I recently spent 2 days with various groups at Shell in the Netherlands.
Afterwards, Pieter Pulleman wrote this two page article on my presentation and other innovation activities at Shell.
As you can see the title of the article is a mantra of mine: “Forget out-of-the-box thinking and best practices!”
The article starts…
The more you know about a subject, the more difficult it is to come up with an innovative solution. Out-of-the-box thinking gets in the way of innovation and best practices are dull. That is part of the message put forward by innovation expert Stephen Shapiro during the Connects sessions in Rijswijk and Amsterdam.
In order to come up with good solutions rapidly for the challenges faced by Shell, it’s important to speed up the process of innovation. This can be done through ‘open innovation’: working together with other disciplines, businesses or sectors. Over a hundred and fifty Shell staff in Rijswijk were present to hear Shapiro’s vision. “Innovating is important,” he said. “It changes lives, the world and the business.” In order to facilitate that process well, according to the American, you have to step aside from certain natural reactions.
Read the rest of this article here (right click and “save target as” to download a copy as a pdf)
