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The Innovation Blog

David Culton

Recent Posts

Lin-sanity, Innovation and The Educated Gut

Posted by David Culton on March 7, 2012

Though I'm not a Knicks fan, I must admit that I've been caught up in "Lin-sanity": the meteoric (and still very early) rise of Jeremy Lin, an unheralded, journeyman bench player who several weeks ago was on the verge of another cut but has put together the most impressive start for a player's first 5 games in the past 40 years. Better than Bird, Jordan or Lebron. Who could have guessed?

Finding the stars in your portfolio of ideas is a little like finding an NBA player -- some are fast-tracked for stardom and shine (or don't), and it's the 'scouts' (product managers, marketers, R&D folks) job to sniff out the good and great ones. Some ideas are like Jeremy Lin was -- they have the potential, but fall through the cracks, maybe not even making it to the 'bench'. What if you could find those diamonds in the rough, just one or two, that reside in your organization? What value would that bring to your organization? To your customers?

So how do you do that? One way is to revisit your old ideas with new eyes, but lets stick with our athletic analogy for the moment. As in sports, the larger business world has a variety of metrics (definitive market potential, ROI after x years, etc.) that are used to pick the strong ideas. With breakthrough ideas -- ones that bring something truly new to the game -- these types of metrics are often what we call "imaginary numbers", because breakthrough innovation by definition means there is nothing to compare it to; it has no frame of reference. Then what do you rely on? To me there are two major tools: a process that nurtures rather than kills new ideas and something that we call The Educated Gut.

Criteria vs. Metrics
We once worked with a client who had historically required the Net Present Value of an idea immediately following ideation. Truly new ideas wither and die rather quickly in this environment. Instead, rate beginning ideas on a few (4-5) criteria, and use that in concert with an evaluation model that preserves what's good about an idea, while clearly identifying flaws (and they've all got them) in a way that encourages problem solving. We call this an Open-Minded Evaluation. Some of the criteria we find are the most powerful are:

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Topics: open-minded evaluation, David Culton, Educated Gut, Innovation criteria, new product development

A Parable of Yin, Yang and the Pursuit of Innovation

Posted by David Culton on July 13, 2011


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Topics: Future, Future Pull, Future Trends, Innovation Strategy, breakthrough innovation, leadership

Missing Pieces in the Healthcare Puzzle - An Innovationist's View

Posted by David Culton on May 23, 2011

"It’s a big problem, it’s complicated and we have to solve it now."

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Topics: David Culton, Alignment, Social Innovation, Passionate Champion, Success Factors, Risk

A Modern-Day Simple Simon

Posted by David Culton on October 20, 2010

What starts off as a well-intentioned gesture- to invite some friends out to dine and catch up on our busy lives, to relax- almost always becomes a source of anxiety and frustration for me and, I’d be willing to bet, for a few of you reading this as well.

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Topics: Amanda Hines, Innovation, decision-making

Haikus for the Soul (the Innovative Soul that is) PART II

Posted by David Culton on September 24, 2010

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Topics: Amanda Hines, critical ideation skills, creative thinking, breakthrough innovation, creative problem solving skills, creative thinking skills, developmental thinking

Haikus for the Soul (the Innovative Soul that is)

Posted by David Culton on September 17, 2010

Here at Creative Realities, we use an 11-step process of creative problem-solving to help our clients generate, develop, and troubleshoot ideas to help them overcome an obstacle, realize an opportunity, or to simply stretch their thinking beyond its current state. In only working here a few shorts months, I've seen this process produce some amazing results for people and it makes me wonder why everyone isn't using this method to better their professional and/or personal lives?

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Topics: creativity, Amanda Hines, convergent thinking, divergent thinking, creative problem solving, brainstorming

Ideas are great...then there's that darn thing called execution...

Posted by David Culton on September 14, 2010

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Topics: David Culton, convergent thinking, Innovation, growth, implementation, execution

DIY: Here to Stay (and Thrive)

Posted by David Culton on September 7, 2010

In these trying times, consumers these days are looking for creative ways to stretch their dollar; to prioritize their spending – needs vs. wants – while trying to lessen the compromise of their quality of life.

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Topics: Amanda Hines, DIY, creative, creative thinking, Innovation