Now apply the following criteria to determine if you can make a persuasive case for the innovation. 1. Compelling  Do you have a clear purpose and vision?  What will happen if you do not innovate? 2. Credible  Is your innovation based on solid data?  Do you have historical examples and trends? 3....

Values are enduring beliefs that help us determine what we seek in life and guide our behavior on a day-to-day basis.   Individuals and organizations operate on a set of core values whether they are implicit or explicit. These values touch every aspect of work, shaping people’s experience and...

In the Olympics, athletes must meet an ever-increasing performance level to simply compete. An athlete might break a current world record and still finish fourth. Winning is not a finite challenge, it is a relative one. The same holds true for innovation. An organization’s reaction time and capabilities...

For the past 200 years we have been thinking, and consequently acting, with a machine-like mentality. During the Industrial Revolution, we began to see the company as a machine. We believed that an organization, like a “good” machine, could be controlled, and it should do what the owners...

Ever been in a situation where someone had an idea and everyone jumped on it?  We are predisposed toward action and are often eager to implement a good idea to solve a nagging problem.  So what’s wrong with that?  An idea when “popped out” and not challenged may or may not actually be the best...

Can employees 250 miles away monitor security on over 30 wireless cameras?  They are doing just that at the Grand Canyon’s glass skywalk.  Remotely located over the the pristine western rim, nobody lives anywhere close.  Plus, the skywalk is all about the view and the breathtaking experience. ...

Team operating guidelines are simple statements about how the team wants to work together and treat one another. By their very nature, creativity and innovation can be abrasive and involve conflicting preferences and points of view. Without well-established and reinforced team guidelines, all this abrasion...

Early tribes, on whatever continent, collaborated. They knew and accepted who was good at each task needed for the community to survive. Sounds like “specialization” you say? Well, there is a huge difference. Modern managers learned to draw organization charts which basically separate specialties...

The industrial era came replete with efficiency. Henry Ford would give you a car in any color as long as it was black!  Even today, our automobile choices are limited to “packages” of options.  We so often think in terms of our own efficiency that our customers, while perhaps satisfied, fail to...

A recent survey of 180 CIOs found that 80% of them believed that collaboration and workflow technologies deliver results!  Find out the reasons behind the growing importance of collaborative tools, which tools are making the greatest impact and how widely they have been adopted.  Read:  Unlocking...