What Do The WWE and Fast Co. Innovation Festival Have to Teach Us?
What’s the one event I never miss every year? The Fast Company Innovation Festival. This one was an eye-opener. And while it may have wrapped for another year, the wisdom shared by an impressive lineup of folks will be talked about for years to come. In between learning about hot-dog flavored popsicles (please don’t do […]
How Innovative Do Your Employees Think You Are?
Question for you, today:Do your employees see your organization as innovative?If they had to rank you on a scale of 1-10, what would they say?I’ve posed this question to a lot of folks recently, because it breaks my heart how often employees don’t know how much cool stuff is going on behind closed doors.I can’t imagine how hard it […]
What I Learned From Interviewing 70+ Innovation Leaders About Storytelling
Over the last 18 months, I’ve been fortunate enough to interview more than 70 innovation leaders on the Innovation Storytellers Show. From Heads of Innovation to Chief Technology Officers, from authors to neuroscientists, consultants and their innovation clients, and from CEOs to experts in customer experience, I’ve learned so much from these conversations—and I hope […]
Down in the data dumps? Why data stories are the way forward.
Data dumps are often the biggest obstacle to finding an innovative story that works. When I worked as an HIV educator in rural Thailand during the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s, we had a name for data dumpers: SEAGULLS. Seagulls were typically Westerners – academics, government officials, aid agency representatives, or donors – who flew […]
How Do You Know When You’ve Found Your Early Adopters?
Early this year, I was interviewed for a podcast. The host asked, “Let’s say you’re building up a base of early adopters. How do you know when you’ve found your people?” Here’s what I know. Every time you share your innovation with someone and see the dawning realization on their face that makes them say, […]
11+ Strategies That Unlock Employee Creativity and Innovation
How do you encourage creativity in your employees? You make innovation central to everything you do. Here are just a handful of examples: You think 50 years ahead. NASA pioneers the future by inspiring its talent to write the story of how they might break barriers in human exploration, technology, and science to achieve the […]
