Killer Innovations with Phil McKinneyPast Shows Archives - Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney

On this week’s Best of Killer Innovation Series, we analyze qualities that promote strong innovation leadership and will help any organization become a trailblazer in the game.

What are the unique skill sets needed for innovation leadership?  We all have a list of what good leadership skills are but what are the unique ones you need to be a true innovation leader?  Today on Killer Innovations, I will discuss what I have found to be the skills needed for successful innovation leadership.

These leadership skills apply to all organizations, whether you are a small organization or a large organization.

These are the basic skills you need to be a successful innovation leader.  So, what skills do you need to do differently to truly be an innovation leader?

Let’s connect; I am on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.  If we do connect, drop me a note and let me know.  The email address is [email protected] or you can go to Philmckinney.com and drop me a note there.

The challenges on the creativity innovation side do not change based on scale.  It is the same whether you have a five-person team or a fifty-person team.  The challenge is operating and innovating at the same level.  A lot of companies get in a rut because they are doing what they have always done.  So, how do you push yourself and people to go beyond the obvious and do the next thing?

To learn more about innovation leadership, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: The Art of Innovation Leadership.

Continuing our Best of Killer Innovations Series, we touch on creativity. Below are some ways to get inspired into incorporating creativity into your personal life to benefit your professional success. What's your creative inspiration?

Everyone is creative.  Yet some people seem more creative than others.  What do those people have that others might lack?  What's the secret to creativity? This week we talk about finding creative inspiration outside of work.  I'll share my thoughts on what makes people creative. We'll also hear Kym McNicholas interview Tania Katan.  Tania has just come out with a book called Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy into Your Work and Life.

Humans use creativity every day to solve complex issues.  Some people are more creative than others in problem-solving.  How do these people manage to stay ahead of everyone else creatively?  First, these people are inspired. Find something piques your interest and drives you to go above and beyond, experiment, and learn.  You can find creative inspiration even at work. If you are passionate about your work, you are feeding your creativity.

Another common denominator of creative people is that they practice creativity.  People do not just wake up already skilled at something. They have to practice it until they have mastered it.  We can define practice as two things:

There is a myth that you can't practice creativity and innovation.  You can practice and become proficient. There are many ways to exercise your creative abilities.  There are exercises for the daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly practice of creative skills.

Tania Katan shares with Kym McNicholas how people's creativity in their personal life can enhance their work.  Her book, Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life, examines the impact of bringing personal creative exercise into the workplace. Tania wrote this book because she saw a disconnect between people's creativity and what they did at their jobs during the day.

Tania says that if you are looking for innovation, you must bring your creativity to your job.  We can solve problems with innovation by getting our creativity to work. Throughout the book, there are exercises called “Productive Disruptions.”  These are creativity breaks. Stanford's study was called the “Walking Creativity Study.” This proved that people who went for walks experiencing creative blocks experienced 60 percent higher creativity afterward. Scientific studies have proven that disruptions and breaks help improve creativity. Many people don't enhance creativity because they don't have the right experience or training.  We must break through that barrier and ask “what if” questions. Stop trying to solve problems the same way and push creativity.

Some of the most significant takeaways from the book are:

One of the biggest roadblocks to creativity is the fear of thinking and doing things differently. The best way to get through that obstacle is to face it.

To learn more about creative inspiration, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: Creative Inspiration— From Personal to Professional.

Looking at our Best of Killer Innovations Series, we examine the dynamic nature of innovation and how to manage changing cycles best so that you and your ventures can succeed.

Today's latest innovation can quickly be replaced with the next best thing tomorrow.  Whether you're a newcomer to innovation or a seasoned innovator, there's something every innovator should know.  How to forecast and survive cycles of innovation.  This week Ray Zinn, longest serving CEO of a publicly traded company in Silicon Valley, shares his insights—Ray's astute ability to forecast what was coming enabled his company to survive the innovation cycles.

In 1974, Ray's boss conveyed a bit of advice.  Don't work for someone else. This advice set Ray on the entrepreneurial path.  He started his own company. With $300,000 of self-funding, he started doing test services.  It was challenging to start a company that was profitable from day one. Ray and his business partner managed it.  By 1985, their company, Micrel Inc., hired engineers and started designing their products. Eventually, Samsung selected Micrel technology for their first cell phones.  With blue chip clients, numerous inventions, and patents in wireless radio and other areas, Micrel went public in 1994. Micrel was profitable every year through 2001. Although Ray had to rebuild the whole company, it remained profitable.

How do you lead companies through the high rate of innovation change?  Ray was able to accomplish this. Ray learned the cycles of innovation so he could forecast them.  You have to know the cycles to predict them for your company.  How do you do this? Your customers are your best lead.  The key to surviving these cycles is understanding them.  Cycles last at the most five years.  You must anticipate what is going to be the following winning product.

What were the insights Ray wished he had early on?  Be careful about your Board. He elaborated on his biggest mistake –  not being more selective about his Board of Director participation.  Having a viable, helpful, and contributable Board is critical.  You want members who roll up their sleeves and add value where needed.  You don't need board members to pick you apart and create tension. Ray believes that Boards must focus less on what investors or shareholders want.  They must emphasize what is best for the company and adds sustainable value. Boards should not be too independent. Independence leads to disconnect and a lack of understanding of a company's intricacies and operations.

With his wealth of experience in the heart of the world's startup capital, Ray wanted to give back.  He created the Zinn Starter, a seed investment firm akin to Shark Tank for universities. Almost every university in this country has an entrepreneur program.  The Zinn Starter consists of students taking their business ideas before a Board. If the Board approves the concept, the student can start a company while still a student.  Zinn Starter is limited to fully enrolled university students. It is part of the entrepreneur program for six universities. The program has been running for two years, with over five thousand students participating.

Ray has also written a book called Tough Things First.  Used by many universities as a textbook, it covers his time with his company in Silicon Valley.  You can track Ray at http://toughthingsfirst.com/.  Visit his website to hear weekly podcasts and tips for entrepreneurs.

To learn more about surviving changes, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: How to Survive Changing Cycles and Accurately Forecast.

Diving into our Best of Killer Innovation series, we address a common hindrance to innovation: a drought of new ideas. To fix this problem, I’ve developed a simple list of ways to get the creative flow of thoughts circulating back into your organization.

When generating ideas, the default answer is to host a brainstorming session.  Are there other ways to create new ideas that are not dependent on traditional brainstorming?  Today on Killer Innovations, I will share the five I use with you.

Mind mapping is a fairly common term nowadays; many types of software provide templates for mind mapping.  Traditionally they are used to organize your data, but it is also a great way to generate new ideas.

It is a fantastic ideation technique that encourages creative answers.  Another great way to generate new ideas is by wishing.  Wishing encourages your team to let their imaginations run wild.  Assuming you have a well-researched and understood problem statement, ask each participant to dream up the most unattainable solutions related to the problem statement.  Create a list of a few dozen wishes and go through the wishes by considering and discussing the ideas in detail.  Ask yourself:

You might be surprised to discover practical, real-world solutions among the team’s wildest wishes.

Six Thinking Hats by Dr. Edward de Bono unleashed a new approach to generating ideas by breaking down the ideas into six areas of thought.  It helps participants put themselves into the shoes of another.  The six hats are:

So, how do you use the tool? Have each member put on one of these different “hats” for the discussion. Make sure everyone has their say, and rotate the hats to others for extended sessions. Hence, everyone can see the problem and ideas from various perspectives.

One challenge for generating ideas is getting everything rattling around in your head out.  In this exercise, each participant takes a piece of paper and writes rough ideas for solving the problem statement.  Each person passes on each piece of paper, reads it silently, and adds their ideas to the page. This process is repeated until everyone has had an opportunity to contribute to each piece of paper. Once participants have retrieved their original paper, they read and organize the ideas.  Then each participant shares the notes and ideas on their piece of paper.  The significant advantage of brain-writing is that it ensures everybody has an opportunity to share their ideas and reinforces the idea of “building on the ideas of others.”

Lastly, the final way to generate ideas is one I have used with my product teams.  The premise is to look at non-logical combinations to create entirely new ideas.  This exercise involves combining ideas that serve different needs or interests to form a new concept.  How does this work?

This technique can produce some silly results, but it is ultimately a helpful way of getting your team out of a creative rut.

To learn more about generating new ideas, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: Escaping a Creative Rut – Generating New Ideas.

Continuing our Best of Killer Innovations series, we look at one manufacturer's innovative use of resources. This company's story is a testament to how innovation can unexpectedly occur anywhere, with any resource, and at any moment. Innovations' ubiquitous nature is evident in every corner of our rapidly evolving world.

We firmly believe in the limitless potential of innovation, as anyone can ignite it, and it can ignite in any realm imaginable. Silicon Valley and other recognized innovation hubs do not have a lock on innovation or a secret sauce that cannot be modeled or improved upon.  It takes a willingness to put aside time, use your resources, explore the unknown, and expand your creativity (we all have it) beyond where you are today to see the non-obvious.  When you do, you will be like our Kentucky guests, revolutionizing in a non-traditional innovation hub and creating a non-high-tech innovation.

As part of our Innovation Across America tours, we ventured across the country in our new mobile studio to Paducah, Kentucky. During the tour, we actively sought individuals pushing the boundaries and innovating “Beyond the Obvious.” In our show this week, we had the opportunity to interview the founders of Fin Gourmet Foods.  Started in 2010, Fin Gourmet is a Kentucky Proud Producer of wild-caught Asian Carp products.  So why Asian Carp? It has the highest source of healthy, clean protein and Omega-3 fatty acids, on par with wild-caught salmon.  Nowhere else in the world but the USA are Asian Carp wild-caught, and those from western KY are of the best quality. But more importantly, this innovation story is unique.  Fin's mission and vision are that the Asian Carp provide economic opportunities for communities, fostering job creation and revitalizing the inland fishing industry.

The team at Fin Gourmet defined the problems and challenges they encountered and engaged in disruptive ideation.  As an integral part of their innovation process, they considered some basic assumptions of innovation to create value, including:

Fin has two patented innovative processing techniques:

With their innovative model, process, and approach, Fin Gourmet is making a significant impact locally and globally with their products and story.  The Fin founders and fishermen like Ronny Hopkins better manage the Asian Carp so that our rivers/lakes/estuaries are better protected while employing people who need second chances from incarceration, drug court, domestic violence, and more.

The ubiquitous nature of innovation is a remarkable phenomenon that defies the limitations of time, place, and resources. It serves as a testament to the infinite wellspring of human creativity and our unwavering commitment to progress. Whether it emerges from the humblest of workshops or arises amidst the chaos of our lives, innovation has the extraordinary power to reshape our world. It reminds us that brilliance can sprout from the most unexpected sources, and no idea should ever be underestimated or dismissed. Let us wholeheartedly embrace the limitless possibilities and foster a culture that not only recognizes but also nurtures the ubiquitous nature of innovation. Together, through our collective efforts, we pave the way for a future that is brighter, more awe-inspiring, and brimming with endless possibilities.

To learn more about the ubiquitous nature of innovation, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: The Ubiquitous Nature of Innovation.

Resuming our Best of Killer Innovation Series, we hone in on six categories of essential KPIs that will help you successfully predict and keep track of crucial details that will allow you to run your organization smoothly.

This episode addresses questions from listeners on innovation KPIs.  After clocking 12,000 miles in the mobile Innovators Studio, I'm back in Colorado.  On the road, I talked with interesting innovators and analysts. Taking a break from interviews, I'd like to answer your questions on measuring innovation success.

There are hundreds of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure innovation success. What are the right innovation KPIs to use?  What KPIs will give insight into the innovation process?   KPIs should be unique to your organization.  Think through what KPIs will measure and how that can guide innovations and your organization.

I've broken innovation KPIs into categories, like building blocks.  Build up the blocks to get a complete perspective on your innovation effort.

Six categories for Innovation KPIs:

We'd love your feedback.  What do you think about the five-minute focus in the last segment of today's show?

Like what you hear?  Leave us a comment or review where you listen to the show. We post on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Follow us on your favorite social media site.

To learn more about KPIs, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: Essential KPIs.

Sometimes, life surprises us with moments of reflection. I remember vividly having a captivating conversation with a taxi driver. While stuck in traffic on my way to the airport after hosting a South by Southwest meet-up on neural diversity hiring, he curiously asked about the key to my success. His question inspired me to jot down my 7 rules to live by. Continuing with the Best of Killer Innovations, I share them with you in the hope that they'll assist you in achieving personal and professional triumphs.

Keep in touch personally, not just electronically. Nurture deep relationships with loved ones.

Be genuinely interested in others, actively listen, and ask questions—end conversations by offering help.

Don't make false promises. If you can't deliver, be honest and find alternative solutions.

Credit will find its rightful owner. Embrace teamwork and acknowledge others' contributions.

Success is a result of collective effort. Express gratitude and provide words of encouragement.

Pause before responding. Count to ten or wait a day. Choose compassion over rudeness. Seek advice before reacting.

Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness, and Finance. Filter demands based on these priorities.

Now that you have my 7 rules to live by, create your own set to achieve personal and professional success. Before you start, let me just tell you one thing: success is personal, so your set of rules should be, too. Think about what matters to you, what principles guide you, what values you hold dear. Create a set of rules that aligns with them. And don't forget to make them actionable, measurable, and realistic. Remember, these rules to live by are not a one-time thing. They're a continuous practice that helps you grow, learn, and become a better version of yourself.

To learn more about rules to live by, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: 7 Rules to Live By.

Picking up with our Best of Killer Innovation Series, we delve deeper into the art of making ideas reality by following a proper execution plan.

In this episode, we wrap up a series of shows we did on the innovation framework known as FIRE. We will discuss the part of the innovation framework known as execution. Execution is composed of making your best ideas into something tangible.

I have used the FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Ranking, Execution) framework for over 20 years, and thousands of organizations use it.

In my opinion, innovation consists of ideas made real. I constantly repeat one quote: “Ideas without execution are a hobby, and I'm not in the hobby business.” At this point, you've ranked your ideas, but need to figure out how to make these ideas a real innovation. Going into this, you won't know all of the answers. Expect a very messy process because there might not be a clear path from point A to point B.

It would help if you were adaptable and ready to learn things. It would be best if you innovated around the idea frequently. Be okay with an unexpected outcome, as the process is an experiment. Innovation projects have to be measured differently than a typical product development project. One of the measurements of success is learning throughout the process. Stay away from innovation antibodies. Innovation causes conflict, prompting these antibodies to come out. These include ego response (stepping on someone's toes), fatigue (people who have tried and failed at it before), no risk response (CFO or legal counsel), and comfort response (we don't need to change).

The first step to making an idea real is creating the pitch. The pitch is your way of telling the story around your idea, also known as strategic storytelling. The key is to tell your idea's story so that others see what life will be like when your idea is delivered.

The second step is to create the funnel. There are four funnel gates: market validation, customer validation, limited launch, and global launch. The key here is to convey that not all ideas will go forward.

I use the Michelle test. I would take a product we built at HP, bring it home, and leave it on the counter for my wife. She would take it out of the box and use it, giving it her honest evaluation. Because my wife is not a technology person, I would receive some solid feedback from a different perspective.

This week's show focused on taking all of your ideas and making them a reality. Many innovators have great ideas but struggle to find funding. There could be an issue with their pitch. Learn and readjust the pitch and understand all the elements that go into it.

When Steve Jobs and Apple worked on the iPhone, the product was ready three years before the launch. They knew they needed to wait for a faster processor and another generation of touch screens. They had the discipline and patience to stay, which paid off in the long run.

I used the lean canvas to help my team stay on track and focused. The innovation lean canvas is in place of a typical plan. It is an overview of the critical areas at a glance, which frequently updates as the product evolves.

Check out the Disruptive Ideation Workshop here to teach your team the FIRE framework.

If you are interested in learning more about execution or want information from previous shows, check out all the free downloadable material I put together here.

To learn more about the art of making ideas reality, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: The Art of Making Ideas Reality.

Returning to our Best of Killer Innovations series, we kick this week off with a look back at vital innovation skills. This foundation can help beginner and seasoned innovators stay ahead in an evolving world.

What innovation skills are needed to create new ideas and products successfully? Many people often find themselves void of creativity in the innovation world. This stems from a deeper issue. We dive into more detail to discover what innovation skills separate those with limited success from those with continual success. The skill sets that can allow you to be successful no matter your organization type, size, or geographical location all have the same foundational elements.

The number one skill set I have discussed is self-confidence in your creativity. We were all born highly creative. From an early age, the education system drives creativity out of us. Grade school through college teach children conformity, instilling the belief that acting the same is crucial to relevance. Then, in our professional careers, we are expected to think differently, be more creative, and generate solutions despite sixteen or more years of being drilled in conformity. It's no myth that CEOs recruit creativity. Creativity drives innovation. It's a catalyst for growth in a business. If you are not exercising your creativity and unlocking its potential, you could become irrelevant because of conformity.

Another essential skill set is bravery. The opposite of innovation bravery is conformity. You need to go out and apply your creativity. Share your thoughts and ideas. Take some risks. Try something you haven't done before. The fear and feeling of failure a detrimental mind block because it holds us back and kills our bravery. You have to get over the fear of failure to be brave. Step out, get permission, or permit to go, and fail. Go out, experiment, test the limits, break the norm, and be brave.

One vital skill set that gets harder to use as you get more experienced and set in your ways is your perspective. Seeing with fresh eyes and having a beginner's mind will guide you to develop breakout products and services. Don't let your area of expertise cloud your vision but come into every new project with an attitude of openness. Every year of experience in your area of expertise can enable you to become more and more closed off to different approaches or new opportunities if you are not careful. By adopting an open-minded approach, you can avoid getting caught up in a limiting cycle of repetitive groupthink.

How does one get creative thoughts and ideas flowing? The answer is by asking questions. Questions hold great power. They get people thinking. There are simple ‘yes' or ‘no' questions, leading questions, and questions you craft to discover. The power of creating and collecting your questions is critical in the innovation world. It will help you develop new ideas and eliminate problems. Coming in as a new leader, I crafted four questions to gain a unique insight. Creating these questions is vital to deriving input from your team, vendors, partners, leaders, and potential beneficiaries of your idea.

Continually developing different ways of asking a question can generate unique discoveries. For instance, if I ask you, “What is half of thirteen?” and you respond, “Six and a half,” I would give you an ‘A' on a math test, but in innovation, I would give you a ‘C.' Why? The reason is that you stopped at the first obvious answer. What if I craft the question slightly differently and ask how many ways you can convey half of thirteen? There are more ways than one, and how creative you can get would surprise you.

To help, I've crafted a card deck that asks questions from various angles to challenge you to think differently. Learning how to reword questions and uniquely ask them will give you a skill that generates new insights. The power of questions is critical in the innovation game. Begin creating, crafting, and collecting your questions today.

One skill we need, but tend to overlook, is the ability to deal with innovation antibodies. When operating in the world of innovation, opposition often occurs. People may feel threatened by your idea for one reason or another. These people act as innovation antibodies, attacking your idea. How do you deal with this issue? No matter where you are in innovation, you will encounter different responses and have to learn to work through them.

Here are the types of responses you will need to work through:

Have you dealt with an innovation antibody in your organization? What category would you put them in? Do others call you an innovation antibody? If so, what type are you?

An essential skill set vital to success is an innovation attitude permeating your culture. I use the following easy-to-remember acronym CARE to keep an innovative outlook.

Let's connect; I am on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. If we do connect, drop me a note and let me know. The email address is [email protected], or you can go to PhilMcKinney.com and drop me a message there. If you are looking for innovation support, go to TheInnovators.Network or want to be challenged to develop the next big idea? Check out our Disruptive Ideation Workshops. Don't forget to join our Innovators Community to enjoy more conversations around innovation.

To learn more about the ingredients for innovation success, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: Six Vital Innovation Skills.

Resuming our Best of Killer Innovation series, we look at key ingredients to build innovation success for organizations.

Innovation is about translating ideas into products, services, and solutions. Ideas without execution are a hobby.  Is your organization in the business of Innovation? This episode boils it down to a simple equation. Ideas + Innovation Culture = Innovation Success.  The process starts with ideas and the management of them.  But ideas won't develop and thrive without the right culture.  Core Attributes are about setting the basis for Innovation Culture.  When you set up a good system of gathering ideas and lay a foundation for an innovation culture, innovation success ensues.

The process starts with ideas coming from many sources.  Then comes the question of how to manage your ideas.  How do you log, track and rank them?  Where are your ideas today in the innovation lifecycle?  What about all the brainstorming sessions over the last few years… could you quickly put your hand on the list of those ideas?  Ideas have value over time.

If you believe ideas are the economy's currency, you need to manage ideas as a valued asset for innovation success.  Treat ideas as valuable asset.

What's needed in an idea management system?

Without a system or tool, you are lost

Don't restrict access to the tool

Promote your tool

Close the loop with the idea submitters

Think about applying some form of gamification

When I took over a new role as CEO, I set out a hundred-day plan looking at the organization and figuring out what made it tick.  I spent a significant amount of time doing one on one interviews with all the key stakeholders.  I asked them four questions:

Ninety-five percent of employees feared that the new CEO would not change anything.  They understood that some things needed to be changed for the company to flourish.  I realized that I had to build the core attributes from scratch. So, how do you do that?  The key is to help everyone understand why core attributes are so important.  What is it the team wants the organization to become?  Core attributes articulate what you stand for.  The ones we came up with are:

Once you have captured this, you are ready to start the process.  Having the list is the beginning of the process. The senior executives must own this; the senior executives must always control this. We must manage the process to get everyone on board with the innovation culture.  It communicates the process and displays the core attributes.  Instead of telling people these are the core attributes, we published them and invited people to come in as part of group sessions.

We collected a list of core attributes employees liked and helped brainstorm recommendations for the executive team about how we could live it.  We have included core attributes in our performance management.  Employees are assessed on those core attributes at the end of the year.  The impact on the organization was beyond anything I expected.  It is not a static and never-ending process but develops a practical framework for an innovation culture that drives success.

To learn more about the ingredients for innovation success, listen to this week's show: The Best of Killer Innovations: Key Ingredients for Innovation Success.