Nugget #1 is from Katrin Bernreiter and a quick read. She collected the top five killer phrases on innovation. And here, killer phrases are to be taken literally. Because it’s guaranteed to kill ideas.
I’m sure everyone’s heard one of those phrases before:
How to kill innovations – the top 5 killer phrases (2 min, text, German)
Nugget #2 is written by Greg Satell on Harvard Business Review. I am sometimes at war with HBR ,because some articles propagate methods and cooking recipes that backfire in a complex environment. But this article is really a good one. Greg introduces four principles to form an innovative team. Once again it shows nicely that instead of great methods and tools it depends on people.
I am sure that many people have heard the principle of diversity and yet I do not see it implemented enough in reality. On the one hand, the different perspectives act like a grinding stone on a rough diamond. On the other hand, this can generate exactly the healthy friction that is needed to successfully implement the idea. My favorite example is a team of German and American engineers. The former are quality-conscious and have a penchant for over-engineering, the latter following the motto “Done is better than perfect”. Both extremes deliver only a suboptimal result. In my opinion, the combination has the greatest potential for an ideal result.
Probably more surprisingly, the principle of psychological safety appears. But I can confirm this from daily practice. I know some who do not participate in innovation activities. The manager doesn’t like it when the day-to-day business stops for a moment. It doesn’t matter whether he really doesn’t like it or this is just perceived by his employee. In both cases psychological safety is missing.
4 Ways to Build an Innovative Team (6 min, text, English)
Greg’s book “Mapping Innovation” is still on my reading list. Has anyone of you read it yet?
Nugget #3 was delivered by Jenny Maertens from etventure, a peer of my esteemed blogger colleague Gregor Ilg. It also describes three principles on how innovation can succeed. Each principle is enhanced by practical tips to support the execution. I would like to add one point to the first principle. Unfamiliarity with the subject can also be quite helpful. The best way to explain this is by the following quote quote: “Everyone said: It’s not possible. Someone came along who didn’t know that and just did.” But the most important thing is implementation. Here Jenny describes how to choose the “right” one from the ideas and how it depends on the focus.
For game-changing ideas it takes more than brainstorming (4 min, text, German)
That’s it for this week. I would like to remind you again of the blog parade What if…? The first great contributions have already arrived. But there’s room for more. So let’s get to the keyboards, microphones, video cams,…!