Once upon a time, in a high rise not too far away, I had an idea. A change to our business that would make us more attractive in tough regions. A killer idea, I thought. I checked Facebook one last time, freshened my coffee (long black, thanks) and locked myself away to create a 15 page Powerpoint (the business case tool of choice). After many hours,Read more
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It seems logical to think that the more resources you have available for creativity (be that time, money, people, scope etc.) that the more creative you will be. I mean, why wouldn’t you be more creative without limitations? That’s what blue-sky thinking is all about, right?! Interestingly, research tells us that the opposite is actuallyRead more
With Christmas done and dusted for another year, I want to share a suitably festive story (that has an important lesson) with you. I’ve paraphrased a story from Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile – a book I have been recommending to anyone who will listen for the past few months. The Great Turkey Problem A turkey is fedRead more
Innovation is a word at the tip of almost every CEO’s lips. However, despite the best of intentions, many organisations are killing innovation. There are several issues that these organisations have in common. Leaders don’t walk the talk While the majority of CEOs and their leadership teams talk about innovation, many unfortunately don’t doRead more
I’ve just realised that everything I thought I ever knew about Market Research, when it comes to testing innovation, was either flawed or is fast becoming redundant. If, like me, you have employed traditional market research approaches (i.e. concept tests, market simulation tests, focus groups, etc) to evaluate and validate your innovations, then allow meRead more
In 1903, Orville Wright, with his brother Wilbur watching from below, piloted history’s first ever powered, manned flight. That singular flight completely changed the course of history. There are now over 100,000 commercial flights in the air each day…(in fact I am writing from one now!). But the Wright Brothers weren’t only remarkable in havingRead more
Christine here. Nice to e-meet you all! While I’m an Innovation Consultant in Melbourne, spreading the Lean Startup message (amongst other methodologies), my brother Cameron, is living Lean Startup in his Seattle-based games company, Against Gravity. Apart from being one of my favourite people on earth, he also recently managed to release one of theRead more
In many organisations the ‘F’ word, failure, is not tolerated. But failure is an inevitable part of innovation, as it comes naturally to anything with an element of uncertainty to it. The idea of risk-taking and creating a safe-to-fail workplace culture is not a new one, however, it’s not an easy nut to crack. OverRead more
Creative managers know that if you approach a challenge knowing nothing, you’re likely to come up with a solution that is different and original. Most of us are brought up to believe that failure should be avoided and that it is the opposite of success. Certainly, that’s what the dictionary definition says. But in theRead more
Many Australian companies tend to over complicate innovation experimentation. Having mentored a mix of large companies, start ups and not for profit organisations, I’ve observed this trend cutting across them all. Part of the problem comes from all the amazing resources so readily available to people. From the fantastic book ‘The Lean Startup’ by EricRead more