This recent article highlights a trend many of us have sensed for some time: we are shifting away from a “war on talent” to “the best team wins.” Many organizations have understood the power of cross-functional teams for years, so why is it we find so many teams launched, only to see them get stuck before […]
In helping a firm on a new strategy project, one of the challenges that quickly emerges is finding a great group of internal participants to work on the project. This is an example of the Right Team portion of the triad we have discussed that must be in place for authentic growth work to […]
Every year innovation literally drops from the sky into the farm fields of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) membership convention and airshow, AirVenture, has become a week-long extravaganza of every aspect of aviation – from an appearance of the F22 and the Apollo 13 astronauts to night airshows, the spectacle draws worldwide press. […]
In preparing to kick off a big client strategy project with a growing international firm in the building products space, I was reminded that the best work is always developed with well thought out collaboration. I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to have a great outcome, and this is true not just for me […]
I think it’s safe to say that we are witnessing the extreme overuse of the term innovation in our speaking, business journals, Wall Street discussions and political dialogue. How did a perfectly good word come to mean so little? The short answer is that the desire to have the benefits of innovation has resulted in […]
I enjoy consuming lots of audio during my travels, the most recent of which was the latest installment of Chris Brogan’s Podcast on Stitcher. On the show, he did a delightful interview with two winsome ladies who have started a new health and fitness movement around the idea that you need to do what you […]
Having spoken at the 2014 Society of Concurrent Product Development conference, I was looking forward to the 2015 session. I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint. They had 76 attendees at the 3M Innovation Center in Minneapolis, MN (always a great venue), from as far away as Germany. The SCPD as an organization focuses on corporations for the purpose […]
In a recent coaching dialogue with a C-level executive of an international manufacturer, I was asked what minimum elements were necessary for a successful innovation program. This is a very common question that comes from being overwhelmed with the enormous body of innovation information that comes from the popular press on a daily basis. All […]
If you are in a position of accountability for the growth of your firm, recent tidal shifts will make you want to stop and take note. Three recent moves – the sudden reversal of oil prices, the strengthening of the US currency, and the weakness in the BRIC economies – have flipped long-standing narratives on […]
In my coaching work with growth leaders, one of the things we work toward is getting a proper balance of risk and reward in the projects they work on. There are some surprising relationships between these two areas, especially in the later portion of the innovation cycle. Clients are often surprised that one of the […]
