The Big Picture

Lessons from innovation’s front lines: An interview with IDEO’s CEO

Many companies claim to be innovative, but few can claim innovation as their raison d’être. One such company though is IDEO—a designer of products, services, and experiences ranging from Apple’s first mass-market computer mouse to aspects of Prada’s store in New York City to the patient-care delivery model at SSM DePaul Health Center, in St. Louis, Missouri.

IDEO’s single-minded focus makes it a good case study for those seeking insights on innovation. Yet as CEO Tim Brown is quick to point out in McKinsley Quarterly, what works at IDEO won’t work everywhere.

Obama’s seven lessons for radical innovators

Regardless of your political persuasion, you must admit that Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. His team built something world-changing: a new kind of political organization. Obama's presidential bid succeeded, in other words, through the power of new DNA: new rules for new kinds of institutions.

For the full story from Harvard Business Publishing, click here.

The myth of epiphany

The most useful way to think of epiphany is as an occasional bonus of working on tough problems. Most innovations come without epiphanies, and when powerful moments do happen, little knowledge is granted for how to find the next one. To focus on the magic moments is to miss the point. The goal isn’t the magic moment: it’s the end result of a useful innovation.
~ Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

It's magic

Photo via TheMagicianSite.com

I'm giving a speech next week at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Public Health Association on improving collaborations and partnerships between hospitals and health departments.

I've been working on the material for a while, and I have been struggling with it. Mostly because both hospitals and health departments know we should be collaborating more, yet we still don't all the time. So the hard part for me has been figuring out what I can tell a group of public health professionals about collaboration that will make all of them feel it worth their while to sit and listen for an hour and a half. (The only thing worse than struggling to sit through a boring session is being the speaker at such a session - this fear probably makes me way overprepare for any presentations!) ;)

I've settled on "All You Need to Know About Collaboration You Learned in Kindergarten" and I've had a bit of fun with it now that I've found my lead. One of the biggest barriers to collaboration is a fear of (or fight over) who will "own" any intellectual property, so when Boing Boing pointed me to an article on how magicians handle intellectual property (without law), I felt I had an official excuse to go read the article (as I could theoretically perhaps tie it back to my presentation).

Since so much of what draws us to collaboration today in the association world has a "magic" quality about it  - we're generally generating good will or votes or something less tangible than widgets - it should be an interesting tie-in. I mean if I can ever read it. Because I'm not part of the Social Science Research Network and don't know how to download it in any of the offered formats, I may just have to use it as an aside and not an in-depth example.

Since you've read this far anyways, what do you see as barriers to collaboration in your association - internally and externally? What would you want to learn from an hour-and-a-half session on collaboration? And do you feel there is something intrinsically wrong with sitting in front of a group of people for an hour-and-a-half to talk about collaboration with having them to collaborate about something in the session? (Because that's where I am, personally.)

Breakthrough Ideas for 2007

The Harvard Business Review recently compiled their picks for the breakthrough ideas of 2007. They said they picked through hundreds of ideas to get these 20. (Am I the only one who always wants to see the 80-odd ideas that didn't make it too?)

Enduring Innovations

Strategy+Business will soon be celebrating its 10th anniversary. As part of the celebration, Strategy+Business is polling leaders on what management ideas will prove most significant over the long haul. To weigh in, cast your vote. (Password required: 10PUB)

Chief Acceleration Officer

Four years ago, Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., hired Marjorie Smelstor, Ph.D., as their chief acceleration officer. When she was offered the job (and the title), Smelstor said, "I thought he was pulling my leg. I'm a pretty respected and respectable person. Executive or not, a title like that would convince people that I'd 'gone wacko,'" she told Modern Healthcare magazine (August 8, 2005). Now, she says, "I have come to find out that it is has really suited me. It's a conversation starter, never a conversation stopper."

Smelstor's job is to provoke cultural and operational changes, she says. Truman's president and chief executive officer, John Bluford, concocted the name to send the message that the hospital is changing rapidly - and it's a good thing.

She is the person in the organization that employees can go to and supposedly turn their ideas into reality, Marjorie says. To date, she has founded TMC Corporate Academy, an educational and professional development program for medical center employees, volunteers and their families and has had a hand in developing a medical spa to meet the community demands for care that addresses the spirit and the soul.

(And in 2000, Fast Company offered chief acceleration officer as one of the job titles of the future. I wonder if Bluford read it there?)