Tags: innovation

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Visual book review: Red Thread Thinking: Weaving Together Connections for Brilliant Ideas and Profitable Innovation (Debra Kaye with Karen Kelly)

Posted: - Modified: | visual-book-notes

How can you bring together different ideas in order to innovate? Red Thread Thinking (2013) shares guidelines for coming up with new ideas and recombining old concepts for profitable innovation, with plenty of stories of real-life products and services. It also includes some chapters on how to package the innovation for greater appeal (including simplicity, engagement, and design thinking), and how to train your brain and your intuition in order to make better decisions. Whether you’re an idea person in a big company or a solo entrepreneur in a microbusiness, you’ll probably find good questions and examples to jog your creative thinking. If you’re tired of brainstorming sessions going nowhere or resulting in small, incremental improvements, try out what this book says about relaxing and generating ideas on your own before bringing them to a small group for expansion and refinement. (That said, incremental improvements can also be a good thing!)

After reading this book, I plan to experiment with the obscure feature method and the generic parts method. They might be great ways to sharpen my observational skills and see opportunities for everyday creativity.

You can click on the image below for a larger version.

20130501 Visual book review - Red Thread Thinking - Debra Kaye, Karen Kelly

Feel free to share this visual book review! (Creative Commons Attribution Licence)

Amazon affiliate link: I earn a tiny fraction if you buy something from Amazon’s site after clicking on the link, even if it has nothing to do with the book. =)

If you have a library near you, you can check it out there too. (I totally love the Toronto Public Library.)

Visual book notes: Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 ways to Out-Innovate the Competition–Stephen M. Shapiro

| visual-book-notes

Here’s my visual summary of Stephen M. Shapiro’s 2011 book Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition. It’s a good book for people handling innovation management in medium and large enterprises, although small business owners might still be able to apply a few tips like the one about getting out and observing your customers (Lessons from Indiana Jones, p.69) and when to buy/innovate/hire solutions (There’s no such thing as a “know-it-all”, p.42).

Click on the image to view a larger version, and feel free to share it under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence!

Check out my other sketchnotes and visual book notes!

Sketchnotes: #INNOTalkTO Innovatively Speaking – Joanna Track, Justin Raymond, David Nam, Brenda Rideout

Posted: - Modified: | sketchnotes

Click on the image for a larger version! Please feel free to share this under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

20121107 INNOTalkTO - Joanna Track, Justin Raymond, David Nam, Brenda Rideout

The panel was moderated by Matt Hartley. If you like this, check out my other sketchnotes!

ING Direct invited me to this event.

Text for searching

# INNO TALK TO. NOV 7, 2012. HOSTED BY ING CANADA
INNOVATIVELY SPEAKING

MODERATOR: Matt Hartley @ thehartley

JOANNA TRACK @ eluxeCEO

Want: integrated, inexpensive shipping e-commerce backened in one system
IDEAS > EGO
Credit for ideas–>lower level people too.
Lead by example
GROWING: Goals, Incentives
Innovation can also be small things – taking a step
INNOVATE or DIE. Never stop.
Open concept, open door
Autonomy -> acting in the moment

————-
Justin Raymond
@justinMRaymond

GROWING: maintaining access to the right people
Innovation: Challenging the industry
Getting inspired
People walk in, People are making $ 400-500 a week andare excited
HIRING
– What do you think about Hailo?
– 15-minute interviews
– Done their homework?
– Has passion?
Culture of Listening: Drivers, passengers, staff
I’m too old… -> I can do this!
Energy & Passion
Important for staying competitive Ex: How many other drivers are around me? Avoid bunching up, earn more
PROTECTING: continuous innovation, continuous listening
WANT: Hailo for nannies
CHALLENGE: Communications – rumours, F.U.D., annoyances.
Technology (BlackBerry)
IDEAS>EGO: Don’t hire people with egos

——-
David Nam (@davidnam)

STARTUP COMMUNITY: Let’s just have coffee, get to know you as people. Don’t be shy.
Business benefits? We’re now also a media company (also: activations…)
Staying competitive: always looking for the next thing
When we hire: case studies, structure and creativity
WANT: Brands to invest. relationship
Forums: Source of ideas we see it through
IDEAS > EGO
– Remember we’re all people
– Check yourself before you wreck yourself
INSPIRATION: When I’m not working, I’m not working
CHALLENGE: Personal balance, time; Business perception
COLLABORATION: Great idea, people gravitate to it
Innovation: “Holy shit!” moment
I want to jump out of space!
GROWING: nothing beats face time

——–
Brenda Rideout (@SuperStarSaver)
INSPIRATION: Experiences & gaming, learning about it
IDEA > EGO: Admit when you’re wrong
TECHNOLOGY: Standards would be nice!
HIRING: “Orange Fit” much more important. We don’t hire bankers
CHALLENGE: Branding, differentiation
CONNECTING THE DOTS: Experience technology – What’s possible?
Innovation: Implementable Ideas
BE A CHALLENGER: Never stop asking
Orange spark
WANT: Solve gridlock in Toronto
Growing: Rotation from other parts of the bank
Cross-pollination
Staying competitive: Listening, getting feedback
We’re not afraid to FAIL.

The Orange Chair » Social networking and innovation in a large company

| connecting, enterprise2.0, web2.0

This is more of a work-day topic, but you might be interested in it anyway. Here’s an excerpt from my latest post on our team blog:

Whether social networks were built using traditional means or by using new social technologies, these networks can make a difference in the success of a project. Without ways to tap into the broader social networks in the company, innovators may find themselves working on a project alone, or with a few people who have similar interests and skills. With a wide, diverse network such as the ones facilitated by corporate social networking platforms, innovators can reach out, find people with similar passions and complementary skills, and help make things happen. Innovators can discover similar initiatives in the early stages of development, reducing duplicated effort and allowing people to accomplish more.

Sacha Chua, The Orange Chair » Social networking and innovation in a large company