Beyond the Suggestion Box

I was recently asked, “What’s an example of a problem/question people ask that doesn’t yield the desired results.” My response was the default question associated with most suggestion boxes. Here’s my full response (1 minute 46 seconds)

The Ignorance of the Masses Cancels Out the Knowledgeable Minority

Crowdsourcing has always been a popular method of problem solving. In a nutshell, crowdsourcing is when you ask a large group of people (the crowd) for their answers to a question. Polling and surveys are forms of crowdsourcing. Social media posts that ask for your opinion are another. And now companies are using this technique more and more […]

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: […]

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: […]

5% of the population; 100% of the conversation

If you watch the news, you might assume you know what is really going on in the world. But what if 5% of the population accounts for 100% of the conversation? From my experience, the vocal few speak loudly and their voices are the only ones we tend to hear. We see this manifest in […]

The Innovation Engine Podcast

I was recently interviewed for “The Innovation Engine” podcast. The conversation was easy and a lot of fun. We discussed innovation and breakthrough thinking. During this interview I shared: how neural pathways get hard-wired into our brains stand in the way of breakthrough thinking an anecdote on how crowdsourcing and breakthrough thinking solved a 2 […]

Webinar with InnoCentive

For those of you interested in making internal collaboration a reality within your organization, I am conducting a free webinar in conjunction with InnoCentive, the premier open innovation platform. Although some of the content will be similar to what I have presented in the past, there will be some new content specific to internal cultural […]

Do Not Develop Breakthrough Innovation

A client recently asked me why large companies never develop “breakthrough” innovations, and instead rely on buying small companies or licensing their technologies. He felt that the game changing innovations were always the result of someone “tinkering in a garage,” like Michael Dell or Mark Zuckerberg. He wondered how his organization could replicate the innovation […]