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April 5, 2007
Cross discipline innovation
(Posted by francois to: innovation )
I had the pleasure to participate in an innovation workshop with Frans Johansson, author of the Medici Effect, down at the Business Innovation Factory in Rhode Island.
Here are three AHA moments that I jotted down in my notebook.
The method of reverse assumptions - where you jot down the assumptions about your business and then see if you can create a business by reversing those assumptions - is a great method to brainstorm around business innovation. But while it may be hard for you to imagine a business that is based on reverse assumption, you should always remember that it is much easier for someone who is not in your business to imagine a business based on those reverse assumptions. So force yourself to let go of the assumptions because if you don't, you might get blind-sighted by an outsider.
While it may be a well-known fact that homogeneous teams ramp up faster than diverse teams, and that they plateau at a productivity level that is half that of diverse teams, most people forget that over time diverse teams will start acting as homogeneous teams - so you need to break them up. Most people also do not realize that diverse teams where only a few people contribute are essentially behaving like homogeneous teams.
People adjust their personal risk behavior to the overall risk of the environment. So increased car safety features do not decrease the overall number of accidents because people will start driving faster or just less carefully. The same is true in business, you cannot decrease the risk of failure by increasing resources - money, time, etc. People will just squander them in more risky behavior. That also means that if you have an idea and passion for that that idea you have to pursue it as the risk of failure will not change with resources.
AHA...
[Tags: innovation ideas medici effect teams risk]
Posted by francois at April 5, 2007 7:54 AM | Bookmark This
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