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Making Innovation Happen

A Global Aggregation of Leading Edge Articles on Management Innovation, Creative Leadership, Creativity and Innovation.  

This is the official blog of Ralph Kerle, Chairman, the Creative Leadership Forum. The views expressed are his own and do not represent the views of the International or National Advisory Board members. ______________________________________________________________________________________

 

Entries in leadership (183)

Monday
Mar302009

Alain de Botton on Status Anxiety

Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety, first published in 2004, remains a thought-provoking and helpful text as I continue to think about happiness (and its absence.) De Botton, "a philosopher of everyday life," seeks in this book to acknowledge the intensity of status anxiety in contemporary Western society, to explore its causes, and to suggest some means of relief. He begins with a brief set of definitions and a concise statement of his thesis:

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Monday
Mar302009

Grant McCracken on the "Swift Self"

Author and anthropologist Grant McCracken had a good line a few months ago on the conventional wisdom about the generational divide: The other day I found myself thinking that every time I hear Millennials described: 1. the tone is that of a smug outsider. 2. the speaker is not a Millennial. I'm a Gen X executive coach who works closely with Millennial students at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and Grant's observation serves as a useful reminder of the dangers of over-generalizing, a perspective reinforced by a Millennial commenter on Grant's post: "[W]e have such fine control over our own identities that we don't need to resort to big, poorly-defined memes like generational labels." Points well taken. So with the foreknowledge that I'm getting into a "big, poorly defined meme" here, I want to talk about a concept of Grant's that isn't a generational difference per se but that has implications for Millennials and anyone who works with them. (And I sure hope I don't sound like a smug outsider, so please let me know if I do.)

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Monday
Mar302009

The Virtues of Being Unsettled

Phred Dvorak's "Theory & Practice" column in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) talks about the dangers of experience: "The more experience we have, the more overconfident we get," [says Kishore Sengupta, an associate professor at INSEAD who designs simulations that test for effectiveness in areas such as project management.] Alan Over, a managing consultant at U.K.-based PA Consulting Group who participated in Mr. Sengupta's simulation, says he now questions his assumptions more... "I try to force myself to be nervous," [Over] says. "Whenever I find myself falling back on what I did last time, or think I'm doing well, I try to unsettle myself." [My emphasis] I suspect Over's strategy of "forcing myself to be nervous" is an over-correction, but he's touching on an important dynamic. I've found that I'm more likely to make mistakes when I'm too comfortable, when I assume that I understand a situation because it feels familiar--in a word, when I'm settled.

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Saturday
Mar212009

Creative Skills Training Council - on Creating Peak Performance - Flow in Music and Sport

Recently the Creative Skills Training Council conducted a program in Melbourne on Creating Peak Performance - Flow in Music and Sport. Georges McKail provided an excellent graphical report of the event - as shown in the pdf at this link: Graphical Report by Georges McKail on CSTC Melbourne Meeting

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Monday
Mar162009

Design Thinking: A Strategy for Innovation

Here are some interesting insights from Linda Naiman - Creativity at Work, she has some fantastic networks...

Design-thinking for innovation

 

Innovation Practices for Leaders

The revolution taking place in design — as it emerges from its traditional role of serving commerce — to a role of leading, shaping and directing the way we live and work, presents tremendous opportunities for leaders in business and government. CEOs of major corporations are now applying design principles to strategy and innovation. The success rate for innovation dramatically improves when it is designed.

P&G is using design-thinking to change its culture. Leadership is listening, learning, and deploying; cross-functional teams are cracking vexing problems across its business landscape; and visualization, prototyping, and iteration are facilitating communication internally and with customers like never before. (BusinessWeek July 28, 2008)Design-thinking for Innovation

A design mind-set is not problem-focused, it’s solution focused, and action oriented. The purpose of design, ultimately, is to improve quality of life. Empathy is key to design success.

From a design point of view, truly innovative products speak to their users' emotions, according to Yves Behar (Fast Company 2004), who designs radical innovations to well established consumer products for companies such as Nike and Toshiba. It's the emotional connection you make with employees and customers that wins their loyalty.

The design way of thinking can be applied to systems, situations, procedures, protocols, and innovation. We can design the way we lead, manage, create and innovate.

Contact Linda Naiman for design training and consulting