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Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category

Providing Value beats the Billable Hour

August 27th, 2009 by Steve Swann | No Comments | Filed in Business, Innovation, Problem Solving

Here’s a real world example of a major corporate re-thinking and re-inventing how they engage with others – and have others engage with them.

Time will tell if the model works. I really hope it does. The key benefit, as articulated in the interview, is that the relationship is outcome focused. The objective is finding a solution and making it work, instead of how much revenue can we generate or how much cost can we save.

I disagree in part with Amy Schulman’s assertion that the partners will have to  get used to making less money. Those Partners that really understand this new model and adjust their own structure, practices and process to make it work could end up making more money. In the end it’s the value that you can provide.

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Guy Kawasaki’s Art of Innovation in 10 Steps

July 9th, 2009 by Steve Swann | No Comments | Filed in Business, Disruption, Innovation, Sharing

At Cisco Live last week the closing keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki boiled down the art of innovation into 10 easy and not so easy steps. Always an engaging speaker Guy gives some great insights.

  1. Make meaning
  2. Make a mantra (not a mission statement)
  3. Jump to the next curve
  4. Roll the dice
  5. Don’t worry, be crappy
  6. Let 100 flowers blossom
  7. Polarize people
  8. Churn, baby, churn
  9. Follow the 10-20-30 rule
  10. Don’t let the bozos get you down

via Guy Kawasaki Explains the Art of Innovation in 10 Steps – Channels.

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caught killing an idea

June 30th, 2009 by Steve Swann | No Comments | Filed in Business, Ideas, Innovation, Inspiration, Problem Solving, Sharing, Solutions, Thinking

Last week I wrote about the idea killing phrase “Yes, But”. The following evening I joined so94px-senegallion1898bw1me colleagues to discuss an ecommerce project they’re working on.

And yes, you guessed it – I caught myself saying “Yes, but…” I was killing their ideas. The good news is that after the first occurrence I caught myself  and was far more supportive and constructive.

What struck me was how easy it was to be negative. Here’s why.

It appears that we are “hard wired” to be negative, or at least to be far more cognitive to the negative. It goes back to our our primitive beginnings when it was necessary for us, as a species, to be constantly on the look out for potential sources of danger.

According to Cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff, in her Feb 2004 TED presentation

Our negative system is extremely sensitive. It is our sentinal. It is there to protect us from danger.

The following screen shot of one of Nancy’s slides points out the extent of our “natural” negative bias

negative-bias

What’s really interesting here is the (happy) Marriage Formula:

a ratio of 5 positive remarks or inter-actions to 1 negative remark or interaction.

If we extend this into our innovation and creative thinking environment we can see how damaging negative comments can be. We have to work 5 times as hard to overcome a single negative response.

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