How can we generate thousands of ideas in your organisation? Feel overwhelmed just by thinking about it? Our guest on the podcast this week thinks that, if you can’t come up with thousand ideas, you’re unlikely to come up with a winner. That’s why he suggests creating an innovation tournament.

This week on The Melting Pot, we learned from Dr Christian Terwiesch, professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and Chair of Wharton's Operations Information and Decisions Department. Christian has written numerous business books but, in this episode, we wanted to learn more about his latest work, The Innovation Tournament Handbook. This book is a more practical approach to the theory he laid out in his first book, Innovation Tournaments. 

In this episode, Christian explains how to run an innovation process in your business and how to build an innovation tournament so that you’re running one every six months. That means lots of people get involved with loads of ideas emerging, all in a relatively low-cost way. He also talks about the importance of destigmatising failure in innovation and why we need to embrace it as part of the process of innovation. 

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• What is innovation, really
• The Innovation Tournament
• Removing the stigma of failure in the innovation process
• Getting the whole team involved in the innovation process
• The innovation dilemma

Follow Christian Terwiesch:

Website

LinkedIn

The Innovation Tournament Handbook

Other books

Book recommendations:

The Arsenal of Democracy

Innovation Tournaments

Connected Strategy

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How do you manage your metrics around innovation? How much investment do you need to put into innovation as a mature business? How do you give people the time and structure needed to innovate in your business? This week we asked one of the most influential strategy and innovation experts to come back to The Melting Pot to answer these and some other questions about innovation. 

Founder and CEO of Strategyzer, Alex Osterwalder reckons that seven out of ten projects that you start within your business need to be killed. And maybe one in ten of your innovation projects is a go, but you're going to need to build a portfolio of maybe 50 live projects that are at any one time to get enough innovation going in your business to make a material change, to get a return on your investment. He also introduced us to the concept of AKIs (Aspirations and Key Insights) – as opposed to Objectives and Key Results – for innovation teams not to produce results, but key insights to understand whether they should kill, iterate or scale a product.

Fantastic conversation with Alex. If you’re in the innovation arena, this is a must-listen for you. 

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• What’s the ideal innovation team
• How and when to kill your innovation ‘zombie projects’
• How to ‘fail faster’ in innovation
• Getting the best ROI
• AKIs (Aspirations and Key Insights) vs OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

Follow Alex Osterwalder:

Strategizer website

LinkedIn

Twitter - @alexosterwalder

High Impact Tools for Teams

The Invincible Company

Testing Business Ideas

Book recommendations: 

The Courage To Be Disliked

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This week we learned from the inventor of the Outcome-Driven-Innovation (ODI) process, Tony Ulwick. Tony developed this process and, in 1999, he described it to Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma. Although Clayton loved it, he didn’t like the idea of customers having a process, so he called it Jobs-To-Be-Done. Every customer has a job to be done, so what we can do is innovate around solutions to help them get that job done. 

What’s the job your customer is trying to get done? And how do you measure success? In this episode, Tony guides us through the process that innovators need to answer those questions, and he shares some interesting case studies of how he’s helped different firms understand what jobs their customers were trying to get done, and how to identify their unmet needs. 

A fascinating conversation with Tony.

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• The Jobs-To-Be-Done Theory
• How can you define a need
• The cases of Bosch and Conagra
• How your customers measure success
• Understanding the job that your customer is trying to get done

Follow Tony Ulwick:

Website

LinkedIn

Jobs To Be Done - Book and Audiobook

Book recommendations: 

What Customers Want

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Is there any fractured relationship in your team? Many teams have people with dysfunctional relationships that show up in different ways. Often people find it difficult to solve problems. Somehow we find ourselves with a breach of trust, breach of contract, or competence. We believe one of our colleagues isn't competent, and it grows like an inverted pearl in an oyster or stone in your shoe. When this happens, people move away from those relationships or change companies. But if a business is a team sport, it's like taking the field to play football with only nine players against the opposition because some people on your team have a dysfunctional relationship.

This week we talked with and learned from Doug Bouey, a coaching and facilitation veteran, recognised by Vistage/ TEC. His newest book, Fixing Fractures, creates a sure path to peace of mind and a quiet heart. Like Dominic, Doug holds a Gazelle’s (now Scaling Up) International qualification. He’s a master coach and, as part of his Vistage Chair life, Doug came across a facilitation technique to fix fractured relationships in business and life. So, he wrote his book Fixing Fractures, to help teams or individuals overcome these breaches of trust and help them build a high-performing team. 

In this episode, Doug guides us through his technique to help teams have these types of conversations and overcome this issue in their relationship. He explains the different levels or ‘gates’ of trust and how he helps individuals in businesses get to the bottom of their problems and what are the ‘Magic Five’ that need to be present during these ‘healing’ conversations.

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• Fixing Fractures
• How to fix dysfunctional relationships
• Understanding the breaches of trust in teams
• Team building workshops
• The Magic Five

Follow Doug Bouey:

Website

LinkedIn

Fixing Fractures

Book recommendations:

Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone

The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr

The Status Game by Will Storr

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Why do we do the things we do? How did COVID truly affect our behaviour? Will our ability to empathise and connect with others ever fully recover? In a world of constant change and uncertainty, Dr Helena Boschi, a psychologist specialised in applied neuroscience, offers insight into how our brains are wired to react and cope and helps us make some sense of why we do what we do.

In this episode, Dr Helena Boschi discusses why we do what we do, which is also the title of her book. She also talked about feedback, why we are doing it, and what the real impact is. She gives some interesting tips on how to do it, how it works, and how the brain absorbs the feedback we give people. We also learned about the entrepreneur’s brain and what drives them, the effect of COVID on our empathy and much more. 

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• “Every child is an artist”
• Why we do what we do
• The Impact of COVID on our brains
• Why it’s so difficult to change our beliefs
• Something is wrong with feedback

Follow Dr Helena Boschi:

LinkedIn

Why We Do What We Do

Book recommendations:

One of the things that Helena recommends to the listeners is to read as much as they can and talk to everybody, “because everybody has got something to teach us”.

In particular, she truly enjoys the work of these authors: 

David Eagleman

Robert Sapolsky

Dan Ariely

Daniel Kahneman

Simon Sinek

Mathew Syed

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Are you struggling to achieve successful digital transformation despite continuous training and collaboration? Find out how to unlock agile decision-making with the military-inspired command by negation technique and improve employee engagement with immersive training programs - all while boosting manufacturing efficiency through SAP systems.

Marty Groover offers a unique perspective on the future of manufacturing. Drawing from his experience as a retired Navy officer and working in the manufacturing sector at Caterpillar, he has developed a deep understanding of the importance of technology integration and employee training. Now a partner and CTO at C5MI, Marty is dedicated to helping companies adopt Industry 4.0 technologies, creating smarter systems and more efficient processes. If you are a manufacturing leader, you will undoubtedly benefit from his insights, experience, and passion for innovation.

In this episode, Marty explains how you can boost manufacturing efficiency by harnessing the power of SAP systems, and how to drive digital transformation in your workplace. Marty is an advocate for creating a culture of learning, so he discusses how you can cultivate effective leadership and change management in your manufacturing operations, and unleash agile decision-making with the military-inspired command by negation technique.

A fantastic conversation with Marty.

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• Transforming the manufacturing operations through strategic SAP
• Bringing military systems to manufacturing
• Using real-time tracking to improve efficiency
• Creating a thriving learning culture by encouraging knowledge-sharing and regular upskilling
• Overcoming the problem of working in silos in business

Follow Marty Groover:

Website

LinkedIn

Speed of Advance

Book recommendations:

Relentless by Tim Grover

Winning by Tim Grover

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

You Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

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This week on The Melting Pot, we learned from Eric Maisel, creativity coach and trainer of creativity coaches. He writes the ‘Rethinking The Mental Health’ blog for Psychology Today, which has more than three million views, and he’s the lead editor for the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry series. Eric is also the author of more than 50 books covering the areas of creativity, life, purpose, meaning, and mental health.

Once upon a time, in a world filled with rules and orthodoxies, Eric discovered the power of self-forgiveness, purpose, and creativity. Growing up in a neighbourhood where the aftermath of World War II still lingered, he was instilled with the idea of being a resistance fighter against societal norms at a young age. This spirit of opposition led him to question the status quo and seek out his own life purposes. He faced the challenges of being a smart individual in a society that often sought to silence voices like his. Through this struggle, Eric learned the importance of embracing one's individuality and passions. Over time, he developed into a creativity coach, guiding artists and entrepreneurs on their journeys to self-discovery and success.

In this episode, Eric talks about one of his books, Redesign Your Mind, and cognitive therapy, and how it works on your thoughts. In his book, Eric proposes a methodology for changing your thoughts or replacing them with something else. He also about entrepreneurs and how he coaches them, as well as artists, who he thinks share many things but are also very different. He shares some tips about how to get in flow, his thoughts about burnout, and how to live a better life and lower your anxiety. 

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• Being smart in a non-smart world
• Why are people burnt out?
• The creative power of sleep
• The trances of working
• How to redesign your mind

Follow Eric Maisel:

Website

LinkedIn

Redesign Your Mind

Why Smart Teens Hurt

Book recommendations:

Eric has always felt that he is in the existential tradition, a specific philosophical and literary tradition. If you have lost your understanding of that, or have never encountered it, he recommends that you read the books by Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Camus, Orwell, and Kafka.

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How would you define meaningful work? And your team? If you're struggling to find the right words, our guest on The Melting Pot this week has various ideas to help you. How can you expect your team to do meaningful work if you can't define it? Here's a hint: it might not be about what you need to do, but what you should stop doing.   

This week we learned from Lisa Bodell. Lisa is a best-selling author and, CEO and founder of FutureThink, a business focused on helping companies simplify how they work to make space for driving growth and innovation. This has been Lisa's passion for over twenty years, and she is all about taking a provocative approach to challenge our assumptions every day. 

In this episode, Lisa and Dominic talk about how to get people to do more of the right things, building culture –specifically, how to cut the crap and stop stupid rules. She also asks what makes meaningful work, which she often finds leaders can't articulate clearly. Lisa shares a few of the 'killing' exercises she uses with leaders to help them start investing their time and drive innovation. 

Download and listen to learn more.

On today's podcast: 

• Driving change in our lives and at work
• Becoming 'unbossed'
• Doing more valuable work by simplifying things
• The barriers to innovation
• How to 'Kill Your Company'

Follow Lisa Bodell:

Website

LinkedIn

Kill The Company

Why Simple Wins

Book recommendations: 

The Artist Way

The Art of Gathering

A More Beautiful Question

The Curious Advantage

Think Again 

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Do you know what’s your Unique Ability? Every entrepreneur has theirs and is only able to succeed if they're supported by a team. Because you can’t be good at everything, is important to surround yourself with a team that complements you, to compensate for your weaknesses with their strengths. Our guest this week teaches exactly that to the teams of entrepreneurs so they can do the things that they're great at and they can thrive in their unique ability. 

This week on The Melting Pot, we learned from highly-sought after coach, author, and creator of The Strategic Coach® Team Programs, Shannon Waller. Shannon joined Strategic Coach in 1991 as a team member, and since then, she’s created the Strategic Coach® Team Programs. She’s a decision-maker at Strategic Coach, Bab Smith’s strategic partner, and Dan Sullivan’s Creative Collaborator. 

In this episode, Shannon shares with us the secret of her long career at Strategic Coach and how she realised what was her unique ability. She also dives into the twelve timeless truths for successful entrepreneurial organisations found in her book Multiplication by Subtraction, and how applying the ‘who not how’ concept can help entrepreneurs do what they’re really good at and thrive at work.

Download and listen to learn more.

On today’s podcast: 

• What is Strategic Coach?
• Finding your Unique Ability
• The Timeless Truths for success at entrepreneurial organisations
• Who not How
• The four modes of the Kolbe assessment

Follow Shannon Waller:

Website

LinkedIn

The Team Success Handbook

Multiplication by Subtraction

Book recommendation:

Unique Ability 2.0

Driven

ADHD. A Hunter in a Farmer’s World

Come Up For Air

Radical Candor

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Does everyone in your team look at risk in the same way? When we make decisions on whether to take a risk or not, we all have our biases. Our guest on The Melting Pot this week argues that diverse groups tend to make better decisions as they bring different perspectives. That’s why it’s really beneficial to look at the risk profile of everyone in the room to ensure that your team is looking at risks the right way and understands everyone’s perception of risk. 

This week we learned from strategic advisor and best-selling author, Michele Wucker. Michele is famous for having coined the term Gray Rhino – a metaphor that made headlines around the world as a framework for the ignored warnings for the COVID-19 pandemic and has appeared in media in more than 70 countries and 35 languages and counting. It has sent tremors through global stock markets when Chinese officials warned of gray rhino financial risks. Central banks and securities regulators around the world use gray rhino theory, as do business strategists, boards of directors, business continuity and emergency management professionals, insurers, ESG specialists, and policymakers focused on everything from national security to climate change.

In this episode, Michele talks about her latest book, You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World, about the perception of risk and how people feel about it. Also, she explains how you can ensure that your board, your advisory team or your executive team looks at risks the right way, understanding what those risks might be, and even the perception difference within the team, so that, as you assess how your business moves forward, you don't make the wrong decision. At the end of the episode, Michele shares her perspective on the recent collapse of several banks and how people chose to ignore the signs that led to it. 

A great conversation with Michele. Make sure to download and listen to learn more from her.

On today’s podcast: 

What is risk?

• How different people perceive risk differently
• The ‘risk fingerprint’ metaphor
• Balancing the different risk profiles in a team
• Dealing with risks as an organisation

Follow Michele Wucker:

Website

LinkedIn

Book

Book recommendations:

You Are What You Risk

Death and the Penguin

The hour between dog and wolf

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