Innovation Myths: Post #8--Five Challenges

Five Challenges to Innovation  1) Life of Ideas (treated well, ideas flourish—the opposite is also very true); 2) Environment (make it a safe place, full of laughter); 3) Protection (managers have to spend political capital to keep the heat off inventors); 4) Execution (this is the hardest part of innovation); 5) Persuasion (the fuel of innovation at every point and level of the process).

Innovatioin Myths: Post #7--Finding Ideas

Finding Ideas It’s hard to find great new ideas because they’re not born fully formed. Rather they come as half-baked, unattractive starts and stops. What’s more, schools reward compliance, not off-the-trail exploration. Creation is a sloppy process. Often, 70% of innovators get their best ideas when exploring areas where they’re not the experts. Indeed, their new perspectives changed how they saw problems.

Innovation Myths: Post #6--Origins of Innovation

Origins of Innovation We think of Ed
ison as the inventor of electricity; Apple the inventor of the digital music player; and Google the inventor of the search engine. But they were not; rather, they came after a long chain of “connections.” It makes a better story for us to remember—that’s it simple and straight. The author suggests: Ask any kid who invented pancakes, and she’ll say, “My Mom!” What’s more, inventors often make discoveries simultaneously, whether it’s in fashion, sports or physics. For instance Newton and Leibniz each came up with the notion of calculus simultaneously and used different versions as a matter of national and personal pride.