Innovation Blueprints # 101 by Innovation Blueprint

Innovation Blueprints march 2016 issue #101

innovation strategies & satire

INNOVATION ARCHETYPES SPECIAL FEATURE: Is Kim Jong-un the most innovative marketer in the world? Regrettable Innovations: the innovations we want to forget New Innovations: The innovations making waves in the world Reverse Brainstorming: Innovation tools for reluctant innovators WWW.INNOVATIONBLUEPRINT.COM.AU

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

elcome to our first edition of Innovation Blueprints.

So why a quarterly magazine on innovation? Well to be honest, not too many have the passion or time to read newsletters and blogs these days. We hope an eye catching magazine’s going to be a different story. Nils Vesk, Chief editor

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it’s been proven that humour helps us learn more

That’s why we’ve reinvented the way to share our content. You’ll find some of our usual awesome tips and techniques for innovating, as well as some satire to help you digest it all. It’s been proven that humour helps us to learn more and keep us entertained. So watch out as we throw some stones at as many people and topics that we have time to think of. For many of us in the Southern Hemisphere the end of summer seems to be accompanied by fuzzy hangovers, hot weather and desire to do nothing but sit on a beach and swim the day away.

I’m sure this magazine will bring back a little bit of mental stimulation to get you thinking fresh for the year ahead. To keep you up to speed on what’s happening we profile some new mover and shaker innovations - be they new products or services. Our team of experts from Innovation Blueprint share their latest findings and we share what’s happening in the wider world beyond fantastic, money making, innovative ideas. So get set for some fun and some innovation insights that can help to drive you and your organisations thinking higher than ever before. Keep on innovating! Cheers, Nils Nils Vesk Chief Editor & Founder of Innovation Blueprint nils@InnovationBlueprint.com.au www.InnovationBlueprint.com.au

QTR 1. 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT’S INSIDE Reverse Brainstorming - innovation tips

New innovations

The Innovation Force - mindsets

Epic Innovators

D.I.Y Innovation - innovation tips

Collaboration tools

Counter Intuitive Innovation

10 ways to help unlock million dollar ideas

Book Insider - innovation book excerpts

Innovation Biases - Innovation tips

Regrettable moments of innovation

Opening up to Innovation - innovation tips

Disruption & Agitation - innovation tips

Film review by George Clooney

Innovation Partnerships - innovation tips

Innovation coach Q&A’s

Social Innovation

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

INNOVATION TIPS

REVERSE BRAINSTORMING

WITH NILS VESK

WHEN YOU HAVE A TEAM WHO GIVE YOU EVERY REASON THEY CAN THINK OF AS TO WHY THEY’RE NOT INNOVATIVE. THIS METHOD CAN WORK WONDERS.

e ran an innovation workshop the other day and knowing that Valentines day was just around the corner I thought it would be a good idea to combine the Valentines day theme with some customer relationship innovation.

A simple but effective ideation (idea generating) technique that I like working with is called reverse brainstorming. What makes reverse brainstorming so effective is that it’s a technique that tricks the brain so that you can’t help but find opportunities for new ideas.

“All we had to do was think of what wouldn’t enable us to innovate. all the things that would stop us from innovating”

Simply asking a person to come up for a great idea is a recipe for disaster, yet asking someone to think of something really easy like “what’s the worst thing you could do to …………?” is relatively easy and becomes a goldfield for new ideas. This is how I briefly framed up the activity. “We all know that valentines day is coming up. Our clients in many ways are kind of like a ‘lover’ in a relationship. We would hope that we can maintain a relationship with them for a long time to come, not just have a one night stand. Let’s see how we can apply the reverse brainstorming technique to the customer as a ‘lover’.”

“We all know that no one really likes being lonely on Valentines day, but what would be all the things you could do to lose a lover?” After framing up the activity you can imagine there were some laughs and a good time had as the participants looked at a myriad of ways to loose a lover. Now I’m not going to share all of them right here (some were a little bit to risque) but here’s a list of some of the suggestions below. St Valentines day - Ways to lose a lover •

ignore them

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only talk to them when you want something

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sleep with someone else

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never tell them you care

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forget about them

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always take and never give

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farting in bed

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telling them they look too fat

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continually telling them that they’re not good enough

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not giving them constructive criticism

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putting yourself first every time

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forgetting their birthday

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forgetting your anniversary

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not taking the time to just listen

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not taking the time to just be with them

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not connecting with them on a deeper level

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resenting their success

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not going shopping with them

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not giving them a surprise from time to time

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not inviting them out with your friends

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checking out other people when they’re around

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not getting them flowers

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eating all of their Tim tams without replacing them

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

Now that we’ve got a list we can start forcing our brain to reverse these ideas for our application. Reverse brainstorming involves looking at the worst case scenario or the opposite of what we want so that our mind is free of our usual limitations to enable us to join new possibilities and combinations to our focus area. Now I’m not going to share every idea that came from the list but here’s a few that caught my eye. Ignoring them - having a ‘keep in touch’ list (K.I.T) that reminds you of your client, their industry, their needs and their interests. Actively look for something that would be of interest to them that you can send to them. Always take and never give - Sending them chocolates when you invoice them. Forgetting their anniversary - Sending a note to remind them of the good times you had working with them on that special date. Not inviting them out with your friends - if you’re ever going out to celebrate, invite some of your clients too so that they can be a part of the celebration. Alternatively if you’re going to a professional development conference invite a client along as a guest. Not giving them a surprise from time to time - if you’re buying yourself a good business book to read, buy a few copies and send one to your lover/s. There was a stack of other great ideas in the activity that I’m not a liberty to share, yet I’m sure you get the gist of it. If you’re looking to apply the reverse brainstorming technique simply ask your team to think of all the things that you need to do to make something fail or not work. For example: •

All the ways to waste time

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All the ways to stop innovating

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All the ways to lose a client

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All the ways to confuse a customer

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All the ways to waste money

Give it a go, this is a fail safe technique that’s lots of fun.

Author: Nils Vesk

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It’s always easier to come up with reasons why we can’t innovate

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

NEW INNOVATIONS WE TAKE A LOOK AT SOME NEW INNOVATIONS MAKING WAVES IN THE WORLD ardboard standing desk

loating bonsai tree garden

C Following on from F Yes you read the all the latest research that sitting down for 8 hours a day is bad for us, there’s been all kinds of solutions for ‘stand up’ workstations. Most of them to expensive and cumbersome. Now there’s a new mover and shaker. Oristand - a new cardboard ‘standing desk’ for around $35 AU. Compact and neat, it’s a foldable simple flat pack extension (with no screws or assembly required) that enables you to pop it on your existing table. Meaning when you feel you’ve been sitting down too long, you can pop the desk on top of your usual desk and then you have a standing workstation. www.oristand.co

correctly a floating bonsai tree. Capitalising on the need to make remarkable products, Hoshinchu a japanese small business realised that making a bonsai tree float would be as impressive as could be. Their resulting innovation the ‘Air bonsai’ uses a magnet in both the garden base and a growing medium (either a magnetic moss ball or magnetic lava rock). The bonsai plant will float roughly 6 cm above an elegant base. The customer simply plants their bonsai plant in the sponge which comes with the moss ball or lava rock and places it above the base where it floats majestically in space. For more info check out www.Hoshinchu.com

B So we’ve all hear ehavioural biometrics

about biometric scanners for security, and eye trackers for analysing user experience on websites etcetera. Now we have a spike of biometrics being used to help behavioural analysis of emotional responses to commercials and even movies. www. Lightwave.io was recently involved in assessing the emotional responses of fans to the Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘The revenant’. Their biometrics system is providing producers and also marketers with valuable insights to what people really feel and how they react to messages. www.Lightwave.io

urning pollution into jewellery

T Environmentalist

are always looking for better ways to minimise waste or to better recycle or treat our waste products. We’ve seen human waste used for fertilisers, and refuse used for power generators and now we see air pollutants being captured and used to create jewellery. Studio Roosegarde is a studio based in the Netherlands and they have invented a smog free tower that captures air pollutant particles that are then used to create jewellery. Similar to the concept of a vacuum machine, the Tower uses ions to trap the pollutant particles. Powered by wind energy sucks in over 30 cubic meters of air per hour. The tower needs just 1000 cubic metres of pollutant air to process into jewellery. The first tower was installed in Rotterdam and was funded by a crowd funding campaign. Studio Roosegarde see the towers being placed in public spaces and parks to improve air quality around the country. www.StudioRoosegaarde.net https://www.studioroosegaarde.net

Author: Nils Vesk

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

THE INNOVATION FORCE BY ANDREW POPE

WHICH SIDE OF THE FORCE ARE YOU ON? GOOD OR BAD INNOVATION? he force is strong in successful innovators. The force to think differently and create new outcomes. Some of us may even wear a cape, an extravagant helmet and experience breathing difficulties.

However, there are two sides of the force. There is good innovation, where we turn problems into opportunities, we think outside the box and connecting new streams of thought. Then there is bad innovation: finding ways around a problem by pretending that there isn’t a problem - by re-imagining the problem. Now this type of innovation can be very successful... in the short-term. However, it usually comes back to bite us. Let’s have a look at how a successful European automobile company deals with a problem. Well, actually an opportunity. Let’s call this company Achtung Cars.

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So Achtung Cars saw an opportunity to exploit an underdeveloped market with a successful product.

Think differently to create new outcomes Their diesel cars were market leaders in Europe, however they had been unable to transfer this technology to an enormous market, and entire country with very little competition in diesel cars - let’s call this country Trumpland.

In Trumpland, the emissions standards on diesel cars are extremely restrictive, with no manufacturer successfully able to get around these standards to develop a sustainable market for diesel cars. So here is a huge opportunity to innovate - it’s barriers such as this that provide the fuel for innovation. Successfully overcome this barrier, and the market is all yours. So what would you do? Invest heavily in new engine technologies? Or is there an alternative? Well, what Achtung Cars did was to re-imagine the question. A good innovator would ask how can we develop a new technology to meet the emissions standards. A bad innovator asks more simply ‘how can we pass the test?’ And in asking a different question, Achtung Cars was able to develop a new solution: a method to pass the test. Not to meet the standards. Some of us may call this cheating, but at the time for Achtung Cars, this was innovation. A much more simple technological innovation than developing new engines - simply a way of learning when a car was under test to allow it to perform differently, and therefore pass the test. Innovation? Yes. Good innovation? No. In the short-term, it led to huge exploitation of a new market (and huge bonuses for a few individuals). But this is where the dark side shows it’s, well, it’s dark side. Achtung Cars eventually were rumbled, and the cost to reputation was, and still is massive. Use the force! But we should think whether short-term gain is better than long-term, responsible, thinking. Unless you manage to find a way to build a cool Death Star that kind of bad innovation pretty much kills the opposition. Just remember to innovate on the defences - perhaps make those exhaust vents a bit more secure. Hang on!! Exhausts? I know a car manufacturer who knows all about exhaust emissions...

Andrew Pope flies the Innovation flag in Europe. Despite being a native of the UK he’s spent much of his innovation career in the southern hemisphere. He specialises on innovation collaboration on a number of innovation projects. +44 (0)7508 906 504 andrew@innosis.eu

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

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Every man should have the same haircut as me

25 million fans who do what ever you say. Now that’s influential.

MAVERICK MARKETERS

EPIC INNOVATORS KIM JONG-UN

WE SCOUT THE WORLD FOR THE MOST IMPRESSIVE INNOVATORS. FROM ANALYSTS TO ENTREPRENEURS, NO STONE IS LEFT UNTURNED AS WE AIM TO FIND THE SECRETS OF SERIAL INNOVATORS. THIS TIME WE TAKE TIME OUT TO RESEARCH ONE MARKETING MAVERICK MAKING INTERNATIONAL NEWS CONSISTENTLY AT HOME AND ABROAD.

ailing from a long family line of marketers. Kim Jong-un (KJ to his fans) has followed in his fathers footsteps to become a maverick marketer of epic proportions. With a natural talent for generating nonsensical propaganda, spin, rhetoric and pure lies, KJ follows it up with his zero tolerance strategy. An avid fan of Seth Godin’s international best selling book ‘Tribes’, KJ has found a unique way to build his market by excluding those who don’t follow his line of thinking - simply killing off the dissenters.

Rumoured to be able to speak to dolphins, KJ furthers his communication skills through the art of story telling. KJ has an uncanny ability to share his remarkable feats through stories that engage his nation to believe almost anything. Correction, his people will actually really believe everything! Miraculously, Kim Jong-un succeeded in his ascent of North Korea’s highest mountain, Mount Paktu located near the chinese border. Despite Mt. Paktu towering over 9,000 ft and being covered in snow, KJ managed to make the killer climb in nothing but an overcoat and sensible black leather shoes. With such remarkable feats such as this, it’s no surprise that Kin Jong-un has an unlimited wealth

of remarkable stories to share with his his tribe of followers. Kim Jong-un oozes influence in a way that any other marketer would dream about. His uncanny fashion sense has led to him creating a cult like hair style trend for men. North korean men just can’t help but want to get the same haircut as their hip leader. Students, who see males with hair not similar to their leaders have been known to snip off the offending extra hair to make sure they look just like KJ. With the ability to bend the minds and will of a nation, Kim Jong-un takes out the crown of ‘worlds most innovative influential ‘marketer’.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

INNOVATION STRATEGISTS

We were blessed with the good fortune of being able to interview Vladamir Putin about his commercial innovative business successes.

Here he shares his ground breaking 7 step strategy for innovative corporate growth.

INNOVATION STRATEGIST VLADAMIR PUTIN’S - TOP TIPS 1.

7. 09

Step 1. Find an organisation that has a massive Earnings Before Income Tax (EBIT) and has been profiled in a ‘Fastest Growing Company’ list in any publication.

Step 3. Plan your USP, and ensure it includes the KGB, FSB and plenty of Uzi’s.

Step 5. Execute the plan and execute any resisting parties to the agreement.

Step 7. Review your expanded business portfolio and return to step 1.

Step 2. Identify their Unique Selling Point (USP)

Step 4. Create a ‘win-win’ strategic agreement. For example - ‘We take 51% at no cost to us, you keep 49% and you get to live’.

Step 6. Share the spoils with your co-investors (enforcers, mafia, etcetera)

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

D.I.Y HOW D.I.Y IS ONE OF THE HOT TEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR INNOVATION

So are you looking for the next big innovation trend that just keeps getting bigger in business?

What drives so many people to think of D.I.Y can be summarised in the following principles. •

Ability (giving someone the ability to create something usually reserved for technically trained/ experienced people)

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Free (or a massive cost reduction)

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Control (ability to do it as you like)

‘How so?’ You might be asking.

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Do it yourself (D.I.Y) has been around for centuries. Growing up as a son of east european migrants to Australia, my life has revolved around the D.I.Y projects that my family had. A D.I.Y home extension, D.I.Y build a sailing boat, D.I.Y make your own wine, D.I.Y build your own house…… the list goes on and on.

Creative self esteem (the reward of having created something by your own)

Innovative organisations are realising that this D.I.Y trend can not only create a new market opportunity, in some instances it can totally redefine an industry.

‘Do it yourself’ (D.I.Y) is the next big innovation trend. D.I.Y just gets bigger and bigger every day, and the exciting thing is that D.I.Y is being applied not just for home improvements but also for business.

In the past I have written about how website design is now in the realms of the D.I.Y market with major players Word Press and Square Space giving customers total content control, design ability and freedom without being tied to an expensive web designer. Another favourite example of D.I.Y applied to an unusual industry for me is GoAnimate. Creating computer animation for cartoons is a difficult task - it takes incredible artistic drawing skills, computer skills, storyboard skills and anything else you can think of to create a small animation.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

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More & more people want to do it themselves BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF INNOVATING BY CONSIDERING WAYS THAT YOU CAN LET YOUR CLIENTS OR CUSTOMERS DO YOUR WORK. FROM WEB DESIGN, STOCK TRADING, MOVIE MAKING - D.I.Y IS MAKING IT ALL POSSIBLE AND PROFITABLE.

oAnimate thought that if they could deal with the difficulty there would be countless people who would absolutely love to be able to create an animation. That’s what this small team of animators set out to achieve ‘let’s allow our clients to make their own animations rather than us making it for them’.

GoAnimate is a D.I.Y animation website that enables a user to make their own animation videos for free. Sure if you want to pay some money for the tricked up version you can (and you probably will if you’re like me), be warned this is an addictive activity and it’s hard to stop once you get started.

Author: Nils Vesk

I’ll let you discover what can be done on it in your own spare time. The main point is that their product is a great example of applying D.I.Y thinking to business. Innovating through D.I.Y thinking can be made easier with some simple guidelines. Before you go out and create a D.I.Y for your business/ industry consider some of the following: Functionality - make sure it enables the user to do what they want, dealing with the highly technical aspects whilst making it simple (simple sophistication that eliminates the most technically difficult activities possible) Control - give your customers as much control as possible

Design - give customisation options, yet also give them standard suggestions Price - when possible give a free version, have a standard version and have premium versions for sale Share/ community - give your users/ customers a platform so that they can share their creation with the world. Remember that’s part of why they do D.I.Y, let them show off their project and they’ll promote your product too. Enjoy your D.I.Y Nils

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COLLABORATION INNOVATION EXPERT ANDREW POPE SHARES THE LATEST ON COLLABORATION TOOLS.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

Aim for the moon and get it off the BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO ground COLLABORATION TOOLS WITH ANDREW POPE hether we want them or not, social collaboration tools are now standard issue in most enterprises. We’ve heard promises of instant collaboration, rivers of knowledge suddenly flowing through the organization, processes running 10 to 20 percent faster, an instantly transformed workplace which requires little ramp-up — people are already familiar with Facebook, right?

1. Revisit the Purpose

2. Integrate Your Processes

Many people regard the purpose of a social collaboration platform as a no-brainer. To be more efficient. To be more productive. To collaborate. These are fluffy and are not statements of business purpose.

Yet both experience and research show that collaboration tools often produce disappointment and frustration. We know that they can work — anecdotally we hear success stories, and in our own personal lives we often have “eureka” moments via social network feeds or tapping into forums.

Or simply put a stake in the sand and define the purpose of your social platform as innovation rather than just efficiency. This gives it a dynamic purpose. A clear strategic vision. Its ultimate goal is to effect simple everyday improvements and innovations in the way your people work.

Ensure that your collaboration tools are woven into the fabric of business process flows. This is crucial. Giving people the opportunity to have conversations that expose hiccups or suggest improvements will not only energize the process but will give you a platform for innovation focused around that process. Aggregating conversations around specific business processes is far more effective than asking people to just innovate or come up with new ideas in a vacuum.

So why is it that so often in organizations they become unloved and, worse still, ignored and under-utilised? What happened to all that potential and promise? Why do people not fall in love with such an obvious opportunity to work more effectively? The warning signs your collaboration efforts are going south include a proliferation of groups formed with no management, initial posts being made with no further participation, and conversations with little or no participation from management. Here are five sequential steps to revitalize and reinvigorate your social platform.

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Revisit your original business purpose. Remind yourself of the problem that needed solving.

It is crucial however, to understand why you need to be innovative and set a goal around this. Something tangible that provides a direction, nothing more. Why should your customers adore you? How should they feel? Think long distance, even fanciful. Aim for the moon and use it to get off the ground. 4. Trust

Start with simple, everyday processes like customer feedback loops in which content needs to be shared and addressed in some manner. Push out messages explaining the value of everyone’s input into improving the process. Create a social group focused around a specific process, making sure that the business process owner is properly involved. Still sounds like you can’t find a suitable process? All we actually need are processes that require three basic steps: creating content, sharing the content and an action or resolution — this action can be as straightforward as learning something or making a decision. These types of processes are perfect partners for social collaboration tools, and you probably have more of them than you think.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

A cornerstone of any attempt to collaborate is trust. Trusting and encouraging people to participate as they wish allows them to feel safe (loosely following Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) which in turn releases the inhibitions, exposing the good ideas you never thought you had. Here are some guidelines for generating trust on your social platform. Ignore them at your peril! Don’ts: 3. Senior Managers: Know Your Place

Don’t reward people with money for posting, commenting and liking

Or more accurately, be visible without controlling the space. Social platforms should never be used as a channel for telling people what to do.

Don’t encourage people to use the system but at the same time not tell their line managers to adjust their expectations accordingly

Following these three golden rules will ensure that leaders provide help, not management.

Don’t describe your social platform to your staff as “Facebook for business” — it’s not. It’s what you define your purpose as If you’re going to create KPIs around participation (which is a good thing), don’t base them on raw numbers of posts, comments and likes. This will fill your social platform with rubbish and will turn people off. It’s harder to win disaffected users back than win initial acceptance

Open up: Say what’s keeping you awake at night; what you’ve learned in the last week; what’s exciting you. Be honest. For true innovation to flourish, we need to know what are the opportunities, what are the problems, what is being done well elsewhere, what is holding us back. Listen: Leaders should not judge and not influence when inappropriate, just listen. When in doubt, do NOT participate. You have other levers to address issues. Allowing sometimes uncomfortable conversations to take place will give you one of the clearest windows into how your organization is actually operating and what issues need fixing. Provide momentum: Once a conversation moves to a point that something needs to be done — a promising idea arises, a problem is uncovered or a question has been asked — ensure that this is acted upon. Nothing puts people off using social tools more than the sense of pointlessness: why should I suggest something if no one does anything about it? And it might not come off, but showing that an idea progresses beyond first base is crucial.

Do’s: Recognize staff whose posts are useful to others (e.g. high number of likes). Give recognition to posts that lead to change Set up notifications that tell you whenever one of your staff have posted anything. Not to check up on them, but to look for opportunities to contribute, or to praise them

5. Work Out Loud Now that you have a trusting environment, get your people talking. Connecting. Liking. Commenting. Understanding the value of an online business conversation. This kind of energy generates innovation. Working out loud becomes your ideas laboratory: where thoughts, issues and occurrences intersect with insights, learning and ideas. And the medium for this? Conversations. Deutsche Bank developed the “Working out Loud” concept as a way of changing behaviors from one-to-one (or one-to-very-few) conversations to one-to-all, in the open on the social platform, where it becomes part of the organization’s “knowledge ambiance.” Community managers play a major part in this. Case studies and research confirm that a community manager is a vital role, critical to the success of internal communities. They give it energy, they keep it on course, they broker and curate high value discussions. So if your express business purpose is innovation, then community managers will work their magic with this in mind. Remember: innovation involves input from diverse people, diverse minds, and the diverse experience and knowledge they bring. We need to make sure everyone is brought along on the journey. When your workplace is a place where everyone embraces, even enjoys, working out loud, magic happens.

Articulate to staff that responding to bona fide business questions from anywhere in the organization is not only an acceptable use of their time but is seen as valuable Capture any examples you come across of highly valuable business outcomes from conversations Help staff manage the groups they belong to, so any ideas they have can be posted in the right place

Andrew Pope flies the Innovation flag in Europe. Despite being a native of the UK he’s spent much of his innovation career in the southern hemisphere. He specialises on innovation collaboration and works on a number of innovation projects. +44 (0)7508 906 504 andrew@innosis.eu

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INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

Thank you for not innovating. Smith & Co. Insolvency Experts 14

www.smithcoinsolvency.com

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

INNOVATION IS COUNTER INTUITIVE THINK THE OPPOSITE AND WATCH THE RESULTS HAPPEN nnovation doesn’t happen by thinking the same way everyday. Innovation happens when we think different. The challenge however is that thinking different is counter intuitive. A good way to get your mind thinking in a counter intuitive style is to think of the opposites. To get you in the mind-set I’d like you to think of the opposites to each word I give you.

Black..............., Up.................. Big.................., North............... Love................, Peace...............War Fast................., Start................ Now what we want to do is to think of an industry and something that’s totally opposite. For example if we work in Finance what ideas could we create if we started to think of Romance?

If we work in the Education industry what ideas could we prompt by thinking of Aviation? If we work in the Mining industry how would our approach change if we started to think as those in Advertising? Innovation is counter-intuitive. If you’ve got competitors nipping at your heels or your trying to chase down a competitor, then the level of thinking you’ve been using isn’t working anymore. We need to think different, the only challenge is thinking different is counter intuitive and being counter intuitive can be scary. To get over the fear start with something small like a team meeting. What could be counter intuitive in this fundamental business process? Trust the science and that innovation is counter intuitive, your ideas will come. I love it when you see a smart business innovating by doing something that is counter intuitive. There was a great surf shop on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia called The Sugarmill. The counter intuitive thinking they did was look at adding something you would never consider, say a coffee shop or a flower shop. Totally unrelated elements of the surf industry and yet it works. On an average day when a surf store would be empty, this store had people hanging out drinking coffee, enjoying a smoothie, buying some flowers and surprise surprise buying some surf gear. What counter intuitive elements could you combine in your industry to create some new commercial ideas?

Nils Vesk is the author of numerous books including Ideas with Legs & Innovation Archetypes. Nils consults and speaks at conferences and workshops around the world on innovation.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

10 WAYS TO HELP UNLOCK THOSE MILLION DOLLAR IDEAS Change your environment - the best ideas don’t come from sitting in the same place you always work from. Find a space that you can lay out some paper, have a flip chart, use coloured post it notes, do some juggling, have a bean bag chair, sit it in a cafe. Anywhere but in front of your computer.

Be counter intuitive by doing the opposite to what everyone else does.

If your competitor charges by the hour, what if you charged a fixed fee? If all your competitors are serious, why not have a fun tone to what you do?

Bend time to bend the mind. Use a time limit to help you bypass any limiting beliefs or procrastination. When the clock’s ticking things start happening. Use something like a countdown clock on an Ipad - I use PClock and I give myself small time frames such as 5 minutes to generate as many ideas as I can in the time allowed.

Give yourself permission to innovate and have fun. Having an idea generation session isn’t an exam. There is no test. This is a laboratory for your ideas and a playground for your creativity. There are no such things as bad ideas, all ideas help to prompt better ideas. The brain is a weak editor. We can’t edit what isn’t written down.

Identify the hates, dislikes and aversions of your customers. Nothing beats creating an idea that relates to what a customers pain points might be. List every dislike - ie. the things your customer dislikes or hates doing. Then list all the things that theory would like to avoid as well. Once this list is created force yourself to try and solve them. How would you have to change your business or service to deal with those dislikes. What would need to add or rearrange or eliminate to make it more possible?

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

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Make mistakes

Do the opposite

Adapt an idea. What’s a super cool idea you’ve come across from a completely different world to your own? What made it so compelling? The components of what make this gadget, invention, service or experience so compelling is what we call attributes. Identify these attributes and then challenge yourself to apply them to your business.

What could you maximise or turn up in your business, service or product? This could be exaggerating something, emphasising something, increasing the size or impact etcetera.

What could you add or combine to what you are already doing to improve the value, efficiency or effectiveness of what you offer? Could you add something to improve the visibility, advisability, usability, efficiency, automation, reliability, automation etcetera?

What could you minimise and make smaller? Could you make the paper work less complex by minimising the fine print, could you make the time it takes to onboard a new client less cumbersome by reducing the background info required?

Make mistakes. Become a User experience designer to minimise the complexity and mistakes that are made. User Experience Designers list the intentions that are made by the creator of a new idea/ product or service. They then create a list of the assumptions that a customer/ user may have in how the product or service should be used. They then identify the potential mistakes that are likely to happen and work to eliminate them from happening by designing and recommending improvements.

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Author: Nils Vesk

MAKING INNOVATION ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE

AT LAST. THE NEW INNOVATION BOOK FROM NILS VESK

Is it possible there is one way to innovate that creates more commercial success than any other? Innovation Architect Nils Vesk knows there is just one such way. Determined to discover why so many organisations were suffering from too few innovations, he started researching, testing and applying the principles of innovating through professional archetypes. His research was startling, as he discovered that professional biases had led to the creation of an obstructive innovation paradigm. This book has set out to change that. The old paradigm was that innovation was only for the privileged few. The new paradigm is that innovation be accessible to everyone, so everyone has the opportunity and knowledge to innovate. The new paradigm means revealing the limiting biases and perceptions that have been thwarting innovation potential. This book counters these obstructions by utilising key principles from the worlds best professional innovation archetypes, allowing you to generate commercial innovation day in day out. To find out more about the book head to www.innovationblueprint.com.au/products/

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

WE HAVE A SNEAK PEEK AT SOME OF THE LATEST THINKING ABOUT WHY USING ARCHETYPES CAN HELP YOU INNOVATE BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE IN AN ORGANISATION. IN THIS QUARTERLY EDITION WE LOOK AT SOME OF THE GAINS FROM INNOVATING LIKE A FUTURIST. EXCERPTS FROM ‘INNOVATION ARCHETYPES’ BY NILS VESK When we can anticipate A the future, we can innovate for the funticipate to innovate

ture. We anticipate through scanning for trends and selecting key drivers and uncertainties. This is then brought to life by constructing future worlds and designing innovative contingencies and plans for the future. Without a doubt, some of the most exciting innovators I have encountered professionally are the futurists I work with on projects. If you’re not familiar with the term, a futurist is someone whose key role is to identify emerging trends, flag key uncertainties and help formulate strategies that anticipate future scenarios. Organisations as diverse as Qantas and Alliance have full-time futurists working for their organisation to give them foresight into the future. The reason futurists can be so exciting is that they paint a picture of how the world is going to be. Sometimes, what they anticipate is not far removed from science fiction. The reality is there is a strong correlation between science fiction stories and the inventions that become a reality in our world. You only need to look at authors such as Orson Wells, Jules Verne and Arthur C. Clarke to see how many of their stories have become reality. Most of the organisations that I work with when teaming up with a futurist are interested in the future scenarios that will exist in a 2-to-5 year time frame even though their key methods can be used for time frames as small as 12 months. Futurists’ key value is to help formulate commercial insights that lead to contingency and development strategies. Author: Nils Vesk

When we have a clear view of the future, it is much easier to make decisions, anticipate market changes and, most of all, respond so that we can best capitalise on the situation. One of the challenges that many of us have is the reluctance to embrace change. Yet when we know change is coming, it’s much easier to get on board. Option one is to wait until the inevitable changes are happening and tell the organisation that we have to change immediately as new competitors have entered the market. This is likely to result in creating fear and resistivity. Option two is to think like a futurist and anticipate changes beforehand and brief the organisation well ahead of time to begin preparations. Futurists do not predict the future; instead, they anticipate possible future scenarios. Futurists scan a number of environments for information to sense existing or developing trends that may affect the future. They do this by scanning through media, industry, government reporting and the social sphere.

This is the precursor to constructing fictional worlds based on these uncertainties and drivers. Finally, futurists help facilitate the design of future contingencies and strategic plans. The four key innovation principles a futurist uses are: 1. SCAN – scanning for emerging trends 2. PLOT – determining and plotting future key drivers and uncertainties 3. IMAGINE –imagining what future worlds will look like 4. DESIGN – designing strategies and contingencies for future scenarios

From these scans, they then move onto identifying and selecting key drivers and uncertainties that may affect their organisation.

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Futurists do not predict the future they anticipate future scenarios

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

INNOVATION EXPERTISE IS LIMITED TO ONES EXPOSURE BIASES CAN EITHER PREVENT US OR EMPOWER US TO INNOVATE. WE EXPLORE HOW UNDERSTANDING BIASES IS KEY TO INNOVATIVE SUCCESS

ou and I and everyone else in this world live in a world of professional biases. Our professional biases have helped us thrive and survive in our day to day working world. The career you have had has created biases on your understanding of Innovation.

Even innovation experts like myself headlining conferences around the world have biases. Each expert has their unique niche and innovation methodology. The only problem is that they are all biased. Whilst biases are what can experts such a fresh unique perspective on innovation, for most of us trying to apply their unique innovation approach rarely works. What’s been missing in Innovation models, methodologies and training is understanding the innovative strengths of innovative professional biases. By taking the best innovative strengths from professional innovators across a wide range of professional industries and understanding the keys phases of innovation, we can use these strengths to apply in our day to day innovation. What’s important is to think of the four main levels of innovation and what role a professional innovator excels at in each of these levels. When it comes to commercial innovation there are four key phases of innovation.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Investigation Ideation Iteration Commercialisation

Here’s the fast facts on each of these phases: Investigation This is the research phase of innovation, it can be both statistical and behavioural. In many ways you are simply looking for data, insights, trends and behaviours that reveal opportunities to innovate around. Ideation Give me ideas, lots of ideas! Ideation is all about idea generation. There are linear and logical ideation skills and there are also radical brainstorming thinking styles that we can learn from professionals who really dominate this space day in day out.

For example a marketer excels in the commercialisation stage, an R&D engineer totally nails the Ideation stage, a scientist will excel in the iteration stage whilst an analyst can dominate the investigation stage. If you are keen to improve you personal and organisational innovation then consider what biases you may have, what strengths you can work with, and what weaknesses you may need to to work on. Do you need to incorporate more research and investigation, perhaps it’s more brainstorming, more piloting or simply better marketing? Good luck finding you biases.

Iteration Build and test your ideas through prototypes, pilots and simulations. Iteration experts aren’t as well known as others, yet when you can tap into just a smidgen of their skill set, the results are incredible. Commercialisation “Show me the money” and a “make the most of my money” mind-set is what drives this critical phase of innovation. It’s about executing, decision making, sharing and selling your innovation to the world. Different professionals will all have a particular phase that they think

Author: Nils Vesk

is more important than the other, and interestingly you will find that they are rarely the same. What you will also find is that different professionals excel at different levels.

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Your career has created biases

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

REGRETTABLE MOMENTS OF INNOVATION THERE ARE MANY MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF INNOVATION THAT ARE REGRETTABLE AND SHOULD BE FORGOTTEN. THIS SERIES KICKS OFF WITH A REVIEW OF SOME INNOVATIONS MOST OF US WISH NEVER EXISTED. he Parking Meter

be honest, T Lets this innovation

has made millions of dollars around the world, yet 99.9% of the population have come to dread them. Paying for the privilege to park your car isn’t high on the list of desires or needs of customers yet it really does generate commercial returns day in day out.

uzzy dice for the rear view mirror

F Not found in every

car around the world, yet the inventor of fuzzy dice has a lot to answer for. Part of a cultural statement, where would we be without them? A more cultured world, most probably.

Author: Nils Vesk

et Rocks

Whatever hapP pened to the

craze of pet rocks in the 1970’s? For those who had the misfortune of missing out on this fashionable home decoration - Pet rocks essentially were small rocks decorated with eyes and some tufts of hair. Around the world there was a decimation of small gravel stock piles which was followed by a massive increase of landfill refuse tips 12 months later. A fad of epic proportions.

rish Corporate Tax Havens

Tax Havens aren’t necessarily new, just look at the Bahamas and Monte Carlo for some great examples. Ireland however, knowing that they hadn’t really had any commercial success since Bono and U2 were around, realised that making their country open to business for next to free was better than having no business at all. As Corporations from around the world flock to set up HQ’s in Ireland, all the other countries now have no corporate taxes to collect to help fund hospitals, infrastructure and everything else is useful to a nation.

nline betting

iet water

where in Japan, a O InweAustralia D Spotted have the highcountry of burest levels of problem gambling in the world, online betting (of which Australia is the market leader) just made it that much easier and faster for someone to lose their life’s fortunes. Not the best for society in any means. The english language and everyday phrases being used have an ever increasing use of gambling terms to use as metaphors to describe everyday events. “All bets are off” is one such phrase, if only that was the case.

attery powered battery charger

B Created to help

recharge batteries using batteries to power it. Might make sense to the 0.000001% of the population who might use it, but then again when the recharge batteries run low you need to use the batteries you just recharged to charge up the charging batteries. Sounds like an inescapable dilemma of perpetual energy drain. Company sources say their engineers are looking at re-engineering it possibly create a perpetual form of energy!

geoning health addicts. Diet water promises all the benefits of no fat, no calories and promises rejuvenating rehydration qualities. Sounds like they’re onto a winner there!

diet

T With the advent of ouch screen finger gloves

touch screen technology, it was only a matter of time that innovative entrepreneurs could see the lucrative market for those unwilling to sully their fingers with dirty screens. Hence the touch screen finger glove was created. Now users could place a little glove over their finger to prevent it and the screen from getting dirty. Makers of these gloves were also the brains behind ‘Hander pants’ a tailor set of fingerless gloves fashioned from the same material and style of Calvin Klein boxer short underwear. For what purpose? To keep the hands dry and clean of course. Stay tuned for an in-depth interview with their head of innovation.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

OPENING UP TO INNOVATION just finished running an innovation workshop for a world class educational organisation. What I love about working with educators, is that they manage to drop all of their high level teaching expectations in order to improve their learning.

There’s something to be said about this approach. In many ways it’s simply being willing to unlearn in order to learn. What gets in the way of us learning is our previous experiences which can cloud the opportunities in front of us. Being open to learning, whether that be listening to someone else’s point of view, not judging and allowing people to communicate their messages in its entirety takes patience but increases our learning experience.

COULD PREMATURELY JUDGING AN IDEA OR THOUGHT BE PREVENTING YOU FROM THAT NEXT BIG COMMERCIAL INNOVATION? WE INVESTIGATE A METHOD THAT HELPS TO THWART PREMATURE EVALUATION.

I’ve got a technique that I’ve been testing for years on a way that to be open to different views. Years ago I noticed that a colleague would always have her mouth open when she was listening to someone talk to her in a conversation. When I originally started to watch her, I was fascinated. Was it because her jaw was tired? Did she like to let the air cool her mouth down? Was she waiting to say

For months after noticing her little quirk, I kept thinking about it. Then I started to experiment doing it myself? Did it change the way I would breathe? Would it change the way I felt or think? The more I started experimenting the more I realised that opening my mouth (slightly so as not to scare other people) would interrupt the way I would normally listen and therefore process the information being shared. I started to realise that I was less likely to make a judgement on what someone was talking about, or a judgement on the person themselves. So with continued experimentation I would use this open mouth technique when listening to other peoples points of view and differing perspectives. If I found myself started to judge before letting people complete, I’d realise that my mouth was closed. Months later I bumped in to my colleague, and not being shy of asking unusual questions I asked her about my observation. Did you know that when you listen you have your mouth slightly open? No she wasn’t aware of her quirk. As I started to share my theory with her she could start to see some of the merits in it. One of the interesting things about this colleague is that she is one of Australia’s best business coaches. A job that requires dedicated listening without jumping to conclusions or giving opinions at the first instant.

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

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Break the prejudgement circuit

Upon sharing the theory with my chiropractor, he described this as ‘breaking a circuit’. We all have habits and reflexes for various situations. If a reflex for making a judgement is closing the jaw and we interrupt this, then effectively we have broken the circuit that would normally be in place.

‘Breaking the circuit’ disrupts the thinking process and automatic habits you have in place. Thereby opening yourself to new information without a previous automatic response. Innovation is primarily about interrupting our habits. Opening the mouth can help create this disruption and open you up to new possibilities, combinations and ultimately new innovation. Have fun trying out an open mouth technique.

Author: Nils Vesk

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

DISRUPTION & AGITATION GET THINGS MOVING IN YOUR ORGANISATION WITH SOME PRODUCTIVE DISRUPTION &AGITATION TECHNIQUES.

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Agitate your thinking for fresh ideas

nnovation requires thinking and behaving differently. From time to time it’s apt to go out and create some disruption.

Disrupting the habits and behaviours that we normally exhibit will help to create the right environment for creative and innovative thinking. If you’re looking for more innovation what disruptions can you create in order to stimulate innovation? Think of disrupting some of the following: The space where you have your regular meetings - meet somewhere new or change the meeting space. The habits you take in approaching your work - force yourself to approach a project differently. The questions you raise - ask challenging questions to prompt innovative thinking - such as “what if we were to get rid of_________ what would happen then?” The mix of people you normally have in a brainstorming session - invite people from different departments to give a fresh totally outside perspective.

Some of the greatest innovations simply come from looking at what activities annoy or agitate people. Let’s face it most businesses are built around providing a service or product that does something that most people don’t want to or can’t do. Quite often the more difficult the activity the more successful the business. An innovation can be all the more successful by looking at turning a difficult action or situation in to a better one.

A simple solution for an obvious problem. What about an innovation for the wedding and marriage market? As positive as some people are about how long and strong an upcoming marriage will be it’s an unfortunate fact that one in three marriages end up in divorce.

Here’s two unique innovative service and product solutions to give you an example.

While it may not seem the most positive of solutions for a long term marriage, an American insurance firm has created a product called WedLock insurance - to protect against future expenses encountered in the unfortunate event of a divorce.

Now I’m not a woman but from what I’ve heard not all women enjoy riding in taxis alone. Whether it’s because of the drivers sometimes lewd behaviour or something else the fact is a lot of women don’t like travelling alone in a cab with a male driver.

My challenge to you is to ask what are some of the elements that annoy you about a service, product or process. Whether it’s your own or someone else’s challenges, if you can identify them then you can start to look for some innovative solutions.

You might expect a western cab company to look at this problem, yet the refreshing solution has come from Cairo. Cairo Cabs, now have women only cabs.

Author: Nils Vesk

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

get your brain switching to create jaw dropping ideas 25

www.InnovationBlueprint.com.au

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NAYSAYERS good ideas don't live long

SCREEN AUSTRALIA ;BAD TASTE STUDIOS PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH INNOVATION ENTERTAINMENT *BARACK OBAMA JACK NICHOLSON HELEN MIRRAM VLADAMIR PUTIN LUCY LIU /TOM HANKS cTALYOR SWIFTdJEAN PAUL GAULTIER tKEN DONE eGONSKI f BAZ LUHRMAN g TOM FORD p DONALD TRUMP a J.K. ROWLING j EMINEM k RON HOWARD IN CINEMAS MARCH 14

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

FILM REVIEW WITH GEORGE CLOONEY

ladimir Putin debuts his acting career as the villain CEO in “Naysayers”. Among his evil entourage the famous faces of Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirram and Lucy Liu will appear. The movie follows Tom Hanks a low ranking office worker that is determined to have his customer centric ideas realised.

Think ‘Nightmare on Elm street’ meets ‘the office’ and you’ll know what to expect. The paper shredder eats more than just paper, and corridor conversations can lead to an early disappearance from work. In this carefully crafted script, Putin gets to flex his muscles in a completely new way. Shockingly brutal and honest, Putin does his best to convey the focus that so many scared corporate executives face today - the fear of new ideas. WHAT GEORGE LOVED ABOUT IT:

NAYSAYERS DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD THINK ‘NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ MEETS ‘THE OFFICE’ AND YOU’LL KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS LATEST SUSPENSE THRILLER MOVIE FROM RON HOWARD

Supported by an all star cast, the viewer is taken on a journey where all that exists is black and white. Our familiar hero actor Tom Hanks does a stirling job bringing his character of ‘Norman the unconventional thinker’ to life. Smart yet socially awkward with a dash of Asperger’s syndrome thrown in, Norman is undaunted by the powers at be and quietly leads a revolt of the risk averse and anti-change establishment. Unexpected, gratuitous, and gripping this cinematic masterpiece by Ron Howard hits the mark. You won’t be disappointed. 4 and a half stars.

NAYSAYERS good ideas don't live long

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Fast pace, seat gripping action scenes

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Vladamir’s a born actor - I guess as Russian president he’s been good at acting for a long time.

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Jack Nicholosn back to his best. Not since the Shining have I seen him so scary. This CFO is one mean character.

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Lucy Liu uses stationary like a ninja. Watch out for the stapler scene, you’ll be thinking of using glue for a long time to come.

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Taylor Swifts sound track has been ground breaking. Gone are the teenage angst themes and in comes Taylor doing her best interpretation of ‘Rage against the Machine’.

INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS DO YOU HAVE A PARTNER TO HELP YOU REALISE YOUR INNOVATION? TEAMING UP WITH A PARTNER CAN SAVE YOU TIME, HELP YOU THROUGH TOUGH TIMES, AND PUSH YOU TO COMPLETE YOUR COMMERCIAL INNOVATION

thought I’d share some ways on how to keep motivated about your ideas.

INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS

Creating and realising ideas on your own can at times be a difficult job. This can be made all that much easier if you have a creative partnership. A creative partnership can be as simple as bouncing things off a mate. Here’s some things worth considering to help create a motivating partnership for your ideas.’ Creative partnerships work best if you meet regularly to catch up and discuss the projects that you’re working on. Many of the greatest creators in the past have had peer groups they were involved in. Sigmund Freud had a club where fellow psychiatrists, doctors, musicologists, publishers and invited guests would meet weekly to discuss papers that they had written. Albert Einstein was part of a group called the Olympiads, and as a group they’d go hiking and camping together and discuss theories, ideas and articles they’d been working on. They would share reading lists and articles to work through and discuss, all from a range of topics including mathematics, physics, philosophy and science. They would discuss both their professional and personal lives. Even Picasso would meet up regularly with like-minded artists to discuss art, politics and ideas. Your ‘catch ups’ don’t have to be ‘formal’ or ‘structured’ get-togethers. A Sunday afternoon barbie or a drink at the pub with peers are perfect ways to chat about your project and look for advice. Encouragement works. The more mates you have encouraging you to make your idea a reality the easier it becomes. Just as my favourite international best selling action writer Matthew Reilly says in all his book acknowledgements “Never underestimate the power of your encouragement”. If you don’t think a friend will provide enough motivation for you then consider a mentor. Even great creators have had mentors. Sigmund Freud had a number of mentors in a number of disciplines who challenged him with problems and offered strategies to deal with them, as did Igor Stravinsky, perhaps the most creative musical composer in the 20th Century.

Many creators who did not have face-to-face mentors found solace in inspirational books. Yet while books can be inspirational, they’re unwilling to give you feedback and advice on your ideas! Whether you’re on the verge of a big breakthrough or simply need some guidance the power of a mentor is the ability to bounce an idea off them. Someone who can tell us with credibility that an idea is right on track or challenge us to refine the idea.

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Author: Nils Vesk

EVEN EINSTEIN HAD CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

“We leave all of our innovation to R&D”. Trainee Manager. Aged 49

It’s never to late to learn how to innovate. www.InnovationBlueprint.com.au

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

WE ALL GET INNOVATION CHALLENGES FROM TIME TO TIME. IN OUR COACHING SECTION WE SHARE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WE HELP TO SOLVE FOR OUR CLIENTS.

INNOVATION COACH UESTION

a corporate culture where the subQ Insidiary company places “value” only on

the opinions of its leaders, how do you recommend we can start meaningful and constructive conversation around collaboration and innovation? The global parent company very much values and is planning on investing a significant amount on innovation – what conversation should be had to show my value to them in helping in this space?

NSWER

Part of the challenge of starting the conversation on innovation when perhaps you aren’t the top dog is ‘why should they listen to me?’ and ‘who am I to talk about innovation?’ While a smart leader will listen to anyone who wants to contribute, sometimes for other leaders we need to have some persuasive tools up our sleeves. I think there’s a few ways to meet this challenge: • • •

Earning Trust Demonstrating Value Initiating Thought leadership

I recall a great analogy that Vanessa Hall shared about trust years ago (Vanessa Hall runs a trust institute and does all kinds of great things). If you can imagine two pillars with a big beam that spans the two pillars. One pillar represents Expectation and the other pillar Experience. The beam on top is Trust. If someone has an expectation from us and then the experience is below our expectation then the trust beam on top is unstable and likely to fall down.

coach@InnovationBlueprint.com.au

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When someone is not buying into our conversations it is usually because they have a certain number of assumptions about you and perhaps a limited no. of experiences. What we need to do is start creating a number of positive experiences. With this comes trust in your expertise, opinions and ideas. While this might seem a bit unnecessary especially when they should be able to just ‘buy in’ to the innovation drive, it’s a must have piece of anyone who wants to sell something, and in your case you are selling the innovation piece to them. A suggestion in how to do this is to start look at creating valuable content for the organisation. As a knowledge manager it could be simply capturing the success of a recent engineering project - asking the team involved some how to questions, what they learnt etc and then sharing it with the organisation. It could be sharing an innovation that you or someone else has seen around outside of the firm either within or outside of the industry. Formats for this content, could be a blog, newsletter or simple old school pin board. This not only starts demonstrating value, it also demonstrates thought leadership - ie. the capturing and sharing of IP. We can talk more about other versions of this in the future eg. ebooks, white papers and the sort. The key is to not make it so big that you don’t start. Also try to involve others through the interview process so that it’s not just the Veronica show. After a while with some simple processes you can get people doing all the work for you and you simple collate and edit and bring it all together. Bottom line, people start talking about it (the innovation) and start listening to more people. Go get em!

Start creating valuable content

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

coach@InnovationBlueprint.com.au

INNOVATION COACH UESTION

may sound like a simple question Q This but, once small wins are made with innovation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what are some of your suggestions to publicise these without creating an overwhelming response, so we can keep delivering in a timely successful manner (with limited resources)? NSWER

A Nice question. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some sugges-

tions:

1. Think of a way of being clever with the marketing/ catch phrase of what you are doing. Think back to our session to needs desires and aversions etc. Your average knowledge worker may be looking for assistance in their own project, perhaps they want to be more innovative, maybe they want some recognition? List out some of these needs, desires aversions etc and then think of a title or catch phrase that may evoke their interest.

Some quick examples of catch phrases include: Innovation Sneak Peek Innovation Secrets revealed Innovation success Innovation success steps Project Innovation Success These type of catch phrases can appeal to the people who want to improve their own success and career progress 2. Now that you have a catch phrase think of all the ways you could distribute or communicate it. Some suggestions include: poster postcard intranet story internal newsletter E-zine internal blog team/ leaders memo mgmt. update I hope this helps you to get that message out there!

coach@InnovationBlueprint.com.au

SOCIAL INNOVATION

INNOVATION BLUEPRINTS

IN THIS SERIES WE INVESTIGATE THE NON FOR PROFITS OF THE WORLD WHO ARE CREATING CHANGE THROUGH INNOVATIVE THINKING.

n this series we investigate the non for profits of the world who are creating change through innovative thinking. While too many charities simply put out there hand and ask for more, there are some non for profits who are bucking the trend and going beyond band aid solutions by creating real innovative solutions to big social problems. In this edition we profile Global Sisters. Interviewing Mandy Richards founder and CEO of Global Sisters, I was honoured to find out more about how their organisation is focusing their support on women growing up in lower socio-economic areas of Australia. They see themselves as being a business school rather than a charity. “ Their ultimate goal - to be able to help women become financially independent and exit welfare dependency by providing them with access to everything they need to start a small business. They are also tackling the welfare disincentives of the current system with the Government which make business startups for the women they support virtually impossible”

According to Richards “Many women in Australia want to work, but are unable to access mainstream employment, they are dependent upon Government income support. Some of the barriers to mainstream employment include: • carer responsibilities • disability • lack of viable childcare alternatives – especially for single mums • culture, language, mental illness/trauma from past experiences They are trapped in the welfare dependency cycle leading to entrenched generational poverty, further financial exclusion and severe social isolation.” Global Sisters are supporting an increasing number of women from diverse backgrounds including the inspirational and talented Cleonie Quayle who produces an incredible range of aboriginal jewellery using native plants and hand printed fabrics. “Supporting women to support themselves creates real social change. Through promoting my culture and doing what I love, I gain freedom and financial independence to support my children, grandchildren, my community” Cleonie Quayle Aboriginal Necklaces To find out more about this innovative non for profit organisation, look out for their new re-brand, new website and launching Curation With A Conscience retail program coming soon. Head to GlobalSisters.org.

Global Sisters is helping to build businesses to support financially excluded woman to create a profitable business, becoming financially independent – creating a ripple effect of change in their family and community. Far beyond standard micro finance offerings, Global Sisters believe a much more sophisticated, market led and technology based solution is required and that’s why they have been developing their business school. The innovative thinking behind this involves a unique online platform and face-to-face support for businesswomen. They partner with local community organisations to reach welfare dependant women wanting to start a small business.

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MICRO FINANCE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE, PROFITABLE BUSINESS

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GLOBAL TAX EVASION INNOVATION MANAGER ORGANISATION: GLOBAL FMCG LOCATION: IRELAND REMUNERATION: HIGH SIX FIGURES + EXPAT RELOCATION PACKAGE CONTRACT TYPE: SUCCESS BASED ANNUAL REVIEW Aimed at innovative tax evasion specialists who want to advance their career in global tax evasion management and strategy in business. Work for one of the worlds leading FMCG’s in our financial strategies centre and be involved in some of the fastest growing dynamic tax evasion strategies being implemented in the world. Based just outside of Dublin, Ireland, our organisation offers the opportunity to take part in pioneering the commercial development of global tax evasion. The company has an inventive and collaborative culture, where employees are valued and inspired as well as rewarded for their ideas and contributions. The organisation’s current research in global tax evasion has created an environment where it is possible to make both individual and team contributions towards tax evasion excellence whilst sharing in the profits. BENEFITS: Benefits include a pension superannuation scheme, life insurance, private health care insurance and dental plan, subsidised gym membership and a flourishing social scene. TO APPLY: Applicants will need to submit a proposal on effective strategies they would consider using for immediate tax evasion. Proposals will be judged primarily on the basis of strategic merit, track record of the applicant and potential for development of application. To be involved in cutting edge evasion research and strategy programmes, within a friendly, dynamic environment, please visit our careers page for more details and to apply online” http://www.taxevasionnow.com/careers-all/careers-international/ CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATION: 12 JUNE

PUBLISHING DETAILS Innovation Blueprints is published by Innovation Blueprint (an enterprise of Nils Vesk Pty Ltd - ACN 26 127 162 592) PO Box 252 Collaroy NSW 2097 Australia. Editor in Chief is Nils Vesk. While every effort has been made to verify any facts contained within this publication, no responsibility will be taken for errors or omissions contained herein by Innovation Blueprint, its officers, employees or their agents. Readers should rely on their own enquiries when making business decisions. Satirical articles discuss public figures for the purposes of humour do not purport to give truthful accounts of these public figure. We expect readers to use their own common sense in determining the truth or otherwise of any statement in this publication. C 2016 Innovation Blueprint The Innovation Quarterly is available from www.InnovationBlueprint.com.au and various affiliated distributors.

innovation blueprints Changing how we look at innovation