Lets Get right to it...

1. Write It Down.  Sounds simple, and writing down what your innovation is serves two purposes. 

First it forces you to focus on what the innovation truly is and what its benefits are.  Think about how different it is when you read a description of something versus having someone tell you about it.  The written version, if done properly, is going to be more focused and to the point.  And that's important when you consider that eventually your consumers may only see a written description of your innovation - usually in the form of the product package.

Writing down your invention also helps get your invention out of your head so others can help you improve upon it.  Which brings us to our next tip…

I am working on two major projects at the moment. And I will use my absence of disciplined working rhythms and feedback loops as a lesson to all of us this week.

In today’s age collaborating with people around the globe is easier than ever.  We’re at a point where working remotely is almost as easy as working with those in the same room as you.  The trouble comes in when you need to make major changes.  When a major change is needed the delay in email or messaging and the impersonal nature of video conferencing can hinder progress to a significant extent.

As a parent, you can usually tell when your children are about to have a growth spurt - maybe some body changes such as their face getting rounder, and they begin to eat more than usual.  Notice how the body doesn’t just keep growing at a constant rate throughout childhood but instead does it in spurts? Motor (physical), Fine Motor (small physical movement), Social Emotional (interaction through to imaginative play), Communication and Sensory development all can’t happen at once because of the energy and toll it takes on the body and mind.  I find my own children sleep longer and more soundly during their growth spurts.

During the last quarter of 2015, the Innovation Engineering team did an analysis of InnovationEngineeringLabs.com, a web-based portal through which thousands of organizations run their innovation system. The purpose of the analysis was to zero in on the actions that caused growth to the Innovation Pipeline's value (which is most often reported in dollars). Because the value of your Innovation Pipeline is how we measure the health of your innovation system. 

The good news is, there is no mystical recipe for success. The types of things that influence pipeline value are very intuitive. In fact, you can set yourself up for a better year by simply taking a look at the calendar for 2016 and blocking off some key activities NOW!

The top 3 activities that trigger growth to an innovation pipeline are 1) Sessions, 2) Learning Cycles, and 3) Collaborations. 

In the last few weeks I've discussed in depth 3 Simple Principles for Thinking about Innovation Training.  We've covered starting with the willing and educate and enable.  Today lets dig into number 3: Sustain with Communication. 

We've found the key to sustaining innovation culture change is to create the sense that people are a part of something bigger then themselves. Belonging to a group gives strength to the new mindset. It provides reinforcement, purpose, and meaning to life and work.

Over the last 12 + years of working at the Eureka! Ranch and the Innovation Engineering Institute I've had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with some of the most brilliant minds in innovation, business and marketing.  Recently, our founder, Doug Hall sat down with Dr. Dean Shroeder, co-author of The Idea Driven Organization: Unlocking the Power in Bottome up Ideas to talk about innovation collaboration systems.  Below are are few of things that we learned while listening in on their chat.