June 14, 2022 Did you know that 5.4 million companies opened last year? And, out of all these companies, there are thousands of employees with innovative ideas just waiting to be shared. To create a culture of innovation and inspire your employees, you need to take the right steps. Work culture should be inclusive and encouraging, not demotivating and dull. Now, you …
6 Innovation Archetypes, Which One Are You?
May 31, 2022 Breaking down silos is more important than ever in order to transform business. We often see departments stay within their team and job description confines. However, by sticking with these job titles, it creates barriers and prevents your organization from working together more collaboratively. We’re at a tipping point, where the skills of an employee are more …
Bryan Kramer on Focusing on Impact
December 8, 2021 Most of our day centers around computer screens, phones, or tablets. It can be easy to forget that when you send an email or hit the “publish” button that there’s a real, live person on the other end. We fall into a digital trap that causes us to think and talk like robots! People constantly throw out …
Tom Trenolone on Curiosity, Design, and Innovation
November 9, 2021 The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris I was awe-struck. This architectural wonder is one of the most notable buildings in the world. It’s the backdrop of romantic movies, espionage thrillers, and globe-trotting travel articles. But where did Gustave Eiffel get his inspiration for this iconic structure? The inspiration came when two engineers on …
Liz Nead on Building Your Diversity Toolkit
October 19, 2021 Where you grow up has a big effect on who you are. People from a big city are used to crowds and the hustle-bustle. Small town folks, on the other hand, tend to appreciate a more laid-back, peaceful life on a cul-de-sac where they know all their neighbors’ names. Culture comes from many different areas in our …
Dr. Abraham Khoureis on Building Compassionate Leadership
October 12, 2021 So much of business is focused on investors and profits. What’s forgotten is the heart of the equation – customers and the employees who serve them. When a business sets its sights on how to give back to the world through their people, they’re able to make the world a better place. Not only that, but everyone …
Jeff Perkins on How to Be a Problem Solver
September 14, 2021 Picture yourself in a parking lot packed full of cars in a downpour. You’re hauling five overstuffed bags in each hand, and you can feel the handles start to give from the dampness. You’re in a sea of bobbing umbrellas and rain jackets, but you can’t see your car…anywhere. Is it over by the lamppost? No, wait, …
José Pires: Innovation for Value Creation
June 8, 2021 One of the stereotypes of innovation is that of disruption. Massive disruption. Companies like Uber, Netflix and Tesla are all icons of how quickly an industry can be turned up-side-down by the new kid on the block. One that does everything contrary to conventional thinking, yet earns massive attention and incredible success. Unfortunately, ‘disruptive innovation’ is often …
Kate Strong: Redefining What’s Possible
June 1, 2021 Last October, I signed up for a 30 kilometer (18 mile) trail run that hugs the perimeter of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. I haven’t run a race of that distance in four years. During that time, I’d begun to travel quite a bit more for work. My family and I moved to Spain and back …
Case Study: How ParkMobile Built an Innovation Culture
May 6, 2021 It’s happened to all of us. We’ve missed the window to feed the meter and ended up with an annoying parking ticket. A sudden storm hit, and we got drenched in the rain between the garage and the concert venue. Or we’ve been late to an important interview because we couldn’t find a %$*&#! parking spot! When …
Rethinking the CMO Role
March 11, 2021 Has any role in business morphed more than that of the CMO? It’s a position rife with constantly changing expectations yet most often lacks the necessary support to ensure its success. If you’ve worked in marketing long, this isn’t news. In 2013, the Business Marketing Association and Forrester did research about how CMOs stood at the crossroads …
How Kamala Harris’ Pick as VP Nominee Impacts Innovation
August 13, 2020 “Haven’t I seen you before?” It’s a cheesy pickup line that’s been around for ages. And while it makes people roll their eyes, there’s something to the familiarity quotient. Studies show that we’re attracted to what we find familiar. The more we’re exposed to certain people, the more familiar they become and the more we like them. …
What Serial Innovators Get Right (and You Can Learn to Do)
July 30, 2020 In the 2018 GE Global Innovation Barometer, nearly three in four global executives believe that a lack of skills is an issue facing their industry. And 64% say this hurts their ability to innovate. Sadly, this situation’s only gotten worse. How to do the most innovative companies get that way, much less sustain their innovation efforts? That’s …
The Late, Great Storytelling Hoax (and How to Fix It)
June 18, 2020 A significant number of companies have received scathing responses from customers and the media in the last few months – and rightly so. They’re making claims to support people and causes when everything about their behavior proves they believe otherwise. It’s clear many brands have a gross misunderstanding of the difference between fiction and nonfiction storytelling–and don’t …
Innovation in a Time of Crisis
April 9, 2020 There’s a scene in the Apollo 13 moviewhen the services module’s No.2 oxygen tank exploded and No.1 tank failed. The explosion forced the mission’s astronauts, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, to abandon the command module and squeeze into the lunar module. With no more space than the inside of a VW Beetle, the three found …
10 Ways to Spark Innovation on Your Team
December 5, 2019 The strength of bringing people together to innovate as a team is that each person brings their own experiences. They make different observations based on how they see the world and what they notice. As a leader, you may want more creativity, but your ideas will only stretch as far as your team’s experience. Team cohesion is …
Interview with an Innovator: Tim Washer on Inspiration, Humor and Embracing Vulnerability
November 20, 2019 Mark Twain said that, “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations, and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.” He’s not wrong. Studies show that a sense of humor can make you mentally and physically healthier, make you more …
How to Become an Innovative Leader
November 7, 2019 Last year a CEO in a global organization asked me to dinner. We’ve known each other for more than a decade, and he’s had a steady ascent up the corporate jungle-gym. (We all know it’s not actually a ladder.) Now that he had the view from the top, I asked him what looked different. He was quick …
Interview with an Innovator: Michael Brenner on why Mean People Suck
October 24, 2019 Many of the best innovators I know don’t carry an “innovation” title on their business card. They are people who understand that new ideas can happen anytime and anywhere. But that’s not how most of the world looks at innovation. “Innovators” are the design thinkers, the data scientists and the engineers. They’re the ones who have a …
3 Steps to Map (and Improve) Corporate Culture
August 29, 2019 Last week I was in Singapore to give a workshop and speak at the B2B Marketing Forum. I enjoy talking to marketers from all parts of the world and in all industries, because each person has a perspective that teaches me something new. One thing that bubbles up in conversations is the culture of the companies in …