Rothacker Reviews

The Innovation Killer

The Innovation Killer by Cynthia Barton Rabe.

I began a book review of The Innovation Killer a few days ago here and have added to it since.  I really enjoyed reading this book and along the way I couldn't help but to overlay my own experience with companies that I've worked for.  For most, the concept of innovation was so radical it was only discussed in hushed whisper behind closed doors - in pig Latin.

The innovation killer's arch nemesis is the Zero-Gravity Thinker.  This person helps the individuals or teams escape the weight of what they already know.  They possess three primary characteristics: psychological distance from the team, renaissance tendencies and related expertise.  (detailed in previous post)

Cyndy discusses various roles of the Zero-Gravity Thinker with the role of collaborator having the most potential to stimulate innovation from outside of the company.  The collaborator is embedded in the team for extended period of times and works with the experts, supplying thoughts and ideas that they normally wouldn't have come up with.

Two chapters are devoted to identifying the need of a collaborator and help in finding one.  Cindy provides input on shedding the weight of expertise on your own in the second to last chapter.  A good portion of this discussion centers on first defining the problem at hand, followed by understanding what chokes the life out of your thinking.  (Understanding what constrains your thinking).  Cindy zeroes in on a particular pet peeve of mine:  The opportunity to think guilt-free in the workplace.  You know the feeling.  The boss is coming I've got to look busy.  If you are truly trying to work things out in your mind...think...then it shouldn't matter if the CEO strolls by.  This chapter concludes with the most pristine advice about nurturing the Zero-Gravity Thinker within. 

Cindy talks to company leaders in the final chapter.  It takes guts to be a leader who fosters the culture of innovation within the company.  One must be able to comprehend that failure is a by-product of success.  Most can't.

Personal Note:  I made a commitment to myself when I changed the name of my site here from Wiz Speak to Rothacker Reviews.  I would stay positive and would not be negative or criticize.  Based on my personal experience, writing about the Innovation Killer was the most difficult post to write and stay within my guidelines. 

The Thinkpad

To move forward we must sometimes remember what we thought.

Lite post here for heavy e-newsletter laden Monday.  I keep an open pad of graph paper next to my computer at home.  I splash notes like a bucket of paint heading towards the ground from ten thousand feet.  I circle the notes, use various colors of ink and draw lines to and fro.  With no intent towards logic, I strive for abstract.  I'll even go back a few pages and insert thought.

I am thinking this is sort of subconscious-lite on paper.  I am hoping for the possible combinations of previously noted thought to induce more.

Innovation Byways

It's time for another Six Degrees of Blogging Adventure...

What would you do if you hit the lotto?  Doesn't the sound of this question just lighten your spirit?  Rosemary and I would buy the most laid out motorcoach and cruise the United States in search of people and story.  The motorcoach is my preferred method of transportation today.

My first stop is Milan, Italy, to meet with Daniel Scocco, innovative designer of Innovation Zen.  Daniel was born in Brazil and has been schooled in Sao Paulo , Santiago del Chile and Milan, Italy.  Daniel provides powerful, interesting and in depth insight into the business world of innovation.  One post that attracts my attention is The Enemy is the Mindset.  Daniel explores how inhibiting conventional thinking can be.  It's time to move on and Daniel says, "Recomiendo que visites Broken Bulbs Innovation." 

My magic bus pulls into dock at Broken Bulbs: Innovation.  Gordon Graham, originally from Scotland and now living in Taiwan, has created a most thought-provoking site.  Gordon's defintion of innovation is: "the profitable implementation of ideas."  I found his post, Aesthetic Innovation interesting.  It is listed under August 28 in the archives.  He talks about the book The Substance of Style by Virginia Postrel and provides a link to Asus, a notebook manufacturer that integrates leather into its products.  Gordon mentions that I might want to stop over Roger's place.

Roger von Oech is master architect of Creative Think and author of many cool products and books on creativity and innovation.  I have Expect the Unexpected and A Whack on the Side of the Head - two very good books.  Check out Roger's post, Innovation in Industry 1981.  He put on a business conference and lists some of the speakers here.  David Armano commenting on this post:  "This kind of post is one of the reasons I was so excited to hear that you were blogging. You have so much experience to draw from and a blog is a great way to share this."  Most succinctly put!  By means of random Insight, Roger helps me to choose a little greenery.

I am pulling into the fine state of Alabama and up to Mack Collier's The Viral Garden.  I ordinarily do not hang out at popular sites like Mack's.  The first post that I read hooked me though.  Know why?  Cause Mack's intent at this post came across as being real human to me.  And that just doesn't suck at all.  Come to think of it, I've noticed Roger von Oech out here in cyberspace and I am starting to feel the same way about him.  I don't know, maybe I got my head screwed on wrong - not wanting to be associated with the in-crowd.  Although I am much more comfortable this way, I hate to miss out on all the good stuff like what Mack has growing in his Garden.  Mack says it's time for a boat ride.

So I load the motorcoach up on a steamer and set sail for the beautiful land down under, Australia.  I see Gavin Heaton on the front porch of his Sydney home waving to me.  After kindly asking Gavin to holster his weapon, I sit down for a friendly chat.  A Servant of Chaos bombards one's senses!  See if you can't find the Burma Shave example...very provocative.  Gavin suggests another voyage by ship.

I 'm thinking the motorcoach has logged more miles at sea than by road - but what a great adventure and great people too!  The final leg today lands us at Adliterate in London, England.  A stroll down the cobblestone path reveals radical and meaningful words supporting the architectural thought of Richard Huntington.  That Richard admires The Cluetrain Manifesto allowed me to open his door and peek around a bit more.  I found this exquisite jewel about aphorisms.  Richard links out to Mohammed Iqbal at MisEntropy.  Mohammed also writes about aphorisms and provides a link to a white paper he has written on intranets.  Richard's writing is distinct and most discernibly excellent!

I have enjoyed a most spectacular day on the Innovation Byways of cyberspace.  Thanks for coming along!

Stereotyping

Somehow I felt violated, but his assumption was correct.

A piece of my windshield's weather stripping broke loose this past week - as I was crossing the Howard Franklin Bridge which spans Old Tampa Bay,* doing 75 mph.  Along with my passengers, one of whom was my boss's boss, I thought we were under howitzer attack.  A very scary moment.

So I take my vehicle into the service department of a dealer.  I explained my circumstance to an advisor.  That's what they call the guys who write up your service order.

The first thing he asks is, "you driving a F-150?"  At this point I wanted to crawl under a rock. 

"Errrr, uhhhh, no....I have a"... (insert mumbled, garbled rhetoric)

"I am sorry sir, what did you say?"

"I am driving a mini-van, a 2007 Freestar."

Thank goodness Rosemary was not present!  She would've loaded this into her arsenal to be used for months to come.  The mini-van you see, is a company issued vehicle.  The guys at work are threatening to put a magnetic soccer ball sign on the back.

This was a good gut check lesson for me.  I try to not label people but I still occasionally do anyhow.  For a split second when the guy asked about the F-150 I felt labeled.  As for the overall experience, the bad part, the mortifying part, was admitting what vehicle I had.  But I did take some consolance, because in the grand scheme of things the guy was actually correct - my personal vehicle is a F-150.

* There are four bridges in this photo.  The Howard Franklin is the second one down from the top.  Our family lives in the far northeast corner of this picture.

The Retro Hook

To move forward we must sometimes bring back the past.

What was your first reaction when you saw the retro version of the Ford  Mustang ?  The Ford T-Bird?  Mine was that of a warm feeling inside.  The Mustang in particular rekindled memories of a time when Muscle Cars roamed the Earth.  Insert the "ARRRRR, ARRRRR" often muttered by Tim the tool man Taylor.

I recently came upon a radio that elicited the same feeling.  Tivoli Audio .  The clean, retro look of this radio sold me three quarters of the way.  The Wired magazine editor's pick finished me off.

When marketers go for the retro hook aren't they trying to connect with something that will resonate with something we already know?  Well, I know about bell bottom pants, polyester shirts, platform shoes and long hair.  The fact is, three of the four I will not go back to and the other I cannot go back to.  What I can relate to from that period is the music.  I loved the Zeppelin-Cadillac connection!

The retro hook is in search of emotion.  When it connects it works.

I am not...

To move forward sometimes we've got to get out of our own way.

"I am not a technical guy."  I uttered this statement to everyone who would listen to me for many years. I work on the business side of a very technical industry.  The majority of people in my positon once worked in the field, once worked in the mechanical / technical arena.  I never have.  I have spent a great deal of my own time learning about the technical side.  I should know even more though, and I suspect I've hindered my own learning by claiming that I'm not a technical guy.

From Napoleon Hill, one of my most favorite people of all time...

"What you think, so you will become."

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

I try to not openly talk about myself as a non-technical person anymore, because in all reality I have more technical knowledge than I let on.  Here's another one:  "I am not a public speaker."  I was cruising along just fine with this one when about five years ago I was appointed president of a large city trade association.  I ended up doing what I had to do - talk in front of a bunch of people quite a few times. 

I am wondering if I freely label myself with the "I am not..."  moniker because I don't enjoy certain things.  While I have a tremendous amount of admiration for people who can perform technical things and who are good speakers, I have no desire to do either. 

I am thinking it would probably be good thing to affirm what we are or what we want to be.

I am working, having fun and doing what I love.  I make sufficient money to support my lifestyle and bank for retirement. 

Rosemary and I are traveling throughout the United States in a motorcoach working on our respective writing projects.

I am pretty good with that.

Reading Ebooks

How do you read an Ebook?

I've tried to read one on a computer screen.  Like a weightlifter who is psyching up before a lift, I'll inhale deeply and then emit loud, guttural noises while staring down the screen.  I can do this I tell myself!  Although I've never set a record, I think I've been able to read two consecutive pages.

I am a kinesthetic type person.  I need to feel paper and I need to highlight, write and make marks on the paper.  So, I will print out an ebook and then read the eight and a halfs by eleven, though I would prefer a smaller version.  I have tried stapling them, placing them in a cheap folder, in a sturdier folder and in a binder.  I am not comfortable with any of these methods.

One thing I like about ebooks is the potential to customize your own book.  You could design the cover.  You could also insert sheets to make comments on or to help structure your learning.  As a side note here, I once asked the editor of a major trade journal if they'd ever thought about inserting blank or lined pages into the magazine to make notes on.  You would have thought I asked him if he'd ever thought about sleeping with his sister.  Once the absolute disgust wore from his face, he blabbed something about limited space and advertisers.  I asked then about getting an advertiser to sponsor the blank page - maybe insert a watercolor logo.  I was quickly dismissed.

I think there is market potential for an ebook reader paperbased-vehicle.  If not, I still would be interested in ideas for my own personal use.  Got any?

Zero-Gravity Thinkers

To move forward we must break free from the chains of gravity.

"Well Jethro, we do that here cause that's the way it's always been done.  My daddy done did it that way and his daddy done did it that way too.  You gotta problem with the way my daddy done things?"

"Jethro, we do that here because it's been tested, measured and has a proven track record.  Are you aware that our three person team here has over one-hundred forty years of experience?  You're not questioning our expertise, are you? "

Have you ever been in Jethro's shoes ?  "That's the way it's always been done," and "Because we are the experts."  Don't you just want to puke all over the establishment... hurl up chunks of refried beans and tuna?* 

Cynthia Barton Rabe has written a most enlightening read, The Innovation Killer.  I am about half way through the book but I am so connecting with Cynthia's message I just had to make note here.  I'll talk about a couple of terms that Cynthia uses, and might keep adding them as I read through the rest of the book.

Zero-Gravity Thinker - Outsiders who are not weighed down by the expertise of a team, its politics or "the way things have always been done."  Cynthia's definitions.

Innovation - The application of an idea that results in a valuable improvement.

Groupthink - The tendency we have to try to make decisions that everyone in our close working group will agree with.  The author believes that Groupthink is one of the greatest threats to any organization.  And that trying to overcome it is like trying to escape the pull of Earth's gravity.

ExpertThink - The tendency to go along with the tried and true methods of experts.

Psychological Distance - A characteristic of a company outsider and powerful weapon against Groupthink.

Renaissance Tendencies - A characteristic of innovative thinkers.  It describes interests across a broad spectrum of subjects.  Folks who employ Renaissance tendencies usually have a passion to learn.

Related Expertise - Refers to people who are smart enough to understand our basic language but will probably never become fluent. 

Here is the spooky part and why my eyes bugged out while reading this book.  I had the most spectacular case of doing-things-cause-that's-the-way-they've-always-been-done of nausea along with being weighed down by this line of thinking  eight years ago.  I wrote this on my Web site at the time:

The Starship Cruiser

She travels at speeds beyond human comprehension.  Her size fluctuates according to occupants.  Her structure is metamorphic, ever-changing as it incorporates the new technology and business ideas of those on board.  The Starship Cruiser is a vehicle built to vaporize boundaries and limitations.  She will take us to the very brink of our imaginations.  And with but a glimpse of visions to be, she engages the afterburners…………….blasting us forward, screaming to shatter the barriers of conventional thinking and complacency.  How can a ship accomplish such noble tasks you ask?  Because her fuel is the collective passion of those on board. The passion to learn, share knowledge, information and ideas.  Through this collaborative effort she reaches destinations impossible for one human being or……………..alien.

Here's where it even gets more weird...

Cynthia refers to a Zero-Gravity Thinker as an embedded alien.  I love this stuff!  I am not alone!  I will continue to add to terms used in the book here - this method helps me to learn. 

* I realize this description is a bit graphic.  But this is the beauty of blogs as opposed to the starchy and proper rhetoric found in newspapers and magazines.  The freedom of expression on your own terms - does it get any better than this?

BNET and the White Paper

To move forward we must white paper.

I have always viewed the white paper as some sort of sacred doctrine.  The White Paper - you can almost hear the choir and horn section as you say it out loud.

I was surfing the net the other day when I came upon BNET ...tagged as the high-quality source of business leadership.  I would agree!  What really caught my eye is the vast selection of white papers.

I come to discover that Anita Campbell along with Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, folks that I am familiar with, are authors of BNET blogs.

Additional White Paper Resource:  White Paper Source

Very cool stuff!

Design Notebook

Like a dog that won't let go of a bone, I've had this notion of a design notebook buzzing about my head since first reading about it in Dan Pink's book, A Whole New Mind.   Actually I have had two notions swimming the cerebral rivers.

Notion I

Design permeates into every nook and cranny of our lives.  For a true appreciation of how it does, Dan says to keep a design notebook.  When you see a design that strikes your fancy, make note of it.  Or, take a picture of it.  My thought is to do both and add magazine clippings as well. 

Notion II

This idea originated in my review  of James Webb Young's book, A Technique for Producing Ideas.  A design-of-life notebook.  As a writer, you need a place to get ideas from.  And unless you're inventing some radical thing the world has never heard of, ideas usually come from a combination of existing stuff.  Use the notebook to collect thoughts and ideas.  The standard description you'll hear is grist for the mill.  Being a fan of anything other than standard, I'll try fuel for the spacecraft...fuel for the journey.  Place photos, magazine clippings and drawings in the notebook.  Sketch stuff and insert words of description around everything.

Think of the process of creating your design-of-life notebook as entering data into a computer - with one monstrous difference.  You can usually retrieve data from a computer through logical sequence.  If you're looking for info on a car, you'll open your file on cars.  What you'll get out of the design-of-life notebook should never be what you put in it.  Ideas should always come out having been fused from bits and fragments of your collection.

For an enlightening journey into the world of a young lady who seemingly lives this process, visit Keri Smith.   Go directly to Keri's Flickr page  and prepare to be bombarded by visual stimulation.

Put some serious thought into fueling your own spacecraft, stoking your own furnace, watering your own plants, feeding your own soul...