The HiHelloSura Show

In this episode we cover :

The quest for sustainable innovation continues from E1. In this episode you get to understand at a deeper level where your unique creative thinking fits into innovation, how this feeds into the collaboration of the team and organization. Russ Schoen, shares case studies from around the world of how people have used FourSight to turn up the volume on their performance and move out tension into collaboration to solve complex business challenges within the likes of start-ups and Estee Lauder. 

In this episode we unpack deeper how FourSight has been used globally to help teams and organizations solve complex business challenges across industries and company size. 

Understanding our lens for problem solving 

- It helps unlock what your preferred approach and style is when solving a challenge.Do you prefer to solve within the lens of clarifying, ideating , developing, implementing or a combination? All four are needed to create sustainable innovation.

- Russ, shares the highs and lows of each preference type, where they thrive, where they might get stuck, and what to do to make that preference type be happy. 

- The  lows for each type are analysis paralysis (clarifier), project leaping (ideator), perfectionism, (developer), control (implementer). 

- Teams that do not perform as smoothly, are not aligned on what is needed at the moment in the project, as teams tend to be blind to individual preferences when engaging in problem solving. 

- Knowing our preference lets us make sure that each phase in innovation gets the due attention. 

- We are able to short cut conflict when we spend and put the energy in right place.

What shall we do when we do not have all the preferences in a team? 

Our preference is not ability. For those moments we can use tools to make jobs easier, to bolster where we do not currently have a preference. 

What happens when we are not aware of our blind spots?

- Blind spots to preferences have helped explained symptoms in organizations. For example a company started laughing when it was revealed that they were skewed heavy in ideating and implementation. It helped explain why their 30-35 SKUs had failed when they went to market. 

- It also explained conflict and tension within an organization where the leadership were heavy Implenentors and the managers heavy Clarifiers. 

Departmental Preference Skew

- Certain departments have been identified as leaning heavier into certain preferences than others: 

- Marketing - ideator /Implentor 

- Engineer & Accounting - clarifier/ developer 

- Sales - implentors 

How to Outperform Others 

- An independent IBM study showed that teams who were aware of their FourSight profile and had a problem solving process to follow tended to outperform other teams when delivering innovation, as they were aware of their blind spots and were able to ensure that they touched base with each stage integral to delivering innovation.

Who is this for? 

- This is for teams who want to take it up a notch and create higher performance, as well as for teams who are experiencing tension. 

- This can benefit Start-Up organizations to infuse more structure as well as it has been proven with Este Lauder. 

For an even deeper dive into how to unlock the creative potential of your organization, you can get in contact with Russ Schoen at [email protected], or myself at www.hihellosura.com. 

Setting bold innovative goals can be a challenge when you have experience in an arena, or when it has never existed before. In this episode you get to jump the belief chasm, accessing the seemingly fantastical, through the power of storytelling. This will enable you to give yourself permission to both create innovative bold goals for your organization and then activating them into reality.

In this episode we unpack why creating bold innovative goals can be challenging. How to overcome the challenge and then from that space harness what you have created into an action plan.

Creating anything new requires a suspension of current reality. Our inner critic is there to protect us in these situations from looking like a fool at work, to share with us what is currently happening in the market place, what has happened before based on experience. 

It’s important to give ourselves permission to create the new and bold otherwise we will be duplicating everything that has preceded. Innovation requires us to live on the fringes. 

In order to do that we need to tap into our child like mindset which is full of curiosity and wonder, uninhibited by reality and gently ask our inner critic to take a seat. 

The challenge is that when we look to set goals, our mind is great at sharing with us all the obstacles that we can ensue. 

But wait there is salvation. If we step into the future and look back telling the stories of all the incredible things that have passed, our mind also accepts it as true. It works in our favor to make it all a reality. 

This tool, is a great short cut to access the met

While the inner critic does that, we cue the Kyle Cease technique for creating goals: 

Step 1: The Three Month Share 

Partner up with someone. Choose who will be person A and person B. 

Person A look at Person B, and say: “You never guess what has happened since we last spoke three months ago. Since three months ago so much has happened. Let me tell you.” Then you will proceed to share with them all the fabulous things that have happened in the last three months. 

Person B your role is to nod, smile and look very positive. Nothing more. Nothing less. Do not ask them about feasibility, reality, budgets. 

Do this for five minutes and then switch roles. 

Step 2: The Six Month Share 

Then do this for 6 months. And switch roles.

Step 3: The One Year Share 

Then do it for 1 year. And then switch roles.

Step 4: The Super Charge Zone 

After this Person B, your role is to take the strands of what has been shared with you by person A and super charge their story. For example, if they talk about wanting to be a thought leader in their field, you might say, well I hear that Forbes and Fast Company are knocking on your door. Or that Oprah has invited you for dinner yet again. 

Super Charge for five minutes and then switch roles.  

Step 5: The Action Plan 

Based on this new story that you get to tell, ask yourself: “what are the three steps that I need to take immediately to lean into this reality?” This is your activation moment for action planning. 

This process is applicable for all aspects of your life including your team and your organization to get them set for creating vision for a project and the future. 

If you would like help creating a Roadmap of the Future for your team, get in touch at hihellosura.com

Sustainable innovation, need not be an illusive unicorn. In this episode you get to understand where your unique creative thinking fits into innovation, where you get stuck and where you can collaborate to get creative solutions out of the door. 

In this episode we unpack how to create sustainable innovation. Whether we are working with creative problem solving, design thinking, lean or sprints, different thinking styles are critical in each phase to get innovation out of the door. 

An independent IBM study shared that those trained in creative thinking styles, an assembly created by FourSight TM.  were more effective at delivering impactful innovation. 

The four creative thinking styles are:

Clarifiers - lets not make assumptions 

Ideators - where are all the possibilities 

Developers - lets create a workable solution 

Implementors - Just do it, lets get this out of the door

Preferences are not indicative of ability, they just show us where we come alive and get energy. 

Knowing what your preferences are lets you know where you can plug into the innovation process and where you have gotten stuck, spinning your wheels.

Understand how to increase collaboration and reduce conflict, by understanding another’s preference. Suddenly that annoying thing they do becomes just the thing you need to get innovative solutions out the door.

FourSight has over 60 years of research and is currently used in 6 continents across industries. 

If you are interested in getting a summary of the dark and light side of your creative thinking preference, get in touch at www.hihellosura.