What Executives say about the experience and value of a Strategy Summit…
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Nov.19.2008 :: Consultant Journal, Innovation, Strategy :: No Comments »
A response to a crisis follows three phases:
Phase 1: Looking backward – this begins with denial and continues into argument, anger and bargaining.
Phase 2: Looking lost – when anger and bargaining with what was and is no more has been used up, it gives way to confusion. The reference that was used as an anchor is no longer there, and there isn’t a new point of reference yet. Confusion leads to feeling and looking lost which gradually may lead to surrender.
Phase 3: Looking forward – If the second phase has led to surrender it opens a way up into a third phase. From surrender and acceptance there is a shift toward looking forward, to identifying new opportunities and to adaptive emergence.
Some never go past the first phase. Some stay at the second phase for far too long. Resilience is being able to metabolize from phase one through two and quickly move into the third phase.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Nov.03.2008 :: Innovation, Organizational Development, Personal Growth, Reflections, Tough Times :: No Comments »
“Economists and business leaders across the political spectrum are slowly coming to an agreement: Innovation is the best—and maybe the only—way the U.S. can get out of its economic hole.” tells us Business Week In “Can America Invent Its Way Back?” . It then asserts that “innovation has fallen short of its promise in recent years”. We believe we know why. In our work with management teams on cultivating innovation culture we found that:
1. Innovation is a set of disciplines and practices that must be embraced from top to bottom across the organization.
2. Innovation requires a specific mindset and commitment of resources.
3. Innovation is the “Third Propulsion” of a great organization. It must be supported by the “First Propulsion” of the company which works to increase Efficiency, where the discipline is on “Don’t change what works well” and “let’s not reinvent the wheel.” It then must be supported by the “Second Propulsion” which drives Optimized Effectiveness, where the discipline is on “let’s discover the 10 percent improved effectiveness we can unleash and create”.
When these conditions are not present, innovation disappoints. When First and Second Propulsions are not harnessed in support of the Third Propulsion -– Innovation cannot be unleashed at full and falls short of its promise. First and Second Propulsions practices are critical to help us “Re-imagine who we are and what we do” and “develop new opportunities and ways of creating value.” Engaging all Three Propulsions and their enablement is the Template For Greatness and how America can invent its way back.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Sep.27.2008 :: Innovation :: No Comments »
Excerpt from the Fourth Emerald Key: Radical growth - the Learn-ability leverage
Kaleidoscoping is the practice and capacity to recognize relationships and patterns. You practice active inquiry that seeks to understand the core principles that are the basis of all systems. Kaleidoscoping is the ability to compare and correlate seemingly unrelated fields and apply concepts from one to the other. For example, using the terminology and anatomy of weather systems in organizational behavior and the season’s cycle in the market place. You discover that building an investment and building trusting relationships are similar – they follow the same principle, both need ongoing deposits. You observe the infrastructure and activity of a beehive to learn about promoting a culture of efficiency and excellence in execution. Kaleidoscoping is the practice of increasing your capacity to handle complexity, such as in the now 24/7 interconnectedness of the web 2.0 conversation. You kaleidoscope to discover meaning in new combinations and connections and learn to anticipate what is newly emerging. You connect the dots to see constellations where others see stars.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Aug.26.2008 :: Emerald Keys, Entrepreneur, Future, Innovation :: 2 Comments »
Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, admits in his interview with Business Week that Goggle’s obstacle in continuing to innovate is – “that we have people in multiple sites. It’s a problem that everybody faces, but we’re going to face it bad. We have, like, 50 locations.”
Why would multiple locations be a problem? It is more than time zone differences.
Schmidt explains the spirit of innovation: “The story of innovation has not changed. It has always been a small team of people who have a new idea, typically not understood by people around them and their executives.”
What is the blind spot? What is the innovation secret that is hidden in these comments?
The innovation blind spot in a connected world with virtual teams is forgetting what happens when a small group of people get together in the same space. In fact, doing just that, getting the right people together in the same room can be the innovation edge, the competitive advantage that makes the difference.
True, it is not always practical; diverse perspectives and inputs are critical and multinationals are driven to move functions to lower cost regions. Yes, we are quickly becoming a “virtual competent” specie. But there is no innovation generator like getting the right people together in one physical space where they connect and activate in each other the bio-energetic, whole-brain, whole mind synergistic cycle of innovation.
The blind spot is in dismissing the power that gets unleashed when we meet face to face. To solve critical problems and for projects where accelerated ideation and creative intensity is needed, there is simply no better way than getting people to share face2face presence.
There is an invisible energetic side to the process of excitation where our “collective neural brainpower firing for connection” leads to breakthrough ideas and quantum leaps. Think of an electrical storm where the atmosphere is crackling with potential and lightening that can strike in any direction. That’s what Schmidt reveals and this is the reason we are able to generate stratospheric value for clients when getting virtual teams together in the same room for intense innovation and business transformation sessions. It’s the counter-trend, the novelty, but nothing activates the innovation DNA and potential like getting the right people, at the right time, inside a shared creative space. Never forget that most big things started when a few brilliant people got together in one room.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: May.12.2008 :: Innovation :: No Comments »
Here are a few quotes from a Harvard Business Review conversation with Twyla Tharp. These sweat beads of wisdom go beyond art. She captures the essentials of any dedicated endeavor.
“…everyone can be creative, but you have to prepare for it with routine. There’s no other way around it. It’s an absolute mistake to think that art is not practical—or that business cannot be creative. The best artists are extraordinarily practical”
“…The best creativity is the result of habit and hard work. And luck, of course.”
“Fundamental change is an endeavor, it’s a real enterprise, it’s not something that just happens. You make a choice to keep evolving and keep growing.”
To deliver a great performance be it in art, sport, business, teaching or any other field, you have to do much of what is viewed by some as the unnecessary work. Lance Armstrong built a depth of strength during his winter practices up the Tour De France mountain picks when most other cyclers were resting.
It’s the invisible work you put in when no one sees that later shines in your performance. By doing the extra work you make yourself an instrument and a home for the essence of your endeavor and it cannot help but shine through you. Tharp’s message is that it’s the same with creativity. You don’t just wait for a muse or inspiration. You build a practice of showing up and working at it. It is then that inspiration finds you and that you have built the muscle for what it then needs to do.
Here is another interview with Tharp where she explains that it’s about making the dance, and about what failure and success mean.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Apr.18.2008 :: Entrepreneur, Innovation :: No Comments »
After returning from discovering America Columbus was honored in a series of celebrations. At one such party he was criticized by a gentleman who said: “What’s the big deal, anyone sailing west could have found America”. Columbus went and fetched a cooked egg and challenged all those present to balance the egg on its sharp end. One after the other they tried but they all failed. The egg would not balance and would not stand on the pointed end. Finally Columbus picked the egg and smashed the pointing end on the table just enough for it to balance the egg. To the amazement of all the egg stood balanced. Columbus looked around and proclaimed. “Anyone of you could have done it but I found the way!”
What are the lessons from Columbus’ workshop on exploration and innovation?
1. Discoveries and innovations often look obvious after the fact. After a truth has been articulated, after a discovery has been made known, after a development has been tested and refined, they often look simple and easily accomplished. But they were not obvious before someone articulated, discovered, tested and put them in front of people.
2. The bigger part of innovation is not what you do but how you do it.
3. Think outside the egg.
4. It’s not enough to discover America; you need to also sell it, or to sell your ability to discover the next America. Whether you come up with a technological idea, a service, a solution, a new process, a scientific breakthrough, a business model or a new creative design – It’s not enough that it is promising; you’ve got to be able to communicate it and deliver the good.
5. Be always ready to show what you know.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Mar.24.2008 :: Entrepreneur, Innovation :: No Comments »
Here are Central themes in the conversation of the Davos CEO Forum about Collaborative Innovation.
This is a robust discussion about these questions and about embracing and harnessing the serendipity effect.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Jan.27.2008 :: Innovation :: No Comments »
The Economist writes intriguingly about Evan Williams the founder of Blogger and Twitter: “Williams accidentally stumbled upon three insights. First, that genuinely new ideas are, well, accidentally stumbled upon rather than sought out; second, that new ideas are by definition hard to explain to others, because words can express only what is already known; and third, that good ideas seem obvious in retrospect.”
The Economist claims that Williams epitomizes Silicon Valley’s right-brain; truly good stuff but needing a critical addition. It is not right-brain – it is “whole-brain” that makes innovation possible.
Recent decades have popularized the right-brain / left-brain story. Every other person is ready to explain what the functions of each side are, and which side of the brain makes innovation, good leadership, happy relationships and more. We seem to love simplistic answers, especially when we believe them to be backed by hard scientific facts. This list below provides us such confidence:
|
Left-brain |
Right-brain |
|
looks at parts analytical uses logic math & science objective facts rule methodical verbal planned |
looks at wholes creative uses feeling art & religion subjective imagination rules intuitive visual spontaneous |
We look at this and think – “well that’s why I am good at this and not good at that…” or “this is why I understand her but cannot connect with him…”
Why do people love to put themselves in boxes (personality types, astrological signs, brain sides and more…) that justify their behavior and explain their experience? Why do we need such labels to explain what makes great leadership, artistic and scientific breakthroughs and innovation? We love the security of telling ourselves right-brain stories supported by left-brain facts. It lets us off the hook of further reflection.
What’s my point?
How many times have we seen that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and how does this apply to the usage of our brain? Isn’t it time we expressed more interest in “whole-brain–whole-mind” functions to discover how it facilitates us to be more complex and complete humans, better innovators and greater leaders and partners?
Innovation is applying ideas to create valuable results where it matters. It is the transformation that makes ideas “happen”. Innovation needs integrated whole-brain function, not just right-brain. Innovation is not a one side or the other enterprise, but a “more than the sum of its parts” synergistic process.
A Whole-brain:
1. Combines creativity and analysis
2. Looks at the whole and sees the parts within
3. Uses feelings logically and applies logic feelingly
4. Integrates quantitative and qualitative awareness & objective and subjective perspectives
5. Is methodical and intuitive
6. Identifies facts and is imaginative about their meanings
7. Is conceptual and practical
8. Synthesizes problem solving
9. Organizes inside chaos
10. Assimilates learning from multiple sources
To build an innovative organization, to cultivate an innovative culture you need to facilitate whole-brain functions and systems. One of the ways we do this in our strategy and innovation summits is we shift between the “foreground” (the business) and the “background” (our internal operating system), and zoom in and out of both. Albert Einstein is one of the best examples of whole-brain–whole-mind thinkers. He is famous for saying, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” In our summits we cultivate new mindsets (individual and collective) by engaging whole-brain–whole-mind functions.
One of Williams’ whole-brain tricks is to ask “what can we take away to create something new? A decade ago, you could have started with Yahoo! and taken away all the clutter around the search box to get Google.” An idea can be initiated in the right-brain but then it needs a whole team of both left and right-brains working together to bring about whole-brain collaborative transformation to make the idea viable and cool in its implementation.
Innovation’s critical competency is whole-brain engagement. Thomas Edison, a great whole-brain–whole-mind innovator said:
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Accordingly, a ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework”
“I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off.”
“Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used them….”
“I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent….”
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Jan.07.2008 :: Entrepreneur, Innovation, Organizational Development :: No Comments »
Jeff Bezos hopes to “outbook the book” with Kindle – Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device. If you are involved in the cutting edge of technology and business you would want to watch Bezos conversation with Charlie Rose (posted here below) for the following four reasons:
1. Bezos’ narrative about where we are in the Internet revolution says we are clearly only in its early days. He points out that like electricity in the early 20th century, the Internet is still talked about as “vertical phenomena” instead of realizing that it is, like electricity was, a “horizontal enabling technology.” It is a “word-of-mouth-accelerator that benefits all things.” I suggest that you take notes while watching this conversation and ask yourself: how will these ideas and trends impact the business I am in?
2. The second reason is Bezos 70-30 rule: “In the old world you might have put 30% of your energy, dollars and time into building a great product or service and then you would put 70% of your energy, dollars and time into shouting about that service. In the new world that inverts. You better put the bulk of your time, energy and dollars into building great a service.” In a transparent world quality shines through!
3. Third, watch Bezos energy and excitement and passion for what he does and for his customers’ experience. He clearly is having a lot of fun (I made this same observation about Jeffery Immelt).
4. Fourth, pay attention to Bezos work practices. Specifically, he takes quarterly retreats where he isolates himself and locks himself away from everything for two-three days to reflect on what’s on the cutting edge. This allows Bezos to be creative and come up with new strategic themes and directions, which he writes up as a memo for himself. These themes and ideas guide his next conversations with the executive team at Amazon. Some of the important developments at Amazon resulted from Bezos quarterly strategic retreats.
Bill Gates has a similar practice where he takes his now-famous twice yearly week-long retreats to think, read and reflect “and not do email.” During these times of reflection Gates has come to some of his most important realizations and revelations, including the need to focus Microsoft on the Internet (he almost missed the boat), making the shift to refocus on security and trustworthy computing, and then his decision to focus more on the Gates Foundation.
It is evident from these stories that time for reflection is an essential part of success. However, Most people are not disciplined enough to engage in reflection on their own; they don’t know how to design their retreat, frame the right questions or start a practice of reflection. Few executives could design for themselves an effective strategic retreat. This is why we are seeing the return of facilitated leadership retreats and strategy summits.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Nov.21.2007 :: Innovation, Leadership :: No Comments »
