Growing by Design
It’s not rocket science, it is human science.
I have been recently wowed by the 21C Museum Hotel in Cincinnati. I have really high expectations so being wowed is a high hurdle. Recently, I led a innovation workshop there. I was worried about it because my experience with hotels and innovation workshops has been...
“I am not a {fill in the blank}”
"I am not a __________________" "I don't know how to do _______" "We can't do__________________" Listen around you. You can hear these statements coming out of mouths old and young. I think it is a shame. People settling for what current reality is. One simple word...
The weather report: foggy and clearing
I often start and end an innovation workshop with a personal "weather report". What are you? Sunny? Cloudy? Stormy? Breezy? It is a simple way to understand how people are arriving to that moment or how they are leaving. A couple of metaphorical words and you...
Go ahead and doodle!
Visualizing is so important to innovation. Yet, we often spend our innovation energies verbalizing. There is real power is getting out our heads and into our hands. Even a simple, "absent minded" task like doodling can make a positive impact. According to...
A False Sense of Control
In an interesting article in today's WSJ Drug Manufacturers bemoan the consumer engagement via social media during clinical trials and only see the down side of perhaps impacting the trial purity or causing some discovery that might increase scrutiny. I read the...
What’s design thinking got to do with leadership anyway?
When you think of a leader what comes to mind? Decisive. Male. In charge. Intimidating. Visionary. In control. Ambitious. Driven. Productive. Efficient. Knowledgable. Analytic. These qualities of leadership that have historically served us in our industrial revolution...
Iteration is Innovation’s Friend
A key aspect of design thinking is the concept of iterating. When I first mention "iterating to learn" to people, their initial reaction is "I don't have time." Iterating is confused with repetition. Iterating is actually an accelerator, not a time drain. Iteration...
The Creative Pause
Where has downtime gone? Recently I considered this question as I was watching a young mom walking her baby in a stroller with one hand and on her iPhone with the other--multi-tasking versus just being with her child. I hate to admit it; but I have been guilty of...
Shop Talk! Insights from SHOP14
Provocative. Engaging. Stimulating. Shop14 was a great experience. While I was one of the speakers, I think I enjoyed the learning experience even more. Some interesting things to ponder. "The phone is the new storefront" Imagine how differently you might approach...
What is the value of design?
What is the value of design? Have you asked that question? Or been asked it? Hard to answer, isn’t it? We have many such questions: What is the value of an education? What is the value of having a family? It is hard to answer in a deductive, objective manner a...
