
Heading 4
Innovation Essentials is designed to give you some of the core capabilities found inside some of the world’s greatest innovators. Each video contains practical tools that you can apply immediately. Please use, share and embed these videos wherever you wish and if you work for an organisation with a training depart, please send them the link to this page.
The course is largely based on content from my book “Be Less Zombie: How great companies create dynamic innovation, fearless leadership and passionate people.”
If you would like to know about more resources in the future, click here to sign-up for updates…
Module 1: Introduction to Innovation Essentials
1.0 Overview of the Innovation Essentials content and how to use it
1.1 How organisations become “zombies”
What is a “zombie” organisation and how does it happen?
1.2 “Sleeping Gas”: the hidden power of the status quo
How “business-as-usual” stifles innovation and damages long-term relevance
1.3 How innovation giants think
What separates great innovators from everyone else?
Module 2: Designing an innovation strategy
2.1 Thinking in three simultaneous time zones
One of the most powerful tools for helping bolder ideas emerge
2.2 Innovation strategy framework
How to create the conditions in which bolder ideas can emerge and thrive
2.3 A metric that makes innovation more inevitable
What to measure so that the whole organisation is focused on the right level of innovation
Module 3: Finding great insights
3.1 The Innovation Particle: The smallest and safest unit of bolder innovation
Many teams start innovating from the wrong place. Here’s where to start.
3.2 Innovation X-Ray: Uncovering hidden insights
How to see beyond the obvious and innovate around what matters most
3.3 Predicting the future more accurately
Why the future is easier to predict than you think
Module 4: Designing catalytic questions
4.1 Questions as a hidden innovation superpower
Why the right question is an innovator’s greatest asset
4.2 How to design a great question
How to design better questions than the competition (the question design tool kit)
4.3 Putting questions into practice
Embedding three types of powerful innovation question inside your organisation
Module 5: Bolder idea generation: CHANGE AFTER EFFECTS TITLES
5.1 Can “ordinary” organisations create extraordinary ideas?
Introducing six factors that shape breakthrough thinking
5.2 Be more human
Creativity in the workplace is ‘biological warfare’. How to get real about what it takes for human beings to be more creative at work
5.3 Change the context, change the game
Why great innovators always have two types of space for idea generation: “Performance space” and “rehearsal space”
5.4 Slow down if you need bolder ideas
Most organisations are in too much of a hurry for bold ideas to show up. How to look wider, think deeper, and dream longer.
5.5 Dialling up creativity means mixing up people
Why some kinds of diversity matter more than others in the creative process
5.6 Sponsorship: Why bold ideas need bodyguards
What kind of leadership is needed to protect bold ideas from a ‘premature death’?
Module 6: How to run low-risk experiments
6.1 The business case for experimentation
Why experimentation is the only choice for organisations that are serious about their future
6.2 Innovation trapdoors
The crucial importance of finding your idea’s “leap of faith” assumptions
6.3 Designing and running experiments
The step-by-step process for designing and running experiments
Module 7: Selling your idea and influencing
7.1 The campaign manager mindset
Becoming the change agent that your idea needs
7.2 What to sell when pitching your idea
The three essential elements of a great idea pitch
7.3 How to sell your idea
The experience your pitch must create for people and the four stories you need to tell
Module 8: Designing Business Models
8.1 Why business models matter and how to design them
The business case for business model innovation, and an essential tool for starting out
The following videos were developed for a project that I ran with CABI (link to CABI). They have kindly agreed for them to be used freely as part of this course.
8.2 Freemium business models
How the freemium business model works with examples from Candy crush, Dropbox and Redhat
8.3 Subscription business models
How the subscription business model works with examples from Amazon Prime, Netflix, Time, Sky Sports, Spotify and Adobe
8.4 Advertising business models
Understanding the dynamics and watch-outs for working with an advertising business model
8.5 Customer usage business models
How customer usage business models work including examples from Amazon Web Services, Airbnb and Uber
8.6 Licencing business models
Understanding the essentials of a licencing business model including examples from Qualcomm, Nokia and Disney