Futurist Lisa Bodell, CEO of research and consulting firm futurethink, helps companies learn how to sustain inno?vation.
EL: What does ?innovation? mean to you?
Bodell: Anyone can talk about innovation and talk about Apple and GE and Procter & Gamble. But people also need quick wins. To me, innovation is more about incremental changes to get people comfortable with risk.
Innovation isn?t just about products and services, but about new ways of thinking. It?s helping a company?s legal group cut down a contract from 40 pages to three pages. The goal is for everyone, from lawyers to the creative talent, to feel innovative.
EL: You?re a futurist. How does a futurist figure out what?s in the future?
Bodell: We talk about plausible, possible and preferable futures with our clients. We?ll work with a company to find new hunting grounds. For example, we?ll work with Kraft and Procter & Gamble to come up with the future of packaging. Those are really exciting to us, because we get to connect very different dots.
EL: How do you come up with so many new ideas?
Bodell: I have to meet at least one new person a week who is completely different from myself.? If you don?t see or meet anyone new, you can?t come up with anything new. I also have access to some interesting people, like the guy who runs the 17 largest R&D labs. I?ll bring together scientists and corporate types to have more cohesive innovation. Innovation can?t live in a vacuum.
EL: What keeps employees from being innovative on the job?
Bodell: Sometimes they don?t even know what the problem is, so they can?t get going on innovation. Maybe what you as a leader think is happening isn?t what your people think is happening. Sometimes employees don?t know what leadership wants. And sometimes employees believe that if they take a risk, they?ll be fired. That?s why, when we consult, we always start with a diagnostic. We figure out what the problem is and where the gaps are.
EL: What are some of the obstacles that prevent teams from creating innovative products?
Bodell: The biggest barrier is leadership, period. They tell their people to go forth and be innovative, but they?ve told these same employees for years not to take a risk. And they?re not giving employees the time or money to innovate.
We?re direct but polite with clients. We say, ?I think that what you want to decide is how much appetite you have for risk. How much can you devote in time, people, etc.? If you?re not sure how much you want to do, you can start small and get comfortable.? You can usually tell straight from the start if they don?t have the appetite.
People can say innovation is from the ground up, but to sustain it, it has to come from the top. Otherwise, innovation starts with a bang and ends in a whimper.
Source: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/29241/imagining-the-future
theo epstein darknet james ray williston nd williston nd mists of pandaria mists of pandaria
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.