Innovation

Investigate before you innovate

November 11, 2020
If you want your frontline employees to innovate, fine—but don’t just issue orders. Instead, ask a few questions to determine how well your employees are prepared for innovation so you’ll know what else you have to do. Begin with these questions.

Never shut off the idea spigot

August 13, 2020
Q: I have a loyal employee who does a good job with every task that is assigned to him. One problem: Every original idea he’s ever suggested is absolutely terrible and he has not even a smidgen of clever, original thinking. Yet it would be quite awkward to actively disinvite him from brainstorming meetings or cut him from group projects. What to do?

Save good ideas from oblivion

August 13, 2020
In a fast-paced meeting or discussion, people can get so caught up in presenting ideas that some valid thoughts, responses, and additions get pushed aside too soon. Don’t let them get lost.

Incubate those great ideas!

July 9, 2020
Some ideas come to you in a flash of insight. Others take their time, but can pay off just as richly.

Imagineering made easy

February 13, 2020
“What could have been” and “what might be” are not the usual stuff of business discussions. Yet giving your employees the opportunity to pursue these topics can lead to new insights and ideas. Try these scenarios and see what emerges.

Could you be a polymath?

December 13, 2019
If you consider yourself to be regularly employing a variety of thinking styles, then you may be a polymath.

The wisdom of improv training

November 7, 2019
What do comedy and business have in common? Plenty, as it turns out. Here are just a few shared principles useful in improv and work.

Where transformative ideas come from

November 7, 2019
Science author Steven Johnson writes books about the search for where ideas come from, how we make decisions and what the two pursuits have in common. Some takeaways from his recent conversation on the podcast “Clear + Vivid” with Alan Alda.

6 innovations that changed everything

October 10, 2019
In his book How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson tells the story of history’s most intertwined, complex and crucial enterprises.

Listen to pop culture and profit

September 12, 2019
Look around at popular culture. Watch for the little signs of transformation. Your next brilliant idea is in there somewhere.