Efficiency kills innovation. Efficient markets, efficient companies, and efficient employees are good for many things, but not for innovation. Efficiency is created by scaling, standardizing, and routinizing labor. While each of these efforts in itself can be an innovation effort, the relentless focus on efficiency will in the end kill society’s, organizations, and employee’s ability to […]
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 provide effective and efficient innovation project management. Our Goals This project, titled “Using Team-Learning and Teamwork-Quality Indicators […]
Is the coronavirus causing the faultlines in your organization to break up? For example, because one department is overwhelmed trying to manage the crisis, while another department is looking for meaningful activities to stay busy. Yet, these groups are not able to help each other because of different skillsets and perhaps mistrust. The team literature […]
Jim Craig gave the key note at the 2018 PDMA conference. He was the goalie of the Miracle on Ice hockey team. They beat the Russians in the Olympics in 1980. His talk was inspiring. Getting to the top and winning a gold medal is a great accomplishment. Winning as an underdog is even more special. […]
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 […]
Today, the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer 2015 that appeared. It has been 10 years since the first edition came out. In that time period, Allen & Overy – who have been overall winners four times in these past ten years – approximately doubled in size from £666m to £1,281m, while increasing their profit margin from 36.8% to 45.2%. So being an innovator certainly pays off! Interested to learn how? Apply to one of our free in-company seminars.
Mindset is the title of a book by Carol S. Dweck, PhD. It describes ways to go about being smart, learning, failure and praise. Not surprising, because mindset is about learning, it has founds its main application in education. However, the framework is also very relevant for innovation.
Two recent examples, Delta Airlines and Marlin Steel, demonstrate the power of employee engagement. These companies cares about their employees, and in return, their employees care about the company. The results speak for themselves. If employee engagement is this effective, why does not every firm apply this concept?