.I spend sometimes hours and hours over statistics, … Continue reading Importance of Innovation Metrics
As I work in the big company with it’s own innovation process and climate I often think how this process and specially climate, can be established in small enterprises.First, the contact person for innovations has to be known by everyone – Innovation Manager or simply one ‘special’ person who will know how to handle each proposal. If the firm is close to technology changes, this person must be sent to special patent(intellectual property) training.Next thing is establishing of innovation metrics, which must be transparent so that employees will know what they can expect, if their idea will be accepted. It … Continue reading big and small companies & innovation
I saw an interesting article on IdeaConnection. An Interview with Scott Berkun, author of the book: The Myths of Innovation.Here is the set of Myths:1.The myth of epiphany — there is no eureka moment, ideas never stand alone2. We understand the history of innovation — we have simplified legends3. There is a method for innovation — there are infinite paths to innovation4. People love new ideas — most people fear change5. The lone inventor — all innovation is bound to what came before6. Good ideas are hard to find — humans are built for creative thinking7. Your boss knows more … Continue reading the myths of innovation
I’ve yesterday run in to a book ‘Innovative Leader’ from Paul Sloane. I’ve read it in a three hour trip on the train from Zagreb to Osijek. This describes how fluently it is written, and how interesting it was. Ok, I knew a bunch of techniques and examples shown in this book, but some things were really new to me. This is really a welcoming book to every new innovation manager or leader.More about Paul Sloane on his website: http://www.destination-innovation.com Continue reading innovative leader
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