Front End of Innovation Blog

Call for Presenters: Future Trends

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie M. Russo) — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

The Institute for International Research (IIR) is currently seeking presenters specializing in Futuring and vision.

The 18th Annual World Future Trend event is in the midst of a major transformation. From the name to the people who will come.

The 18th Annual Re-imagined World Future Trends Summit

November 13-15, 2013

Los Angeles, CA

We’re scouring the earth for disruptive thinkers – our goal is to unite innovators to collaborate across functionalities - from insights to brand design to trend watchers to futurists to marketers to strategic planners to C suite leadership… We are not looking for good or great. We are looking for the most future forward, smart people in the world to come together and share their inspiring stories that will result in commercial impact. We are searching for practical wisdom. The entire event will focus on the HOW not the WHAT. We are on the hunt for groundbreaking.

If you are an authentic visionary and want to share your story to help people across different cultures and business ensure relevance for the future – then we invite you to submit an idea. Our goal is to revolutionize this event from a conference to a blended learning experience to accelerate future growth.

While our event title is in limbo – thanks to all your feedback - we know the event will be focused on “Prediction to Implementation: exploratory learning experience for synthesizing world trends, brand strategy, innovation and human science into a future action plan”.

How will we achieve this?

1. TOP TRENDS revealed from trend experts around the world. Is this you? If so, email us.

2. STRATEGIC CONTEXTUALIZING – how is this visionary information relevant to what others do and how to adapt and implement it? Real world Business Cases work well to achieve this. Do you have a story to share? If so, email us

3. Exploratory Learning: Putting trends and ideas into practice in real time. Workshops and field trips are some potential ideas – but we are open to more. Can you facilitate a workshop? Do you have an idea for a nontraditional experience? If so, email us.

**We are particularly interested in storytelling workshops by filmmakers or Hollywood producers as well as a 3D printing workshops. If you can help bring mind-blowing content delivered through extraordinary experiences email us.

Due to the high volume of submissions, we suggest you submit your proposal early and no later than 7 June, 2013 to Romina Kunstadter, Conference Director. To submit your proposal, please email RKunstader@iirusa.com.

Presenters receive FREE admission to the entire 3-day conference. We are currently looking for client-side case studies ONLY (for consultants, vendors, and solutions providers, please additional information below*).

Following are a few topic ideas:
• Trend Tracking
• Trend Implementation Strategy
• Creativity & Innovation
• Global Social Trends
• Global Technological Innovations
• Economic Trends
• Behavioral Trends
• Rapid Prototyping
• Big Data & Analytics
• Connectivity & Collaboration
• Thriving in Emerging Markets
• Consumer Trends
• Environmental Trends
• Design Trends
• Creating a Futurist division within your company
• Global Social Media Trends
• Future of Millennial

*INVESTING IN FUTURE TRENDS 2013: If you are interested in investing in this event as a sponsor please contact Jon Saxe at JSaxe@iirusa.com.

CALL FOR PRESENTERS: For consideration, please e-mail Rkunstadter@iirusa.com with the following information by 7th June.
• Proposed presenter name(s), job title(s), and company name(s)
• Contact information including address, telephone and e-mail
• Title and objective of presentation
• Please indicate which topic you plan to address and please indicate what is NEW about the presentation
• Summary of the talk
• What the audience will gain from your presentation (please list 3-5 key “take-aways”)

Hershey’s Innovation Strategy Accelerates the Candy Giant’s Global Growth

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:16:00 +0000

For almost 120 years, The Hershey Company has embodied innovation with products that have changed the confectionery industry and established the company as one of the world's leading candy makers. As part of the company's strategy to drive global growth and innovation, it is opening an Asia Innovation Center located in Shanghai, China. Hershey's new Innovation Center is a big step toward continuing to accelerate its growth momentum.

This new research and development hub will enable Hershey to launch new products customized to the tastes of consumers across Asia. The facility in Shanghai provides a strategic gateway to the larger Asia market while enabling close collaboration with local and regional China sales marketing personnel. Currently, China is Hershey's fastest growth market, moving from number seven to number three in chocolate share in only five years with chocolate share more than quadrupling by 2012.

"Our new Innovation Center in Shanghai supports our aggressive growth plans in Asia and reflects our global approach to business," said Michael Wege, senior vice president, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, The Hershey Company, in a statement. "It will enable us to translate our insights and knowledge of consumer tastes and preferences into relevant products.”

The two-floor, 22,000 square-foot facility is a significant investment in the China market and will house R&D laboratories, a plant for the chocolate and sweets & refreshment categories and a development center for emerging product offerings. In addition, it will feature a sensory area, creativity center, packaging development section and research laboratory.

The center will initially employ 12 scientists and product developers and includes office space for 32 engineers and innovation staff. Hershey will also supplement technical resources that will enable this facility to become a global innovation hub with a focus on building powerful brands across Asia and worldwide. So, emphasis will be placed on consumer research and - a process Hershey's calls “consumer-centric brand building.” Hershey can gain a holistic understanding of how the company's products play into consumer needs.

"The China team is very excited about the new Innovation Center in Shanghai," said Jane Xu, vice president and general manager of Greater China for The Hershey Company. "Our aggressive growth target in the next five years will be achieved by building our five global brands across China, along with the innovation capabilities developed at the center."

Submit Your Innovation Master Thesis to the Future Ideas Competition Today!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:11:00 +0000

Alumni Masters, there are only a few days left to participate Future Ideas European Innovation Master Thesis Competition by submitting your innovation master thesis! You have the exclusive opportunity to connect with like-minded master graduates, academia and companies in order to boost innovation and entrepreneurship. Main partners of Future Ideas are such as Dialogues Incubator, ABN AMRO and the extremely valued IIRUSA!

With your thesis you have the opportunity to come to the Future Ideas Grand Finale on June 21^st in Amsterdam and win one of the three prizes - 3500 EUR, 1000 EUR or 500 EUR! The elite jury panel consists of innovators from universities and companies from all over Europe! Think of Alcatel-Lucent, SWIFT, Microsoft, Philips, IIRUSA, etc.

Deadline for submissions: May 24^th

Grand Finale: June 21^st

For more information please visit the website:

http://futureideas.eu/

The Importance of Strategic Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Today, in order for your business to succeed, it needs to stay competitive. So, you need strategic innovation to understand the marketplace and produce new products to meet the needs of your customers. Without strategic innovation you won’t keep up with, let alone stay ahead in the today’s faced paced business world.

According to Tom Donovan of Wisepreneur, a company needs a template of strategic innovation because the business needs it to survive the cut throat competition. Without techniques to analyze the business world, the competition as well as how the company can innovate, it stagnates. As technology advances at a rapid pace a business needs to be able to utilize that technology with innovative concepts. Businesses can fail if they can’t grow in this ever-changing world.

Additionally, the business needs to look for new streams of revenues that can keep the company going. Innovation is one way to make a lasting statement in the business world and keep a company going. The long-term strategy of a company is then one of the most important aspects of the business. By developing strategies to stay competitive the business has a better chance to succeed. A company will look at its own products, and then decide how to improve them or make new ones that have an impact on the marketplace.

“Just think of Apple and how popular their PCs and mobile technology is. If Apple just sat there and never worked on its innovation then it wouldn’t be in the position it is today. Apple developed strategies and used strategic innovation to be the giant in the PC and mobile market that they are,” wrote Donovan.

He suggests the following template for innovation strategy:

New business models – You help your business grow in new directions with new products that allow your business to stand out in the marketplace
Increased Value- Your company has increased values and this leads to more value for your business
New Markets – Your business can break into new markets that it might not have been able to before

Strategist innovation will allow you to break through the conventional mold and gain that advantage over companies that sell the same products you do. The business world always changes and those that recognize those changes have an advantage over those that never change. If you use strategic innovation to analyze your business and those of your competitors, you’ll see where those improvements to your business models can propel your business.

Today’s consumers wants the next best thing and by innovating you can give them what they want. Innovation will help you get there.

5 Trends Changing the Small Business Future

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

A small business is considered to be any company that employs less than 100 people. Today, in the U.S., small businesses employ over half of the country's workforce. Many people think that industrial giants are the most important factor in driving the economy, but small businesses are actually on top. Without small businesses, where would half of the country work?

Small business in America has been the stabilizing force in the economy. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of creativity and production. Small business is what stimulates economic growth. With over 60 percent of all private sector jobs coming from small business, it is a proven fact that small businesses are critical to the economy.

Looking into the future, here's a look at five trends, according to Laurel Delaney, a world-renowned global small business expert, that are reshaping a very bright future for small businesses.

Innovation

It’s a way to thrive in a complex and connected world. We have to accept this, master the disruptive breakthroughs as fast as possible and stay ahead by making optimum use of its capabilities for growing small businesses into global powerhouses. SMBs that are poised to come out of tough economic times on top will be those that learn how to use innovation to drive growth and productivity.

“Just like entrepreneurship is not for the weak at heart, innovation isn’t either, for it requires risk, a tolerance for failure and the ability to make a move on every brilliant idea that flies across your desk,” wrote Delaney.

Technology

Today, we need technology for continuous change and affordability. It has never been easier to test ideas quickly. For instance, mobile gadgets too will continue to get smaller and more powerful, bolstering the case that going global will be a prerequisite for long-term success.

In addition, cloud computing, the next new growth environment will play a big role for SMBs in application delivery. Someday, not too far off in the future, customers anywhere in the world with a mobile device will be able to text you their next big container order.

Global Entrepreneurship

Because the economic environment is so bad, the only thing you can count on in life is yourself, so everyone will not only think about whether they have the skill set for entrepreneurship but will jump into it as a new way of life.

She wrote, “Combine that mindset with the use of innovation and technology, and a heavy dose of determination to change the world, and you’ve got the ingredients for a global entrepreneurial revolution — a force not to be reckoned with.”

Sustainability Practices

According to Delaney, we will see more and more SMB owners committing themselves to sustainability strategies because they extend the efficiency and value of products and services. Improving social and environmental conditions is fast becoming the soul of a local or global SMB enterprise.

Green Initiatives

Being environmentally conscious is not only good for our well-being, it’s even better for our planet. So, we’ll see more green initiatives put into play in the future, and consumers will begin to expect it.

Post FEI Doldrums: A Kick in the Asterisk*

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Keller) — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:24:00 +0000

The seminars are over, the conversations have gone silent, and we’ve all gone back to our work-a-day lives. Perhaps some messages got through from the show, and some items you’ve since taken back to study under the fluorescents.

This is where the real stuff happens.

The other 355 days [giving 10 days for show euphoria to wear off] is where we need to apply a new frame to an old challenge. We essentially need a kick in the asterisk* at least once a week. So, we’re here to provide that Shift-8 every so often.

These posts will be about what I’d expect you to be working on to solve the problems we have confronting us [as a global society]. Because we’ve got plenty of heads bobbling around atop bodies on this planet – we’d like to see some more output from anywhere and everywhere.

We will focus on sketching out the problem and making some connections between obscure subject areas. We will skew toward meaty, challenging problems but may wander into the barnyard of the obscure and irrelevant. We will use images and concepts to make these connections and perhaps offer ideas of our own to fuel the fire.

Then, we’ll socialize this and see where it goes.

Our small hope is that you will see these posts and say, “I got this one” and go forth to ideate and innovate. Or, you’ll pass it along to someone who knows more about the subject to listen to their perspective. Our big hope is that someone will be working on such a problem—or just solved it—and will submit his or her name to present at next year’s Front End of Innovation conference.

These are the subjects we will be likely covering [if this isn’t enough, please add to our list by sending a message]:

-- Health and wellness

-- Sustainability

-- Poverty and hunger

-- Financial intelligence

-- Everyday frustrations

-- Transportation

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our thoughts.

Aaron Keller is an author of two books on design, Design Matters: Logos and Design Matters: Packaging. He is also the co-founder of Capsule, a design innovation firm. He also writes for a variety of blogs from his modest desk and keyboard in Minneapolis, Mn.

Photo credit: Elegant Donkey (you can decide which one)

The Top 6 Ways to Guarantee a Successful Enterprise Software Pilot

noreply@blogger.com (CogniStreamer) — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:58:00 +0000

Software pilots are tricky endeavors. They are a crucial first step in the process of deploying an enterprise software technology solution. You don’t want to commit full tilt until you’ve tested a technology. Successful deployments have significant impacts upon companies, people and careers. You want to get it right.

Whether you call it a pilot or a Proof of Concept (POC for short), Pilots may be “tricky” but there are 6 crucial steps to take to optimize your chances for success

Your software vendor partner can be your best friend. Software vendors love pilots. This is because they believe that once the software is in, it isn’t coming back out again. Plus the vendor will have their people on site for the term of the pilot, ideally lobbying on behalf of flipping the pilot into an ongoing license. The upside of this is that most software companies are not in the pilot business….they’re in the annual license business. This means they’ll be working hard to help you make the pilot a success.

This might be your first pilot of software of this type, but your software partner has gone through many pilots. They have accumulated a number of best practices they can share. They have the benefit of hindsight where they have seen the pitfalls where other clients have mis-stepped. They can monitor the progress of your pilot and provide ongoing practical guidance to keep your pilot on track. Of course everyone needs to agree on what that course is, hence the fact you should have a measurable goal for the pilot.

The most important attribute of a successful pilot is to have a measurable goal. That might seem obvious but so many neglect to attach one to the event. I have heard of lots of pilots of enterprise social networks where there is no defined goal.

You can’t just throw it out there, see who uses it and hope for the best. Because if you do, you’ll get some early adopter types (those who enjoy using new technologies) to embrace it and no one else. And even those early users will stop using it after a while if they don’t see others jumping in or if they don’t see results. And senior team members won’t touch the software at all. They’re afraid of it to begin with; are not anxious to learn something new, or for that matter to share anything, anyway.

When you do define the goals of the project, consider asking everyone on the team for input. Establish the success criteria for the pilot, with input from all stakeholders. Your chances for success are increased if not only do you achieve your goals with the pilot, but that everyone who participated in the process agrees those goals were meaningful and important.

A measurable goal lets you monitor the progress of the pilot and if you’re not hitting the mark, adjust your strategies to get on track. It might be something as simple as measuring Adoption Rates(how many people are using it) or Engagement (the number of Contributions). You can measure both activity and results. Here are some examples of measurable results:

How much content is shared and how often retrieved.
How many customer interactions,
How many client problems were solved
How many new products were put into the pipeline
How many tweaks to the customer engagement process were implemented as a result of customer feedback
How many ideas
How many good ideas were accrued during the pilot
How many sales result from each communication

But measure something. Because when the pilot is over you want to be able to answer the question: “Was the pilot successful?” with statistical results.

You should get the right crowd involved in your pilot. I think we all can identify those “usual suspects” when we think about who would embrace new technologies. There are always “early adopters” you can rely on to try out the software. If you’re clever you can make certain these early adopters are spread throughout the organization into various geographies, departments and disciplines. They can act as ambassadors to other users. If the early adopters are advocates, you can exponentially grow your user community.

Advocates or ambassadors can serve as support, trainers and cheerleaders. Equally they can provide feedback from the troops back to those responsible for managing the process.

Plus the users during the pilot can be your biggest supporters during roll out.

You should probably not limit your pilot to just a small number of users in one department (the usual inclination). You want to optimize your chance for success. This is a situation where rewards outweigh risks. Frequently champions for software want to limit the exposure of the pilot to their own department so if the pilot fails, the exposure will be minimal. But this can be a case of when a preconceived notion of failure might better be supplanted by a manifest destiny approach for success. You want a positive outcome; why not take every measure you can to ensure success.

You should constantly market to end users and management. This means training, newsletters, email updates (with call to action links taking users into the system). Management and users should hear good news and about successes.

You should not only collect usage data, as well as the output of the software, but also the feedback from the user community about how to improve the software for eventual roll out. Simple items like “I wish this link or item was on this screen” or “It would be easier to use if…” can inform the success of the actual and eventual roll out.

The time frame is critical. You should keep it short, perhaps thirty to sixty days. People will operate more effectively with a deadline. Six months is way too long, long enough to have user interest ebb without the payoff of additional data accumulated. Plus this helps subscribe to the notion of “fail fast”. If the pilot is a mis step, then get it over quickly so you spend the minimum amount of money on it. Similarly don’t allow “scope creep”. You’ll get lots of suggestions from the user community which you absolutely should collect for consideration before roll out, but don’t let it slow down the pilot effort nor more importantly steer you away from achieving those measurable goals.

Along with timeline and goals you should also add other rules. Think about what you want to achieve with the pilot and keep everyone within those parameters.

The next most important attribute of a successful pilot is senior management support. Of course you need a champion. This is someone on your team who is a “believer”, who understand that using this software will improve your organization. This might be you! But if that champion is not senior enough, then you need a “higher-up” to buy in.

How important is this step? Let’s put it this way, the very best pilot kick off speech I ever heard was when a Vice President at a Fortune 100 company got all the potential users in a room (some of the virtually) and merely said, “OK, thanks for coming. I want you all to use this new software. Dependent on the success of this project, my job is on the line, and that means yours is too. Login, ask for help, start using the software and make this a success.” Everyone got the message, there was a flurry of activity immediately and the project was a huge success.

Conclusion:

Make sure you have your user community, your management and your software vendor involved in the project so they feel and act like partners.
Solicit and gain consensus so you have a well publicized, measurable goal.
Carry out the pilot within a short, defined time frame.
Keep the lines of communication open to receive user feedback, to encourage adoption, and to publicize successes.

Ron Shulkin blogs researches and writes about enterprise technology focused on social media, innovation, voice of the customer, marketing automation and enterprise feedback management. Ron Shulkin is Vice President of the Americas for CogniStreamer®, an innovation ecosystem. CogniStreamer serves as a Knowledge Management System, Idea Management System and Social Network for Innovation. You can learn more about CogniStreamer here http://bit.ly/ac3x60 . Ron manages The Idea Management Group on LinkedIn (Join Here). You can follow him Twitter. You can follow his blogs at this Facebook group. You can connect with Ron on LinkedIn.

Virtual Work Helps Women Get Ahead in Tech

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:50:00 +0000

We all know that women in the tech start-up world are outnumbered by men, and most of them tend to be in support roles such as marketing, public relations and office management. But, as of late, it is the lack of women entrepreneurs in the technology industry, and the shortage of female tech employees have been major topics of discussion.

Some women are working hard to bring more women into tech, but mostly they choose to ignore the industry’s male-dominated tradition, shrugging off the threat of sexism. Many seem not to notice when they’re pitching to a room full of men; some notice, and don’t care.

A recent survey from Elance entitled, “Women in Technology,” suggests virtual/online work may be the answer to women finally achieving serious parity with men in tech. The survey, which polled over 7,000 independent professionals across the globe, found that women are finding more tech opportunities in the virtual world than in the real world. In fact, 70 percent say online work gives them more opportunities in technology than on-site work does.

Women say they are finding numerous benefits of working virtually in tech including:

Level Playing Field

According to Elance’s survey, gender discrimination is neutralized when women work virtually. Instead of being perceived as female entrepreneurs, they are known as tech employees, gaining respect based on skills.

Work/Life Balance

For working moms flexibility is key. Virtual work enables both tech entrepreneurs and tech employees to balance their work and family time. The survey showed that 60 percent of women say online work allows them to manage their work life home life.

Ability to Build a Business

Sixty percent of women say working as an independent contractor with multiple clients is easier than trying to find full-time work. So, virtual work enables women to build their own businesses.

Intellectual Challenge

About 65 percent of women in tech say diverse projects enable them to improve their skills and provides more learning opportunities than an on-site job would.

All in all, 80 percent are optimistic about the future success of women in technology, and 32 percent are extremely optimistic.

Caution and Innovation: Do They Go Together?

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:46:00 +0000

Are you apprehensive about innovation? You are not alone. A new study by Accenture based on surveys of 519 companies across over 12 sectors in the U.S., U.K., and France revealed that half of executives feel their businesses have become risk averse when considering new ideas. Instead of inventing brand new products and services, 64 percent of companies focus more on product-line extensions.

If innovation is the creation and delivery of new value, they have focused too much on the "new" part and not enough on the "value" part. While most companies look at innovation as a priority, managers often dismiss radical new ideas. More involvement in the innovation process leads to better financial results, as well as helps develop team commitment.

According to Wouter Koetzier, managing director for innovation and product development at Accenture, many companies take a low-risk approach to innovation because they don’t have a disciplined approach for risk management. "It's a situation compounded for many by an inability to rapidly scale inventions," Koetzier told Business News Daily. "However, the research suggests that those companies that have a formal, end-to-end management system to nurture, scale and launch innovations tend to be more satisfied with their results as they achieve stronger outcomes."

Image via www.andyellwood.com

More than 90 percent of the executives said that the long-term success of their organization's strategy depends on the ability to develop new ideas, but there is a decline in the innovation performance satisfaction over the last three years. The number of executives who were likely to identify the introduction of a new product category as the main innovation goal dropped to 27 percent this year - down from 42 percent in 2009. Not to mention, 33 percent said their main innovation goal was the expansion of the products that supported basic offerings.

The research shows that companies that have formal innovation-management systems are twice as likely to say they were very satisfied with their idea-generation abilities. And, businesses with a system in place are 75 percent more likely to define their strategy as competitive, twice as likely to introduce a new business process, and 35 percent more likely to be first to market with new products.

Adi Alon, a managing director in the Accenture Innovation and Product Development practice, said, "Approached correctly, innovation can be executed at scale, with speed and balance between renovation and game-changing initiatives, driving higher strategic and commercial value."

Innovate Your Innovation Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

For decades, consumer goods companies have line extended in order to maintain continued growth. New sub-categories have been created, and then saturated. But this has led to many more choices than a consumer could possibly want. In turn, this has created a “paralysis of choice,” according to Luke Atkinson, deputy head of planning at Leo Burnett Sydney, so retailers are starting to consolidate and replace aisles of brands with their branded products.

“There is no genuine unmet need left in these categories,” he wrote. “This is further compounded by digital, which has created lots of new, interesting and often free ways to spend time and energy. Brands, as means of self-expression, have lost their power. And it costs more money to sustainably launch NPD into the market. No wonder incrementalism is a dying art.”

Atkinson says it’s time to innovate innovation, and here’s how:

Think Big. Classic incrementalism starts with detailed quantitative understanding of consumer needs, looking for empty percentage that a new product could target. Ask questions like, ‘What is my brand’s human purpose, making my target’s life better?’ Around this bigger purpose, ‘What unmet consumer needs exist that your brand, through a combination of products could fulfill?’

Think Utility. Digital technology offers new innovation opportunities that when combined with your product, offers consumers utilities that have value. How can the purpose of your brand and your product set, when combined with any consumer-friendly technology offer a new utility to people?

Think Functional Integration. To escape incrementalism, you must deepen your relationship with your consumer, not expand it. This is what integration is about – integrating your products together around your meaningful purpose.

Think Product and Promotion as One. Instead of developing a product and then worrying about how to promote it later, consider bringing the two together in one fresh combination. Consider bringing your product, advertising and digital agencies to innovate together.

Apartment Searching Goes Digital: 5 Trends that Impact Your Decision

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Ciccatelli) — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:19:00 +0000

As anyone who has searched for an apartment knows, choosing one is a big decision that involves time spent searching and re-searching an overwhelming amount of options. As I just went through this stressful process is one of the biggest cities in the world, New York City, I understand that apartment hunters want as much information as they can get to help them locate their ideal place. Luckily, today’s technology gives them more ways than ever to find it. In fact, here are five disruptive tech trends shaping the way renters find apartments in the digital age.

Deeper Research

With more information available at their fingertips than ever before, renters are looking closer at apartments before making a decision. Renters consult many sources to get a complete picture of the apartments they are considering and compare options to find the best fit. In fact, by the time they visit one in person, many already know about everything about the apartment. This trend will cause only apartments marketed across different media to stand out.

Social Media

Social sites like Facebook and Twitter are powerful sources of information. Renter friends’ referrals online carry more influence than any other single factor when it comes to making a decision. Tech Crunch recently reported that people use Twitter to share referrals as often as email, and Facebook is used to share referrals as much as Twitter and email combined. Turns out, apartments that get people talking online will easily find interested renters.

Image via Lifehacker.com

Online Ratings

From Amazon to Yelp, reviews and ratings on all types of products have become part of the online shopping experience and are becoming a huge force in the offline world too. Authentic reviews help renters verify the information they’ve found and commit to their choice; renters will actually take longer to commit to apartments that don’t have online reviews.

Video

Renters are interested in video information about a location because it is relevant to the quality of life. Reading that an apartment is a sunny and friendly place to live doesn’t carry as much weight as seeing a video that confirms it. In the future, videos may become as common as photographs for apartments listed online.

Mobile

Though most apartment hunters still browse the Web on a desktop, their phones let them access information anytime, anywhere. Mobile information accessed during the later stages of a search helps renters make a decision more quickly. Soon, apartments with mobile optimized websites will be able to quickly convince renters that they are a good fit.

Strategies for negative collaborators

noreply@blogger.com (CogniStreamer) — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:25:00 +0000

How To Deal With Negative Contributions

One of the most frequent questions I get when we talk about collaborative innovation systems, is “what do we do with negative input?”. Those responsible for the collaborative innovation environment, (whether it is a simple idea management system, an electronic suggestion box, or a full blown social network dedicated to ideation) worry about contributors who submit negative comments that can potentially kill good ideas.

In the innovation world, we always note there is a place for some negative thinking. If someone pokes holes in an idea with the hope that those negative attributes once noted, can be “solved”, then the negative input is truly constructive. For instance, “here’s where I see a problem with your idea” followed up by others responding with “fixes”, e.g. “thank you for pointing that issue out, here’s how we’re going to get around that problem”. The negative input stimulates additional contributions, more intense collaboration, includes more people and results in a positive outcome.

But what worries the innovation management team are the folks who “kill” ideas.

“That idea is terrible” which can imply you’re stupid for posting it.

“We tried that two years ago and the idea went nowhere” even though the circumstances two years ago could have been completely different. What was a bad idea back then might be a good idea today.

The best practice response we always share is to make certain the collaborative environment is closely curated. The community managers or moderators need to pay attention and either edit or delete those comments. Or a private message asking the contributor to frame their criticism in a more constructive way.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

New studies point out other approaches can yield success. Here’s a new tack and is based on a novel premise. Intense polarization depends on ignorance. Drawing attention to how little the team knows about any given topic can actually help the collaborators to “get along”. When researchers asked people to indicate their position on a particular topic and then asked them to explain the mechanics of the new idea, contributors took a more moderate position. You’re not asking the “Negative Nellies” to provide a reason for their negative position (which won’t have a positive outcome); instead you’re prompting the mechanistic explanation which can apparently enable empathy and a more open mind.

Standing The Test of Time

If you want a new idea to enjoy some sustainability, you need to give that notion initial wide exposure. If a contributor’s post has a minor initial “splash”, it’s percentage of mind share amongst the community will drop back off the radar fast. To get lasting notoriety, you need to debut with wide coverage so that the new idea “locks in”.

So the “marketing attributes” of the collaborative system needs to be tapped into in a big way.

The new idea should be placed obviously in the innovation social network’s news-feed;
It should be posted in the “spotlight” area on the initial dashboard;
The idea can be posted in the weekly innovation newsletter (“here’s what’s hot this week”);
Perhaps the idea has an “editor’s pick” graphic alongside of it;
It can be posted in multiple, different communities beyond its initial placement.

Taking this type of extra effort for a struggling, yet worthy idea may yield an idea that “has legs”, standing the test of time.

Benevolence versus Mercenary

Generally playing games to gain support for one’s idea is frowned upon. Usually the mechanics of a Challenge helps prevent users from gaming the system. (The winner isn’t for the “best idea”; the winner is for the most “contributions”). You don’t want people to vote for your idea because you want to win the iPad for your kid; you want people to vote for your idea based on the idea’s merit.

One ethical approach to reduce polarization surrounding a worthy idea; a way to overcome the “gridlock” surrounding its promotion, is to tap into a strategy well proven in the political arena: Pork Barrel Politics. If an idea has attributes that appeal to a variety of different groups within the collaborative space, it is possible to garner wide reaching support. When describing an idea, the inventor should probably consider how it can impact all the different parts of an organization. Marketers should think about engineers; people in one geography should think about how it impacts users in other geographies.

If an idea can provide benefits to MY area of the organization, it gets much easier to add my support. This method of framing one’s idea helps reach compromise. This appeal to others doesn’t necessarily garner “support”, but it does act as “bait” for convincing others. It can stimulate other users to join a coalition amongst collaborators who might otherwise spurn an idea. People need to see the value of an idea in their wheelhouse. This approach can even enable others to claim credit for the parts of the idea that aids their cause.

Summary

The trick is to remember the collaborative space is populated with humans. The user community is subject to all the foibles of any other group of people. Staying aware of the psychology can enable a smoother, more successful collaborative effort.

“Greasing the Wheels: Using Pork Barrel Projects to Build Majority Coalitions in Congress”, Diana Evans, Cambridge University Press (June 14, 2004).

Van de Rijt, A. et al., “Only 15 minutes? The Social Stratification of Fame in Printed Media,” American Sociological Review (April 2013).

Fernbach, P. et al., “Political Extremism Is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Post Script:

I write frequently on the topic of Adoption and Engagement surrounding Collaborative Innovation Ecosystems...in other words, how to get people to use the new Idea social network. Here's a smattering of recent blog postings covering the same topic:

Which Innovation News do you want first? The Good News or The Bad News?

Last lesson learned: Ideation for Innovation is a social networking activity

Everyone wants to be one of the cool kids in the “In(novation) Crowd”. Don’t you?

When is the best time to ask your team for ideas?

It's a little like teaching your Mother to use email: How to get older users to collaborate!

Keep Your Ideas Fresh! Adoption & Engagement in Collaborative Systems

About the Author

FEI 2013 Boston: The Top New Four Take-Aways from a Conference filled with Innovation Experts and Enthusiasts

noreply@blogger.com (CogniStreamer) — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:48:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending my fourth Front End of Innovation conference, held this year in Boston. The place was packed with the most creative, smart (and by definition) innovative people one could hope to meet. If satisfying your intellectual curiosity is important to you, this was a great place to engage in wonderful conversations. I did A LOT OF listening!

The list of attendees numbered over 400. Each of these folks spend their day job work day focused on how to be innovative, how to produce innovative products, how to use innovation processes at their companies or they just plain study the topic of innovation. If you didn’t get a chance to go, here are a few notes on my experience.

Here's a panoramic view of the exhibit floor during lunch.

There are generally four types of people at the show.

There are those who are interested in launching a collaborative innovation program at their company.
There are those whose focus is on innovative design.
There are a number of people who are chartered to find exciting new products or services that their company can license or buy (I call them “scouts”).
And lastly there are a slew of folks like me, presenting a technology or consulting offering that can facilitate the innovation process.

There were half a dozen authors at the show and upon my departure my suitcase was laden with signed copies of new books with the word “innovation” in the title. Oh yeah, I also got a free mini umbrella, two small stuffed animals and a T-shirt in a pretty trendy color.

Here are some of the things I learned this year.

1. New Information Presented in New Ways

During one session focused on how to get the people on your team to participate in the innovation process, the person sitting next to me commented that they’d heard this type of message before.

But I pointed out that our presenter

was delivering some new insights based on his experience actually launching programs;
that he was offering some best practices gleaned via trial and error;
and that for many in the audience, this was the first time they heard that Adoption and Engagement was an important topic deserving attention.

We learned (at least) that rolling out an innovation program needs to be done properly…and that you likely get only one chance to get it right lest you lose the confidence of your team.

The speaker also pointed out you need a few high quality participants, not a high volume of participants.

2. New Innovative Approaches to Get the Word Out

There seemed to be fewer vendors represented on the show floor, although at least eighteen companies stepped up to man a booth. It is no small expense to have a booth at a show like this, and each of these companies have enough confidence in the innovation arena to put forth this significant investment.

Plus a number of companies offered their sponsorship in other ways.

Some companies sponsored “Tracks”; the topic of the day.
Others sponsored the presentation of case studies during sessions.
Still more sponsored lunches, cocktail parties and even the lanyards for our name tags.

The audience got to hear the messages of a variety of different innovation companies in a variety of different ways.

3. New Players in the Innovation World

As usual I had great conversations with very smart people during shared meals, in the halls between sessions and on the exhibit floor. I heard from companies who are just getting into innovation and came to learn what the leaders have already accomplished. I spoke with organizations that have embraced innovation for at least a decade and came to share their successes (and hear about the success of others). Some came to hear what people are doing in other industries with the hope that they can take those experiences and use them in their own field.

4. New Business Opportunities

The most important measure of success when it comes to “show participation” for a company like mine, a company offering collaborative innovation software, is how many companies are kicking off new projects that require our technology. Not to be too mercenary about it, but those “leads” are the benefit we’re hoping for with our sponsorship and our attendance.

And the good news is a number of very large companies came by our booth to learn more about our offering. These enterprises searching for software solutions included several companies in the CPG category, a major pharmaceutical company, several manufacturers driven by new product development and a technology company. They came to the FEI show determined to find out who was offering collaborative innovation software. I’m glad we had a booth and that I was in the booth when they stopped by.

Did I mention that Boston has Seafood?

Lastly I’d like to point out the meeting was held on Boston’s waterfront and I had the pleasure of eating fresh crab, lobster, shrimp, and oysters while enjoying great views of shiny, tall buildings, waves lapping up against the harbor and a modern, cavernous meeting space. So…good information, new and interesting people and profitable experiences. It was a great show.

About the Author

Ron Shulkin blogs researches and writes about enterprise technology focused on social media, innovation, voice of the customer, marketing automation and enterprise feedback management. Ron Shulkin is Vice President of the Americas for CogniStreamer®, an innovation ecosystem. CogniStreamer serves as a Knowledge Management System, Idea Management System and Social Network for Innovation. You can learn more about CogniStreamer here . Ron manages The Idea Management Group on LinkedIn (Join Here) . You can follow him Twitter. You can follow his blogs at this Facebook group. You can connect with Ron on LinkedIn.

Live from FEI 2013: Reflections on Todd Henry's Discussion of Passion

noreply@blogger.com (Orin) — Thu, 09 May 2013 02:39:00 +0000

(Author's Introduction: While Todd Henry's talks at FEI were covered in other blog posts, he raised one important point about passion that deserves a bit more depth.)

"Every place that you add value in your life where it didn't previously exist...is work." -- Todd Henry

In order to add maximal value, however, Todd Henry suggested that we must find our passion. Citing many different sources, Todd described the need for understanding passion, knowing how to find one's passion, and living one's passion.

Todd Henry opined that people use the word "passion" without really understanding what it means (and, as I noted in an earlier post about the myth of hiring passionate employees, without creating room for passion). As Todd noted, the root of passion is the Latin "pati" -- to suffer. It takes a great deal of suffering to follow our passion, and yet doing so is critical to pursuing the lives we hope to live.

To help answer Todd's call, I thought I would post a few links to help people explore passion.

First, Kathryn Britton wrote a great overview of the research on passion, which is based on the research of Dr. Robert Vallerand on the two forms of passion: obsessive and harmonious. You can find video overviews of the two types of passion here and here, but the short version is that obsessive passion is a near-unhealthy drive to engage in an activity, while harmonious passion is an internal desire to engage in an activity that reflects a harmony between the self and the activity (which Todd Henry called "resonance"). For research on this topic, see Mageau, Vallerand, Charest, et al. (2009), the less-technical chapter by Vallerand and Houlfort (2003), or the 2007 address by Vallerand.

Finding one's passion, however, is a difficult task. Todd Henry cited Gretchen Rubin's work on this endeavor, and led us through several lines of questioning designed to help the audience find a path to passion. As Todd noted, it is hard to think about when being questioned on the subject so directly, and yet he exhorted all of us to rise to the challenge. In that spirit, I recommend taking a look at the comic that Chari Pere created for Rubin's book: "The Quest for a Passion".

Even when we find our passion, however, Todd Henry warned against losing it. He pointed out that far too many people get into top positions, or meet some of their early goals, and then forget their drive. Rather, said Todd, we must constantly renew ourselves and reestablish a beginner's mindset. As he pointed out:

"Your focus, your assets, your time, and your energy -- where you put those four things determine your fate."

With our passions in hand, Todd told us that we must, as Mike and the Mechanics put it in The Living Years, "Say it loud, say it clear." While Todd went for the chorus, I will leave you with my favorite part of the song:

So don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you don't give up,
And don't give in,
You may just be OK.

Orin C. Davis is a positive psychology researcher and organizational consultant who focuses on enabling people to do and be their best. His consulting work focuses on maximizing human capital and making workplaces great places to work, and his research focuses on self-actualization, flow, creativity, hypnosis, and mentoring. Dr. Davis is the principal investigator of the Quality of Life Laboratory and the Chief Science Officer of Self Spark. (@DrOrinDavis)

Live from FEI 2013: Angela Duckworth on the Relationship Between Grit and Success

noreply@blogger.com (Orin) — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:30:00 +0000

(Author's Introduction: Encountering things in a different context brings new perspective, and it was fascinating to view a colleague's research from the standpoint of an FEI talk rather than the confluence of the many research articles on the subject. Angela Lee Duckworth has spent years developing the construct of grit, and there is far more to say about it than a keynote speech could possibly cover [or even two TED talks, for that matter].)

The secret to success is a sort of holy grail for business thinkers and researchers alike. The number of books published on the subject is astounding, and even more astounding is the number of die-hard admirers and detractors that each school of thought retains. There are those who say that success is a function of talent, while others claim that it's all about perseverance. Some cite intelligence, while still others look for luck. Obviously, it's all of these, but which factor is the most important, sine qua non of success?

We have no idea.

But, we do have some insight into the answer thanks to more than a decade of research by Angela Lee Duckworth, and that insight is called grit.

Consider this: how many people do you know that are intelligent, lucky, talented, and even perseverant, but are not successful? Odds are, you can name a bunch, and these people have not achieved success despite having the supposed "main ingredients." For a contrast, put those items aside and think about people you know who have maintained a sustained interest in an area, willingly worked their rear-ends off, unflinchingly stared down adversity, and showed great zeal for what they do despite any challenge or setback that arose. It is likely that most, if not all, of the people you are currently thinking about are successful. This latter set of people is the group with the grit. They may also have talent, luck, et cetera, and the combination of high talent and high effort is a very good recipe for success, but it is the grit that makes the difference.[1]

Why Grit Is So Important

Research[2] by Anders Ericsson has shown that, across many domains, it takes about ten years of deliberate practice before someone can be world class at anything[3]. But, it's not just the ten years, otherwise everyone would be of "world class" caliber! Rather, it's that the ten years are spent in deliberate practice, which has four aspects[3]:

Deliberate Practice
-Very specific, narrow goal for improvement.
-Challenge must exceed skill
-Relatively immediate and specific feedback
-Repetition

Given the intensity of deliberate practice, most experts put in only 3-4 hours a day, and note that those hours are going to feel inordinately long and not very gratifying. It is done in solitude, it is not fun, and it is not easy, but people with lots of grit can make it through anyway.

The Impact of Grit

Grit has been shown to affect whether people stick it out through adversity or end up folding. For example, in a study at West Point[1], grittier cadets were more likely to survive the pre-West Point boot camp (a.k.a., Beast Camp), and grit even out-predicted talent as to whether cadets would stay. In fact, people who scored higher on grit were so involved with what they are doing that they could imagine doing anything else.

Of course, there are several other factors that have shown to relate to success, including happiness[4] and an optimistic explanatory style[5], but grit is decidedly one of the major keys to being successful.

With this in mind, the corporate world is likely to jump straight into selecting candidates for grit, but Duckworth adds a word of caution to this, because grittiness does not show up in an interview. Her preliminary research on resumes suggests that people can look for multi-year projects that reflect a clear progression over time (in younger candidates that may not have a lengthy work portfolio, look for long-time hobbies).[6]

A Future for Grit

Even with the research on grit, expertise, explanatory style, and subjective well-being, we are a long way from understanding success[7]. Yet, we do know that success is going to take zeal, effort, and a willingness to strive in the face of adversity in the long-term. As one of my future posts will discuss: To be successful, don't quit; show grit![8]

Orin's Asides

1) Duckworth, et al. (2007)
2) For a good summary, take a look at Ericsson's Harvard Business Review article.
3) Ericsson et al. (1993)
4) By happiness, we mean "subjective well-being." Ed Diener is the main researcher on this topic, and he has a helpful FAQ on the subject.
5) In short, optimistic explanatory style is believing that setbacks are temporary and related to situational factors rather than believing that oneself is a failure. See M.E.P. Seligman's book for more.

6) In addition to Duckworth's research being preliminary, it is important to note that gritty people could have plenty of holes in their resumes. Especially in an economic downturn, where companies are short-sightedly cutting costs and letting go of more-expensive people, there may be many gritty people who are on the wrong end of such personnel management errors. Additionally, recessions cause companies to be focused more on quick wins and buckling down, which may inhibit growth opportunities and the time needed for a talented person to grow into a position (see my post on hiring), which in turn affects tenure and resumes.
7) To say nothing of its Maslovian counterpart, self-actualization.
8) Get your grit score here.

Live from FEI 2013: Will Power: Grit, Self-Control, and Achievement

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:56:00 +0000

True Grit: Why Effort is as Important as Talent

What do you need for true grit? Two things: 1) A sustained, consistent interest over a long period of time and 2) the ability to overcome adversity.

While "Achievement = Talent x Effort," human beings aren't born into the world with the talent to create compelling PowerPoint slides or knowing how to ski. These are learned skills, and as it turns out, deliberate practice improves a person's ability. Deliberate practice involves focus, consistent challenge, and repetition. But, deliberate practice is not typically fun.

So if the key is deliberate practice, why isn't everyone "great" at something? Well, deliberate practice is hard. It is also lonesome. Some things to know about grit includes:

Genes matter when it comes to grit - while stability comes from genetic factors, change in grit ones from experience

You can build a culture of grit - align employees based on their talents, interests, and personalities. Then, "race to strengths, and train to weaknesses."

When it comes to developing talent, sometimes you need to be gritty for those under you - this includes parents not letting their kids quit sports and helping employees become gritty for themselves by separating the good reasons for "quitting" versus the bad reasons for quitting.

Why is grit important? Grit is a predictor of:

Sales commission
Keeping your job
Progression in competitions
Graduation rates for West Point cadets
Teacher performance

Now, for some encouragement on building capacity for grit.

Goal setting:
What specific goal do I want to achieve
What good thing will happen if I achieve this goal
What obstacles stand in the way of my reaching this goal?

Planning (creating an action list):
Planning needs to have a where, when and how you will get around or avoid the obstacles (i.e. if it is 6 pm on a weekday, I will go to my room and read a book)

Wishing you all the best on the path to grit!

Alicia Arnold holds a Master of Science in Creativity, Innovation and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Bentley University. She enjoys writing about creativity and innovation and is published with Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post, The National Association of Gifted Children, and iMedia Connection. In her role as an award winning, digital marketer, she uses her passion for creativity and innovation to develop breakthrough digital and social experiences. You can connect with Alicia on Twitter @alicarnold.

Live from FEI 2013: Designing a Better Future

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:58:00 +0000

The Disruptor Panel (and Fishbowl)

In this session we started with two disruptors Charlie Sutton from Nokia and Emil Georgiev from GE. Sutton described himself as a "clarifier"(disruptively clarifying) while Emil described himself as an initiator (the one who gets things started).

Here's a shorthand (a.k.a not word-for-word) account of the beginning of the Q&A...

Q: How can you tell when the conditions are right for disruption in the organization?

A (Georgiev): You need to help co-workers understand the importance of empathy. You also need to help them understand a customer's unmet needs and desires in order to pull together the right solution.

A (Sutton): It is important to reduce complexity and break the "gridlock."

Q: Is design the domain in disruption or is it just a coincidence that both panelists are in design?

A (Sutton): Design is key for communication. Using "design fiction" is a powerful way to envision the future of what might be.

A (Georgiev): Storytelling and skits are effective ways to get ideas across. Skits also help help build engagement. These techniques allow you to get to the essence quickly.

A (Sutton): Design thinking is about using primitive tools to talk about sophisticated topics. There's a tension that exists. The quality of storytelling is amping up.

Q: Where does that leave those of us who are in the business of design thinking?

A (Sutton): We may need to develop skills in more advanced storytelling techniques. There will come a time when we put sticky notes up and they (clients) won't buy what we're saying because the presentation won't be high fidelity enough.

Q: What are some of the tools we will need for storytelling?

A (Sutton): Being able to film and sequence, being able to handle a camera

A (Georgiev): Nothing beats face-to-face interaction

A (Sutton): "I prefer people eat together rather than do sticky notes together"

Partway through the fishbowl, Rodrigo Martinez from IDEO joined the panel. He shared the importance of the physical - face to face and prototyping.

Alicia Arnold holds a Master of Science in Creativity, Innovation and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Bentley University. She enjoys writing about creativity and innovation and is published with Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post, The National Association of Gifted Children, and iMedia Connection. In her role as an award winning, digital marketer, she uses her passion for creativity and innovation to develop breakthrough digital and social experiences. You can connect with Alicia on Twitter @alicarnold.

Live from FEI 2013: Innovation and the Art of Letting Go

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:08:00 +0000

Featuring Michael Hendrix and Colin Raney, IDEO

People + Culture

"If creativity is gardening, creative leadership is about selecting and nurturing gardeners to work alongside you."

At IDEO, in the beginning, there was an empty space off to the side. Then, something interesting started. Employees grabbed furniture from other parts of the company, they started decorating, a film series took hold, then "Crimson Berry," and "Stack Cutter" were introduced (i.e. stapler and paper cutter).

Some time later, a group called and asked to see what an idea space looked like. More and more things were introduced into the space. Rather than just a social space, the formerly stark area became a makerspace.

The takeaway: Creativity is born out of culture and hiring "gardeners"

Framing Problems + Process
"Design creates new alternatives through exploration. As you create, you learn. As you learn, you create."

What IDEO lives by (asking small questions):

Rapid Development
Barriers to Launch
Learning through Metrics
No centralized control

The takeaway: empowering others and allowing them to ask small questions leads to big ideas.

Creative Flow
"We create the future by lying about it first"

IDEO strategies to create fluency and flow include: 1) Thinking about creativity as an immersion - Creativity is high maintenance and it can't be lured out by donuts on Friday 2) Bringing "naive" folks in to explore the problem, and allowing them to imagine...and to get into the creative role (i.e. doodle, make songs, create rituals). This helps with flow 3) Making creativity a daily habit - incorporate rituals to build creativity into the day to day.

The takeaway: give people the space and tools to unleash creativity.

Theater
"Do it in public"

Like Clover, create a public prototype. They setup a food truck and let the public know it was a prototype. This allowed Clover to design their product with their customers.

The takeaway: prototype, prototype, prototype (while solving problems with your customers, your employees, your core audience).

Alicia Arnold holds a Master of Science in Creativity, Innovation and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Bentley University. She enjoys writing about creativity and innovation and is published with Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post, The National Association of Gifted Children, and iMedia Connection. In her role as an award winning, digital marketer, she uses her passion for creativity and innovation to develop breakthrough digital and social experiences. You can connect with Alicia on Twitter @alicarnold.

Live from FEI 2013: Passion for Work

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:08:00 +0000

Todd Henry's session started with him asking for permission to get "touchy feely."

With a resounding, "Yes!" from the crowd the session began...

Hmm...did you know Jimi Hendrix started by opening for the Monkees? Well, as you can imagine it didn't work out. We didn't start out as kids saying "we want to be yes-men, we want to be overlooked, we want to be marginalized." Interestingly, when we were younger perhaps we were better at tapping into our passion.

But, what is passion?

Passion is a misused term. You aren't really as passionate about your loved on as you are about ice cream. The root of the word passion is "to suffer." This begs the question, what work are you willing to suffer for? What are you willing to pour yourself out over?

As it turns out, passion isn't one thing. Passion is many things. We are "building a body of work."

Ask yourself, "What is the change in the world that exists because you spent time and energy today?" Once you're over the procrastination, the fear, the perceived consequences of failure, you'll be on your way to discover your passion. And, if you need help:

Follow the arrows
There are probably hints in your life where what you did really resonated, what were those times?

Find your strengths
Ask yourself what others think you're great at.

Plan for experimentation
Life isn't always scripted. Allow time to try new things.

Mix and match
Apply skills to adjacent opportunities.

Notice, then act
There may be a platform that you can find in your work that drives you. Passion may not be about the mechanics of the job, but what it allows you to do.

If that's not enough to help figure out your passion, ask yourself these questions:

What angers you?
What makes you cry?
What have you mastered (or what are the platforms that already exists?
What gives you hope?
What terrifies you?
What change do you crave in the world (and what are you going to do about it?)

Alicia Arnold holds a Master of Science in Creativity, Innovation and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Bentley University. She enjoys writing about creativity and innovation and is published with Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post, The National Association of Gifted Children, and iMedia Connection. In her role as an award winning, digital marketer, she uses her passion for creativity and innovation to develop breakthrough digital and social experiences. You can connect with Alicia on Twitter @alicarnold.

Live from FEI 2013: Frugal Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:04:00 +0000

Navi Radjou, co-author of Jugaad Innovation started his talk with why we need frugal innovation. His premise was that the amount of money spent on R&D is not correlated to making the list of the most innovative companies. While Apple spends less on R&D than Microsoft, Apple consistently makes the list of most innovative companies while Microsoft does not. This helps prove out Radjou's theory that money can't buy innovation.

Interestingly, the more money you pour into innovation, the less risk averse you become. Why? Because companies become focused on protecting their investment rather than driving originality. And if you think buttoned up efficiency and a focus on protecting investments helps innovation and creativity, here's a poignant quote from George Buckley, CEO, 3M:

"You can't put a Six Sigma process into that area and say, well, I'm getting behind on invention, so I'm going to schedule myself for three good ideas on Wednesday and two on Friday. That's not how creativity works."

So what is frugal innovation?

Frugal Innovation = Increasing value (customers, shareholders, society)

Lowering resources (time, money, etc.)

If you believe necessity is the mother of invention, then you've captured the essence of frugal innovation. Examples of frugal innovation abound in emerging markets. But, did you know large, commercial companies like the Tata Group, Unilever, Siemens, and PepsiCo are innovating frugally?

What do these companies have in common? They have "jugaad" or "the gutsy ability to improve and effect a solution with limited resources using ingenuity and resilience."

Go forth and live frugally!

Alicia Arnold holds a Master of Science in Creativity, Innovation and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Bentley University. She enjoys writing about creativity and innovation and is published with Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post, The National Association of Gifted Children, and iMedia Connection. In her role as an award winning, digital marketer, she uses her passion for creativity and innovation to develop breakthrough digital and social experiences. You can connect with Alicia on Twitter @alicarnold.

Live from FEI 2013: Cheese + Rice: Continued …

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Keller) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:30:00 +0000

David Agus, M.D. and author of “The End of Illness”

The pebble in the pond effect from David’s speech was worth noting. The people this writer talked to after his speech proclaimed it as both inspiring and a bit scary. A few people even considered getting up to walk around after his comparison between sitting for five hours equaling smoking a pack and a quarter of cigarettes per day. David’s impact was tremendous.

As we sit here at a conference for even more than 5 hours total.

He set us all up with a discussion around metrics, because he always goes back to the data for proof of point. He asked us, how do we measure wellness? Is it living longer? Or is it feeling better now? Sometimes we sacrifice one for the other.

David concluded with the metric of getting back to an era when we “die of old age” instead of diseases. The age is 83, if we live that long then the healthcare systems don’t take extreme measures to keep us alive. This also matches up nicely with the fact that we spend 60% of our healthcare costs on the last two years of our lives. Hard subject area, but David dropped us into it with noteworthy bedside manner.

Then, in a beautiful act of humility, he admitted to the mistakes of all doctors including his own. “Eat margarine, not butter” and all the other misdirection’s by the medical doctor industry was his example for us.

From here, he went deep into the idea of movement. In a study of bus drivers versus bus ticket takers, the ticket takers had less heart disease and cancer. The drivers sit all day, the ticket takers walk around all day. This is when the room took a collective breath in and considered standing up. David would serve himself well with a dramatic stop and asking for the audience to stand up for the next five minutes. Then he connected it back to his most famous patient, Steve Jobs and his habit of taking a walk with people instead of meeting in conference rooms. And, if you’re curious about how this was also a negotiation technique by Steve Jobs, you should ask.

Then, if we call started our day chewing the bark of the willow tree, we would live longer and have less illness. And, if you don’t have a willow tree, a baby aspirin is the modern day replacement. Yes, a baby aspirin a day. You can bet the sales of baby aspirin in Boston, Ma just had a small boost. And, if you take the flu shot each year, you reduce the stress on your heart of the flu and reduce your chance of heart disease.

Now, David went whale hunting. Vitamins are good for you and they equal longer life, right? WRONG! He showed numerous studies around vitamins and how they actually increased death rates. He also pointed is finger at the vitamin D craze going on currently with a current measurement of over 75% of individuals having low vitamin D and how 26% of people who took vitamin D had bone fractures.

If you believe vitamins are good for you because we don’t get them from our food today, you’re wrong. If you still hold onto your “one a day” vitamin, this should cause some doubt. If you always forget, this should remove some guilt.

Last, he went into the next frontier. This writer had heard of this movement, but David’s confirmation was confidence building. The next frontier is the bacteria in our gut. We have 10x more bacteria in our body than we have cells. Take a moment to think about that fact. The micobiome project is where you should be looking if you seek nourishment from the future potential to understand the human body.

These are the three items this writer took away from David.

Take one baby aspirin per day, no questions.
Get up and walk around more than you sit each day.
Get rid of the vitamins in your life.
Think about how your bacteria situation could change.
We need leadership in national healthcare issues. This writer is voting for David Agus.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our perspective.

Aaron Keller

Managing Principal

Capsule

Blog : Capsulescape.com

LinkedIn : Aaron Keller

Live from FEI 2013: The World Turned Upside Down: Winning in Emerging Markets

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:24:00 +0000

The forces shaping emerging markets: Aging, Shrinking, Hypergrowth

In this morning's keynote, Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer, Cisco presented his game-changing advice for how to win in emerging markets. He started with a disclaimer slide basically letting us know that thoughts were his own, not Cisco's (Aside: I love disclaimer slides...enjoy seeing how much text and legalese companies can get onto the page - LOL!).

What are the challenges facing us?

New value creation and productivity improvements
Talent mismatch: supply and demand issue
Energy management and urbanization
Access to healthcare and education

At Cisco, they looked at these challenges and found ways to create a new business model born from corporate social responsibility. One of the solutions include sustainable buildings in India (city of the future...a living lab). The benefits of smart cities include environmental (LEED standards), economic (payback), and social impact (child care).

As Wim spoke, I started thinking about how companies like Cisco are taking over for governments. Think about it. Cisco is building infrastructure. They're creating smart cities where they've thought about the holistic impact of people+process+data+things. In essence, with their smart city design, Cisco is helping to manage communities (cities). While they may not be funding their efforts through taxes, it is interesting to think about what Cisco provides and what they will eventually gain by defining the who, what, where, when, why, and how of where the next smart city may sprout up.

Food for thought...

Live from FEI 2013: Creativity Under Pressure

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia Arnold) — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:03:00 +0000

In Todd Henry's opening keynote, we dove into the "People" side of innovation. Henry's challenge was for all of us in the audience to think about whether we were getting the best out of ourselves, our teams, and our organizations in our day to day interactions. The surprising answer was...probably not. The problem is, we are stuck in the middle - in mediocrity.

But, there is a solution. We can be prolific, brilliant, and healthy! The key is to make sure you have all three ingredients. If you take away healthy, you get "Fried." If you take away prolific, you get "Unreliable." Lastly, if you take away brilliant, you get "Fired!"

There are lots of studies on creativity. In one piece of research, Adobe found 75% of people do not feel they are living up to their creative potential.

Why?

There are two reasons. First, the creative process seems mystical. Occasionally we have an insight, but it is hard to figure out where it came from or how to do it again. This makes it difficult to create value. Second, we live in a create-on-demand world where we need to be creative, but we are not equipped with the tools to do so.

Perhaps what we need to do is reframe creativity. To Henry, creativity boils down to solving problems. The key is to push into uncomfortable places to get to those brilliant insights. The five steps Henry suggests include:

Define the Problem
Explore Options
Choose the Best Option
Execute
Rinse and Repeat

So, what can you do each and every day to boost creativity? You need to build a creative rhythm through:

Focus

Pick the "Big 3" problems and put them in a public place. Be sure to check back from time to time in order to make sure the problem is relevant.

Relationships

Build relationships with others and build circles where you get together to talk about common interests. Teach what you've learned and take the time to learn from others.

Energy

Manage energy by "pruning" and making sure you are focusing on the most important thing. Remember that one thing effects the next...think whole life not in silos of work and personal.

Stimulus

Build time to stretch your mind; read widely, broadly and with purpose. Be sure to bring in stimulus that introduces you to new things.

Hours

Experiment, play, sharpen your intuition through "unnecessary creating"

Click here to download Todd Henry's presentation.

Live from FEI 2013: Driving Innovation Across the Organization.

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Keller) — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:01:00 +0000

Fans + Stuff: It may hit the fan and spray.

We hope you enjoyed this one, the good stuff was flying.

Our two speakers: riCardo Crespo, former chief creative office at Mattel Toys, and Twentieth Century Fox. And, Tommy Lynn, creative director at Dell teamed up to give us some inside perspective on creativity in large organizations.

And, they start with a promise to drop the f bomb. Let it fly.

Tommy went first with an inside view of how a large digital and technology company fosters creativity. He started with sessions he holds using analog technology (pens, markers and paper) to pull a creative mission out of teams. He also used public art as a visible way to pull the creative spirit out of many you would never expect to be artists. These efforts and many more methods brought design, innovation and creativity into the corporate conversation.

riCardo Crespo, focused on a real person instead of demographic kids when he was at Mattel. He pushed simplification and drew us away from, “new to the world” because it’s less intimidating. He had us following a thread to innovation as an improvement, but a “wholly shit factor” instead of just a new polish.

Then, it went up a notch and riCardo talked about the label of “innovator” and picking your own nickname, both are socially awkward. But, if you’re into calling yourself an innovator, I suspect riCardo has a rather amusing nickname for you.

This duo ran past a few boundaries.

We heard the first speech with swearing, without any visible editing.
It was the first to put a “creativity” song in our heads, “Are you ready for this” most often heard at a hockey match.
The use of shuffle play as an icon for innovation and creativity. Getting us away from a continuous play way of thinking. Marvelous metaphor.
First use of this quote, “I want to be like Cortez the explorer and burn the ships” Because we can’t go back from here.

The best quote and my immediate thought after it came out. Quote, “We are getting into deep shit here.” My thought, “strap on the waders.”

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our perspective.

Aaron Keller

Managing Principal

Capsule

Blog : Capsulescape.com

LinkedIn : Aaron Keller

Live from FEI 2013: Delony Langer-Anderson and Cristin Moran on Finding the Next Big Idea in the Corporate Jungle

noreply@blogger.com (Orin) — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:01:00 +0000

As Delony Langer-Anderson & Cristin Moran of 3M talked about how their company went looking for big ideas in a large firm, there were a slew of interesting ideas and suggestions for instituting an innovation program in a company. But the most important theme that kept arising was putting the personal touch on innovation endeavors.

Delony and Cristin headed a small team that started inviting prototypes in attempt to address a particular problem. The innovation blitz that followed was structured typically, but once the prototypes were submitted, it was a whole new program.

While the originating team planned to go through and evaluate the prototypes in a few days, they realized that it was critical to give each prototype its due diligence. To do this, "We took that whackadoodle prototype...and we dug down layer by layer to find the nugget the [inventors] were trying to show us." The team employed four key principles to guide the judging:

-Respect -- treat every submission as a solid attempt to provide a solution
-Open mind -- be open to anything
-Benefit of the doubt -- trust that every submission is valuable and has potential
-Dig until you find it -- the value of the prototyped product may not be immediately obvious

Ultimately, every single entry was acknowledged with a hand-written note, which is incredibly encouraging and respectful of the time that everyone invested. While many corporations root innovation endeavors in competition, and acknowledge only the winners, this falls short of recognizing the role of failure, the efforts of those whose prototypes were not chosen, and the valuable insights that come from each and every prototype. By giving personal recognition to each participant, Delony and Cristin built engagement, and kept innovators primed to recognize that their insights are valuable to the firm. In doing so, they finished with a bang and had, not just successes and solutions, but a path to future innovation.

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Live from FEI 2013: Cheese + Rice: Continued …

Live from FEI 2013: The World Turned Upside Down: Winning in Emerging Markets

Live from FEI 2013: Creativity Under Pressure

Live from FEI 2013: Driving Innovation Across the Organization.

Live from FEI 2013: Delony Langer-Anderson and Cristin Moran on Finding the Next Big Idea in the Corporate Jungle