Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney - A Show About Ideas Creativity And Innovation

In past episodes, I’ve discussed science fiction stories as tools to predict the future. H.G Wells wrote about atomic bombs and the fallout – thirty years before Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In 1968, John Brunner predicted the European Union, China’s rise to power, and Detroit’s economic downfall.   You can probably take any existing technology and find a book or article that predicted something like it in the past. If you want to spark an idea, the most crucial part is understanding the timing. An Unexpected Way to Predict the Future Writers of fiction bring something to those whose jobs it is to predict the future. Writers bring the sensory talent. To be a great writer, you need to be aware of things others don’t see and pick up on different trends and moods. The ability for a writer to convey a picture of what could be generates that “what if” spark. Writers can create and invent emotions, worlds, structures, political parties, and., eliciting a response from the reader. It’s all about imagining what it will take to get from point A to point B. This episode was inspired by an article written by Philip Oltermann discussing novels to predict crises such as genocides or civil wars. The project, called “Project Cassandra,” was run by Jurgen Wertheimer, a professor of comparative literature in Germany. The overall goal was to figure out if you could predict the unpredictable. They discovered that authors in a given country were writing fiction tied to their country’s circumstances and forecasting what they believed would happen based on the patterns they saw. Some people refer to a crisis as a black swan, which is an event you can’t predict. On the contrary, the project showed that a few years before a crisis, local authors offered a sense of what was coming. These predictions weren’t based on extensive data collection but more focused on people’s feelings. Those running the project focused on the literary infrastructure, asking whether the –  was the book was being censored or if it did elicit extraordinary reactions. Predicting as an Innovator I tend to use a similar process when it comes to predicting the future. On top of looking at reactions, I take interesting writings and search out the people involved in them. Firstly, I ask the writers what barriers are keeping their predictions from happening. I also check what the dependencies are, and most importantly, I ask what the intended and unintended consequences are. No matter what you are doing, it is vital to ponder these things. The Cassandra Project was looking to predict crises five to seven years out. The early stages of this project were successful in predicting things one year out. The next stage was five to seven years out. The early successes came from giving off strong hints, but this is hard to make actionable. In the case of innovators, hints are interesting, but they have to be translated. This is a challenge for any innovation. Ultimately, Project Cassandra was killed in 2020 by the German government. Do you think reading the writings of authors can be possible sources of predicting the future? Prediction is challenging and often viewed as the holy grail for innovators. The one guarantee is that you will never be 100% right. This shouldn’t cause you to make us give up, as a prediction can create that little spark that will lead you to the next big thing. To know more about unexpected ways to predict the future, listen to this week's show: Unexpected Way to Predict the Future.

To me, pivoting is making a significant change in direction. Many people are not aware that some of today's products result from a pivot. We'll look at seven companies that made meaningful, significant changes resulting in ultimate success. Achieving Success by Pivoting Your Innovation PayPal started as a digital “I owe you” platform. Today, it is a major payment transaction platform that gave birth to the “PayPal mafia, ” including Elon Musk. The successful pivot was Airbnb, which initially offered housing for conferences and air mattresses. The third company is Twitter, which started as a podcast platform called Odeo. I was on show five or six in the early days of the platform. When iTunes came out with their podcast app, they put similar platforms such as Odeo out of business. As a result, Jack Dorsey and his team brainstormed, found inspiration, and pivoted, coming up with Twitter. Next up is Western Union, which was a telegram company founded in the 1800s. In recent years, the company pivoted and became a money transfer company. Today, the company handles shy of $9 billion a year. I use Western Union for non-profit and for-profit work in Rwanda. The next company that has done major pivots is Slack, which I am an avid user of. Slack started as a video game venture called Glitch. When they couldn't get any interest in their idea, they switched to a messaging platform and found success. Nintendo and Pivoting Nintendo has been around since the 1880s and has been in many different businesses. They started off making playing cards and then pivoted to taxi services. Next, Nintendo made instant rice cookers and then pivoted to hourly hotel rooms. Eventually, they pivoted into the early video game space and became the company we know today. Developed initially to clean up coal dust off walls, Playdoh pivoted to a toy that I grew up using as a kid. Heat sources switched from coal to oil, gas, then natural heat, the market for Playdoh dried up. The company realized teachers were getting creative with Playdoh in the classroom and pivoted their business to a different target market. Important Steps To pivot successfully, you should treat it like any other area of innovation. First, find your area of focus and ideate. Next, rank your ideas and execute them. Pivoting is better than going bankrupt. I did thirteen startups before my first IPO at Telligent. Pivoting is a skill that innovators need to have and an action they need to be willing to take. Additionally, it would be best to be dedicated and on the same page as your team to pivot successfully. Next, you need to be willing to change. Don't fall in love with your innovation and refuse to let go. Thirdly, you have to move very quickly to pivot successfully. Lastly, please choose what you will be doing and commit to it. To know more about achieving innovation success by pivoting, listen to this week's show: Achieving Success by Pivoting Your Innovation.  

Let's talk about some non-obvious sources of my innovation inspiration. Recently, we spoke about seeing with fresh eyes and how important that practice is. Fresh eyes need innovation inspiration to guide them towards that next game-changing innovation. The Power of Unexpected Conversations The first source of my innovation inspiration is unexpected conversations. I like to talk with interesting people who have different backgrounds than I do. I often do this on airplanes or at rest stops, as well as at large events like TED. My goal of these conversations is to walk away with at least one exceptional idea. I have a set of questions that I ask people in unexpected discussions, such as, “What are you curious about?” or “What innovation do you want to see come to fruition during your lifetime”? In the 90s, my uncle owned Macarthur Fish and Poultry in the heart of Oakland. One thing that frustrated him was missed phone calls that often led to missed opportunities. During the holiday seasons, it was hard to keep up with numerous calls. At the time, I was in the telecoms business, and I figured out that it was recorded every time a phone number was called. We decided to look up the callers' information from these missed calls and put it into emails. We would then send it to the store owner to call back, which led to more business. The product was called Imagine and went on to amass a ton of success after its launch in 1998. The success of Imagine eventually became the cornerstone of Telligent, which then grew to be a $3.1 billion business. All of this resulted from a few unexpected conversations with my uncle and fellow shop owners on Macarthur Boulevard in Oakland, California. Never underestimate the power of an unexpected conversation. Observe and Erase Annoyances The second source of my innovation inspiration is being observant of what annoys me. We all have things that bother us. It is essential to ask what is causing these annoyances and how they're erased. I've been in the mobile phone industry since the late 80s, so I have many experiences with smartphones. In the early days, smartphones could only run single apps at a time. A group called Palm had developed a new system called webOS which could run multiple applications simultaneously. I loved webOS so much that I convinced HP to buy it for $3.5 billion. They created what I would call the best smartphone approach out there, which was way ahead of Apple at the time. Now, all smartphones have the system that webOS developed. All of this was a result of an annoyance that a team decided to erase. Asking Deep Questions The third source is asking the “who, what, when, where, why” questions and applying them to your area of focus. For instance, I am currently reading “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends” by Nicole Perlroth. Through reading this book and others, I've come up with a way to generate ideas by asking these questions. Ask yourself what the more profound thing is that will allow you to dig deeper. I have come up with tons of ideas based on what Perlroth shares in the book. My objective is to come up with at least one interesting idea from every chapter. Ultimately, it is essential to remember that inspiration is everywhere,

Regret is one of those emotions that can derail your future success. As innovators, regrets can be things like someone else launching an idea you had before you were able to execute it. Today, I will share three of my innovation regrets and how to move past them to continue achieving success. My First Innovation Regret During the early days of computer viruses, I was Director of Product Development for ThumbScan. We offered a fingerprint biometric device under $1,000, which was the first at this price that could attach to a PC. Since this was before PCs were common, people didn’t see much value in the company. During this time, I was making headlines for my work on computer viruses and had written down a ton of ideas about them in a notebook I had. Then, Thumbscan started struggling, and sales were dropping. I ended up setting aside my notebook of ideas and focusing on other things. Next thing you know, Norton and McAfee came out with products similar to my ideas and became very successful. I made a few big mistakes in this situation and learned some lessons. Firstly, I went wrong when I correlated people’s interest in the product to an entire industry segment. I also looked at the “now” instead of looking at what could happen if viruses became a major issue. My other big mistake was that I didn’t go back and present my ideas to McAfee and Norton. At this time, I was well-known and could have successfully leveraged my reputation. Instead, I chose not to do it because I didn’t want to be the second or third guy coming out with the idea. I wanted to be the first. Another innovation regret is that typically, the first people who come out with something don’t create the best product. Second Regret My second innovation regret comes from a project I called “the six degrees of separation.” This idea states that you are only no more than six people away from everybody else. A group of consultants and I were sitting around one day and came up with the idea of this project. We were trying to figure out if we could connect people through their work experience, employers, and the likelihood that they knew somebody to create a connected introduction network. This concept was two years before LinkedIn offered any product or service. We put the idea up but got distracted by a new idea and ended up dropping it. LinkedIn came out two years later and became a huge success. Here, I learned that I did not lack ideas, but I lacked a ranking process for my ideas. New ideas always look shiny, and we often gravitate to them, which causes us to lose focus on older and potentially successful ideas. Regret #3 When I was at a company called Omnipoint, we came up with the idea of prepaid mobile. This was the very first prepaid mobile as the existing mobile required built-up credit.  We set it up to be an easy process and sold at locations selling Omnipoint phones. There was no account information necessary to purchase the service. We got flooded with people using the prepaid service, and it became very popular. Then, criminals discovered our anonymous phones. The popularity became the launching point for “burner phones.” The U.S government was not happy with what we were doing, and I had a lot of conversations with different agencies. From this innovation regret, I learned to look for the unintended consequences of my innovations. Nowadays, I write out my regrets and jot down what I would have done dif...

Previously we talked about innovation adoption and the importance of getting across the innovation adoption curve. Let’s shift our conversation to innovation adoption as a competitive advantage. There is a new category of innovation adoption that is on the rise. This category is known as the hyper-adoption of innovation. The category describes the propensity to adopt and adapt to innovation at a speed and skill unmatched. Adopters in this category are willing to change everything very quickly to be successful. The best example of this is to look at the economies of countries that have become hyper-adopters. Here is some information and statistics on China from a Harvard Business Review article by Zak Dychtwald. In China, we have seen explosive growth in business and infrastructure. The country has a resource that no other country has: a vast population that has lived through an unprecedented amount of change. China’s innovation ecosystem of millions of hyper-adoptive consumers makes the country so globally competitive. The Chinese people know change is good and are willing to change when it is necessary for growth. The Lived Experience and Hyper-Adoption The “lived experience” has shaped China’s unique attitude towards adoption. Looking at lifetime per capita GDP, the U.S has grown roughly 2.7 times from 1990, while China’s has grown 32 times. In 1990, China’s GDP represented less than 2% of the global total, but by 2019 it represented nearly 19%. From 2011-2013, China poured more concrete than the U.S had poured in the entire 20th century. In 1990, China’s rural population had one refrigerator per one hundred households. Today, that number is ninety-six per one hundred households. In 1990, China had 5.5 million cars on the road, and today they have 270 million. 3.4 million of these cars are electric, representing 47% of global electric cars. In recent years, the Chinese have had to adapt to radical change more than any other country in the world. Because they constantly implement hyper-adoption, China is poised to take the lead in the innovation arms race. How to Become a Hyper-Adopter of Innovation Becoming a hyper-adopter of innovation means remaining open to trying new things and being willing to change yourself. This includes looking at things with fresh eyes. When teaching workshops, I often ask organizations if they are eager to change. Typically, individuals in the group will say they are fine but point out someone else they think needs to change. You need to evaluate yourself and take the necessary steps to adapt. If you want to create an unfair advantage, you need to be willing to change yourself and decide on your own. To know more about the hyper-adoption of innovation, listen to this week's show: Is Hyper-Adoption of Innovation a Competitive Advantage?  

Once you've developed an excellent breakthrough innovation, the next step is figuring out how to get it adopted. Innovators have created numerous helpful models over the years, but most use the innovation adoption model. The Innovation Adoption Curve The innovation adoption model is the framework that lays out the audience, such as the late adopters or early adopters. This framework assumes that you are the innovator trying to sell innovation. Today, we will be laying the framework for innovation adoption. Innovation adoption is a model that classifies the adopters of innovation based on their levels of readiness. Innovation Adoption Groups There are specific characteristics and groups when it comes to innovation adoption. The first group is the innovators, who are the risk-takers, willing to be the first ones to try anything. This group is a small segment but is much more prominent in influence. These early innovators are the ones other people tend to follow. The next group is the early adopters, who are visionaries that rely on their gut and experience. While they aren't on the bleeding edge, they are on the leading edge. Early adopters may not get it right out of the gate but jump aboard shortly after. Next, the early majority is the more mainstream market segment and is more prominent than both previous groups combined. Those in this group like new innovations but prefer to wait and see if innovation is successful before adopting it. They look at innovations not just because they are new but because they perceive value in them. Next, the late majority holds the same portion of the market as the early majority. These people only adopt innovation when it is their last option (Ex. people who had Blackberrys as long as possible). This segment is harder to persuade as they don't like to try new things. They have high regard for advice from friends and colleagues but not traditional advertising. The last group is the laggards, which are the same size as the innovators and early adopters. These people are the naysayers of any change. They only adopt things when it is necessary, and no options are left. Why is it Important? It is essential to have a unique strategy for approaching each phase of the innovation adoption curve. This strategy comes from author Geoffrey Moore, a friend who has been on the show multiple times. In his book “Crossing the Chasm, he states the chasm between the early adopters and the early majority. This crossing of the chasm is necessary to have a widely successful innovation. To do that, you have to target the market segments and create some excitement over what you have developed. You can't just advertise or market your way over the chasm. It would be best if you had a strategy to find what will provide that needed momentum. Geoffrey has another strategy he calls the bowling pins. If you think of bowling pins as different industries and solve one industry's problem, it knocks down a bowling pin. In turn, this will bump into another similar industry problem/bowling pin, and it will get knocked down, thus continuing the cycle. This strategy will create excitement and energy, which will help you cross the chasm. The chasm is the biggest struggle for 99% of innovations that could be breakthroughs. You will fail if you don't develop an approach to cross the chasm. 95% of all innovations fail when they neglect the chasm. To know more about the importance of the innovation adoption curve,

It's hard to believe that I've been in the innovation game as long as I have. I've been thinking of creative ideas, inventing, launching services, and teaching others to do the same for many years. While this experience is good, it can sometimes be hurtful. Finding yourself doing the same thing over and over again can be tedious. We all fall into this type of rut. People often do this with morning routines. The good part is you know what step is coming next. The bad part is when something happens to throw you off, you might overlook things. Routines are problematic when dealing with innovation. To successfully find creative ideas, you need to look at things with fresh eyes constantly. By looking with fresh eyes, I mean seeing something as if you are seeing it for the first time. Breaking The Rut with Creative Ideas How do you break the rut to cause your brain to think differently? You need to observe things, not just look at things and take in information. When I was at HP, I would observe customers while shopping for products at BestBuy. When they picked one that wasn't an HP product, I would walk up to them and introduce myself. I'd ask them what made them choose that product over the HP one to understand their reasoning. Observing isn't just about seeing with your eyes. It is also about asking questions and having an inquisitive nature. Innovation Example In some cases, solving problems with fresh eyes doesn't work. In this case, you may have to bring someone in from the outside who has fresh eyes. Here is an example of this. A major manufacturer of potato chips was struggling with a problem: their chips were too greasy. They previously had too much salt on the chips, so they shook them. Tried this with the grease, but it did not work as well. They tried to shake the chips even harder, and it left them with broken products. They finally decided to crowdsource, soliciting ideas from people on how to get rid of excess oil on the chips. The solution came from a concert violinist who realized the problem resembled something they had seen. When a violin hits a precise tone, the resonance of the tone will cause water to dance. The violinist proposed they play a specific note to get the oil to jump off the chip, and it worked. Here was a solution not found by those with years of experience but from an unexpected source. 3 Steps to Seeing with Fresh Eyes * Be aware that you are seeing with old eyes. * Build up the habit of looking at everything with fresh eyes. This means doing this differently, asking things differently, and asking different people. * Ask for fresh eyes from non-experts. It is crucial to get in the habit of exercising your observation skills. Drive a different way to work or challenge a process you've used for a while. Ask someone who isn't an expert to give you feedback, such as the potato chip manufacturer did. You can learn from people with different expertise, country, background, age, etc. After implementing these things, you will begin to see with fresh eyes, which will lead to the creation of new ideas. To know more about finding creative ideas with fresh eyes, listen to this week's show: Finding Creative Ideas with Fresh Eyes.

Last week, I wrapped up a workshop I was teaching innovation leaders on the 7 laws of innovation. At the end of every workshop or session I teach, I conduct an “AMA” or ask me anything time. There seems to be a recurring question I get from leaders who have taken the Innovation Bootcamp and the 7 laws workshop. The question is, “Creating time for innovation, is it possible?” Time for innovation as an Organization Now I will share some examples of how organizations have created time for innovation. The first example occurred in the early days of HP, long before I was CTO. Bill Hewlett would set aside time for the engineers to work on side projects they wanted to prioritize. Friday from noon till the end of the day was where this typically went down. All HP's part cabinets would be open and available, with the rule that you had to demo what you created at the end. In the early days of this show, I interviewed Art Fong, employee #9 at HP. He got recruited by Bill directly while doing radar work for the military in WW2. During these times, he worked on putting together one of the first radar guns for measuring vehicle speed. This work led to the development of new test gear and resulted in employees feeling like they had time and permission to create new ideas. This mindset became part of the culture at HP. Another example of how you can create time for innovation has to do with project planning. Most organizations focus all 40 hours of the week on getting projects done for clients. A disciplined organization will schedule 35 hours a week for projects and leave an extra five hours for innovation/think time. Some organizations use what I call “innovation vacations.” This spare time allows employees to refresh and think of new ideas outside of their scheduled work time. I do “trend safaris,” where I hunt for the latest things at significant events. I would do this at The Hanover Furniture Fair, New York Fashion Week, the world's fair in Tokyo, etc. Creating Time as an Individual You may still be wondering what you as an individual can do to create time for innovation. The first thing you can do is prioritize. Innovation requires time and commitment. As an innovator and an author, I've learned that consistency is more important than quantity. If you spend an hour a day innovating every day, you will make a lot of progress. You can even spend fifteen minutes a day working on something if you're consistent. Next, you can find an innovation accountability partner. I had a dream of writing a book for many years but didn't do it till an agent approached me with the idea and kept me accountable. You can also talk to your boss and show them the work you are doing. Ask them for guidance on how you can fit innovation time into your schedule. Once you have innovation time allocated, protect it. Just like going to the gym, it becomes a habit if you do it for enough days. Similarly, if you start skipping it, eventually, you will stop it altogether. Creating time for innovation is so important because, without it, you will have zero ideas. If you are a leader, you need to give explicit permission to everyone in your organization to innovate. This move can be something like a one-day-a-month innovation day. At the end of the day,

In this show, we will discuss how groupthink kills innovation. Groupthink is thinking or making decisions as a group. This way of thinking discourages creativity or individual responsibility. A downside of groupthink is that it can create blind spots resulting from not listening to dissenting opinions. Groupthink tends to end in unintended negative consequences because everyone thinks alike and agrees with each other. 8 Symptoms of Groupthink In 1972, Irving Janis developed the eight symptoms of groupthink. The first symptom is the illusion of invulnerability, which creates excessive optimism. This toxic optimism encourages taking extreme risks, which always has a downside. Second symptom is collective rationalization. Members discount warnings and dismiss assumptions immediately. Inherent morality is the third symptom. Here, members ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions. Number four is the stereotyped views of the outgroup. Here, members tend to stereotype people that are not in the group. The fifth symptom is direct pressure on dissenters, where members are pressured not to disagree with the group’s views. Symptom six is self-censorship. Members don’t say certain things to avoid reactions from people. Number seven is the illusion of unanimity or the idea that the majority view is unanimous. In most cases, this is just an assumption. The eighth and final symptom is self-appointed mind guards. These members protect the group from information that is contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness. Examples Here are two examples of the negative consequences of groupthink. Swiss Air was a Swiss airline that was so financially stable. People referred to it as the flying bank. In July of 2001, the company collapsed. Right before this, they got rid of any industrial technical expertise from its governing board. The company wanted to reduce anything that threatened the cohesiveness of the board of directors. Insider groupthink took over and led the company to failure. In 1999, fifty-four members of the Major League Baseball Umpires Association resigned in mass. The umpire did this to influence the ability to renegotiate new contracts. Ultimately, the MLB hired new umpires and decertified the entire union. Combating Groupthink That Kills Innovation Innovation is all about doing something new and unique and taking risks. Groupthink is all about conformity, thinking the same, and being in alignment. If you fall into this trap, it turns into an innovation antibody, and innovation antibodies block new ideas. There are several ways to combat groupthink. Firstly, you can formalize the questioning process. A group should have a process that gives questioning permission to those within the group. There should also be people from outside the group challenging it. Another way to fight groupthink is to institute anonymity. Make people more comfortable giving their opinion. Bring in outsiders such as consultants and encourage them to point out problems. Lastly, allow extra time so things can be questioned and challenged. To know more about how groupthink kills innovation, listen to this week's show: Groupthink Kills Innovation.

Like I’ve discussed in a previous show, innovation mentoring and coaching are two different things. Coaching is when working on a project, while mentoring is more long-term and focuses on one person. When directing teams on innovation efforts, the secret to success is a well-thought-out innovation or creative brief. The Creative or Innovation Brief I’ve done a lot of coaching and mentoring over the years. In one example, I helped design the new media exhibit in the Newseum in Washington D.C. I’ve done hundreds of similar projects, whether it’s working on a project that is already started or helping conceive a new one. The innovation brief is information you share with your team or preparing to deliver to an innovation coach. The brief explains the ins and outs of a project and is a key document that saves a lot of time. It aids in discovering and understanding the overall goal of the effort at hand and the attached expectations. 9 Elements of a Successful Brief There are nine essential elements of a successful innovation brief. The first element is to describe your organization. The innovation brief should include history, projects, programs, what the organization does, etc., to provide context. The second element is to summarize the project and why you need it. Is it new, or is it enhancing an existing product or service? Summarize why you are doing what you are doing and all it entails. The third element is to explain the objectives, which is the most crucial part. It would be best if you thought through your strategies and goals thoroughly. Here, you need to describe the problem you are trying to solve. As an organization, don’t be afraid to share the reality of your situation with your innovation coach. The fourth element is to define the target audience. This audience will be the group that will be benefiting from your efforts. Elements Five through Nine The fifth element is to define the deliverables or the result of the effort. Recently, I was working with the U.S Marine Corps on reducing time for procurement. I was also teaching them how to use the FIRE framework. The deliverables were training and a prioritized list of ideas. We did both simultaneously and came up with some exciting ideas. The sixth element is to identify your competition. Figure out what products or services they have and discover the point of differentiation. It is also essential to observe what trends are occurring. The seventh element is to provide the timing of the project. You must be realistic and listen to your innovation coach. Element eight is to specify the project budget. Set this budget upfront and be realistic about your expectations before you get started. The ninth element is to list the key stakeholders. Either you are developing this brief to give to your team or an innovation coach. In either situation, it is vital to know the key stakeholders involved. To know more about creating a successful innovation brief — creative brief, listen to this week's show: 9 Elements of a Successful Innovation Brief – Creative Brief.

Innovation isn’t just about creating new products or services. While this is critical to an organization, it is also essential to look at other areas such as business model innovation, process innovation, and marketing innovation. The Framework for New Products We use the FIRE framework, which we have discussed many times on the show. The primary goal of this framework is to think about innovation with a full 360 view. The framework looks at three dimensions: the who (the customer), the what (the new product or service), and the how (ex., supply chain). Everybody tends to focus on “the what,” but all three are vital to successfully doing innovation. Business Model Innovation Business model innovation focuses on the mechanism of exchange of your product or service with the customer. One business model we have all seen is a subscription model. I pay monthly for my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and receive many apps in return. Bundling is another business model in which a company combines various things to offer more value. Freemium is another where mobile apps offer something for free but give more capabilities for a price. Razer and blades model is another one, where a company sells something for a low price, but a complementary good is needed to use that product. An example of this would be printers and ink. Leasing a car is another popular business model. Lastly, crowdsourcing is where a company builds excitement around a product by offering pre-order and then manufactures the product based on the interest level. Process Innovation Process innovation deals with delivering a product or service to the customer. It also deals with the sequencing, information, and communication aspects of the process. Ultimately, you need to figure out how to deliver more cost and time effectively to the customer. How you provide the product can be just as important as the product itself. For example, the people who built the MINI cars used to keep the customer updated on the vehicle’s manufacturing process. They would also personally sign a letter for the customer that bought the car. This move created an emotional attachment for the customer and the company. Marketing Innovation This process is what we call the “how” dimension. In today’s world, it is hard to break through the noise level and make something exciting. Packaging is one area of marketing that is a prime example of innovation. At HP, we tested our packaging a ton to make sure it arrived successfully to the customer. In one situation, we partnered with a university to have students create packaging designs. One group of students created a design that we loved, and we cut a deal with them to use the packaging for the company. Another area is product placement, or how you get your product noticed. At HP, we did product placements on movies, tv shows, and even with the NBA. Lastly, it is essential to innovate on the pricing model and product promotion. To know more about other aspects of innovation besides new products or services, listen to this week's show: Innovation Isn’t Just About New Products.

When I run into fellow innovators, they often want to share their ideas with me and get advice. In many cases, they have an idea that they believe is the pinnacle of ideas. They love their idea to death and hold it close to them. While they may have a great idea, it has no value in this state. Running Out of Ideas? Having a mind-blowing idea without any execution is pointless. When I question these “idea hoarders,” I often discover a similarity. They are afraid they only have a limited number of great ideas in their lifetime. Fearing that somebody steals their idea, they don’t want to share it with anyone else. My Experience The fundamental idea here is that once you succeed with that great idea, it will never happen again. This thought process is wrong. How many ideas did people like Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and Elon Musk create? They created tens if not hundreds of ideas that have changed our lives. Some people say these people are just special, but I say otherwise. I believe we are all able to innovate multiple game-changing ideas in our lifetimes. Let me share my own experiences. I started off developing computer-based training for Deltek and Individual Software. At Individual Software, I created a product called Typing Instructor, which was my first award-winning product. Next, I worked at a consulting company started by my mentor Bob Davis. I ended up doing software for Apple on contract and developed some software for the original Macintosh. Next, I did consulting work for HP on the HP 9000, the first commercial computing platform built on a risk processor. The project was a big breakthrough. Next, I became president at Teraplex, where we made a supercomputer. Then I went to Thumbscan and worked on biometric security technology. Next, I went to Telligent and built a product called Imagine, one of the first web-based online billing platforms. My Two-Step Process to Successful Ideas All these products I listed were award-winning products. You may look at me and think I am special, but that is not the case. Firstly, I did not do all of this on my own. I had the right teams in place to aid me. So how was I able to accomplish these feats? There is a two-step process that I use. The first step is, whatever idea I have, I either execute on it or share it with others. I don’t hoard ideas for myself. Elon Musk is someone who also does this. While he was in the middle of dealing with SpaceX and Tesla, he came up with the idea of a hyperloop, which he shared with the public. As a result, we saw an explosion of hyperloop companies. It would be best if you wanted to inspire others with your ideas as Elon did. If your motivation for innovation is solely money, then you have the wrong idea. My view is that if you do innovation for the right reason, the rewards and recognition will come. The second step of the process is that when you’ve given them all away, then you’ve made room for more ideas. Your creativity will fill the vacuum you created by giving away and sharing ideas. I have found that when I give away ideas, its result is similar to exercise. When you work out, your muscles get bigger each time. The more ideas you give away, the better your next idea produced becomes. This practice becomes a never-ending cycle that leads to success. To know more about creating successful ideas, listen to this week's show:

While innovation leaders have the same core behaviors all great leaders have, they carry crucial additional behaviors. Let’s discuss the leadership behaviors for innovation leaders, inspired by an article on Forbes by Jack Zenger. Applied to the topic is my own forty years of experience in the innovation space. These behaviors are foundational for innovation leadership success. Fundamentals of Any Leadership Activity Let’s start with the two fundamentals of any leadership activity. Every leader is there to bring together the right people to achieve an objective. Typically, a leader brings in people with different skills and abilities like finance and software engineering. When it comes to innovation, you’re bringing in people with different perspectives and thinking styles. It is critical to understand how to build teams to generate the next great idea. The following fundamental comes from a quote I often use, “Leaders deserve the teams they get based on the worst actions they allow other team members to get away with.” If you allow your team members to get away with things like disrespect or not being a team player, it will infiltrate the rest of your team. The negative result of this will be your fault as a leader. 9 Leadership Behaviors for Innovation Leaders For the first behavior, innovation leaders have a vision of the future, not just the goals of the present. You have to look at both the short and long-term goals and convey a vision that gets people excited. Secondly, innovation leaders establish trust in their team. Building trust is paramount when it comes to innovation. The need for trust is because of how risky and scary innovation can be. Without it, a team will not take the risk of putting their ideas out there. Thirdly, innovation leaders challenge the status quo, refusing to rely on what is safe and comfortable. As an innovation leader, you need to try new things instead of sticking to the same processes. For the fourth behavior, innovation leaders are curious. They ask intelligent, strategic, thoughtful, and targeted questions to gather input. Spending the extra time to craft better questions will lead to uncovering many ideas. They also listen carefully to responses to questions. For the fifth behavior, innovation leaders set aspirational goals or BHAGS (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). In this position, expect the delivery of breakthrough achievements and ideas. It is essential to challenge your team to do better by giving more autonomy. If you are a micromanager, either break that habit or don’t be an innovation leader. Behaviors Six through Nine The sixth innovation leadership behavior is that innovation leaders move quickly. Studies have shown a clear correlation between the speed of execution and the degree of innovation. The 10% fastest leaders were also in the top percentile of innovation effectiveness. The seventh behavior is that innovation leaders crave information. They need input and things where they can let their conscience work. For me, I am always reading blogs, magazines, books, etc. I find that the things I read help me connect dots to things that I come across at different times. The eighth behavior is that innovation leaders excel at teamwork. They put their self-interest to the side and focus on creating collaboration. One challenge I’ve seen within organizations is competition between different groups. Avoid unnecessary competition needs to have success as an organizatio...

What comes to mind when you hear the term innovation burnout? Webster's dictionary says that burnout is the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive or prolonged stress. Burnout occurs when we feel overwhelmed, drained, and unable to meet that constant demand. Innovation Burnout For innovators, it's that constant demand for coming up with new ideas. Being in the innovation game for some forty years, I have often gone through the burnout stage. Burnout can kill your creativity that drives innovation. Over the years, I've learned that there are things you can do to avoid it. If you face burnout, it is essential to talk to somebody about it, whether your spouse, boss, or friend. If you don't address burnout, it can impact your career, family, and even happiness. Dealing with Innovation Burnout as a Leader The first thing you can do to deal with burnout as a leader is to eliminate time wasters. While at HP, when I asked my team to update me on something, they would often lose weeks of productivity preparing to present to me. Included in this time was preparation, meetings, etc., all leading up to a one-hour session with me. In my organization now, when I ask someone for something, I have a conversation with them that does not need wasteful preparation. This meeting helps my team avoid burnout and keeps them focused on their projects, collaborations, etc. The second thing leaders need to do to avoid burnout is to establish priorities. In my organization, I am a big believer in utilizing OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Having set priorities helps people know what order they need to do things in. Thirdly, leaders need to encourage and, at times, force downtime. By taking breaks, you replenish that energy required for the next project. At CableLabs, we offer unlimited paid time off (PTO) to our employees. If our managers see an individual struggling or just came off a big project, they often force them to take PTO. Time Out We also shut down our teams periodically, allowing them to rest and avoid innovation burnout. By disconnecting, I found that my teams come back with better solutions to problems. The fourth thing leaders need to do is allow employees time to disconnect at the office. Employees shouldn't have to be on call at all times. Having stress from their boss constantly messaging them will fuel their burnout. Leaders also need to set boundaries for their employees. When you are outside of work, you should disconnect from work. While this is not realistic with all jobs, it makes a big difference when implemented. When a leader does these five things, it gives their team time to recharge and avoid innovation burnout. Avoiding Burnout as an Individual The first thing you can do is invest in your physical and mental health. You are an innovation athlete expected to perform at a high level. Athletes exercise physically and mentally to stay in shape and get more vital and more innovative. As innovators, it is essential to eat well, exercise, and do things that feed your creativity. This podcast is one of my creative outlets as I do it outside of work. The second thing you need to do is take ownership of recharging your batteries. Don't wait for your boss to force you to take a vacation. Even as a startup guy, it is essential to take breaks to recharge. If you are struggling, don't be afraid to share your struggles with your leaders. If you are feeling this way, other people in your organization are probably feeling the same. The last thing you can do as an individual is to find a community of ...

Co-innovation is a common term used in the innovation space. It describes two organizations of any kind that come together to innovate in an area of common interest. I am not only talking about collaboration. Co-innovation seeks to deliver a result such as a product or service. There is a 50-50 contribution with this model, whether that’s money, people, labs, etc. Co-Innovation Partner: Corning During my tenure at HP, co-innovation played a vital role in the company. The amount of money it took to accelerate acted as a barrier to innovation. Corning was the co-innovation partner in this case. The project we did with Corning was around gorilla glass, which we improved and expanded for more uses. Next, we worked on bending glass displays to limit eye strain. We built a frame and figured out how far we could bend the glass before it would break. This project led to the curved displays, which are now commonly used. With the constant acceleration of time and costs, finding partners with the knowledge you don’t readily have is key to fueling innovation. Innovating with a Co-Innovation Partner The first tip is to choose a partner with strong cultural alignment. During this time, you will be working very closely with your co-innovation partner. By alignment, I mean how they manage, oversee, and support their teams and what they expect from them. It is also essential that both organizations grant similar autonomy to their teams. If one organization gives a lot of independence and the other micromanages, there will be unneeded friction. Beyond people, you need to look at how the potential partner treats their customers and sells them. At HP, there is a very relaxed selling approach, but not all organizations are like that. You need to think about these things and figure out if you are willing to align with a company that approaches customers differently. Next, it’s crucial to discover what the mission objective of the organization is. If one organization is all about numbers and the other is about improving lives, there is no alignment. If you don’t have a strong culture alignment with your co-innovation partner, your chance of success is slim to none. Second Tip The second tip is to define the area of focus carefully. There needs to be a substantial overlap of focus. Think of this as a Venn diagram, where your business has an area you want to focus on to achieve success. Your partner also has an area of focus where they want to achieve success. The area where these two spheres overlap is the general area of focus for this co-innovation effort. Both organizations must have a committed interest in the common area and aware of each essential contribution. Co-innovation partners need to bring value and combine them to create a breakthrough. The third part of tip two, which I can’t stress enough, is the need for mutual dependency. It would be best to find an area of focus where you need each other to solve problems. If one can do it on their own, then it is not a co-innovation effort. My Final Tip Tip number three is to secure proper sponsorship and support. The key here is to create a true partnership built on trust. In the HP and Corning co-innovation effort, I was the executive sponsor and Wendell Weeks, the Chairman and CEO at Corning, was their sponsor. I can tell you that Wendell and I talk regularly and are good friends even to this day. This level of trust and relationship was built from this project and led to...