The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

It is crucial to stand out among the crowd in a world filled with so many innovations. Organizations that want to improve their innovation impact need to implement a high-impact strategy. We will be exploring the seven essential ingredients of agile innovation.

Agile is the ability to think/understand quickly and move quickly and flexibly. Agile innovation helps teams deliver high-impact innovations. It consists of constant testing and experimenting to solve a problem. The ultimate goal is to provide innovation that is scalable and sustainable.

It is essential to keep in mind that agile innovation is a process. When viewing the agile innovation framework, understand that it's not a "one size fits all." It would be best if you adapted this framework to your organization.

The first ingredient of agile innovation is collaborating with stakeholders or those that benefit from what you deliver. Collaborate closely with them because this helps you build a shared understanding of the problem. From this, you'll gain a higher likelihood of success and ensure met needs.

The second essential ingredient is focusing on high-impact innovations. Focusing on impact helps ensure the value of impact delivered. The team needs to be on the same page in this process. The third ingredient is a culture of continuous experiments. Continuous experiments help organizations learn fast and make decisions that lead to sustainable results.

In 2020, we had Stefan Thomke from Harvard Business School on the show, and he wrote an excellent book on this topic. The fourth ingredient is self-organizing teams. These teams are responsible and accountable for their work. They don't have to wait for permission to take action, which speeds up decision-making and execution. Define and agree on the problem statement, and let the team execute.

The fifth essential ingredient is a cross-disciplinary team. Teams with diverse backgrounds and skillsets are unique and powerful. The sixth ingredient is the right innovation agility metrics. These are not just usual innovation metrics such as the 3M metric used to ensure that new product revenue grows. An agile-specific metric would be something like how many things are in your innovation queue. Stick with a few metrics, and don't go overboard with them.

The seventh essential ingredient of agile innovation is short iterative ideation, testing, prototyping, and repeat cycles. This is done in a structured way. Keep aggressive schedules with planned progress towards the execution. Remember that if you run into a wall and something is simply not working, stop. Be willing to kill the project and move on to the next.

We are finishing up a two-part series on innovation leaders. Innovation leadership skills go beyond the basic skills associated with managing people or processes. They are leadership styles to increase creativity, competency, and collaboration that result in innovations that contribute to the organization's success.

The Harvard Business Review recently said, "A major paradox managers face is that the systems that enable success with today's model reinforce behaviors that are inconsistent with discovering tomorrow's model." Today's rules and structures for organizations create innovation roadblocks. It's vital to appoint a leader with the characteristics to lead your innovation effort. Secondly, it's essential to support them with resources (people, time, and money) and give them space to work.

Let's look at the nine characteristics every successful innovation leader needs. Firstly, innovation leaders need to be comfortable with risk. An innovation leader must have risk tolerance and analyze possible outcomes to make the best decision. Secondly, leaders need expertise in effective communication, conveying visions, commanding respect, and understanding ideas' inherent risks and advantages.

Thirdly, innovation leaders need to remain humble and open to new ideas. This will help cultivate an innovative organization. Next, innovation leaders need to have low anxiety since unnecessary stress depletes creativity. A leader with low anxiety will make their team feel comfortable and secure.

The fifth characteristic is self-confidence, as innovation leaders constantly deal with unknowns. An innovation leader believes they'll succeed and stay positive. The next characteristic is being oriented towards action. Innovation leaders feel energized by action and enjoy leading change that produces innovation. Next, innovation leaders are active collaborators, creating a culture of trust, mutual respect, and shared aspiration of a mutual goal. Innovations that come from collaborative sharing can propel organizations to greater heights.

The eighth characteristic is being a rule breaker. Innovation leaders understand that consistently following the rules can become rigid and put people in a rut. They seek to generate insight and knowledge through non-traditional ways, such as experimentation, free exploration, improvisation, and breaking the rules of doing something. Lastly, an innovation leader needs to be a keen observer, perceiving new patterns and details. The ability to notice things that may have gone unnoticed helps innovation leaders make accurate assessments and figure out the best solution to a problem.

• https://yscouts.com/10-innovation-leadership-characteristics/
• https://blog.trginternational.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-collaborative-leadership
• https://workingcapitalreview.com/2019/12/removing-roadblocks-on-the-road-to-innovation/

Innovation is the secret sauce to success. Unfortunately, efforts to create innovative products or services often get derailed by good intentions, market factors, or other roadblocks holding us back.

Business leadership has spent billions searching for innovation. From creating Innovation Centers to investing in incubators, organizations continue on a snipe hunt for innovation. It must be a snipe hunt because 94% of executives say they are frustrated with their company's efforts to harness innovation. The prominent paradox managers face is that systems enabling success based on today's management model reinforce behaviors inconsistent with an innovation culture.

Innovation leadership must remove the inertia barrier as a first step toward embracing innovation. To do this, start at the top with leaders that welcome and support new and more innovative ways of thinking. Leadership must lead with bold, creative ideas first. This will inspire the spark that can spread into a cultural conflagration of innovation over time.

Let's get specific on the eight leadership roadblocks that prevent organizations from achieving innovation success. Firstly, groupthink occurs when everyone makes the unspoken decision to follow the group's thinking. Groupthink stunts innovation and prevents some of the best ideas from being presented.

Secondly, there is burnout, which comes from firing on all cylinders, killing creativity. Innovation depends on creativity, so make sure to find time to rest. The third roadblock is a lack of resources, coming in time, people, and money. When innovation teams lack resources, it's hard to go past the ideas and into execution.

The fourth roadblock is insufficient trust, which is especially essential to innovation efforts. When trust within organizations is lacking, teams will be skeptical that their ideas will be executed and won't even try. The fifth roadblock is stopping at ideas. Ideas have to come with action by inspired and engaged employees. Letting good ideas die in the pipeline is a common innovation pitfall. Avoid that.

Next is preferential treatment, stemming from managers not valuing diverse opinions or only valuing one person's opinion. This results in fewer ideas and low-impact innovations. The seventh roadblock is a lack of collaboration, which comes from leaders giving individual credit for ideas. This creates an unwillingness to collaborate with others. Without a strong culture of collaboration, an organizations' innovation efforts will fail.

Lastly, there is the roadblock of fear. It's not safe to fail when there isn't any trust that failure is a normal part of the innovation process. Sometimes, the riskiest ideas end up being the best, and innovation efforts suffer without them. Leaders who promote an innovation-friendly workplace culture are crucial in today's world. Doomed leaders and organizations are those who don't innovate.

6 Potential Roadblocks to Innovation

Navigating Innovation Roadblocks

Why is Collaborative Leadership Important?

To know more about about leadership roadblocks, listen to this week's show: 8 Leadership Roadblocks to Innovation.

[irp posts="4392" name="Subscribe to Podcast"]

Eric Yuan, the CEO of Zoom, is a longtime friend of mine whose leadership has positively impacted countless people. Zoom is a sponsor of the show, and we are honored to have Eric join us to discuss game-changing innovations.

During COVID-19, Zoom saw explosive growth from schools, businesses, and individuals alike. Eric attributes two factors to Zoom's success: the product's architecture that supports a hybrid model and the ability to increase servers as more traffic arose. If more bandwidth were available, new features would be better, and quality would be higher.

Eric believes increasing bandwidth will be vital to Zoom's future innovations. Zoom's original goal was to create a quality video conferencing app, which they accomplished. In the future, Eric wants to transform Zoom into a platform company. He envisions bringing third-party contexts to the interface, such as games and other consumer apps.

Eric believes Zoom will be able to deliver a better meeting experience than face-to-face meetings. The opportunities are endless, from language translations during business meetings to doctors supporting live surgeries happening overseas. Eric is especially excited about Zoom's future in telehealth and education. Patients can comfortably receive the care they need when they need it, and this will only improve.

Higher education institutions and K-12 schools leverage Zoom across the world. Eric believes the future of education will be a hybrid model, similar to the future of work. Killer innovations come from the right collaborations, bandwidth, and artificial intelligence integration.

Eric believes the future of work is hybrid because it offers employees flexibility and shields them from mental health problems. When Zoom creates new features, they always ask if the features will support a hybrid work system. Different businesses are trying different setups for their hybrid work models. Focusing on making remote workers feel connected is a guiding principle for Zoom's innovations.

Recently, Zoom announced some exciting new features at Zoomtopia. They announced a live language translation feature. They also announced a Docusign integration and the adoption of other apps into the Zoom ecosystem.

Eric Yuan is the billionaire founder of Zoom, a popular video communications tool that took flight during the coronavirus pandemic. Eric was previously one of the founding engineers at WebEx, which Cisco Systems acquired in 2007. He went on to become the VP at Cisco Systems.

Eric is a Chinese native that moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 after eight failed attempts to obtain a visa. Business Insider named Eric one of the most influential people in enterprise technology. In 2018, Glassdoor voted him as the number one CEO of large companies and added him to the Bloomberg 50 Most Influential list.

We are back to discuss impactful healthcare-related innovations, specifically disability innovation. Kevin Spencer is an award-winning magician who is passionate about developing children with autism.

Kevin is a magician known by many as "the kid whisperer." Years ago, Kevin had a brain and spine injury from a motorcycle accident. During the therapy process, he started learning magic tricks to keep himself busy and motivated. After seeing how well it worked, he developed Magic Therapy, a program that uses simple magic tricks to boost motivation, curiosity, and creative expression.

When first testing the program, Kevin worked with adults but felt intimidated by children. He was hesitant to work with a child but took on the challenge. At first, his tricks weren't doing anything, but the child became curious and engaged after the second trick. After the session, Kevin noticed the child's father crying. The father told him that was the first time he had ever heard his child speak. After that experience, Kevin committed to developing children who have autism.

Kevin always wanted to be a magician and feels very privileged to use his passion in a way that impacts others. For kids told that they can't do things, performing magic tricks gives them the ability to do something that a peer or sibling can't do.

Kevin's team created an innovative program designed for a school system called Hocus Focus. The magic tricks address the objectives of a child's education program that develops functional skills. The tricks connect to a common core standard of learning. A teacher can use the trick to deliver academic content, and occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists can use the same trick to work on the child's functional aspects.

Kevin and a colleague developed an assessment for teachers to measure the impact of the Hocus Focus program. Dozens of school districts in the U.S use the program, but the most significant market is overseas. There is a greater appreciation of the arts in foreign countries.

I believe we need to bring back the arts to the U.S school system. There are so many things to be learned from the arts with no other way to learn it. Magic tricks give those on the autism spectrum the opportunity to think with flexibility. There is amazing creativity buried inside them, and they need a way to express it. If we can find a way to support them and bring them into organizations, they can unlock unbelievable amounts of innovation.

Kevin Spencer is the Director at the Center 4 Creative Arts, a Fulbright Specialist & Subject Matter for the U.S Department of State, a Research Consultant for the UAB Arts in Medicine and Occupational Therapy Programs, and a Faculty member at Carlow University.

Kevin is an award-winning performing magician who has toured the world with his wife and partner for over 25 years. He also serves as a Teaching Artist through the Hocus Focus and Magic Therapy programs.

We are back in Texas with a venture capital firm and its FinTech portfolio company. Bryan Chambers and Joel Radtke join us to discuss venture capital innovation and the journey of an up-and-coming Texas startup.

Capital Factory is a firm that connects investors with new companies and talent. Texas has five of the twelve largest and fastest-growing cities in the U.S, making it a hot area for startups and investors. When it comes to raising capital, many middle-market companies struggle. They often run into various credit risks leading to rejection by banks.

Raising capital is where Joel Radtke and Collateral Edge come into play. Collateral Edge is a startup that uses technology to mitigate risk, allowing the borrower to secure needed bank loans, aiding both the lender and the borrower. Because of Collateral Edge's technologies, banks can form new relationships that benefit them and their community.

When it comes to startups like Collateral Edge, people often make the mistake of failing to plan around their ideas. The value is not in the idea. It's in the execution. It is vital to build a relationship with investors and help them fully understand the vision before asking them for money.

The team at Collateral Edge was patient in the process and built solid relationships. As a result, Collateral Edge has gained large Texas investors, New York investors with massive capital pools, Silicon Valley investors who have grown billion-dollar companies, etc. They intentionally targeted investors who could help with bank relationships, capital, and technology, which has paid off.

Bryan's advice for innovators with ideas but no connections are simple. If you live in or near a large metropolitan area, you need to seek out the startup community. Looking for a community sounds easy, but it requires a lot of effort.

Step two is to work for somebody else who is building a startup. Building a startup is a complex and challenging thing to do. When you work for someone else's startup, you will gain a wealth of knowledge that you can apply to your future startup efforts.

Bryan Chambers is the Vice President of Ventures at Capital Factory. He manages the statewide accelerator and investment operations for the venture capital firm.

He is a founding member of Venture Dallas, a venture capital conference in Dallas, Texas. Bryan is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas and the Director of the UT Dallas Seed Fund for technology startups founded by students. Bryan holds a B.A. in Business Marketing and an M.B.A in Entrepreneurship from UT Arlington.

Joel Radtke is the Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Collateral Edge. Collateral Edge provides banks with an innovative, automated solution to bolster credit profiles on individual loans to allow greater underwriting flexibility while mitigating risk. He is the former Co-Founder and C.F.O. at United Orthopedic Group. Additionally, Joel has worked in the investment banking and private equity industries. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Government from Harvard University.

Artist Uprising connects creative talent with large corporations and businesses. The company started with Merrick's passion for artists and her desire to see "starving artists" get paid. Many talented artists lack business skills. There is a need for them to bridge the gap between their work and the business world. Both sides have a hard time communicating their needs. Merrick comes in and helps them get on the same page.

When it comes to finding artists, Merrick does a lot of work through Instagram. Her team focuses on acquiring talent that isn't mega-famous yet but still has large followings. Having consistent content that has a purpose is very important as well. Merrick refers to word of mouth as one of the best ways to find solid talent, similar to how the corporate world operates.

When the conversation of NFTs started getting popular, Merrick got flooded with requests from artists wanting to collaborate. NFTs are digital assets that are purchased and represent things like pieces of art. Artist Uprising eventually hosted the first NFT pop-up gallery in the Richardson area, the third in the country. The event was successful and boosted the business.

In Richardson, Artist Uprising pulls in local artists to work on murals, augmented reality murals, live music activations, live music festivals, etc. For businesses, they even bring in musicians to perform at monthly happy hours. During COVID, murals were the company's principal work. Since musicians couldn't play live shows, they augmented pre-recorded concerts within art murals.

Now more than ever, Merrick believes that brands want to connect with creatives. Last year, Artist Uprising collaborated with Cannon USA when they were coming out with a poster printer. The commercial was artist-focused rather than product-focused, which promoted the printer in perfect light.

Large collaborations are often challenging to make authentic, but they can be done with the right people and focus. Artists live and breathe ideation, but when companies are over-controlling, they halt that creativity. Artist Uprising educates and brings both parties together, resulting in unique innovations that benefit everyone.

Merrick is the Founder of Artist Uprising, a business resource for talent and a talent resource for business. They focus on abolishing starving artistry by curating and booking talent and creative experiences for brands and organizations. Merrick is becoming an NFT expert in Richardson, Texas. She is passionate about bridging the gap between creatives and the corporate world.

Adaptive 3D is an innovative company that partnered with Desktop Metal and UT Dallas. Walter Voit discusses the innovation behind microarchitecture within material manufacturing and how partnerships in Richardson, Texas, have created a thriving innovation ecosystem.

At Adaptive 3D, Walter focuses on using 3D printing to produce additive materials. The company recently joined Desktop Metal to mass manufacture durable materials rapidly. Printing is often limited to small parts, so the company focuses on manufacturing large materials.

In companies like Adaptive 3D, a new generation of designers uses AI to enhance the manufacturing process. Materials are more intelligently architected, resulting in lower costs, lighter materials, increased sustainability, etc. Microarchitecture is what drives these innovations. As technologies scale, the ability to build large microarchitecture inexpensively becomes a reality.

In the past, there has always been a tradeoff between going green and being cost-efficient. The goal of Adaptive 3D is to have a balance of both. If, by the power of microarchitecture, turning cost structure on its head, it will benefit both the internal supply chain and external customers.

Adaptive 3D is a few miles from UT Dallas. Walter is an associate professor of material science and engineering and mechanical engineering at the university. Even though it's a young university, UT-Dallas has been a pioneer in tech transfer and the original location for the core technology.

In Dallas, there is an incredible drive to solve practical problems for industries. Since the tech transfer program emerged, the university has supported founders and inventors and flourished innovation. Part of this is because local industries and UT Dallas have such close ties. The university truly understands what the industry needs to survive and thrive.

The Richardson IQ is the real deal when looking at public and private cooperation. UT-Dallas, Texas Instruments, Raytheon, etc., has created a merging ecosystem of startups and seasoned experts who want to change the game. In Texas, people don't look to the government to solve their problems. Instead, they do it themselves. Government leadership has established a system that supports this mindset, allowing the ecosystem to thrive.

Walter Voit is the President and CEO at Adaptive3D, the premium Additive Manufacturing polymer resin supplier. Walter leads one of the new University of Texas – Dallas research centers in the IQ, focused on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Desktop Metal recently acquired adaptive 3D.

Joining us are three guests who lead innovation efforts in Richardson, Texas, known for the "Telecom Corridor." The Richardson Innovation Quarter (IQ) lies within the city, a 1,200 square foot land where innovative companies and entrepreneurs collaborate.

Paul Voelker has been in the Richardson, Texas area for over thirty years. To Paul, being mayor is his way of giving back to the community. Richardson has a wealth of innovation history behind it. At the time when Paul became Mayor, Richardson's innovation focus was on large companies. He and his team decided to shift the focus from large companies to entrepreneurs and startups. Doug McDonald leveraged Richardson's history and the city's connection with the University of Texas – Dallas. His task was implementing the mayor's vision to bring new innovative companies and individuals to Richardson,

An innovation partnership with UT Dallas has been a key factor in IQ's growth. Dr. Joseph Pancrazio is the Vice President for Research at UT Dallas in Richardson and is part of the Innovation Quarter. The partnership's primary focus is revitalizing the IQ through specialized innovation efforts. The university believes that its partnership with the City of Richardson is the beginning of something unique.

Paul and the city team understand and embrace the fact that they live in a global marketplace. UT-Dallas exemplifies this marketplace with the diversity of its students. Dr. Pancrazio says that UT-Dallas has 200 national merit scholars and that the students have created a culture of excellence. Paul emphasizes the diverse group of talented students in the city during talks with businesses about moving there. In my opinion, it is that diversity that often brings excellent ideas.

In terms of selling the vision of the new IQ, the biggest obstacle that Doug deals with is running a major hub to showcase the area's uniqueness. Through the partnership with Dr. Pancrazio and UT-Dallas, this hub is in the works. UT-Dallas offers the companies in Richardson the opportunity to acquire research from them, often sparking innovations.

In Richardson, places like the IQ create value, culture, and ultimately wealth. This wealth is what drives many innovative ideas. It then gets reinvested back into institutions, companies, and the highly educated workforce in the area. There is power in the vision held by both teams; Mayor Voelker's and the University of Dallas, Richardson's.

Paul Voelker is the current Mayor of Richardson, Texas, and a Business Development Executive at Lone Star Analysis. After receiving his BA in Business Administration from William Penn University, Paul went to work for HP, where he took on numerous roles in his twenty-eight years with the company. He is a sales and marketing executive with experience in business development, marketing, and portfolio and alliance management.

Doug McDonald is the Strategic Initiatives Manager at the City of Richardson, under Mayor Paul Voelker.

Dr. Joseph Pancrazio is the Vice President for Innovation & Research at the City of Richardson under Mayor Paul Voelker.

Today, we see an emergence of technologies in healthcare. Richardson Methodist Medical Center is at the helm of breakthrough medical innovations. Josh Smith joins us to discuss his work at the medical center around cardiology and electrophysiology.

Technology has allowed physicians and scientists to explore sub-specialties of specialties like cardiology. Josh is a cardiologist specializing in electrophysiology, the study of the heart's conduction, and correct abnormal heart rhythms.

Fifty years ago, there wasn't a lot that cardiologists could do to help those with heart issues. Partnerships between physicians and companies aided in accelerating healthcare innovation. Due to these partnerships, many of the technologies created are available to consumers. One ongoing challenge for hospital systems is acquiring technology and staying up to date with it.

Eight years ago, at the Cable Labs, the healthcare industry asked us to create a cable lab. We had to get the hospitals and the manufactures to work together to standardize the operation. This task was very complicated because it required several different components to work together.

Josh has noticed how more people are now researching the health issues they are having. The availability of information empowers people to do their research. Growing up, my mom would avoid the doctor at all costs, but with personalized healthcare, there is now so much good that can be done.

The evolution of technology has opened up the door for life-changing treatment. My dad had a severe heart issue in the 1970s, and the technology at the time left him in the hospital for three or four days. Now, top cardiologists can perform certain operations in ten minutes. Years ago, Josh had a pain in his chest and went to get it checked. It turned out he had a blockage and had to get two stints. He is thankful that he went because he protected his heart for the long term. None of this would have been possible if it weren't for innovators in the medical field.

People often think that all innovation happens in Silicon Valley. In reality, there are innovators all over the U.S and all around the world. The people at Richardson Methodist Medical are doing some groundbreaking innovations. A typical open-heart surgery would take seven to ten days. At Richard Methodist Medical Center, a device bypasses that process.

About four years ago, the medical center launched the TAVR Program, which deploys a valve within your heart's valve, resulting in the valve functioning again. This procedure drastically improves the lives of those suffering from heart issues. The outcome of this healthcare innovation is truly amazing.

Currently, pacemakers have a life of 7-10 years. Innovators in the medical world are currently working on making chargeable pacemakers, which Josh is excited about. Josh is also excited about the possibility of 3D-printed organs and things of that nature. Dean Kamen, who was previously on the show, is currently creating that technology with his team.

Josh is also really excited about the potential of telehealth. Due to COVID, telehealth accelerated, and I believe it will continue to grow. Josh thinks the next big one will be something related to telehealth when it comes to healthcare consumer devices.

Josh Smith is a U.S Army Veteran and an Invasive Cardiologist, Electrophysiologist, and Radiologist at Methodist Richardson Medical Center in Richardson, Texas. Josh joined the team at Methodist Richardson Medical Center in 2015 and is passionate about advancing healthcare innovation through technology and evidence-based practice.