OCTOBER. For a Smart Company

In the video that THD shares this month, José Antonio Marina asked himself about the intelligence and tells us about his research on how the mechanisms of creativity work. He concludes that the mechanisms of creativity follow a single scheme, and that this is the same whether to create a work of art, to invent techniques to innovate or to organize a business.

At this optimistic point, Marina introduces as a relevant factor in its investigation the effect that exerts the social environment to block or encourage intelligence and creativity. The same effect can be applied to organizations: the environment marks the becoming and the future joint intelligence capacity that can reach a company.

SEPTEMBER. How to Lead Innovation today

The leadership of the late twentieth century was based on the ability to envision the future and take the organization or the team to achieve this vision. Today, in VUCA world, visions and visionaries no longer work. This is what tells us Professor Jay Rao in the video which originates this news -courtesy of THD and available here during October.

How to lead when predict and forecast is a hard work? How to lead in an uncertain world?

AUGUST. The Motivation of the Leader

A leader is used to the solitude. Although he is constantly surrounded by a good team and trusted partners at the end of the day the Leader feels alone. He is the soul, the power generator, but … Who motivates the leader? How can motivate the leader?

The fact the leading source of motivation is in itself, in these specific set objectives, in the perseverance that allows to progress and this resilience that helps overcome each of the moments when things do not happen as expected, and there are many moments like that, but to achieve the objectives, must try and learn and try again.

JULY. Small changes, big benefits

In the Innovation world, it often seems that we are forced to make big changes. We believe that if we do not act in a noisy and visible way it is as if we were doing nothing.

We are wrong, it is the opposite. Take our organization to the world of innovation is first of all a change in attitude, in behavior. And in many cases we are not so far from the ideal situation, you just have to adjust the appropriate points of our way to understand the company

All of us are surprised (and this generates quite a few distrust) if we have to share with an expert how to focus and do what we have been doing for centuries, and we assume that it is already well done. Actually, we do not question certain areas of our way of doing as a company because we can´t think that there can be generated improvements.

JUNE. The Innovation Loop

A micro-dictionary with 4 concepts and 2 responsibilities is all Lotfi El-Ghandouri needs to clarify the basic concepts that make up the life cycle of innovation. We will try not to spoil the sake of simplicity, because often we get to talk and something that at first was very clear, it becomes extremely complicated.

Entrepreneurs and age

«We need some gray hair», once referred to needingg someone with more experience. But I haven’t heard that expression in a very long time.

The most common image of an innovator is that of a kid developing a great idea in a garage, a dorm room or a makeshift office. This is the story of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple.

In reality, though, these examples are the exception and not the rule. Consider this: The directors of the five top-grossing films of 2012 are all in their 40s or 50s. And two of the biggest-selling authors of fiction for 2012 Suzanne collins and E.L.James- are around 50.

According to research by Alex Mesoudi of Durham University in England, the age of eventual nobel Prize winners when making a discovery, and of invetors when making a significant breakthrough, averaged around 38 in 2000, and increase of about 6 years since 1900.

Episode 90: Solving Counterfeit Epidemic with Innovation 2.0

We invite you Don’t miss Every Tuesday at 2pm PST / 5pm EST The radio show called People to People: Working Together for Your Safety. The show today is Solving Counterfeit Epidemic with Innovation 2.0 and is hosted by VoiceAmerica.

The title of next episode is: Solving Counterfeit Epidemic with Innovation 2.0 with Guest Speaker Fran Chuan.

For listen clic on these link 

SHOW DESCRIPTION: 

May. Tell me Innovation Stories

Storytelling is a very effective way to learn and transmit culture. So we learn as children and find our identity in our family. Storytelling can also be a very effective way to generate change out of such an environment and launch into a more uncertain and ambiguous world.

A family environment meets our expectations and gives us satisfaction. When our environment falters, the expectations are not met and we tend to get frustrated. This frustration creates an energy that, well channeled, can help not only to adapt to change, but also influence it to create conditions that are more favorable to us. The story might go as follows.

April. The role of the Leader

Yes, it is important to discuss about the role of Leaders. And it is because their mission within the company is crucial. Both their mission and the way they do, how they manage time and resources, the way they relate to people and how to inspire them to accompanying the Leader in his task…

But today we do not want to talk about the Leaders and how much we all expect from them. Today we just leave a gift for the Leader.

MARCH. Innovation Activist

For each innovative action, there are thousand articles written on the subject. The reason is that Innovation is not yet a developed discipline, like Marketing, Quality or Chemistry. Therefore, many people feel entitled to talk about it and – consequently – still more people feel confused when taking action because there is no proven successful approach.

When we feel bad, we tend to share it with those we trust. Probably, we get some kind of advice until we end up visiting the doctor to get a diagnosis of what is wrong. The analyses will detect what is not working and the doctor will recommend what steps to take to get cured.

If our company is not as innovative as we would like it to be, we can meet (as the people in the video do) as a Leadership Team to review the business strategy and reflect about it for as long as we want. However, nothing will be more effective than an analysis to detect our problems, or better said, our opportunities. Once the current situation is clear, developing an action plan to improve it, is a no-brainer.