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

I love new insights. I am hungry for them. They are a drug for me. If for no other reason than to try to get ahead of the future. Who would not want that? In my world, new insights are the basic ingredients for new ideas. Without them the status quo remains as is: static. With them, there is dynamism. The more insights, the more they can be mushed together to develop aggregated knowledge, theories, philosophies, products, platforms... Why can’t our political system understand this? Here is one source for them to check out www.ted.com. Here is a golden source of fantastic insights from global brilliant agents of change. Come on, go crazy. Whenever you are down, need inspiration, need to clear your mind, go and start your thinking anew…

The lament from a friend of mine went something like this: "I feel that I have been sold the wrong bill of goods for years now. From buying into the materialistic version of happiness, to being a participant in self-aggrandizing conversations as if I was here for no reason but to make other people’s egos bigger, to isolating myself and my family in the suburbs as if that is the center of the universe, to spending lavishly on my house and my lawn for what? I don't know. To spending more, ever more, to having to drive everywhere…it all is starting to feel hollow..." This got me thinking about the power of momentum and how hard is to stop and start a shift to a new way of seeing and being. The existing momentum has been going on for half a century now? The power of momentum can be so strong that it can eliminate ideas before they take root. Further, its power can be so strong that it can make natural, common sense ideas seem revolutionary. Case in point is the effort by Mich

Here is the challenge. If a company is born from disruption, it is in their collective DNA. If not, I assert that companies have a “dormant” DNA sprouting in some islands of disruption that are fertile for exploiting, development and mentoring. So, how does one go about waking and growing a dormant DNA? First one accepts this fact and second one goes on a massive mind “finding” effort with a very clear understanding of the challenge. There is enough here for a nice and long juicy consultancy engagement from the likes of McKinsey, Bean and Corp and this is exactly what most companies do. They go and run for the hills, spend massively and force down ”brilliant” findings which are insights gained from internal resources in the first place. This need not be the case, however. Knowledge has truly been unleashed. It is everywhere and can be generated almost overnight. One need only go into LinkedIN, for example, start a group and ask questions. The results are simply mind blowing. The point

Interesting research paper cited on Jan 16 Th edition of The Economist titled: Carrots dressed as Sticks. Basically, they experimented on ways to tweak and maximize the effect of economic incentives. It turns out that the value we attach to " possessions " is good for incentives if they are designed with this allure. So, think of it this way. Instead o f saying: "if you can achieve this goal, I will give you $1k at the end of the year", one should say: " The $1k are yours right now but you will loose it if you do not meet your goal." "The fear of loss was a greater motivator than the prospect of gain" The results were consistent and persistent according to the article. Funny thing, the human mind. And, further evidence that how one says things may be as important as to what is said.