6 Ways To Create A Culture Of Innovation

Ever wonder how to inject that spark of innovation into your company culture? Shhhh… I’ll tell you the industry secret: weave your company’s (explicit) strategies in with the actual (implicit) behavior. Sound like rocket science? Don’t worry! Follow this six step how-to and kick start the creativity! ~ Norma

Every organization is designed to get the results it gets. Poor performance comes from a poorly designed organization. Superior results emerge when strategies, business models, structure, processes, technologies, tools, and reward systems fire on all cylinders in symphonic unison.

Innovation and Serendipity

Strategic online and offline relationship building opportunities compliment each other. Online, we are able to deepen and grow our personal interactions and offline we are able to build trust by working closely on face to face projects. Still the serendipitous opportunities which occur with the build up of trust and tactic knowledge can still only happen in person. This added value of human contact cannot not be overlooked or mimicked online. ~Norma

Innovation is becoming increasingly emergent

Innovation in the future will increasingly happen in more emergent ways by bringing together seemingly disparate fields and pieces of knowledge. The value of searching for information is increasingly limited as we don’t know what to search for in many cases. In face of complex life and work environments, predefined and narrow objectives as well as deliberate strategies often turn out to be inconvenient. Serendipitous “collisions”, in turn, require building up diverse networks and connections.

Google can answer almost anything you ask it, but it can’t tell you what you ought to be asking. – Ian Leslie

Though we increasingly interact within virtual networks and communities, physical spaces are the primary serendipity shapers. Face-to-face interactions are still most conducive to accessing tacit knowledge. We tap into this knowledge through trust-based relationships and closely working together on challenging projects.

Virtual and physical spaces can be seen complementary to each other. On the one hand, virtual spaces are increasingly able to amplify knowledge we generate through personal interactions. On the other hand, diverse virtual connections often create more valuable real-life opportunities.

- Read more at Innovation Excellence

The Zen of Entrepreneurship

With an explicitly formulated strategy organizations can be driven by a focused and well-planned future vision. However, mind the gap. Our natural inclination toward implicit behaviors can veer us away and keep us unfocused. It is, however, possible to understand our behavior and perceive the explicit vs. implicit strategy more clearly if we’re in the right state of mind. Rather than seeing how we would like to perform, we can see what’s really happening and then take action. ~ Norma

In Silicon Valley, it’s easy to find lots of advice on what I call the “external” how-tos of startups, including: structuring your company, building a minimum viable product, negotiating a term sheet with investors, selling your company, and on and on!

This post, on the other hand, is about the less publicized “inner side” of the entrepreneurial journey. In this journey, there are no ready made prescriptions. Every company, entrepreneur, and market is unique. Rather, it’s about developing a “clear mind” to see what’s really happening, trusting your “gut” to find a path through uncharted terrain, and recognizing and transcending your personal patterns to find your calling in life.

Do any of these things really help in building a successful startup? When I started my first software company fresh out of MIT, I didn’t think so. Imagine my surprise when, a few years later, the issues I was struggling with in my path of personal growth turned out to be the same issues that would determine life or death for my startup!

Read more of this article > TechCrunch

This Simple Action Will Dramatically Grow Your LinkedIn Network

Posting articles in your status update is your opportunity to give people an inside look at who you are through virtual communication.  Post what matters to you, whether it is humorous, touching, hard edged, business related or personal.  You represent yourself through these posts and your audience develops their relationship with you, or not, via your posts. ~Norma

If you’re on LinkedIn, you want to grow your network. You want to connect with as many people as you can, because there’s some serious career-boosting power in those connections. But there’s something you’re probably not doing, at least not on a regular basis — and it’s a move that will give you a far better bang for your networking buck.

Write a Personal Message

Most people don’t do this. Think about how many requests land in your inbox without a note — the majority of them, right? And what about you? Do you add a personal note every single time you request to connect with someone on the network? Or do you hope that potential connection will recognize your name or connect on faith alone?

Since so few people write a personal note, that means opportunity for you. Because when you do something differently, it helps you stand out. But this tip is about more than being unique. It’s about making it as easy as possible for the person you’d like to connect with to say yes.

There will always be one more thing

It’s no secret that Apple’s prestige greatly stems from its iconic CEO’s ability to capture people’s imagination, tear out intricate concepts to turn them into sharp insights and create a unique – and somewhat emotional – rapport between users and technology. On many levels, Steve Jobs redefined the way we design and deliver presentations. Stinson wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for two truly game-changing innovations: iWork’s Keynote and of course, the iPad. But today we’re going to focus on what constitutes an infinitely more valuable aspect of Steve’s legacy: the keys of its showmanship.

1. Prepare rigorously. From a pure formal and stylistic standpoint, Steve’s keynotes were arranged like clockwork. It is well known that he used to practice his speech for days prior to d-day. To make sure everything would go as planned from start to finish, he also supervised trial presentations for the people who would be invited up on stage to present new partnerships (Intel, AT&T, Yahoo!, etc.) and third-party applications (Smule, Epic Games, ESPN, etc.). When one knows to which extent the keynotes condition the company’s trajectory for the next 6 to 12 months, it’s not surprising nothing is left to chance.
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Can you fascinate in 9 seconds?

In today’s world of 9-second attention spans, our introductions mean more than ever before. Sally Hogshead reveals the seven triggers of fascination and how to get others to fall in love with your ideas, instantly. WATCH THE VIDEO It is amazing that we can assess enough information in 9 seconds to formulate an open or closed opinion, stay on a site or leave it, read an e-mail or delete it, dive deeper into a website or move on. You, your product introduction, and your website. have just 9 seconds to trigger the brain’s fascination touch points and open the mind to a bigger conversation.

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