Good Morning Thinkers!

Blind Cow Challenges Assumptions

What assumptions do we make about restaurants?  Here are a few:

• They serve food
• They charge money for the food they serve
• Menus guide people in their food choices
• Visual ambiance is important
• Food presentation is important
• Restaurants are a place to see and be seen
• Customers want to see their food

What if you deliberately challenged all except the first two?

Blind Cow Restaurant in Zurich blows most common assumptions completely off the map. People eat in total darkness (no candles, flashlights or even glow-in-the-dark watches) and are waited on largely by blind people. (The only concession to sight are bathroom lights but guests are guided there by the staff. And, of course, checks – in both Braille and type – are paid in the lighted lobby after the meal.)

The 60-seat Blind Cow is hugely popular and booked months in advance. Innovation is the process of creating new value, and the Blind Cow gives people a new experience and a chance to experience sightlessness in a safe environment. It’s not a concept that many restaurants will copy but it could stimulate thinking about how else could a restaurant offer a unique experience.

Listen to an NPR description at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

Thanks, Jonathan Vehar for this great story.)

Traffic Calming

If you wanted to slow down the cars zipping through your neighborhood, what would you do?  Speed bumps?  Stop signs?  Cameras?  Living room in the middle of the street?  What?!!

Check it out at Road Witch.

Innovating Presentations

Gaining support and selling ideas is a major part of the innovation process.  Here are a couple of gems from friends that might help you.

The first is from Jerry McNellis (http://www.mcnellisco.com):

I've never told you about my aunt, Sister Judith Stoughton, who ran the art department of a Catholic Women’s college in St Paul Minnesota.    Now she was something ... so liberal I’m amazed she allowed a male to say Mass at her funeral.

She was a two-time Fulbright scholar ... once after she turned 50.  Absolutely brilliant.   Her students  have designed churches and religious artwork across many faiths and oceans. 

Once Sr Judith told me about one of her nationally recognized former students who was going to quit religious artwork because she was so frustrated at what happened as she was working with churches.   She would meet with a committee of the church and gather their ideas and requirements (say for a new altar) and then she’d go to her studio and create something to show the committee.

After presenting her idea to the committee, they would beat the daylights out of her work. She became so despondent she considered changing professions even though she loved religious artwork and, according to Judith, she was extremely talented.

Then, the artist had an idea. The next time she had a commission she created two artifacts to show the church committee.  Sure enough they beat the tar out of the first one she showed them.   It took about an hour while she calmly sat as they went nutszo.   Then she called a coffee break and afterwards presented her second artifact which in turn they bought unanimously within minutes.

That became her modus operandi.

The theory was that the first artifact was like a lightening rod for the committee.  It was a way for them to express their spiritual discomfort within themselves and with God as well as frustration with being a member of the church.   It wasn’t her artifact.  It was much deeper than that.

Once they were able to get their "bad feelings" expressed, they were in a position to appreciate the genius in the art created specifically for them.  The second work of art was the one actually designed for them.  The first was designed to help them express their personal and organizational frustrations.

To me Sister Judith’s student was an innovator and there may be a lesson there to help the rest of us with our presentations.  Jerry

The second comes from Richard Weddle who shared a presentation on "Identity 2.0" which is worth checking out even if only to see the presentation style.  It's interesting stuff even if it does get a bit techie toward the end.  Check it out at: http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

Have an abundantly creative week.  joyce

Harnassing Magic

Until recently, innovation was treated as though it were magic, something that either happened or didn't happen but couldn't be controlled.  We are now beginning to realize that, while we can't "control" innovation, we can create a culture and context where it is more likely to happen.  And, we can use processes that increase the innovation success rate, which, according to Larry Keeley at Doblin, can be as low as 4%.  One organization that has worked very hard for the past several years to learn how to replicate and sustain the process of innovation is Best Buy and one of the primary players in this initiative is Kal Patel, Executive Vice-President of Strategy and International.

Patel is an advocate for quickly testing new products and services, stating, "Every one of our associates is trained in a method that starts with a hypothesis, and then proceeds to stages like test and verify.  At the end of the experiment, the Associate who undertook it reports out on what he or she has learned.

"These are quick ‘popcorn-stand’ like experiments.  If we want to try something new, we might pitch a tent in the parking lot of one of our stores and test an idea out with our customers." 

In addition to leading the innovation initiative at Best Buy, Patel finds time to contribute on a broader stage.  He accompanied a Red Cross mission to tsunami-impacted Sri Lanka to distribute needed supplies.  He stated, "Although the lives of the people here may be devastated, their spirits are not broken,  What we are doing, in addition to providing relief supplies, is part of strengthening their spirits."

Patel will be a keynote speaker at "Unblocking Innovation," the 11th annual Convergence of people, ideas and great practices related to innovation to be held in Minneapolis, September 21-23.

Convergence Blog -- get the latest here.

Cargill Innovates

Five years ago when Cargill's James Bady attended InnovationUniversity, Cargill was just beginning to talk about how to create a culture of innovation.  The pace picked up about two years later when Carol Pletcher was named Director of Innovation.  Cargill has now become a hotbed of innovation and here's a short article from the Institute of Food Technologists newsletter:  (also, Cargill will be presenting at Innovation Convergence 2005):

Cargill reports 18% increase in earnings

Agriculture processor Cargill reported net earnings of $230 million for the 2005 fourth quarter which ended May 31, up 18% from $195 million in the same period a year ago.

The company earned $2.1 billion during the 2005 fiscal year, including a noncash net gain of $578 million realized in the second quarter. Excluding the one-time gain, Cargill’s 12-month net earnings were $1.53 billion, up 15 percent from $1.33 billion a year ago.

Revenues for the full year rose 13 percent to $71.1 billion. Cash flow from operations increased 7 percent to $3.2 billion.

"Backed by strong performance across our diverse business and geographic operations, Cargill delivered increased earnings in fiscal 2005," said Warren Staley, Cargill chairman and chief executive officer. "Today’s results are a tangible sign of the progress achieved in our company’s strategy to become a recognized leader in creating food and agricultural solutions that help customers succeed."

Staley traced the year’s performance to Cargill’s development in 1999 of a new business model that called on the company to add proficiencies in supply chain management, food applications, and health and nutrition while continuing to grow its traditional strengths in trading, processing and risk management.

"Through our employees’ initiative, we undertook many changes that are making Cargill today a more customer focused, innovative, collaborative and higher performing company."

Among the contributors to Cargill’s earnings for the full fiscal year were its animal nutrition, beef, egg product, pork and poultry businesses worldwide; the risk management and financial segment; the global supply chain management network, which includes grain, oilseeds and other commodities and ocean shipping services; food ingredients in Europe; the U.S.- and Latin American-based salt businesses, which manufacture products for food, road deicing and other uses; and the U.S.- and Canadian-based agriculture services units.

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Three Levels of Sustaining a Culture of Innovation

W.L.Gore is widely noted for its innovation, and its relationship oriented culture.  Bob Henn, former  head of global R&D for Gore was interviewed by Victoria Cooper and Michael Lecky for PTRM and explained three levels of culture:

"We work differently than many companies who simply tell people what to do. Within the last few years, in fact, we've established three governing bodies within the organization. One is the Operations Committee, which pays attention to the business and the metrics that go along with it. Another is our Intellectual Property Committee, which pays attention to our patent estates, our trademarks, the generation and use of our know-how. And the other one is our People Committee, which attends to our culture. It's on the same level as the other two.

"One of the things I've learned in my years at Gore is that culture is not static. The reality is that work is a social activity, and every time we bring on a new person, our culture changes. When I was recovering from an illness some time ago, I read a lot of the work of Edward Schein, who was a student of Douglas McGregor [a social psychologist who described the "Theory X"; and "Theory Y"; manager in his seminal 1957 treatise]. Douglas McGregor was a person who Bill Gore heard speak in 1954 at DuPont, and a lot of Bill's philosophy came out of the same school. In Schein's model, culture may be viewed as essentially having three levels. At the topmost are "artifacts."; One artifact of our culture is the lack of hierarchy. Everyone at Gore is referred to as an Associate. Another artifact is our lack of corner offices. These artifacts tell you something about our culture. They're the easiest things to observe, but as you dig further, you begin to gain more insight.

"At the middle level are "espoused values": the things we say about ourselves. An example of one of our espoused values is that no one here is free to impair the growth of others. Additionally, no one can make a waterline decision himself, for instance, about whether we relocate people to set up a new operation in another country. The espoused values are easy to discern because they're voiced, but they're often difficult to interpret. At Gore it can take people a couple of years to understand or interpret the espoused values and translate them into applications.

"Digging deeper, the third layer of culture is "underlying assumptions."; This is the most difficult, because it's unarticulated, although it drives everything. One example here at Gore is trusting relationships. That's really important. Another underlying assumption at Gore is the belief, fundamentally, that the individual can make a difference."

Henn will be a keynote speaker at "Unblocking Innovation," the 11th annual Convergence of people, ideas and great practices related to innovation to be held in Minneapolis, September 21-23.

The entire interview with Henn can be seen at http://www.prtm.com/insight/article.asp?insight_id=3305  (Free, but registration is required.)

Convergence Blog -- get the latest here.

Becoming Your Own Trendmaster

Recently profiled in "Fast Company," Robyn Waters brings over 25 years of experience tracking and translating trends into sales and profits, primarily during her years as Vice President for Target.  She recently published a book entitled "The Trendmaster’s Guide From A to Z," a practical and fun handbook designed to simplify and demystify the art of trend tracking. 

In a recent interview with "The Creative Group," Waters stated, "I have a very nonlinear, nonscientific approach to tracking trends. My book, The Trendmaster’s Guide from A to Z, is a simple, visual handbook that demystifies the art of trend tracking. Most tracking is really just common sense. For instance, A is for Antennae. That’s about awareness, opening your eyes, taking off your blinders and being open to what is really happening in the world around you. I like to quote Yogi Berra, who said, ‘You can observe a lot, just by watching.’ Trends are really just signposts and indicators pointing the way to what’s important in the lives, hearts and minds of consumers. If you look for the meaning behind the indicators, you’ll get to a much better place. I’m very different from a ‘coolhunter’ in that I’m not looking for ‘the next big thing.’ I believe there are many ‘next big things’ and that it’s more important to try and find out what’s important, not just what’s next."  The full interview can be found at:
http://www.creativegroup.com/Dispatcher?file=/TCG/Interview1104

Waters will be a keynote speaker at "Unblocking Innovation," the 11th annual Convergence of people, ideas and great practices related to innovation to be held in Minneapolis, September 21-23, where she will help people develop their own strategy for becoming their own trendmaster.

Throughout the retail world Waters has been described as an "Ambassador of Trend", a "Champion of Design," a "Builder of Brands," a "Purveyor of Passion," and a "Cheerleader of Possibilities."  Previously, Robyn headed up Trend, Design and Product Development for the $48 billion upscale discount store Target. Under her direction as Vice President, the trend and design team traveled the world tracking and translating trends into unique product designs that enhanced Target’s upscale brand image of "Expect More, Pay Less." One of Robyn’s core beliefs is that good taste and great design don’t have to be expensive.

Convergence Blog -- get the latest here.

Applying the Innovator's Solution

Two of the most influential books in the innovation field are "The Innovator's Dilemma" and the "The Innovator's Solution."  "Dilemma" outlined the sometimes counter-intuitive conundrum of innovation and "Solution" provided ideas for how to handle the complexities of innovation.

Michael Raynor, co-author of "The Innovator's Solution" with Clayton Christensen is a keynote speaker at "Unblocking Innovation," the 11th annual Convergence of people, ideas and great practices related to innovation to be held in Minneapolis, September 21-23.

After observing numerous successful and unsuccessful companies, Raynor and his co-author, Clayton Christensen, theorized that innovation is a process that can best be realized in a four-step approach:

1. Identify overshoot: When an industry-leading product enters the mature phase of its lifecycle, it reaches a point where it improves past the expectations and needs of consumers. Unwilling to pay the extra money for extra features they don’t need, customers are open to cheaper or easier-to-use products ... the problem is, these products don’t exist.

2. Find a foothold: Once slivers of the market’s needs are unfulfilled, a disruptive company comes up with something to fill that hole. In "low-end disruption," this can be a cheaper, inferior product targeted at the current incumbent’s lower-end consumers who are willing to pay less money for less quality. In "new market disruption," this means altering a product to better suit a new market that is not being addressed by the current incumbent.

3. Improve what matters: As the new product begins its lifecycle, it has to get better while keeping in mind the needs of its consumers. This usually means improving quality while keeping costs low.

4. Catch up with the needs of mainstream consumers: Eventually, a disruptive company develops until it reaches a point of contention with the product leader. Its disruptive business model gives the new company the power to surpass the old one.

A brilliant and galvanizing speaker, Raynor is a uniquely qualified expert on creating and sustaining business growth. In addition to his work with Christensen, he is a director for Deloitte, the global profesional services firm, and part of Deloitte Research, the thought leadership arm of Deloitte.  He has a great depth of experience and theoretical understanding of the innovation field and will share best practices from around the world with Convergence participants.

Convergence Blog -- get the latest here.

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature

What if models for new revenue streams or cost-cutting measures were sitting right in front of you waiting for you to be able to see them?  According to nature writer Janine Benyus, answers are all around us ... we just need to look to nature for models.

If you attend "Unlocking Innovation," the eleventh annual Convergence of people, ideas and great practices related to innovation, you will hear Janine, who coined the term "biomimicry" and wrote the book of the same title, tell you exactly how this new way of looking at nature is helping people solve important problems.

In an interview for "Interiors & Sources" magazine, author Penny Bonda states, "She's (Benyus) brought biologists, industrialists, inventors and designers together at the drawing board ... and convinced commercial giants to alter the way they look at product development and manufacturing."

A self-described "nature-nerd," Benyus suggests that we focus on new questions such as ...

-- How does life make things?

-- How does life make the most of things?

-- How does like make things disappear into systems?

Biomimicry example: Traditional hearing aids do not do a very good job of detecting the direction of sounds, thus handicapping their users. Biomimicry suggests that a solution to this conundrum would be found in nature by studying organisms that depend on sound direction for their survival, such as the ormia fly that feeds off crickets and needs to locate them by their sounds. An analysis of the fly's hearing mechanisms became the basis for a whole new kind of hearing aid.

From biomimicry.net: "Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new science that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example. I think of it as "innovation inspired by nature."

"The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth. This is the real news of biomimicry: After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.

"Like the viceroy butterfly imitating the monarch, we humans are imitating the best and brightest organisms in our habitat. We are learning, for instance, how to harness energy like a leaf, grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, self-medicate like a chimp, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest.

"The conscious emulation of life's genius is a survival strategy for the human race, a path to a sustainable future. The more our world looks and functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone." For more info: http://www.biomimicry.net/

Convergence Blog -- get the latest here.

Creative Activities

What google term does this montage represent?  (Click on the photo for a slightly larger version) See below for more info and the answer.

This and other activities mentioned below come from Kris Bordessa, who says, "I am a freelance writer specializing in fun activities for families. In my professional life, I've discovered some amazing places to visit, created numerous art projects utilizing everyday objects and written about some great people. When I'm not writing, I encourage kids to work cooperatively and creatively as a team leader for two fabulous Destination Imagination teams, as a 4-H leader and last but not least, as a mom. My book, Team Challenges: 170+ Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication and Creativity , will be published by Zephyr Press in November, 2005.

So if you're looking for a creative activity for a meeting?  Check out http://greatsolutions.blogspot.com/.

Here are some samples:

Elevate an apple -- a variation on the "tower" game that looks like it would be more fun and not quite as dependent on engineering skills.

Guess the Google -- look at a montage of images and then guess the search term that produced it.  To create the montage in the first place, click here (WARNING!  Both of these activities are very addictive).  (Answer to the montage above:  innovation is the google search term.)

Conversation starters -- Example: Would you rather dive from a high cliff into the ocean or give a book report in front of 500 kids?  While intended for families, they could probably be used in other settings.