For the second straight year, the Think For A Change Blog is proud to serve as a Media Partner for the 2009 Annual International Conference of the Product Development and Management Association!!!

It's no secret that times are tough right now.  Keeping a pulse in your organization is your number one priority.  But what are you going to do when the tough times start to ebb?  How are you going to separate yourself from your competition?  What if you had a head start?  Well, as you have learned from this blog, and the release of The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference, one of the first steps you should take is to breathe some life into your idea/innovation management program and start moving great ideas from concept to reality via a robust new product/service development pipeline.

Need a little help?  Need a place to gather best/next practices?  Need a fresh perspective?  What about the 2009 PDMA Annual International Conference? 

I know...you have some questions...

WHAT ARE THE BASICS?:

October 31 - November 4, 2009
The Disneyland Hotel
1150 Magic Way
Anaheim, California, USA, 92802

2009 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
The Research Forum                          October 31  -  November 1
Skills Building Workshop Day            November 2
Conference Days 1 & 2                        November 3 - 4

<<CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE>>


WHAT ARE THE KEY BENEFITS OF ATTENDING?:

• Examples from REAL companies who solved today's New Product Development issues, and DIRECT access to the people who did it
• Unpublished and unrivaled NEXT GENERATION practices for New Product Development
• See how SMALL, MEDIUM, and LARGE companies are thriving in New Product Development
• Network with a variety of FUNCTIONAL GROUPS who drive New Product Development
• An opportunity to get a BROAD range of expertise, including basics for individuals just getting started in New Product Development as well as BEST PRACTICES AND BEYOND for those with more experience

WHAT ARE THIS YEAR'S MAIN CONFERENCE "TRACKS?":

"NPD DNA" ~ An examination of what you have and what you need to enhance New Product Development best practices will be showcased to include people, teams and culture, process, tools and techniques for success, financial metrics, and business case analysis.

"Turbo Charging for Commercial Success" ~ will focus on identifying opportunities and approaches to transforming those opportunities from idea to action better, faster and cheaper. Topics will include innovating in tough times, identifying customer inspired white spaces, integrative innovation across industry lines and fostering breakthrough innovation.

"Got Blog? The Next Generation" ~ will focus on future trends and the next generation of potential new best practices in the areas of customer research and marketing, social media and web 2.0 technologies, commercialization, portfolio management, and non-product innovation that enable product innovation to thrive.


WHERE CAN I NETWORK WITH PEOPLE ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE BEFORE I EVEN GET THERE?

You're in luck!  We've established multiple locations in the social networking world for you to plug-in and get connected with conference updates, have your questions answered, link you to hot topics in the innovation/npd space and allow you to network with attendees, presenters and even keynoters!  Just follow these links to get started:

• PDMA International Conference LinkedIn Group
• Innovation Management LinkedIn Group
• PDMA Conference Facebook Group
• PDMA Conference Google Group
• Follow the PDMA Conference on Twitter

WHAT IF I WANT TO REVIEW THE DAILY PRESENTATION AGENDAS, SPEAKER PROFILES, SPONSORS AND EXHIBITORS?:

Just head to the main PDMA Annual International Conference web site for more information!


LIKE YOU SAID, TIME'S ARE TOUGH...WHAT IF I NEED SOME HELP PAYING FOR MY CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEES?:

I've even got you covered there...use the special Media Partner discount code (MP09IC) during registration to save 20% off of your main conference fees!!!


READY TO REGISTER?  Just click REGISTER FOR 2009 PDMA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE and don't forget to use your 20% Discount Code - MP09IC!!!

"If you want someone to be on time, buy them a watch." - Unknown   

Perhaps one of my favorite quotes.  I am a HUGE believer that if you need something done correctly, use the right tool for the job.  That is as true for digging a post hole as much as it is for operationalizing an innovation management system.  I've seen too many occasions where eager executives "talk the talk" regarding innovation initiatives, willing to convince anyone who will listen that their organization is innovative, creative and inventive.  Unfortunately, they just as often fail to "walk the talk" when it comes to providing the most important resource in innovation/idea management (people) with the tools necessary to move ideas forward.  And...innovation can only occur when you move ideas forward.

So what are the tools you should use as you establish/cultivate/support your idea and innovation management systems:

• Leadership
  • This is the most important tool!  Without strong and supportive leadership, your innovation initiative will fail.
• Imagination
  • Your organization, or more importantly, the people within your organization, must be allowed to imagine.  Imagine what's next.  Imagine what customers need/want.  Imagine the next big thing.  Inspire imagination!
• Idea/Innovation Management Processes
  • These process sets can be as formal (or informal) as your organization.  The bottom line is to establish some kind of logical path for ideas to follow.
• Culture
  • Foster a collaborative, supportive, risk-tolerant and failure-accepting culture.
• Resources
  • Time, money, people, software, collaboration tools, conference rooms, facilitators, consultants, consumer focus groups, etc.
• Measurements
  • Establish metrics (keep the simple) to lock in where you've been, map out where you are going and set a course with regular milestones to make sure you are still on the right path

So...the next time you declare, "We should be more innovative!"...make sure you provide the tools that your team needs to succeed.  In other words, "buy your team a watch!"

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there" - Lewis Carroll

When starting out on the journey to generate continuous innovation, the aforementioned quote is quite apropos.  Until you understand where you are and develop a strategy of where you are going, how are you ever going to know how to get there?
 
                                        

The Continuous Innovation Loop begins (and continues) with "Assessment."  This assessment examines many different dimensions of innovation and idea management.  These dimensions are currently captured within the Think For A Change, LLC. Innovation Maturity Model:

• Culture
• Leadership
• People
  
• Processes
• Tools & Techniques
• Training
• Facilities
• Idea Capture
• Idea Management
• Strategic Planning
• Metrics

Additionally, we use the results of a comprehensive survey, solicited across all layers of an organization, that focus on key areas of innovation and idea management discipline:

• Culture Assessment
• Idea Management Assessment
• Innovation Process Assessment
• Innovation Strategy Assessment
• Innovation Metrics Assessment

While our survey collection and scoring system is proprietary, as it automatically aggregates and feeds the data against the Innovation Maturity Model, you can likely generate similar systems and tools using the latest best/next practice recommendations surrounding innovation.

In the end, you are looking to take a snapshot of where you are now with respect to innovation maturity.  Following that, you develop a strategy of where you wish to take your organization in the future.  What key innovation-related attributes or dimensions do you wish to improve upon in the coming months/years?  Ultimately, the difference between your current state and your desired state is your gap.  Delineate and define these gaps into a gap analysis report.  Finally, develop an action plan to address these gaps and reach your desired state of innovation maturity.

I typically recommend working backward in my action plan development:

1. What is the end result, end goal, problem we are trying to solve, etc.?
2. What are the big deliverables/milestones we need to accomplish in getting to our end state?
3. What are the individual items/tasks we need to get to each deliverable/milestone?
4. What are the details behind each item/task?:
• Who needs to work on the item
• How long will the item take to complete
• How much money (beyond resource cost) is needed to complete the item

I also like represent the Innovation Maturity process this way, as it tends to be easier to understand:

                              


Next time...more on the people-side of innovation.  Who do you need?  Who do you want?  Who do you want to avoid?

"There is some place where your specialties can shine.  Somewhere that difference can be expressed.  Its up to you to find it, and you can." - David Viscott

I got asked the other day, "What kind of innovation person are you?"  Hmmm...interesting question.  I replied that I was an innovation management generalist, with a niche specialty in innovation process maturity.  You can almost envision eyes glazing over can't you?  But it really did get me thinking about the diversity of specialists, generalists and other "ists" in the innovation, new product development, marketing, design and other related spaces.

Here's a small list of innovation niche areas just off the top of my head...perhaps you can think of more:

• New Product Development
• Research and Development
• Prototyping
• Idea Generation
• Organizational Creativity
• Design
• Marketing/Advertising
• Open Innovation/Co-Creation
• Innovation Management & Leadership
• Innovation Processes
• Stage-Gate
• Innovation Tools (mind mapping, idea management software, etc.)
• Strategy & Planning
• Metrics, Measurement & Analysis
• Intellectual Property (Patents, Legal Protections)
• Culture, People, HR
• Customer/Consumer Research and Ethnography
• Trends, Future Farming and Horizon Studies
• Portfolio & Project Management
• Scientific/Engineering
• Collaboration
• Training & Skill Development

Wow!  No wonder people get confused!  The truth is...there's a lot involved when you are a part of bringing ideas to life and we all play our unique role.  Some of us play a more generalist role like helping organizations more effectively wrap their arms around the concepts of innovation or providing training to improve individual creativity.  On the flip side, some of us play a more specialist part like working on improving the maturity of innovation management processes (that's me!) or developing a new polymer that solves a design issue.

One of the cool things we, as "innovators," can do, and in fact SHOULD do, is gather at conferences, seminars, speeches, online forums and social networking groups and share our uniqueness.  We need to share what we know about our specialty areas, learn from what others have to share about their specialty areas and forcibly combine those points of knowledge to create new streams of thought. 

So here's a specific example...and I'll be honest...I don't focus much on open innovation.  Doesn't really hold a strong interest for me.  I appreciate, understand and support the concept...but its not my area of focus.  However, I know some people who do focus on it.  I've met them either personally or electronically via the gatherings I listed above.  And because of those relationships and opportunities to share and learn, if I had a client or prospect who had a need in that area, I would refer them to those in my network who have made that particular niche their specialty. 

Want some ideas on where to go to share your unique niche and learn from others?  These are just a few places to get started.  I'd suggest you Google or Bing for more!

Conferences:
PDMA Annual International Conference
Business Innovation Conference

Web Resources:
InnovationTools
IdeaConnection

Online Communities (search people & groups using innovation as a keyword):
LinkedIn
Twitter

"Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle" - Napoleon Hill

I am still amazed at the number of anecdotes about organizations looking for a "quick fix" to their business growth woes.  I know I shouldn't be surprised...you won't believe the number of prospective clients I have that contact me looking for a "one-time shot" at getting something new out in the marketplace. 

Too many business leaders have become incredibly short-sighted.  Wall Street doesn't help the matter with the "what have you done for me this quarter" view of the world.  And cost cutting/containment will only take you so far when looking to affect the bottom line over the long term.  Eventually you need growth.  Growth comes from sales.  Sales come from offering something that someone wants to buy.

Sure, you can develop a one-time only process that develops a new product or service.  You can ride that new product or service until your competition comes up with something better.  You can hope that customer needs and wants don't change faster than you can develop each new product.  You can even choose to simply react to shifting market trends or competitor threats.  You can be what's known as a "fast follower."

What a waste of opportunity!  Organizations who follow best practices are just that...followers.  On the other hand, organizations who create next practices are the leaders that others follow.  They don't just develop "one off" products or services...they develop a string of products and services tailored to meet evolving customer needs.  They don't react...they anticipate!  They don't plan for the future...they create the future!

So how do you become an organization that seeks to be innovative on a continuous basis?  What are the steps that keep a constant flow of ideas entering the product development funnel, while also making sure that the best ideas survive to see the light of day at the other end?  What are the key capabilities, processes and people that feed this continuous loop of innovation?

Over the span of the next few weeks, we will explore the Think For A Change, LLC. Continuous Innovation Model:


         

As described above, the Think For A Change, LLC. Continuous Innovation Model focuses on the key people and processes that build a perpetual and self-sustaining innovation mindset and capability within your organization.  For this blog entry, I simply wanted to introduce the model in its entirety.  Next time, we will explore the first stage of the model, "Assessment."

"So my question to all the thought leaders and leading practitioners out there is this: Where is your people focus? Why do you not talk more about the people who drive innovation? Why not let us know about the mindset, traits and skills you think people working with innovation should have? In your view, how can companies identify and develop these people?" - Stefan Lindegaard

That was the challenge thrown down by Stefan Lindegaard this week in his great blog.  So let's answer his challenge...

Before we get started, however, let me just apologize for the lack of blogging and tweeting the past few weeks.  I had a problem finding engagement with a great new client and had to sit for jury duty and it has finally been warm enough to get some work done outside.  You know how it gets sometimes. 

Now, onto Stefan's great point of highlighting the people who make innovation happen!

As we have discussed many, many times in the past, innovation is really a process.  A process that begins with creativity and ends with action.  Along the innovation process spectrum, there are people who are better at coming up with ideas vs. managing the process vs. building the idea prototypes vs. obtaining the support and funding vs. finding new problems to solve. 

Ideas have many, many sources:

• Employees
• Research & Development Teams
• Customers
• Vendors
• Marketing/Sales Team
• Competitors
• Leadership
• Patent Searches
• Academic Institutions
• Business Partnerships
• Best/Next Practices Reviews
• Association Memberships
• Conference
  

What all of those sources have in common is that each and every idea starts with one person.  Those who excel at developing ideas and solving problems have many common skill sets and traits:

• Skilled at alternative thinking styles
• Excel at individual problem solving
• Able to participate in or facilitate group ideation settings
• Able to see weak signals of future trends
• Able to identify root causation of problems
• Comfortable with taking calculated risks
• Aren't bothered by fear of failure (or success)
• Maintain an imaginative and creative approach to problems and/or opportunities
• Able to analyze and learn from failures
• Can assume leadership responsibility
• Able to translate ideas into objects (physical, visual, etc)
  

Then there are the roles that are important for moving ideas from concept to reality:

• Idea Generator
• The origination point of an idea
  
• Idea Champion
• The person responsible for shaping the idea, building a business case and keeping it moving forward
  
• Idea Sponsor
• The person who secures the resources (money, human, time) to explore the idea and who provides "cover" for the idea to keep it safe
  
• Process Manager
• The person who manages the innovation/idea process to ensure ideas have an easy to access and repeatable path to follow
  
• Engineer or Prototype Builder
• The person who brings the idea to life (on a drawing board, in a lab, virtually, physically, etc.)
  
• Project Manager & Implementation Team
  
• The people who manage the process and create/implement an actual object, business process and/or service based on the idea
  
• Sales & Marketing Teams
• The people who convince others to purchase the output of the new idea, thus making it an official innovation
  

But how do you protect these people and help them stay connected?

• Look for the mavericks who feel constrained by your current processes and procedures and who develop alternative methods
  
• Reward those who challenge the status quo
• Encourage self-organizing teams
• Mandate cross-functional teams
• Implement collaboration tools like conference rooms/idea centers, blogs, message boards, wikis, groupware, etc
• Provide training on expanding their natural innovative/creative skills
• Provide cover and support and appreciation for fast failures
• Demonstrate that risk taking is okay

And what about keeping people motivated to keep the idea pipeline full?

• Public Recognition
• Money
• Idea Lottery
• Frequent Idea Point Program
• Calls, Notes or Personal Visits from Senior Leadership
• Ice Cream Socials
• Promotions within the Innovation Management Group
• Temporary Assignment to Work on the Idea
• Award Ceremony for the Best Failure
• Great Ideas Award Banquet

There is absolutely no question, and Stefan identifies it clearly in his blog entry, that people make innovation happen.  The best thing management can do to help is to provide the resources, freedom, flexibility, protection, support and then stay out of the way!

"Stay committed to your decisions, but be flexible in your approach" - Tom Robbins

A year or so ago, I had a client come up to me after our problem-finding workshop had ended and say, "I am so sorry that we didn't find any problems to fix right now...We feel just awful!" 

Can you imagine that?  First of all, they weren't my problems, I was just the facilitator of the session, and quite frankly, they were "problems' that could wait for a solution.  But the part that was most distressing was that she didn't consider the weeks of work that went into scouring the organization for problems to solve, for ideas on product improvement, or for ways to better engage customers as a successful outcome to the engagement. 

Sometimes, like our in our current economic climate, it just doesn't make good financial sense to take action on problems or ideas.  Or in other words, sometimes you really can't afford to "innovate."  But that certainly doesn't mean that you should completely ignore your search for problems to solve, shut down idea campaigns, pull the plug on low-cost prototypes or cease to engage in other organizational creativity activities.  Sometimes making the decision to do nothing is the best decision to make.  And yes...that IS okay!

The main point is, even if you aren't currently in a position to execute on ideas, that doesn't mean you have to stop challenging your employees to look for pain-points to solve, to think of ideas that might steal a few customers from your biggest competitor or to simply look inside your organization and make certain the current strategic direction is still headed on the right bearing.  Use these challenging times, or any ebb in the cyclical nature of business, to fill up the idea funnel or pipeline.  It costs very little to put people in a room for the day to think about the problems your organization faces.  Then, when the time is right, you'll have actionable ideas that have been fully explored and considered for immediate execution.  In fact, while your competitor is busy restarting his innovation machine and going on a search for new ideas to bring to market, you'll already be putting prototypes in front of customers, including some of his!

So let me close by telling you what I told that client last year who felt just awful about deciding not to solve any of the problems they discovered, "The simple act of looking for problems to solve, solves a problem.  Think of the things you now know that you didn't know before.  Believe it or not, that is an incredible competitive advantage."

Hopefully you see it the same way!
 

"Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity" - Erik Christopher Zeeman

Sometimes I wonder if all of this positive and cheerleader-like talk about the benefits of organizational creativity and innovation make me sound like a pie-eyed optimist.  So...to prove that my realist-side is alive and well, I thought we'd focus on some of the ways creativity, ideation and innovation can foster unexpected and/or negative consequences:

• In every creative solutioning effort, there comes a time when ideation needs to stop and a solution must be selected for further exploration.  Some of you may have heard the term GEPO or "Good Enough...Press On."  Keep it in mind, and balance the need to push for the search for new ideas with the need to just move on.  Remember, ideas don't exist until you do something with them!
  
• Conversely, sometimes we think we have the right solution early on in the ideation session because it sounds like it will solve the problem and should be easy to implement.  Be particularly wary of the "easy" answer.  This is a dangerous short cut that rarely yields breakthrough solutions.
• Another danger of accepting the easy way out is the temptation to just tweak the problem a bit to fit a particular solution.  Face it, your problem is what it is, and to accept it or "live with part of it" just because a particular idea solves a portion of it is not really solving the full problem.
• One of the most negative and destructive things to creativity is negative reaction to ideas.  You've heard and seen them before...
• They SOUND like these:
• "That'll never work"
• "We tried that already"
• "Management will never go for it"
• "We can only afford to cut costs now"
• They LOOK like these:
• Eye rolling
• Putting ideas on a "parking lot" sheet
• Last item on the agenda...oops...no time left to discuss
• Written...but never said
• One of the things we have talked about previously as a danger to good innovation is the tendency to over complicate or otherwise create a new problem by "solving" the old problem.  Make sure you are addressing the real problem, not a symptom.  Make sure you are address the whole problem, not just applying a bandaid to broken arm.
• Finally...be very, very careful of "knowing too much."  It is dangerous to insert personal bias, assumptions, stereotypes and other starting points of thinking that will cloud and distort your thinking right from the beginning.  This is why role-playing, or thinking outside of yourself, works so well in ideation.

So, there are a few things to watch out for when problem solving and engaging in organizational creativity.  But now that you know some of the more common pitfalls and trapdoors, you can hopefully steer clear of them to bring true innovative solutions to light.  And yes...I am an optimist...and I do believe that all of the world's problems are just an idea away from the right person, with the right mindset, in the right set of conditions and circumstances.  How do you think we got to where we are today?

Walt Disney once said, "There's a hundred great ideas in every Readers Digest..." and I'm starting to think that there's a PDMA Annual International Conference Keynote Speaker in every one too!

Last year it was iRobot's CEO, Helen Grenier, which we blogged about both before and during the conference.  This year, its Guy Kawasaki, with his usual brand of excellent advice for budding entrepreneurs and innovators on page 100 of the May 2009 Readers Digest, including his thoughts on starting a business, selling ideas, expanding your education and giving something back. 

Guy's advice is similar to the one you've heard here ever since the economic downturn started...NOW is the time to make your move!

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Mr. Kawasaki will be one of a great lineup of keynote speakers at the 2009 PDMA Annual International Conference, which is being held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California starting November 2nd, 2009.  Don't forget that Think For A Change is an official Media Partner for the conference, which means you can use our discount code (MP09IC) during registration to save 20% off of your main conference fees!!!

The eagerly anticipated "Innovation Climate Survey" has been released by InnovationTools.com. 

There are a number of startling findings within the survey data:

• Respondents to this survey said that the climate and funding for innovation are holding up fairly well...Over one-fourth of respondents (27%) said that the climate for innovation has improved slightly since the onset of the global recession, while another 20% said it has “improved significantly.”
• Funding for innovation appears to be holding steady, at least at the time the survey was conducted. Over one-third of respondents (37%) reported that there has been “no change” to their organization’s level of funding for innovation. A small percentage of companies said they have actually increased funding for innovation since the economic downturn began.

I use the word "startling" above because, while I had hoped that the survey would show these findings, I was not very optimistic.  Glad I was wrong!  In fact, this report, combined with a recent uptick in the number of new client inquiries and some increased activity on this blog tells me, at least anecdotally, that the focus is again turning to exploring methods to increase growth and improve competitive separation!

MANY THANKS to Chuck Frey at InnovationTools.com for all of the hard work in gathering this data and publishing the report!!!

There are a number of great innovation and organizational creativity books on the market today.  Many focus on process, or idea generation, or problem solving, or new product development.  All of these books stress the importance of leadership on the success or failure of organizational innovation management programs.  The problem with each of these books was that, while the importance of leadership was repeatedly mentioned, the mentions were not followed with a "how-to" on making it actually happen. 

That is...until now.  The 2008 release of Innovation Leaders by Jean-Phillipe Deschamps changes all of that.  This is quite possibly the best known compendium focused solely on the attributes, approaches, styles, mannerisms, character and other leadership qualities that make up leaders of ideas, organizational creativity and innovation management. 

Take for example, the Six Innovation Leadership Attributes that Professor Deschamps describes when talking about the special kind of leadership it takes to manage innovation:

1. A mix of emotion and realism
2. The acceptance of uncertainty, risks and failures and to ensure people learn from each
3. A high degree of passion and a burning desire to share that passion with others
4. The willingness to search proactively for external technologies and ideas
5. The courage to stop projects if they no longer show benefit
6. A talent for building, steering, attracting and retaining innovative teams

The book flows extremely well and is packed with page after page of great insight, experience and guidance.  Early on, the book walks through the "basics" of innovation leadership and management.  Yes...leadership and management are different...and he explains exactly why in the organizational innovation context.  Additionally, there are some great nuggets of advice on using different approaches to fostering bottom-up innovation vs. steering top-down innovation.  Within the middle of book, Professor Deschamps takes the reader behind the scenes at various organizations (TetraPak, Medtronic, TiVo, Logitech) as he shares, in an almost play-by-play fashion, the management and leadership view of new product/service development.  He then concludes the book by exploring the difficult task of attracting, developing and retaining innovation leaders.

For those of us who are primarily focused on the management and leadership of organizational creativity, innovation management, new product development, etc., this book a definite continuing education resource!  I highly encourage you to get a copy today!

What is even more exciting is that Jean-Phillipe Deschamps is one of the keynote speakers at the 2009 PDMA Annual International Conference!  I can't wait to hear him talk about innovation leadership and maybe get a chance to have him sign the book!  Don't forget that the Think For A Change Blog is a Media Partner for the conference again this year.  We'll be promoting the conference on this blog right up until the conference starts, when we will then switch over to live blogging and Twittering of the conference events as they unfold!  Conference registration opens soon so watch here for your special Media Partner discount code...good for up to a 20% savings!

It's been a little too serious around here lately, so I decided to lighten things up for a Friday and post the "Wordle" representation of the blog entries.  For those of you unfamiliar with Wordle, it scans the RSS/Atom feed of your blog and gives added weight to words used most often.  I guess I use the word "innovation" a lot...go figure...

                

2009 PDMA Annual International Conference Pre-Conference Brochure Released...Registration Opening Soon!!!

The pre-conference brochure is now available online!

Please use the following links for more information

• View the Pre-Conference Brochure:
• http://tinyurl.com/d7mn3q
• Visit the Conference Website:
• http://conference.pdma.org
• View the Networking Opportunities associated with the Conference:
• http://conference.pdma.org/NetworkingActivities.cfm
• Sign up for the LinkedIn Event for the PDMA Annual Int'l Conference
• http://events.linkedin.com/pub/27373

Registration opens soon and followers of the Think For A Change Blog (A PDMA Annual International Conference Media Partner) will receive a 20% discount on their registration fees using the following discount code: MP09IC during the registration process!!!

I recently received an advance copy of Ken Watanabe's Problem Solving 101 (Thanks Maureen Cole of Portfolio/Penguin!).  It is a powerful, yet simple to digest, "textbook" on the basics of problem solving.  At only 110 pages, the book packs a potent educational punch in a small package.  I read through the book in one sitting and found myself bending over quite a few page corners! 

Let me just start out by saying that this book should be required reading for every corporate employee on his/her first day on the job!  As a project/innovation manager, many of the frustrations that arise surrounding "issues" and "risks" and "schedule slip" would be eliminated if people knew how to properly solve problems.

Ken Watanabe originally wrote Problem Solving 101 for Japanese school children.  His goal was to help shift the focus in Japanese education from memorization to critical thinking by adapting some of the techniques he had learned as an elite McKinsey consultant.

The book explores, in unbelievably easy to understand and example-rich format, the four main stages of problem solving:

1. Understanding that a problem exists
2. Identifying root cause
3. Developing an action plan
4. Execution of the action plan

Additionally, the book uses many specific tools to acheive successful problem solving:

• Logic and Yes/No Trees
• Hypothesis
• Goal Setting
• Criteria Evaluation
• Decision Making

For those of us in the organizational creativity/innovation management field, it is a fantastic refresher course.  More importantly, it is a key tool to leverage in the education of others toward achieving our problem solving ends.  Grab a copy today!

In the spirit of "The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference," which is now available to Amazon Kindle users and will soon (2-3 weeks) be available in print form on Amazon.com,  it is always good to build a broad range of continuing education sources to not only keep up to date on the latest innovation thought leadership, but to also just expand your overall general knowledge.  So today, let's refresh our list of great innovation bloggers (in no particular order):

1. InnovationTools.com Weblog by Chuck Frey
   
• My "go-to" web portal for all of the latest news, thought leadership, research, announcements, etc in the world of innovation, creativity and mind mapping
• Chuck has been assembling a team of guest bloggers to make this an even better resource than ever!
  
2. Innovating to Win by James Todhunter
• As a practicing innovation executive with Invention Machine, Jim has great insight into the world of corporate innovation from the front lines.  Always good stuff here!
3. Stefan Lindegaard
• Some of the best new thinking is coming from this guy!
4. Innovate on Purpose by Jeffrey Phillips
• Jeffrey is the leader of OVO Innovation and always has great stories to share from his experiences with companies looking to improve their innovation skills
5. Fleishman-Hillard Innovation Blog by Kathie Thomas
• Really good resource for a broad range of innovation related topics
6. BQF Innovation by Paul Sloane
• Paul is always at the bleeding edge of the latest innovation management movement
7. getFreshMinds by Katie Konrath
• Every time I visit Katie's blog, I find a new way of looking at something...'nuff said!
8. Killer Innovation by Phil McKinney
• You can't get much better innovation advice and thought leadership than from the guy who serves as HP's Personal System Group VP and CTO!
9. Zane Safrit
• A great collection of innovation and customer experience posts.  The best part of this resource is the Blog Radio interviews that I can listen to and get great insights
10. Endless Innovation by Dominic Basulto
• Dominic is also part of the hugely popular Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog and always has great insights on cutting edge innovations in the marketplace

I could keep going but that is a pretty good representation of some of the over 40 blogs I follow (via Google Reader...thank God for RSS aggregators!).  If you want even more sources of information, I would strongly recommend you also visit the Innovation Section at Guy Kawasaki's Alltop.  Otherwise, check out the blogrolls of any of the above-mentioned blogs and keep exploring!

Remember...the well-rounded Innovation Manager is always on the prowl for new information!

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music" - Angela Monet

I've been thinking a lot about the critical role that passion plays in creativity and innovation.  Yesterday, I was reading a cool article in the latest Reader's Digest about two guys who started their own business called "College Hunks Hauling Junk" that specializes in exactly what it describes.  Within the article, one the founders, Nick Friedman was asked the following question,

    "Q. Readers Digest: Any regrets?"
    "A. Nick Friedman: No. I felt like I was stuck in a rat race at the consulting company. There was just too much time in the workday. Now that Omar and I have our own business, there isn't enough time in the day to do everything we want to do.

Did you catch that?  He went from feeling there were too many hours in the day to not enough.  That is passion!  When you lose track of what time it is and everything else around you, you are pursing your passion.  And it is these moments of passion that produce unique ideas and innovations.  This the mental state in which problems are most efficiently solved. 

Many of us are not fortunate enough to have combined our personal passions into our careers.  In fact, some of our career choices have limited our passion.  Have you ever felt:

• Content
• Apathetic
• Inconsistent
• Ineffective
• Have low morale, self-esteem, motivation, etc.

These are all passion-limiting symptoms. 

On the flip-side, have you ever felt:

• Energized
• Restless
• Frustrated
• Angry
• Driven

These are all passion-enhancing attributes.

Leverage these passion-seeking behaviors by incorporating them into your organizational problem solving and innovation processes.  Seek out new ways of doing things.  Stop doing things that no longer add value to your customers.  Find out what your customer's passions are.  Find out what your employee's passions are.

Speaking of whom, here are some helpful signs that one of your employees has caught the passion "bug":

• They look forward to coming to work
• They feel energized by what they do individually and by what you do as a company
• They feel their contribution is respected and appreciated
• They are proud when describing the work they do to their peers, friends and family
• They enjoy and respect the people they work with and for
• They are optimistic about their own future and the future of your company
• They are not afraid to share their opinions, ideas and criticisms

Find these people within your company.  They are there...usually early and late.  They do not hesitate to bring work home.  They are the one's who are not afraid to speak up at meetings, especially leadership meetings.  Find these people and support them.  Support them directly or get an idea champion to work with them.  Feed their passion and you will feel your own passion rekindled.

So...do you have too many hours in the day?  Or not enough? 

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." - Erich Fromm

Let's take a step away from the troubles in the economy for a bit and take a refresher class on personal creativity.  After all, the only real way out of this current economic "crisis" is going to be that one key idea that someone generates, has the courage to pursue and the ability to shepherd it through into reality.  Maybe the next "big thing" is currently incubating, waiting for its opening.  What if it is sitting as prototype in some laboratory.  Perhaps it is waiting for a funding review and project prioritization committee to give it the green light.  It's hard to say exactly what stage it is in, but it is most certainly out there...somewhere.

Assume for the moment that the "killer idea" has yet to be discovered.  Here are some suggestions to increase the odds of getting that idea to see the light of day:

• Do you have a passion for this?  Do you have "skin in the game?"  It helps...
  
• Understand the climate in which you most effectively and efficiently generate ideas
• Set up a separate work area dedicated to ideas, deep thought, prototyping, etc.
• Identify areas of potential personal improvement in education, play, experimentation and thought processes to challenge yourself in improving those skill sets
• Carve out protected durations of time to reflect, think and generate ideas
• Spend time defining your challenge or problem
  
• Force yourself to develop the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th "right answer" or next best idea
  
• Don't expect the first idea to be perfect
• Document all ideas that present themselves

Sometimes, your challenge isn't "being creative" but instead holding obstacles to creativity at arms length.  Here are some common biases, obstacles, barriers or challenges to creativity that you should watch for and attempt to avoid:

• Failing to ask questions
• Failing to question common assumptions
• Seeking to remove all ambiguity
• Failure to intently listen, observe and understand
  
• Poor environment for creativity
• Risk avoidance
• Resistance to change
• Trying to go too fast
• Fear of failure
• Silo thinking, herd thinking, group thinking, etc.
• Avoid "Yes...but" thinking

Maybe you just need these tips, tricks or ideas on taking your creativity to the next level:

• Keep a dedicated idea notebook, recording device, e-mailbox, voice mailbox, etc.
• Force collisions of uncommon assumptions
• Use analogous thinking
• Find ways to expand your thinking and knowledge
• Use idea generation techniques to push thinking further
• Network and collaborate with a broad and diverse set of people
• Experiment often, fail often and learn from failure
• Reward yourself and others for being creative
• Ask questions that lead to more questions
• Step outside your current view or hire someone else to do it for you
• Don't be afraid to bend or break some rules

Regardless of these ideas, tips, tricks and/or suggestions, the most important first step you can take is to decide and act, preferably with strong purpose and resolve, to being more creative.  Once you set your mind and actions to something, you'll be amazed at how great you can be!

 

Paul R. Williams and Think For A Change, LLC. are proud to announce the publication and release of "The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference"!!!

The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference (First Edition) is a first of its kind collection of resources, best practices and thought leadership specifically written for today's busy Innovation Manager.  Within its pages, The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference explores many of the key attributes of innovation/creativity management such as:

•       Creative Problem Solving
•       Organizational Imagination
•       Leadership
•       Culture
•       Systems/Processes
•       Resources
•       Models
•       Other Useful Tools

The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference by Paul R. Williams A collection of resources, best practices and thought leadership on organizational creativity, idea management and innovation leadership for the Innovation Manager. $24.98 for print copy $15.00 for electronic (eBook) copy

Preview Pages: Introduction Table of Contents Sample Chapter Copyright/Title Pages   See the publisher preview on Lulu.com

Just got back from an absolutely fabulous week of skiing in Winter Park, CO!!! 

We (my wife's side of the family) took Amtrak's California Zephyr between Chicago and Winter Park which allowed me ample time (to say the least - 20 hrs each way) to think, relax, incubate some ideas, reflect and do all the things I keep telling you to do!  It was a great experience for my daughter though to see the country in a new way. 

The snow was perfect, the temps were perfect, the rental house was amazing and the skiing was fantastic.  Most importantly, I didn't break anything! 

Just didn't want you all to think I just vanished from the face of the planet.  In fact, I am going to have a MAJOR announcement tomorrow about an exciting new offering from myself and Think For A Change! 

Stay tuned!