The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

It's no mystery that COVID-19 disrupted the technology industry. Today, Bob O'Donnell joins us to discuss the innovation impacts of broadband and 5G.

COVID-19 dramatically changed how we communicate, increasing the need for fast, consistent broadband. The broadband industry globally builds around two and a half years of capacity ahead of time. High internet usage spikes from COVID resulted in broadband capacity exhaustion 14 days after March 1, 2020. The spikes were due to people working from home and kids being home from school. Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft, etc., all came together to improve the problems.

A strong work-from-home environment is the byproduct of the shift from in-person to remote. To build out their mobile workstations, people invest in high-quality PCs, monitors, cameras, platforms, etc. Bob believes there will continue to be an "explosion of installs" of different video calling platforms.

Competition in the tech world has seen accelerated growth since COVID-19 started. There are four or five video conferencing platforms most people are currently using. Zoom, for instance, released 320 new features last year. When it comes to microchips, things have never been more competitive. Intel and AMD are working with global governments on semiconductor and supply chain issues. Technological innovations are continuously rolling out.

When it comes to 5G innovation, most of the world started out using mid-band frequencies. The U.S started with low and high-band frequencies. Mid-band turned out to be the fastest, leaving U.S 5G efforts off to a slow start. Like Y2K, everybody knew 5G was coming but did not plan for it properly. However, things are now starting to pick up.

The world's leading proponents on 5G private networks, Vodafone Germany recently unveiled a private network at Porsche's main factory. Everything at the factory runs on a 5G network, which does real-time tuning on the car while it's on a test track. Bob is currently working on a study of private 5G and how companies are implementing it. Everybody is talking about private 5G and its potential impacts from chip manufacturers to software, devices, and networks.

Bob O'Donnell is the President, Founder, and Chief Analyst of TECHnalysis Research. The firm's research and O'Donnell's opinions are also regularly used by major media outlets, including Bloomberg TV, CNBC, CNN, Investor's Business Daily, the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, and more.

O'Donnell writes regular columns for USAToday and Forbes and a weekly blog for Tech.pinions.com published on TechSpot, SeekingAlpha, and LinkedIn. Before founding TECHnalysis Research, Bob served as Program Vice President, Clients, and Displays for industry research firm IDC. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

Many businesses find their innovations fail, often at great expense and strenuous effort. These innovation failures surprise and frustrate them. They are then left wondering as to what caused their innovations to fail.

Many causes result in innovation efforts failing. While many causes of innovation failure are within your control, some are not. Understanding the most common causes of innovation failure is essential to prepare yourself better to address them. When you are prepared to face the inevitable, you increase your chances of success.

1. Lack of Problem Identification:Often, innovators are so excited about their new idea that they don't take the time to identify the problem they're trying to solve. This leads to a lot of wasted time and resources.
2. Lack of Ideation or Inability to Generate Good Ideas: Lack of ideationis a reason for many failed processes, and the inability to develop good ideas is close behind.
3. Poor Execution of the Idea:If you can't successfully execute an idea, it will go nowhere.
4. Lack of Funding or Support: Many promising innovations get canceled due to lack of funding. Dollars, time, and people are all critical parts of successful innovations.
5. Lack of a Clear Roadmap/Plan: Without a rational plan, it's nearly impossible to remain focused and motivated when those inevitable roadblocks arise.
6. Implementation Challenges:Implementation challenges can include anything from tech issues to employee pushback.
7. Cultural Barriers: Cultural barriers, whether on an individual, team or organizational level, can prevent the successful implementation of new ideas.
8. Naysayers (innovation antibodies): Every organization has people who refuse to accept change or even consider it.
9. Poor Timing: Several factors can lead to poor timing, such as market or technology changes, shifts in customer needs or preferences, and changes in the current political climate.
10. Customer Disinterest: No matter how great your innovation is, they won't buy it if customers aren't interested.

Innovation tools allow us to do things we naturally can't, which unleashes our creative potential. It can be hard to pinpoint the right one for your organization with thousands of options out there. Let's explore several innovation tool categories that will help improve performance.

1. Idea sketching tools: Idea sketching tools can be extremely helpful in speeding up the innovation process. They act as time savers, and all you to better communicate your ideas visually.
2. Idea Generation tools: Tools like mind maps, freewriting, or ideation exercises speed up the ideation process, allowing you to generate more ideas. These tools are powerful because they can be used individually or in groups in a way that is free of distractions and deadlines.
3. Creativity tool: Creativity tools improve innovation speed and fall into three main categories. The ideation category includes brainstorming sessions, and the collaboration category includes techniques like facilitated team exercises. The evaluation category contains methods like ranking ideas and project priorities that lead to the best solution.
4. Prototyping tools: Prototyping tools offer a quick and easy way to create a mock-up of ideas, get feedback, and then improve ideas. Prototyping tools can also help save time and money by avoiding future mistakes.
5. Visualization tools: Visualization tools accelerate innovation success by giving access to different perspectives and starting points for creativity. Flow charts or process maps are tools that create more efficiency and effectiveness by indicating the path from start to finish.
6. Market research tools: These tools help innovators identify customer needs, problems, and potential solutions. The top tools provide quantitative data about the general population and specific demographics that aid in product development. They simplify the process of determining idea popularity, best launch time, and areas of improvement.
7. Trend analysis tools: These tools help identify social media, news, and consumer trends. Trend analyses give users opportunities to jump on new ideas before their competition.
8. Technology scouting tools: These tools help you quickly identify and assess new useful technologies. They can also help you ensure you are aware of technologies that might benefit your organization. Properly utilizing these tools allows companies to compete in their market more effectively.
9. Business model generation tools: These tools help you explore and analyze a wide range of business models for your product or service. Business model generation enables you to select the best model for your innovation project. Popular tools include the Business Model Canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas, and The Lean Startup Methodology.

Creativity is one of the most important skills you can have. It unlocks the door to game-changing ideas. Although some people have it naturally, some exercises help in improving creativity.

1. Take a walk outside: Breaking free of your work, moving around, and observing your surroundings can give you mental clarity and boost creativity.
2. Write a list of things that annoy you: You can identify new patterns by identifying these things. This exercise can lead to new ideas previously unseen.
3. Play with the lyrics to your favorite song: Playing with the lyrics of your favorite song opens your mind to new possibilities and breaks you out of your comfort zone.
4. Create a video montage of your day: This can be a fun way to document your life and see how your creativity manifests itself. Trying different techniques and making edits will improve your creativity skills.
5. Write about what scares you and why it scares you: Some creatives sharpen creativity muscles by writing about what scares them and why (or writing about what doesn't scare them). Exploring scary things can open new avenues that would otherwise be closed.
6. Play games that require creativity: Many creatives play games such as chess or scrabble. These games sharpen the mind and improve problem-solving.
7. Do something that makes you laugh:If you're struggling with a creativity block, you can watch funny videos or do other things that release endorphins.
8. Draw something you see every day but don't pay attention to: When we see the same things repeatedly, they become mundane. If we examined the objects and scenes that make up our everyday lives, we'd be surprised at how much creativity hides in plain sight.
9. Exercise your brain with a puzzle:Puzzles exercise the creative side of your brain by forcing you to come up with new ideas and solutions. Doing this can help you break out of a rut.
10. Make crafts out of old things lying around the house: Crafts helps you tap into your creativity and improves your ideation.

Benchmarking compares your organization to others to measure your performance and identify areas for improvement. When done correctly, benchmarking can help you learn from your peers and identify areas for improvement. However, benchmarking can also have negative consequences if done incorrectly. How do you escape the innovation benchmark trap?

Proper benchmarking helps you understand how you compare to others in your industry and makes it easier to identify best practices. It can also help with planning strategic initiatives and resource allocation. An example of bad benchmarking comes from the story of MCI WorldCom in the late 90s and early 2000s. MCI WorldCom was involved in fraud which inflated their assets. Ultimately, many companies benchmarking themselves with MCI WorldCom went bankrupt.

Innovation benchmarking, which compares how an organization innovates to others, is becoming more popular. This is growing because leaders are feeling more uncertain about innovation. This uncertainty comes from a lack of confidence in their ability to generate new ideas.

Some consequences of innovation benchmarking include:

Leaders -

1. Run unnecessary risks trying to replicate benchmark results exactly.
2. Benchmark themselves out of uncertainty and into comfort without realizing it.
3. Benchmark their competitors rather than taking a fresh look at their innovation approach.

The best way to avoid the trap is to benchmark with purpose. Learn from peers, but don't assume that what worked for them will work for you. If you follow blindly, your organization can fall apart. It's critical to understand their thought process and discern if their approach is worth experimenting with.

It takes practice and patience to develop your creativity, and there are bad habits people learn which crush their creativity. But like all bad habits, we can break these if we are willing to work at it!

Habits are things you do automatically, without thinking. Bad habits can form in a few days, but it can take months or years to form good ones. Breaking bad habits and creating good ones can be challenging, but it's worth it in the long run. You need to be aware of your bad habits and then find a new routine that rewards you by creating a good habit to replace them.

Here are eight of the very worst bad habits that could hold you back creatively every day:

1. Not allowing yourself time to relax and daydream:Daily downtime is crucial to keeping those creative juices flowing.
2. Procrastination: Putting off creative tasks is terrible for your mental health and career. To avoid it, establish deadlines and accountability measures.
3. Perfectionism: Many great ideas never see the light of day because people become perfectionists. It's crucial to permit yourself to make mistakes and see the beauty in flawed things.
4. Over researching before starting a project: Some projects require extensive research, others do not. Too much background reading can hinder creativity.
5. Listening only to critics: Criticism can be a valuable learning tool, but it should never hold you back from pursuing your dreams. Surround yourself with creative peoplethat inspire you.
6. Trying to do everything yourself: This can halter your productivity and block success. Collaboration can unlock new ideasand successes.
7. Judging your work too harshly: It's natural to be critical of your work, but it's essential to avoid self-doubt. When overly critical of our work, we become more guarded with our thoughts, killing creativity.
8. Giving up too quickly: You'll never accomplish anything significant by giving up too easily on the hard problems and tasks. Nothing worthwhile comes easy, but the hard work will pay off.

With the start of a new year, let's look back at the most downloaded episode of 2021.

As an innovation leader, I encounter loads of information every day. I like to use tools that capture/organize this information and bring it together in a way that's easy to access. I need these tools to be accessible on an iPhone, Android, laptop, and iPad. Here are the five tools I use which fit my criteria:

• reMarkable 2 tablet
• Kindle Oasis
• ai
• Readwise
• Roam Research

I like to separate my tools into categories like information collection, organization/combination, and the serendipity effect. I used to use Moleskine notebooks for collection, but now I use the reMarkable 2 tablet. It's similar to writing on paper. All my information is sent to my phone and desktop for storage. I also like using the Kindle Oasis to highlight and save information that I find important or interesting. I use Otter.ai when I am running ideation sessions. This tool acts as an AI-powered assistant, recording and transcribing meetings and other meaningful conversations.

I listen to many audiobooks and podcasts, hardcover books, and online articles. I need a tool that can gather all that information and synthesize it. That is where Readwise comes into play. This tool does all that and pinpoints things I may have missed initially, triggering serendipity. I like to pair Readwise with a tool called Roam Research, which organizes and makes connections between the information Readwise collects.

Creative people can think of new ideas, and creative ideas are those ideas that are new, useful, and different. It all starts with the creative person. What is so special about them?

Creative people often have a sense of limitless creative freedom and experimentation. Their creative genius is a natural part of who they are. If you are not naturally creative, you can learn and develop your creativity by applying creative qualities.

1. Curious: Creative people are always asking questions/looking for new ideas. They're not content with the status quo.
2. Creative Confidence: Creative confidence is the feeling when you know that what you are about to do/say/or create is original. Creative, confident people are not afraid to fail because they know it's part of the process.
3. Thick Skin:Creative people need to have thick skin, take criticism, reject rejection, stay persistent, and be unafraid of failure.
4. Independent Rebellious Streak:Creatives can't be afraid to blaze their trail and stand up for their ideas. They need to find the right balance between their independent, rebellious streak and supporting the team mission.
5. Flexibility: Creative people need to be flexible. If not, they might overlook new ideas, or you might not be able to adapt to changes a new idea would impose.
6. Playful: Playing with ideas can help break through mental blocks by going outside the box to create new solutions or inventive ways of looking at old ones.
7. Thorough: Creative people are more comprehensive than most because they never stop at the first idea. They always look around at what else they can do.
8. Ambitious: Creatives are ambitiously striving to push the boundaries of what is possible. They crave feedback from others to improve and have a desire to create something new and unique.
9. Energetic: Creative people are constantly moving, inspiring others with their creativity and constant energy.
10. Naïve: Creative people are often naïve about their limitations but can also be more creative than others because of this naivete. It's important to balance creativity and practicality.
11. Dreamer: Creative people are sometimes referred to as "dreamers" because they imagine new possibilities.
12. Persistence: Creatives are persistent in their efforts over time despite any obstacles they may face. Creative solutions result from patience and tenacity.

Most people are afraid of what others will think about them if they do anything out of the box. It's easy for people to lose sight of their identity and uniqueness. So how do leaders and individuals combat this fear of taking risks?

Suppose you want to build an environment where everyone works together towards a common goal without fear of failure or judgment - one that encourages risk-taking alongside calculated caution - these steps will help guide your efforts!

1. Open Communication:Consider open communication between all employees at every level. This fosters trust, allowing employees to contribute valuable input, empowering them rather than confining them.
2. Active Collaboration:Active collaboration takes things to the next level. Design and construct your collaboration by looking for opportunities to leverage capabilities, expertise, resources, diversity of thinking styles, and experiences. Involving all employees in everything from start to finish can lead to impressive results because it utilizes their unique strengths and abilities.
3. Extreme Transparency:Transparency is a key component in building an effective innovation cycle. When employees at every level are aware of major and minor changes, they feel empowered and included. Transparency builds trust, which then creates confidence.

To cultivate a growing organization, leaders need to ensure employees feel comfortable taking risks and not judged if they fail. Leaders need to set clear objectives and expectations for their team.

For innovation leaders, it is vital to learn how to turn failures into successes. Innovation is all about seeing opportunities others don't see and seizing them. Successful failures lead to successful innovations.

The experimentation phase is within the innovation process, often full of failures. These failures are not always negative. When things don't go as planned, failures allow us to see what needs change. Successful innovations require risk and a capacity for productive failures, which reveal something new about the problem you are trying to solve. To experience productive failure, you have to fail successfully. Three characteristics help you figure out if your failures are successful.

1. Effort: Innovators must have a strong sense of commitment even when others give up hope. Ask yourself this question, "did you put your 100% best effort into a project"?. If so, you are one step closer to a productive failure.
2. Perspective: Reflect on what happened during each failure, learn from it, and apply what you learned to future innovations. Ask yourself, "what does the experience teach you about what works and what doesn't"?
3. Inspiration: Failure from experiments might lead to lessons about the nature of the problem, inspiring better solutions. They can also teach us something about how we think. Through failures, you can learn how to solve problems better. Ask this question, "Does this new understanding inspire a new understanding that wasn't there before?"