1. People deny that the innovation is required.
2. People deny that the innovation is effective.
3. People deny that the innovation is important.
4. People deny that the innovation will justify the effort required to adopt it.
5. People accept and adopt the innovation, enjoy its benefits, attribute it to people other than the innovator, and deny the existence of stages 1 to 4.
©AC 2005. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's 'Three Stages Of Scientific Discovery', as referenced by Bill Bryson in his book, 'A Short History Of Nearly Everything'.
* Not applicable (of course) to courageous early adopters of innovation everywhere.
Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Testing an Innovative Idea Before you Act
Innovators create something different that makes an impact. But how do you rapidly assess whether an idea is "innovative" or a dud? Nine ways an innovator can increase their confidence in making the right decision, each of which takes no more than an hour to do.
1. Talk to a prospective customer to get their perspective. Remember, that is likely to be different from your perspective. And friends and family members can be prospective customers. Talking to a single potential customer might feel a bit random, but, hey... it's more than you have now.
2. Go to where prospective customers might hang out and watch them for an hour. Write down things that you didn't expect to see. Think about how that might influence your idea.
3. Research an analogy. Who did something similar? What can you find out about how well that worked from public sources? Remember, a failure doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, it just means you need to understand why the failure happened.
4. Talk to someone who you think has good innovation instincts but isn't involved in the day-to-day grind of your operations. Ask what that person would do. Think about people outside your industry who have proven to be successful innovators and share your idea.
5. Begin to network toward an expert. If you could talk to three people in the world about your concept, who would they be? Who in your network might be in their networks? People love to talk about their areas of expertise, so if you can get to them they typically offer a wealth of information.
6. Visualize it. What would the thing look like? Create a sketch or mockup to bring the idea to life. Consider a six-panel storyboard (like a cartoon) that describes how people find out about, obtain, and then use your product or service. Visualization sometimes helps you understand your idea more concretely. Even more importantly, it gives you something you can share with people to get their feedback.
7. Do a simply financial calculation. Not a super-complicated one. Just one with three or four variables that help you understand what conceivably would have to be true for the idea to make sense. This exercise can help you understand the economic potential and risk of the idea.
8. Conduct a broader assumption identification exercise. This is really nothing more than asking yourself "what would need to be true" for this idea to be viable. Which of those assumptions makes you worried? Can you address those concerns using any of the techniques here?
9. Spend an hour conducting a past pattern exercise. That is, look back at things you have done that have worked, and things that haven't worked. What separates them? For example, factors could be things like "every time I am skeptical it doesn't work" or "things that person X says are crazy are in fact crazy." Once you have the list, how the current idea stacks up?
These kinds of straightforward activities can provide deeper insight into opportunities, help you formulate more compelling ideas, and help make sure that an idea moves from the notepad to the market.
1. Talk to a prospective customer to get their perspective. Remember, that is likely to be different from your perspective. And friends and family members can be prospective customers. Talking to a single potential customer might feel a bit random, but, hey... it's more than you have now.
2. Go to where prospective customers might hang out and watch them for an hour. Write down things that you didn't expect to see. Think about how that might influence your idea.
3. Research an analogy. Who did something similar? What can you find out about how well that worked from public sources? Remember, a failure doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, it just means you need to understand why the failure happened.
4. Talk to someone who you think has good innovation instincts but isn't involved in the day-to-day grind of your operations. Ask what that person would do. Think about people outside your industry who have proven to be successful innovators and share your idea.
5. Begin to network toward an expert. If you could talk to three people in the world about your concept, who would they be? Who in your network might be in their networks? People love to talk about their areas of expertise, so if you can get to them they typically offer a wealth of information.
6. Visualize it. What would the thing look like? Create a sketch or mockup to bring the idea to life. Consider a six-panel storyboard (like a cartoon) that describes how people find out about, obtain, and then use your product or service. Visualization sometimes helps you understand your idea more concretely. Even more importantly, it gives you something you can share with people to get their feedback.
7. Do a simply financial calculation. Not a super-complicated one. Just one with three or four variables that help you understand what conceivably would have to be true for the idea to make sense. This exercise can help you understand the economic potential and risk of the idea.
8. Conduct a broader assumption identification exercise. This is really nothing more than asking yourself "what would need to be true" for this idea to be viable. Which of those assumptions makes you worried? Can you address those concerns using any of the techniques here?
9. Spend an hour conducting a past pattern exercise. That is, look back at things you have done that have worked, and things that haven't worked. What separates them? For example, factors could be things like "every time I am skeptical it doesn't work" or "things that person X says are crazy are in fact crazy." Once you have the list, how the current idea stacks up?
These kinds of straightforward activities can provide deeper insight into opportunities, help you formulate more compelling ideas, and help make sure that an idea moves from the notepad to the market.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Five Lessons from 2010 Worth Repeating — Without Repeating 2010
January 3, 2011
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Harvard Business Review Blogs)
Before 2010 is dumped into the dustbin of history — and it was a year when cleaning up after disasters was not just a metaphor — it's worth finding the gems among the trash.
Apple, Facebook, Twitter, IBM, PepsiCo, P&G, Stonyfield Farm, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and former British politicians provided me with occasions for pointing to business strategy and leadership lessons, good and bad, that shouldn't be forgotten. Here are my top five lessons from last year's blogs that can be carried confidently into the new year.
1. Surprises are the new normal. Resilience is the new skill. Back-up plans are strategic assets. Volcanic ash, generally not on any company's worst case scenario list, disrupted air traffic for several weeks. ("Surprise!) As BP proved, minimizing crisis doesn't cut it, and failure to communicate honestly is the biggest mistake. Kanter's Law still holds — that everything can look like a failure in the middle. The number of things that can hold things up has burgeoned, especially when politics are involved; Chinese regulators are the latest deal-delayers, this time for the NSN-Motorola deal. It helps to have leaders who are Energizers, a favorite idea from 2009, because their positive spirit can keep things moving.
2. Innovation takes courage and the willingness to be out in front rather than following the herd. Speaking of herds, while sacred cows can hold companies back if there is no courage to challenge orthodoxy, cows proved to be a better set of celebrity endorsers than Tiger Woods for Stonyfield Farms and their yogurt marketing. The creativity to produce innovation can involve a great deal of improvisation rather than sticking to a fixed script. It also takes dedication. Perhaps some entrepreneurs have a passionate desire to prove something.
3. Straight-line careers are over-rated. Zig-zags might better serve companies and leaders. When change is ubiquitous, stepping outside of familiar territories — whether fields, geographies, or industries — can provide important new insights and perspectives, particularly for emerging opportunities. Veer, soar, and return to the home base triumphant, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed. But that doesn't mean that leaders can parachute in from one setting to another and expect to be effective. Jobs took a pause and learned a few new consumer entertainment tricks. It is a good idea to take learning pauses to prepare for next steps.
4. Openness and inclusion should be the new standards. As the movie Inside Job argues about the banking crisis, closed circles of elites can reinforce dysfunctional behavior when there are interlocking financial interests and self-dealing relationships. Including people from formerly excluded groups might add perspectives that surface problems earlier or discourage throwing caution to the wind. Power goes to the connectors, a 2009 lesson. Connectors bring new ideas and information across groups, a very important role when the best new opportunities lie in emerging markets unfamiliar to those. Thus, the leadership ranks must be globally diverse. But though women are proving themselves as CEOs, challenges of inclusion remain.
5. Forget privacy, especially if you're a leader. Leaders are always on. Microphones and video cameras are always on, too, as former British prime minister Gordon Brown found to his peril. Xerox CEO Ursula Burns received better coaching her predecessor, Anne Mulcahy, and provides a positive model. But other CEOs weren't so fortunate. As former HP CEO Mark Hurd learned, small lapses can trip up leaders, even smart ones producing financial results, if they do not have a base of support. In the digital age, the spotlight is always, and the erosion of privacy affects everyone, a 2009 lesson that looms larger every day.
2010 will soon seem like ancient history, but these lessons will endure. Especially because 2011 is certain to bring surprises that will require still more innovation and even more open leadership.
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Harvard Business Review Blogs)
Before 2010 is dumped into the dustbin of history — and it was a year when cleaning up after disasters was not just a metaphor — it's worth finding the gems among the trash.
Apple, Facebook, Twitter, IBM, PepsiCo, P&G, Stonyfield Farm, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and former British politicians provided me with occasions for pointing to business strategy and leadership lessons, good and bad, that shouldn't be forgotten. Here are my top five lessons from last year's blogs that can be carried confidently into the new year.
1. Surprises are the new normal. Resilience is the new skill. Back-up plans are strategic assets. Volcanic ash, generally not on any company's worst case scenario list, disrupted air traffic for several weeks. ("Surprise!) As BP proved, minimizing crisis doesn't cut it, and failure to communicate honestly is the biggest mistake. Kanter's Law still holds — that everything can look like a failure in the middle. The number of things that can hold things up has burgeoned, especially when politics are involved; Chinese regulators are the latest deal-delayers, this time for the NSN-Motorola deal. It helps to have leaders who are Energizers, a favorite idea from 2009, because their positive spirit can keep things moving.
2. Innovation takes courage and the willingness to be out in front rather than following the herd. Speaking of herds, while sacred cows can hold companies back if there is no courage to challenge orthodoxy, cows proved to be a better set of celebrity endorsers than Tiger Woods for Stonyfield Farms and their yogurt marketing. The creativity to produce innovation can involve a great deal of improvisation rather than sticking to a fixed script. It also takes dedication. Perhaps some entrepreneurs have a passionate desire to prove something.
3. Straight-line careers are over-rated. Zig-zags might better serve companies and leaders. When change is ubiquitous, stepping outside of familiar territories — whether fields, geographies, or industries — can provide important new insights and perspectives, particularly for emerging opportunities. Veer, soar, and return to the home base triumphant, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed. But that doesn't mean that leaders can parachute in from one setting to another and expect to be effective. Jobs took a pause and learned a few new consumer entertainment tricks. It is a good idea to take learning pauses to prepare for next steps.
4. Openness and inclusion should be the new standards. As the movie Inside Job argues about the banking crisis, closed circles of elites can reinforce dysfunctional behavior when there are interlocking financial interests and self-dealing relationships. Including people from formerly excluded groups might add perspectives that surface problems earlier or discourage throwing caution to the wind. Power goes to the connectors, a 2009 lesson. Connectors bring new ideas and information across groups, a very important role when the best new opportunities lie in emerging markets unfamiliar to those. Thus, the leadership ranks must be globally diverse. But though women are proving themselves as CEOs, challenges of inclusion remain.
5. Forget privacy, especially if you're a leader. Leaders are always on. Microphones and video cameras are always on, too, as former British prime minister Gordon Brown found to his peril. Xerox CEO Ursula Burns received better coaching her predecessor, Anne Mulcahy, and provides a positive model. But other CEOs weren't so fortunate. As former HP CEO Mark Hurd learned, small lapses can trip up leaders, even smart ones producing financial results, if they do not have a base of support. In the digital age, the spotlight is always, and the erosion of privacy affects everyone, a 2009 lesson that looms larger every day.
2010 will soon seem like ancient history, but these lessons will endure. Especially because 2011 is certain to bring surprises that will require still more innovation and even more open leadership.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Why Best Practices are Losers
by Michael W. McLaughlin on January 28, 2010
(I completely agree with this blog post about the drawbacks of over-reliance on best practices. Just because a method worked in one situation does not guarantee that it will applicable to another scenario. Innovation and creative thinking will always help you blend historical successes with new approaches to find the unique mix of solutions that are best for your company.)
If you spend any time with a service provider, it won’t be long before you hear how the use of so-called “best practices” will pave the way to client success.
Using the best practices developed by other organizations, you’ll hear, will accelerate the design of a solution to most any problem. Listening to this, you’d think best practices were silver bullets.
The problem with the best practices approach is that it usually doesn’t work.
Starting any project with a canned solution narrows your focus to how you will implement that solution, instead of broadening your thinking about what should be done. I’m not suggesting that professionals blindly use the best practices of others without some consideration of the client’s situation. What can (and does) happen, though, is that teams begin with an analysis of how to make someone else’s answer work when they should devise innovations for the situation they face.
What makes the use of best practices even more dangerous is that it’s a follower’s strategy. By leaning on the well-worn solutions of others, you’re dooming your client to a future of following the pack, not leading it.
Of course, there is value in learning from the experience of others. If another organization has addressed a similar issue, it’s helpful to know what they did. And best practices can jog your thoughts and maybe even inspire you.
But as a tool for guiding strategic initiatives, it’s a real loser. Remember, one company’s best practice can too easily become another’s sunk cost.
(I completely agree with this blog post about the drawbacks of over-reliance on best practices. Just because a method worked in one situation does not guarantee that it will applicable to another scenario. Innovation and creative thinking will always help you blend historical successes with new approaches to find the unique mix of solutions that are best for your company.)
If you spend any time with a service provider, it won’t be long before you hear how the use of so-called “best practices” will pave the way to client success.
Using the best practices developed by other organizations, you’ll hear, will accelerate the design of a solution to most any problem. Listening to this, you’d think best practices were silver bullets.
The problem with the best practices approach is that it usually doesn’t work.
Starting any project with a canned solution narrows your focus to how you will implement that solution, instead of broadening your thinking about what should be done. I’m not suggesting that professionals blindly use the best practices of others without some consideration of the client’s situation. What can (and does) happen, though, is that teams begin with an analysis of how to make someone else’s answer work when they should devise innovations for the situation they face.
What makes the use of best practices even more dangerous is that it’s a follower’s strategy. By leaning on the well-worn solutions of others, you’re dooming your client to a future of following the pack, not leading it.
Of course, there is value in learning from the experience of others. If another organization has addressed a similar issue, it’s helpful to know what they did. And best practices can jog your thoughts and maybe even inspire you.
But as a tool for guiding strategic initiatives, it’s a real loser. Remember, one company’s best practice can too easily become another’s sunk cost.
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