Innovation
Think Outside the Box
=THINK INSIDE THE BOX
Innovation
• Objective: Enable you to create
ideas, projects, and proposals that
truly stand out.
Innovation
• The ability to be innovative will help
make your project or proposal stand
out, but also it will give you a
permanent edge in any undertaking.
Innovation and Creativity
• Innovation and Invention
• Invention = New
• Innovation = ties ideas to customer experience
and results in increased customer value
Invention
• What ideas or products can you
think of that were inventions?
Printing Press - 1439
Cotton Gin - 1792
Invention?
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Telephone – Alexander Graham Bell
Radio – Marconi, Tesla…
Television
Light Bulb
Automobile
Computer
Desktop Publishing
24-hour Cable TV?
Nothing is New. Everything is
Recycled
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Coffee:
1800s: age of commodities – whole beans
1900-1950: age of goods – ground coffee
1960-1980: age of services – cup of joe
1990s: age of experiences – lattes
Now: age of authenticity – whole beans
Innovation: Definitions (?)
• The ability to see relationships where others have
not
• The process begins with figuring out a better way
of doing something and ends with something new
and useful.
• The process can take a few seconds or a few years.
Innovation and Creativity
• Creativity:
• deviant from the norm
• pertinent to the task at hand
• Innovation:
• a practical application of creative efforts designed to
satisfy a need
Innovation is:
• a habit; it applies to everything you do.
• a process; the process can be learned.
• the ability to make connections, especially among
disparate entities.
• not an absolute – operates on a scale
• in business, it’s a team sport.
• Nature vs. Nurture
The Innovation Quiz
• What famous product was considered a failure and
abandoned - but became a success when one of
the engineers took some discarded samples home,
only to find that his teenage daughters used the
product for setting their hair?
• a) styling gel
b) Scotch tape
c) Post-It notes
The Innovation Quiz
• What famous product was considered a failure and
abandoned - but became a success when one of
the engineers took some discarded samples home,
only to find that his teenage daughters used the
product for setting their hair?
• a) styling gel
b) Scotch tape
c) Post-It notes
The Innovation Quiz
• What famous inventor threw a paint-filled sponge
at the wall and then looked to see what shapes he
could find in the splatters of paint, then thought
about connections between the image he saw and
the problem he was working on?
• a) Alexander Graham Bell
b) George Washington Carver
c) Leonardo da Vinci
The Innovation Quiz
• What famous inventor threw a paint-filled sponge
at the wall and then looked to see what shapes he
could find in the splatters of paint, then thinking
about connections between the image he saw and
the problem he was working on?
• a) Alexander Graham Bell
b) George Washington Carver
c) Leonardo da Vinci
The Innovation Quiz
• What famous inventor was standing by a well
when he saw a stone hit the water at the same time
a bell rang. Watching the circular ripples in the
water while at the same time listening to the
ringing of the bell, he realized that sound travels
in waves.
• a) Sir Isaac Newton
b) Leonardo da Vinci
c) Marconi
The Innovation Quiz
• What famous inventor was standing by a well
when he saw a stone hit the water at the same time
a bell rang. Watching the circular ripples in the
water while at the same time listening to the
ringing of the bell, he realized that sound travels
in waves.
• a) Sir Isaac Newton
b) Leonardo da Vinci
c) Marconi
The Innovation Quiz
• Who solved a famous problem by imagining he
was travelling on a beam of light?
• a) Thomas Edison
b) Albert Einstein
c) Benjamin Franklin
The Innovation Quiz
• Who solved a famous problem by imagining he
was travelling on a beam of light?
• a) Thomas Edison
b) Albert Einstein
c) Benjamin Franklin
How can YOU
become more
innovative?
Becoming More Innovative
• The process of innovation
• How the brain works
• The application of the process
• Develop an Innovative Attitude
The Process of Innovation
• Preparation
• Idea Formation
• Incubation
• Illumination
• Evaluation
How the Brain Works
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Left Brain:
uses logic
facts rule
words and language
order/pattern
perception
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
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Right Brain:
uses feelings
big picture orientation
symbols and images
philosophy & religion
appreciates
spatial perception
fantasy based
impetuous
risk taking
Right Brain – Left Brain
Right Brain – Left Brain
Application of the Process
• Practice the three Cs: Clothes, Color, Count
• When getting dressed, look at the colors you are
putting on. Quickly list as many alternative color
names as you can.
• e.g: brown: warm brown, rust, young oak, toast,
burnt sienna, burnt earth, squirrel, evening
orange, café au lait, sun-kissed mahogany,
rolling-in-the-mud Old Yeller.
Application of the Process
• Use other people as sounding blocks:
• e.g: At a group gathering, start a progressive story
about anything. A wacky group somewhere else in
the country or world who is also just gathering.
• Each person adds a few sentences to the story.
Application of the Process
• Play the TV/movie game
• Study a character, and write down a dozen or so
ways that he or she reminds you of yourself.
• Then, during the commercials, figure out a link
between one of the traits and the product being
advertised. Pick a different one for each
commercial break.
• e.g: needs to go on a diet, is humorous, is a
college grad, drives a red car…
Learn from the innovators
• Combine your personal and professional
lives:
• Be a Poet
• Be a Thief
• Throw a Fit
• Hop About
• Daydream
• Push the Limits
• Paint a Picture
Develop an Attitude for Innovation
• Learn to deal with failure
• Learn from discarded ideas
• Learn how to be silly
• Convince yourself that you are creative
Failure
• Failure is a learning tool
• Don’t fear being silly or being different
• Careful ideas aren’t the best ones
Let’s Try It!
• Take out a sheet of paper.
• List as many ways as you can that you think you
can become more innovative.
• Turn to a person sitting next to you and share
your ideas.
Working in Groups
Six Thinking Hats
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White: covers facts, figures, information needs
Red: covers intuition, feelings, emotions
Black: covers negatives and problems
Yellow: covers logical and positive sides
Green: covers alternatives, provocations,
changes
• Blue: covers overview, process
• 6 Hats helps by considering a decision from
several viewpoints
Big Red Property Management Co.
• The directors are considering whether to
build a new office building to rent out.
The economy is doing well and vacant
office space is decreasing.
Applying the 6 Thinking Hats
• Black (devil’s advocate):
• Government projections may be wrong
• If building is ugly, renters will go
elsewhere
• Maybe the money would be better spent
buying up existing property
• Blue (process):
• Keeps members from criticizing each
other
Applying the 6 Thinking Hats
• White (facts):
• Consider current/future vacant office space trends
• Consider government projections on economic
growth
• Red (emotions)
• Some directors feel the building will be costeffective but will look ugly
• “He who innovates will have for his
enemies all those who are well off under
the existing order of things, and only
lukewarm supporters in those who might
be better off under the new.”
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- Niccolo Machiaveli,
The Prince
Questions?
Brainstorming
• Turn it into a routine
• daydream, draw, visualize, doodle…
• Do it while exercising, bathing, walking
• The subconscious is full of ideas
• e.g: play Imagine with your idea or product:
• imagine if it spoke to you
• imagine if it was a toy
• imagine if it was a cartoon character
Mindmapping
Mindmapping