Innovation: The Who's Where's and How's

I wonder if we will ever see the day when we have "The Oscar's for Teaching and Education". I was lamenting this very thing with my wife the other day over coffee. Or maybe, we can have "The Oscar's for the greatest Innovation of the year" In my experience, I find that a "life learning ethos" is a must in any society that wants to be at the front end of change and innovation, and critical to innovation management, creativity and - in general - creative thinking. I saw a great quote yesterday in the hallway of my daughters school from Gandhi. "We must be the change that we wish to see" It fits in that we need to revamp our ideas of what education is and what it is for. It fits because in order to advance our minds and views we need to start the process of becoming life learners with ourselves. I leave you with the top 8 recommendations from the aforementioned insitute available at: http://www.itif.org/files/TimelyTargetedTemporaryTransf...

Yes, here I go again... Watching and hearing Dr. Greenspan in front of Congress yesterday was truly a revelation in one sense and a confirmation of another. There is a wholesale detachment out there from our leaders that is very hard to comprehend given what is transpiring. It is as if they are operating in a different orbit, immune from the physical world. They speak and move as in a cloud, floating above the chaos and pain. It is truly remarkable. I understand how it can happen, though, it is that blissful human condition that comes when one is called an "oracle" and when one is drunk with power and hijacked by collective acquiescence . These things have vanquished historical leaders, and here again it has claimed its latest victim. There is something that Mr. Greenspan said yesterday that resonates with my prevailing ethos that in order to advance innovation thinking you need leaders with a different set of attributes and human assets, not rooted in ego-centered leaders...

So here we go again, from one extreme to another. We basically had eight years of one political party drunk with power ruining things for everyone. Now, based on the latest Wall Street Journal op ed ( October 17, 2008) we are already talking about the liberal super majority destined to get drunk on power and really ravage things for everyone. This could absolutely be true and could happen. Let us hope that they have learned the lessons from the last eight years and don’t. I hope that if Senator Obama wins he will have the intellectual fortitude (as he appears he does) to perform post mortems on what has happened and guard against abuse of power. The point, however, is that once again we the people are engaging in what I call “snappy polarity”. We swing from one extreme to the other as if there is no middle ground and no lessons to be gained from hybrid thinking and new proposals. I will stop here because this is not a political but an innovation blog. There is analogous behavior in bus...

So here is the deal...Innovation and creativity go hand in hand and the stimulation of creativity is becoming an area of focus in the mainstream think tanks. (I know, I sound like a broken Mp3). For the latest on this, please go to your latest issue of Harvard Business Review (October 2008 issue). If you don't have it, sorry, you are missing some good stuff. I am not pushing, HBR , mind you. What I am trying to push for is for the wholesome adoption of creative teaching in our society because in my job, I see a dearth of creativity in the people that are not in "creative" endeavors but are responsible for the heartbeat of companies. In any case, here is the link to the article for those that may want to download it (and pay for it). http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0810G But wait, there is more. For all those Executives out there that may just have arrived at this blog by accident and are trying to institute an innovati...

What can a lowly Innovation blogger say about what is going on in the World...not much, really. Our "leaders" are so embattled trying to prevent the next depression, that all voices have been drowned out now in favor of operational execution of a rescue plan that while innovative is seriously complex, complicated and time consuming to execute well. The crisis, unfortunately, needs action real-time, as in now, and not 6 months from now when the "reverse auctions" might finally be put in place. In my view this crisis elevates an issue that has been in my mind for a long time and it is the issue of Human nature and the lack of relevance we attribute to it. In very simple terms: As a nation rooted in puritanical principles, we seem to willfully dismiss and discount human nature as a factor in human actions. In this latest episode, we have ignored greed as a supremely relevant human instinct . Did we really think that the mortgage broker would NOT sell the wrong mortgag...

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Dr Atkinson last month. He is the founder of The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) based in Washington DC. The ITIF is a small think thank producing wonderful reasearch and advancing the cause of technology anb Innovation. One of its missions is to elevate the profile of technology and Innovation as a driver of economic growth and economic development. The following report is a must read for everyone in Innovation Policy circles: http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=34 Based on my conversation with Dr. Atkinson it appears that there people in government that do not believe -let me repeat - DO NOT believe that the greatest economic expansion of all time during the 90's happened - in large part - because of technology and Innovation. Apparently the Internet, digital telecommunications, Google, the wireless revolution, the Iphone...all of it happened becuase for other reasons and had nothing to do with new Innovations hitting t...

This morning during my drive to work I was listening to NPR where they were discussing – what else- the latest “Innovation”to come out of Pennsylvania street. As a congresswoman was being interviewed about her no vote, she mentioned the word “prudence” and expounded on it being part of the mid-western value system. In my world prudence is a universal value, but let us drop this line of thinking for now. Like everyone else, however, her analysis stopped there and did not take the next logical leap, which is how do we stimulate the prudent people; first as a way of thanking them for being prudent and second as a vehicle for fixing the economic mess that we are being told we are in. Being in innovation and involved in a daily process of evangelization of new ideas to internal and external audiences, I have come upon the realization that in many instances companies mobilize their entire "enlightened" energy to change the minds of the reluctant few which in may intances are CEO...