Heads-Up! on Organizational Innovation

BIF-2: Passion - the Source of Energy

A distant view of Business Innovation Factory 2:  Nothing new is created without energy ... lots of energy. Energy to find new solutions, energy to overcome obstacles and resist the naysayers. The energy it takes to try something new when there are safer options available. Learning how to engage your own energy and that of others is central to all change processes.  And, the source of that energy is passion.

We recently led a months-long collaborative effort to identify a set of innovative thinking competencies that would form the structure for a self-directed, action-learning program.  The ability to engage energy, our own and tht of others, gradually surfaced as the core around which all the other competencies circle.

The storytellers in this group display that intense passionate that brands innovators – Josh Koppel’s mission for TuneBooks is to save album art from extinction while Clay Rockefeller works to save historic community districts by turning them into vibrant and commercially healthy places where artists live and work.

Jim Lavoie wants to reinvent the way people work together by creating a unique culture and language.  And Jane Fulton Suri has a passion for learning about the deep needs of people by watching their simple, everyday actions – what she calls “thoughtless acts.”

Read their stories below.

Day 1, Group 3 Storytellers:

Jim Lavoie, CEO of Rite-Solutions

Clay Rockefeller, community activist and co-founder of The Steel Yard

Jane Fulton Suri, chief creative officer, IDEO

Josh Koppel, founder, TuneBooks

BIF-2: Customer-Focused Innovation

A distant view of Business Innovation Factory 2:  A few years ago, I started hearing people talking about “customer-centered” innovation as if there were some type of innovation that wasn’t focused on customers.  Each of these storytellers has an intense connection with customers.  Diane Hessan’s company creates vibrant customer conversation communities, one of which helped Kraft create a new $100 million product line.  She states that the world of marketing is “moving from a process of persuasion to a process of conversation.”

Larry Keeley debunks the infamous “think out of the box” cliché, stating that “almost everything about the way innovation is taught and practiced and asserted is wrong.  We say it's time to ‘think out of the box,'’ but this is only likely to yield a vast array of bad ideas that we then spend months analyzing before we discard."  Keeley recommends that innovation start with a sound diagnostic of customer needs, met and unmet.

Mark Hellendrung is reviving an old brand of beer that resonates with his Rhode Island customer base.  He is an avid Rhode Islander and states, "Someone also said to me once, if you want to be happy in life, figure out where you want to live first, and then find a job."  His product is as much about Rhode Island as it is beer.

Liz Lerman, who has been likened to Gandhi as well as Woody Allen, designs performances for the “dancer in everyone.”

Read their stories below.

Day 1, Group 2 Storytellers:

Diane Hessan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Communispace

Mark Hellendrung, CEO of Narragansett Beer Company

Larry Keeley, CEO of Doblin, Inc.

Liz Lerman, the Founding Artistic Director of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

BIF-2: Innovation Yin and Yang

Today is the first day of the Business Innovation Factory 2, a gathering with a storytelling focus.  A star cast of innovators will be briefly sharing their stories, leaving the participants, moderators and a brew of bloggers to synthesize the themes and learnings.  I was invited to participate as one of the bloggers … an interesting invitation since I’m not actually at the conference and will not be hearing the stories.

However, determined to bridge this gap, I have teased out some of the stories with the help of the conference site, google, a host of business magazines and an even bigger brew of bloggers.

As I dipped my toe into the BIF-2 story pool, my first connection was with something I find myself saying frequently, “Innovation is never “either/or;” it’s always “both/and.” That’s what makes it such a complex, wonderful, and frustrating mix. It is never one thing.  It’s always an intermingling of black and white in a way that yields not a dull grey but rather an endless kaleidoscope of dramatic patterns.

As a start, innovation is both --

• process … and mindset
• science … and art
• systems and tools … and people and passion
• deliberate exploration … and happy accidents
• culture … and context
• crazy ideas … and return on investment
• bold leadership … and personal initiative
• collaboration … and competition

The first group of storytellers represents the innovation spectrum from a popular new toy to advances in the interface between brain and computers and from visionary journeys through the human body to helping unknown musicians connect with potential fans.  Inspiration for these innovations ranged from the platypus, a unique creature that combines aspects of different species to the question of how the brain creates action and from Greek funerals to being a struggling rock band muscian.  This small group includes artists and scientists, process champions and mindset changers.  Their stories are worth reading at the links below.

Day 1, Group 1 Storytellers:

Alexander Tsiaras, founder and CEO of Anatomical Travelogue, Inc. whom some consider to be a modern day Leonardo DaVinci

Ivy Ross, V.P. for product design & development for the Gap’s Old Navy and leader of Mattel’s remarkable Platypus Project that led to the Ello Creation System, a building system for girls.

John Donoghue, co-founder Cyberkinetics and the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and director of the Brain Science Program at Brown University

Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder of Pandora.com

BIF-2: Innovation Success Metric

A distant view of Business Innovation Factory 2:  Innovations are seldom bigger than the ideas that launch them.  Big, bold, crazy ideas make most people say, “That’s impossible.  It could never happen here.  It’s not in the budget.  There’s no market for it.”  A few people, however, look at those weird ideas, and say, “I’m not sure how we could do it … but, if we could, it would change everything.”  And, they start down that path, not knowing all the obstacles that stand in their way and not knowing all the ways that fortune and chance might smile on them along the journey.  Perhaps we should use that as our key success metric -- the percentage of people who think an idea is impossible, outrageous or just plain stupid.  If everyone thinks it’s a good idea, it’s probably too tepid to be a breakthrough, and if it shocks most people into a stammering, “But …” mode, those are the ones that might merit a second look. 

This group of storytellers have deep familiarity with those crazy ideas.  In 1912, the world could not imagine the Titanic sinking.  In 1973, the world could not imagine finding the Titanic which was thought to be lying at the bottom of 12,000 feet of icy water.  Bob Ballard was bold enough to think that it was possible and spent twelve years in the discovery process before pieces of the past started to reveal themselves.

Thirty years ago, Richard Saul Wurman took on the challenge of making the world understandable through design and technology; for the past twenty years Mary Pat Ryan has consistently reinvented the way media is delivered to consumers and Jeneanne Rae is redesigning the field of innovation with her research in service innovation.

The stories of their bold ideas and even bolder implementation are worth reading at the links below.

Day 1, Group 4 Storytellers:

Jeneanne Rae, co-founder and president of Peer Insight

Mary Pat Ryan, Executive Vice President of Subscriber Sales and Operations for Sirius Satellite Radio

Bob Ballard, founder of the Jason Project, discoverer of the Titanic

Richard Saul Wurman, BIF-2 Co-Host, founder of TED

American Creativity Association Conference

Want you or your employees to gain skills and knowledge that will increase your or their value to your organization while enhancing your or their self-growth? Then participate in the American Creativity Association 2006 International conference: Creativity at Work. Attendees will have opportunities to learn from and network with over thirteen renowned national and international experts who will be keynote speakers including Peggy Van Pelt (Walt Disney Imagineering, Los Angeles, CA), Andrew Ouderkirk (3M Corporate Scientist, 3M, Minneapolis, MN), David Pearce Snyder (Independent Consulting Futurist), Michael Beyerlein (Director of the Center for Collaborative Organizations, University of North Texas, Denton, TX) and Sam Stern (Dean, School of Education, Oregon State University, Portland, OR). In addition to these keynote speakers, there are over 70 other speakers. As an added feature for this conference, many of the keynote speakers will conduct master classes on their subjects. Attendees can also learn for the many vendors who will be participating in the trade show.

Consider joining the trade show with your products and services or advertising at the conference.

Come visit exciting Austin, Texas known for its creativity from the arts to science, technology and business.

Dates: March 22 - 25, 2006

Location: Austin Airport Hilton, Austin, Texas

Web Site: www.amcreativityassoc.org

Information: [email protected]

Australian Innovation Festival

Australia is a nation thriving with innovators, the Australian Innovation Festival, now Australia's largest industry festival, was established in 2002 to celebrate these innovative and entrepreneurial abilities. The Festival combines government, business, community, educational institutions, small to medium enterprise and individuals in a celebration of innovation.

The 2006 Australian Innovation Festival will run from the 26th April until the 14th May with over 700 events and 16 associated innovation festivals expected throughout Australia. The 2006 Festival will focus on the 4Cs of innovation - Creativity, Connections, Collaboration and Commercialisation. Festival events include seminars, exhibitions, lectures, trade fairs, workshops, expos, roadshows, open days, launches and displays. For further information visit the Festival website www.ausinnovation.org

Innovation Convergence 2006

Last year Debra Haughton from Staples called Convergence the "Best, thought provoking conference I ever attended."  This year, the 12th annual gathering of innovators, will be even better as we push the envelope to help attendees actually experience innovation.

Download pre-mailer.pdf  ... and save $700 by registering early!

Hope to see you in La Jolla - October 16 -18.  If you're coming, drop us an email and we'll put you on the attendees-only email list for additional information.