Innovate 2013

How do you beat fixedness? Tony McCaffery, a postdoctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, suggests a clever little trick – break items into their component parts and give them new, generalized names. 

ent and use it to perform a task that the product already accomplishes; choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra; choose an internal component and make it do the function of an external component (effectively “stealing” the external component’s function). 3. Visualize the new (or changed) products or services. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge? 4. If you decide they are valuable, then ask: Are they feasible? Can you actually create these new products? Perform these new services? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable? Don’t miss a post (4,450+) – Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Innovation Excellence group! Drew Boyd is Assistant Professor of Marketing and Innovation at the University of Cincinnati and Executive Director of the MS-Marketing program. Follow him at www.innovationinpractice.com and at http://twitter.com/drewboyd  4 6 inShare2 table.sample { border-width: 0px; border-spacing: 2px; border-style: dashed; border-color: gray; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: white; } table.sample th { border-width: 0px; padding: 15px; border-style: solid; border-color: gray; background-color: #F2F2F2; moz-border-radius: 10px; webkit-border-radius: 10px; khtml-border-radius: 10px; border-radius: 10px; } table.sample td { border-width: 0px; padding: 15px; border-style: solid; border-color: gray; background-color: #F2F2F2; moz-border-radius: 10px; webkit-border-radius: 10px; khtml-border-radius: 10px; border-radius: 10px; } Related Posts Innovation Sighting -Task Unification with Fruit Labels Innovation Perspectives – Fixedness Social Media Policy – Whats and Whens Behind Your Guidelines Innovation Sighting – Toyota’s Mood-Detecting Car Simulating Innovation Previous Post: Re-Envisioning the Client-Agency Relationship Next Post: Tips for Managing an Agile Team This entry was posted in Innovation, People & Skills, Psychology, Research, cat

2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task using one of three ways:  choose an external compon

Innovation is doing things differently.

Results from schools that are breaking the mold indicate that it is very possible to deliver very good academic results that are product of customized learning and more relationship time.

Truly innovative people have an ability to see connections across data and ideas, and then turn those patterns they see into even better ideas.

Great innovative leaders instead develop what is called peripheral vision. This is the ability to look not just ahead, but up and down the vertical you are working in and across into very different verticals.

Instead of looking at surface problems, try to figure out what is the root cause of that problem. You are more likely to uncover a profitable solution that way than the other way.