Speaking @ NASA
Tonight I am speaking at NASA’s annual inventors awards banquet. I’m honored to be speaking there again. For those of you who missed it, here was my last presentation to NASA. That time I had only 6 minutes! This time I have a whopping 20 minutes. Click the bottom right button on the video player […]
You Failed! What's Next?
Last week, I had 3 conversations with 3 different companies. And each had a complaint about the same group of people: lawyers. If you think about it, innovators and lawyers have completely opposite objectives. Innovators want to grow the business. They believe that risk and failure are a natural part of the innovation process. Their […]
Redefining Failure
I view life as a series of experiments. When you look at it through this lens, failure means something completely different. One definition of an experiment is: “A test or investigation, especially one planned to provide evidence for or against a hypothesis.” The only way an experiment can fail is if you don’t get the […]
Measures: Will You Get What You Want?
I recently spoke with a new client who shared with me their innovation measures. When I looked at their measurement system, I immediately saw flaws. But before addressing these imperfections, let me first provide you my perspective on innovation measures. In general, there are three types of measures associated with “challenge-based” innovation (be sure to […]
There is No GPS for Innovation
OK, after 2 weeks of sleep deprivation due to manuscript deadlines, I am now back in action here. The final version of the manuscript went to the publisher on Saturday. I then played Personality Poker in Memphis with nearly 100 representatives from Penguin’s gift sales on Sunday. These individuals sell books into non-traditional bookstores, […]
NESTA Open Innovation Conference Videos
Last week I spoke at an event hosted by NESTA – the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts. The day focused on Open Innovation and had some spectacular speakers including Cheryl Perkins (the former Chief Innovation Officer for Kimberly-Clark), Karim Lakhani (an open innovation guru from Harvard Business School), Stefan Lindegaard (a […]
Is Crowdsourcing Disruptive?
There was an excellent post by Hutch Carpenter. In the article, he asked the question – “Is Crowdsourcing Disrupting the Design Industry?” He makes an excellent case for the value (and pitfalls) of crowdsourcing design work – especially from the perspective of the designer. As readers of this site know, I have used design crowdsourcing […]
Podcast on The Brain Advantage
Brad Kolar is one of the brightest guys I know. He and I worked together in Accenture back in the mid-90’s. He has been a contributor to all of my books. And now he is the co-author of a fascinating book called “The Brain Advantage. ” I had the privilege of receiving a review copy […]
Does Stress Limit Creativity?
Friday I was stuck in New York City. I wasn’t sure I would ever get out. The Tri-State area was getting hammered by a snow storm. I was scheduled to leave at 1PM, hours after the snow began. The airports were closed. And to make matters worse, earlier in the day, two people were struck […]
What We Don’t Know We Know
Last night I went to a seminar. On the whiteboard, the seminar leader drew an oft-used framework: There are things you “know.” For example, I know I can speak English. There are things you “know you don’t know.” I know I can’t speak Chinese. And there are things you “don’t know you don’t know.” Obviously […]