The biggest mistake innovation managers make is taking the value of innovation for granted. We tend to assume that innovation is a must; the overall right thing to do. However, if you leave your goals undefined, you’ll lack the ability to measure and explain your progress. Without results to show for your efforts, innovation will […]
What Parts of the Innovation Process Can you Outsource? Consultants can help with pretty much any part of the innovation process. However, innovation exists to help you build new capabilities and create new revenue streams; therefore, I don’t recommend outsourcing everything. If an external company can build your solution, then anyone can. In order to […]
Innovation training for teams Innovation, like most skills, is a concept best conveyed in practice, rather than on paper. In short, you learn how to innovate by doing it. The best advantage an emerging innovator has at their disposal is an innovation training program; one that provides the innovator with support, while making their idea […]
We’re a CRCF grant recipient! We at Organizing4Innovation are proud to announce that we’ve been awarded a grant through Virginia’s Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) by Governor Ralph Northam. Our data analytics project will advance our ability to implement effective and efficient innovation training management. Additionally, we’ll be able to continue to calibrate our online […]
Everyone in your organization is probably focused on dealing with the Corona-virus crisis. However, there is evidence that this is the moment to innovate as well. You may wonder how you can pull that off. What if I tell you that the only resource you need is time, at this moment?
Over Thanksgiving we got our puzzle board out for a jigsaw puzzle. This time it was a Wasgij (jigsaw in reverse). A puzzle where you get a few hints, but don’t know the picture you are putting together. It occurred to me, that there is a lot of resemblance between putting together the unknown in […]
On our T4 training platform, we can see how teams progress by the answers they provide. One of the teams did not show any progress. So – in my role as their trainer – I reached out and asked what was going on. It turned out, the team had read all the materials, but just […]
IBM once featured a campaign around “the innovation man”. Stop talking, start doing was the main theme of these advertisements. Last week, while visiting several companies in the Netherlands, this theme seemed still very relevant. However, how do you start doing? And does that mean that you should stop talking?
Learning by doing sounds easy, however, it requires preparation, guts, and practice to make it work. In an innovation project, there are many occasions that learning while doing is the only option. Years of schooling have taught us how to learn before doing, in the process, many of us have lost the ability to learn […]
In the various entrepreneurship and innovation programs I am involved with, Customer Discovery is always a key activity. While it may sound simple, in practice it is not. Interviewing users and potential clients about their needs and desires is challenging for startups and established organizations, yet, for different reasons. Below customer discovery tips and tricks […]
Overconfidence drives poor decisions. We humans, tend to focus on the evidence for outcomes that we believe and want to happen, while ignoring other possibilities. As a result, overconfidence is the biggest pitfall when it comes to bringing an innovative idea to practice. Now, research has shown an effective strategy to avoid overconfidence: focus on […]
How do you give your interns a meaningful experience in the brief period that they are part of your organization? Have you ever thought about the value of a (no-code) hackathon? A 2-days workshop within their internship in which they will get to experience what innovation truly entails? An experience that will make their summer […]