This is the fifth post in a series on innovation decision making built around the WRAP process from Chip and Dan Heath’s book Decisive. The WRAP acronym allows you to remember their four decision anchors – Widen your options, Reality test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding and Prepare to be wrong. If you need […]
Archive | Innovation
Innovative Decision Making – Avoiding the Blind Side
I have been taking my readers through a series of posts on innovation decision making built around the WRAP process from Chip and Dan Heath’s book Decisive. The WRAP acronym allows you to remember their four decision anchors – Widen your options, Reality test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding and Prepare to be wrong. […]
What is Your Cost of Experimentation?
I have been taking my readers through a series of posts on innovation decision making built around the WRAP process from Chip and Dan Heath’s book Decisive. The WRAP acronym allows you to remember their four decision anchors – Widen your options, Reality Test Your Assumptions, Attain distance before deciding and Prepare to be wrong. […]
Reality Testing Your R&D Assumptions: Walking Outside with Your Pajamas On
The set of decisions that take place over which programs and projects to pursue is the highest leverage point for the senior team of any organization. In this series, we explore the intersection between the latest work on making high-quality decisions and establishing innovation portfolios. This is the second post (if you’d like to start […]
Getting on the Right Track: Innovation Decision Making
The decision gate leading to advanced development – where new concepts are fully vetted and prepared for release and commercialization – is the most critical control point for innovation in any organization. In small firms, this can be the time between when the founder has an idea to when he asks his team to “make […]
The Usefulness of Compartments: 3 Ways the Safety of a Cruise Ship Can Improve Innovation
Needing to break out of the long winter here in the Midwest, I took a cruise last week into the western Caribbean. One of the simple pleasures of cruising is figuring out the physical layout of the ship, particularly the vertical and horizontal passageways that lead to all manners of entertainment, food and sunshine. Those […]
When Senior Leaders Get Stuck and Innovation Stalls: How This Sets the Stage for Peer Leadership From the Middle
I was having a great conversation with a well-connected senior executive coach who works with Fortune 50 firms on the West Coast, and the conversation turned to the faltering innovation that quickly follows when the senior team leaders cannot agree. There is nothing that freezes a team like senior leaders at odds over strategy and […]
3 Questions That Innovation Leaders Need to Ask Themselves When Reading Trend Forecasts
It’s that time of year, with article after article citing the trends that will matter most in 2014. Do a quick Google search and you’ll see what I mean — right now there are over 1.5M total hits for the term “2014 trends” alone: About 1,540,000 results (0.30 seconds) As an innovation leader or sponsoring […]
The Best Example of Innovation & Perseverance in 2013
This is exactly how you fly when you dream that you fly. — Yves Rossy I love my job. Since I was 10 years old, I have been fascinated by finding new paths for businesses to grow and thrive. I was always the one getting into discussions with people about their businesses and their products—even as […]
3 Keys to Successfully Crowdsourcing Innovative Ideas From Your Employees
One of the biggest trends in how enterprise organizations operate is the peer-to-peer sharing of ideas across large numbers of employees. InformationWeek recently published some research about a long-term study that showed impressive gains in internal measures (projects on time) and customer-facing results (sales associates exceeding plan). Tools such as Salesforce.com and its formation of […]