Choose Your Business Partners Carefully

I am a big fan of business partnerships. My mantra is, “Innovate where you differentiate, and partner with others for everything else.” There’s an important caveat to this. Be sure to choose your partners carefully. Think about the bad experiences you’ve had with a company. Were they the company’s fault? Or was a business partner […]

The Innovation Minute #17: Einstein’s Perspective

Today we explore a page from Einstein and his perspectives on asking questions. The key is to avoid focusing on solutions and instead focus on the problem. We are in the “Ask” portion of the FAST Innovation Model (Focus, Ask, Shift, Test) Be sure to watch the previous videos! Transcription: At this point in the […]

Personality Poker Podcast

I was recently interviewed by Rick Morris for his “Work Life Balance” podcast. He was in the audience of an event where we were playing Personality Poker. He’s always been a fan of personality testing so he asked me to be on his show. I think you will enjoy the casual back and forth banter. […]

The Innovation Minute #16: Ask a Different Question to Get Better Solutions

When you ask different questions, you always get different solutions. Here’s a fun story about an airport that had people complaining about baggage claim wait times. Their solutions on the surface seemed good. But it never really solved the problem in the eyes of the customer. But when they asked a different question, they solved […]

The Innovation Minute #15: Specific Questions Reduce Creativity

NASA has done some amazing innovations over the years. But when they tried to create a washing machine in space, it didn’t go too well. But changing the question led to different results. We are in the “Ask” portion of the FAST Innovation Model (Focus, Ask, Shift, Test) Be sure to watch the previous videos! […]

The Innovation Minute #14: Abstract Questions Lead to Low Quality Solutions

Today we use solving the “education system” problem as an example of how changing the question can lead to different solutions. When questions are too abstract, we get very low quality solutions. We are in the “Ask” portion of the FAST Innovation Model (Focus, Ask, Shift, Test) Be sure to watch the previous videos! Transcription: […]

Failure is Overrated!

I was recently interviewed by the financial service firm, BBVA Compass. They asked for my thoughts on failure. I said that failure was overrated and that we needed a different mindset. Here are some sound bites from my interview/article “I don’t believe that failure is necessary in general. I also don’t believe that the answer […]

Three Activities to Inspire Innovation at Any Company

I was asked by BigSpeak to write an article with three activities that would stimulate innovation with teams. And I needed to do it in under 1,200 words. Here’s the result: Companies are becoming irrelevant faster than ever. Why? The pace of change outside of organizations is moving faster than the pace of change within. The […]

The Innovation Minute #13: The Goldilocks Principle

Today we discuss The Goldilocks Principle. This is a method for asking better questions by avoiding ones that are too “hard” or too “soft” and looking for those that are “just right.” We are in the “Ask” portion of the FAST Innovation Model (Focus, Ask, Shift, Test) Be sure to watch the previous videos! Transcription: […]

The Innovation Minute #12: Avoid Overly Specific Questions

Today we look at the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  For decades scientists could not find a way to extract the oil/water mixture from the icy waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska. But when the question was changed, a two-decade old problem was solved within weeks. Be sure to watch the previous videos! Transcription: In […]