The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

Chunka Mui is passionate about changing the world by thinking through future problems. He loves to ponder what is possible in the future, given the exponential growth we are experiencing now. As innovators, we forget to consider our innovations' unintended consequences.  

Chunka says innovators also don't think enough about the intended consequences. His latest book, A Brief History of a Perfect Future, asks what would be crazy not to have, given the current capabilities. It goes on to share how society can work to design a better future intentionally. It's a different way to look at how we innovate, not just for social good but for business good as well.

Much of Chunka's new book is helping people think outside of the box. The book does a great job of actively motivating people to think differently to make a better future. We have incredible tools that act as amplifiers to our choices. Advanced solar and renewable energy, transportation, etc., act as building blocks. We can use these capabilities to help with problems such as healthcare and poverty. So much more can be done, but it all starts with a long-term mindset.

According to Chunka, the climate is one of the most pressing issues. With the available capabilities, it would be crazy if we didn't mitigate the worst effects of climate change by 2050. To do this will require a combination of individual, corporate, and government action.

Leaders can look for business opportunities that address long-term problems. Consumers can make an impact through what they buy and don't buy. Investors can enable companies to make significant impacts. Employees can bring their talent to impactful organizations. We can all play an active role in designing a perfect future where real change happens. Aim for the future and treat it as an opportunity.

Chunka Mui is a popular guest speaker, futurist, and innovation advisor. He is the author of 5 books on strategy and innovation, including, most recently, “A Brief History of a Perfect Future: Inventing the World We Can Proudly Leave Our Kids by 2050.”

Check out Chunka's Linkedin here and his website here.

To know more about thinking through future problems,  listen to this week's show: Chunka Mui on Innovating a Perfect Future.

Chunka is passionate about changing the world by thinking through future problems. He loves to ponder what is possible in the future, given the exponential growth we are experiencing now. As innovators, we forget to consider our innovations' unintended consequences.

Chunka says innovators also don't think enough about the intended consequences. His latest book, A Brief History of a Perfect Future, asks what would be crazy not to have, given the current capabilities. It goes on to share how society can work to design a better future intentionally. It's a different way to look at how we innovate, not just for social good but for business good as well.

Much of Chunka's new book is helping people think outside of the box. The book does a great job of actively motivating people to think differently to make a better future. We have incredible tools that act as amplifiers to our choices. Advanced solar and renewable energy, transportation, etc., act as building blocks. We can use these capabilities to help with problems such as healthcare and poverty. So much more can be done, but it all starts with a long-term mindset.

According to Chunka, the climate is one of the most pressing issues. With the available capabilities, it would be crazy if we didn't mitigate the worst effects of climate change by 2050. To do this will require a combination of individual, corporate, and government action.

Leaders can look for business opportunities that address long-term problems. Consumers can make an impact through what they buy and don't buy. Investors can enable companies to make significant impacts. Employees can bring their talent to impactful organizations. We can all play an active role in designing a perfect future where real change happens. Aim for the future and treat it as an opportunity.

Chunka Mui is a popular guest speaker, futurist, and innovation advisor. He is the author of 5 books on strategy and innovation, including, most recently, "A Brief History of a Perfect Future: Inventing the World We Can Proudly Leave Our Kids by 2050."

Check out Chunka's Linkedin here and his website here.

Outsourcing innovation is an exciting way to increase innovation competitiveness. Utilizing organizations like an innovation agency can allow firms to focus on other business areas. The results are increased efficiency, improved quality, faster innovation implementation, reduced innovation risk, and increased flexibility.

Outsourcing innovation can be a powerful tool to help companies speed up their growth. By understanding the risks and challenges, companies can set themselves up for success.

Useful for specific projects, specialized skills, or testing out new relationships.

This collaboration can benefit companies wanting to share the risks and rewards associated with innovation.

Beneficial for companies wanting to combine resources and ideation expertise to create a competitive advantage.

Agreements allow access to another company's technology or expertise.

Allows companies to add innovation capabilities or enter a new market quickly.

In Apple's work with Foxconn, it outsourced its product manufacturing. The outsourcing allowed Apple to focus on design and development, while Foxconn created innovations to produce the products. As a result, Apple could bring new products to market quickly and efficiently.

On the flip side, BlackBerry's work with TAT failed. TAT was supposed to take over UI/UX development, helping recapture market share from Apple and Android. TAT and Blackberry could not develop an operating system fast enough to keep up with the competition. BlackBerry lost market share, and both companies had to fire staff.

1. Have a clear understanding of what the company wants to achieve.
2. Have a strong relationship and be able to work together effectively.
3. Ensure companies can trust each other.
4. Ensure both parties are willing to invest the necessary time and resources.
5. Look for companies with a proven track record of innovation.
6. Understand the company's business model and how it aligns with yours.
7. Understand their capabilities, including strengths, weaknesses, tools, and processes.
8. Understand their team's culture and skills.

Design plays a vital role in our lives and is ever-evolving. In the past, it meant designing or planning something. In the early 1800s, the term was synonymous with art, and in the late 1900s, it referred to creating products or services. Over time, design has gone from being a specialized field tied to specific design movements to a more holistic approach. Now, it's a way of thinking that considers the entire design process from start to finish. In today's rapid and ever-changing world, businesses need constant innovation. This is where design thinking shines through.

Design thinking is a process that allows the design of products, services, and environments to be developed in an iterative design cycle with continuous feedback. It helps designers create innovative solutions by applying constraints like time and money.

Solving for constraints is an iterative process of design, testing, and refinement called the "design thinking cycle." Innovators use this process to create solutions no matter the constraint. It focuses on a user-centric approach used in many fields. Design thinking is an adaptable process that can design for changing needs.

Creativity allows designers to develop new ideas and find innovative solutions to problems.

The design thinking approach, based on the idea that there is no one right solution to a problem, is vital to come up with multiple possible solutions.

In design thinking, designers need to think critically to determine great ideas with practical solutions.

Designers need to collaborate to brainstorm and come up with the best possible solutions.

Designers must communicate effectively to share ideas, get feedback, collaborate, and explain ideas to management and stakeholders.

Healthcare design can improve patient safety, increase access to care, and reduce costs.

Design can improve student learning by making it more accessible, enjoyable, and affordable.

Design innovation in transportation can improve safety, reduce congestion, and increase efficiency.

One of the main goals of design in technology should be a human-centered design to improve usability.

The science of creativity has many theories and ideas that seek to explain it. New approaches and models are constantly emerging, which provide some insight but are not exhaustive. One theory suggests that creativity combines cognitive processes, including knowledge, imagination, etc. However, proof shows that experts and those with fresh eyes can often be creative in the same area.

The four-phase model comprises the following phases: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. The preparation consists of gathering information and materials, developing a plan, and finding inspiration. Incubation is utilizing deep thought and focus on developing the idea. Illumination is where the idea's potential is visible, and the execution around it is understood. Verification consists of evaluating the worth of the idea to those working on it and those it will impact.

The creative abilities model outlines five creative abilities: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and synthesis. Fluency (ideation) is the ability to produce several rapid ideas, allowing for exploration and experimentation. Flexibility allows people to adapt to new situations and environments. To measure originality, compare your idea to existing ideas, research patents, etc. Elaboration is taking an initial idea and making it more comprehensive and complex. Synthesis is taking ideas and concepts from different sources and combining them into something new.

Some people believe that AI could eventually become creative. Because there is no absolute definition of creativity, it's difficult if this will come true. In the meantime, researchers are working on ways to make AI more creative, such as by developing algorithms that can better identify and combine novelty and usefulness.

People correlate creativity with mental illness because many creatives have spoken about their mental illness struggles. Some studies have found links between specific mental illnesses and increased levels of creativity. The currently available evidence does not support the myth that creativity and mental illness are linked.

Chronic innovation critics are people and processes that kill new ideas before they can thrive. They prevent you from trying new things and learning from failures. The criticisms may result in your organization getting stuck in its current state. Innovation critics love to point out why an idea will fail. These people are often the ones who have been with the organization the longest and are the most resistant to change. All organizations need people to push back and challenge ideas because it improves them. The key is to combat them with specific, objective, and actionable criticism.

"Oh, I already thought of that a long time ago."

"Somebody else has already come up with that idea."

Your idea makes these people feel threatened, but you can strategically turn things around. Appeal to their ego by infusing any feedback they give into your idea pitch to gain their support.

"You'll never get approval."

"We tried that before."

Innovation critics are often burned out from having their innovations rejected. The key is to find a way to demonstrate that your idea will not play out their worst fears about repeating past experiences.

"Not enough return on investment."

"We can't afford that."

Some innovation critics fear risk as it can negatively affect their careers. Get them comfortable with risk by breaking your innovation into smaller steps.

"We've always done it this way."

"Our customer likes it this way."

These critics may have outdated thinking about what success looks like. It's up to you to convince them that what makes up success may well have changed.

With each of the four responses to your ideas, these critics can be constructive or destructive. These will be dependent on their intent and how feedback is received. Identify which of these responses you typically get, and then try to understand their motivations. If people tend to dismiss your ideas, try to explain your vision in more detail or share data supporting your case.

To overcome chronic innovation critics, encourage a diversity of perspectives, make it safe to fail, and reward innovation. This action will help to create a culture of innovation within an organization.

Innovation storytelling helps capture people's attention and connect with them on an emotional level. This connection is what allows you to get your message across in a way that is both memorable and meaningful, leading to lasting change.

In an organization storytelling can help build an innovation culture, inspiring people to ideate and take action. Additionally, it can help create a sense of community and collaboration. Storytelling can also attract support such as funding or partnerships. There are two types of storytelling: origin stories and innovation stories. An origin story typically tells the story of how a company or product came to be, while an innovation story focuses on a specific new idea or invention.

At Techtrend, innovation storytelling is an integral part of the innovation process. Teams use storytelling to prototype and test new ideas with customers and users, and to communicate innovation results internally. As a result, people get excited and are more likely to be committed to the innovation's success.

Identify key points of the story and write in a way that hooks readers from beginning to end.

To do this, you need to find an interesting story that highlights the innovation and is done so authentically.

To do this, you must understand the different elements that make up the story. Present drafts, early versions, and the final draft to test audiences, colleagues, and friends, to collect feedback.

To keep things relevant, you must understand the audience's interests, concerns, fears, and hopes. Once you know that, you can frame the story in a relevant and interesting way.

Authentic storytelling needs to be true to the storyteller's or audience's current and future experiences.

Keeping things concise gets your point across quickly and effectively.

Successful companies know that storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to connect with customers and inspire their teams. Storytelling can help your company stand out from the competition and be seen as a leader in your field.

Techtrend has years of experience creating successful storytelling campaigns for a wide range of clients, as well as tools and resources to distribute the story. If you're looking for a company that can help you with your innovation storytelling in a powerful and impactful way, contact us at [email protected].

We are joined by Craig Leddy of Interactive TV Works to discuss innovation in the media industry.

Most people don't think of the media industry as a driver for innovation. People tend to overlook the fact things like cable TV took decades to get to where it is today. In the media and cable industries, the process behind the technologies tends to get overlooked. People look at pioneers such as Ted Turner and think they were overnight successes. These things took time and tons of effort, and there were many unsung heroes along the way. While there are big players such as Comcast, Spectrum, etc., there are still many small cable operators out there. These companies are building out fiber and working hard to close the digital divide. Although not as large as before, the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and well in the cable industry.

COVID-19 opened people's eyes to the two dimensions of the digital divide: availability and affordability. Major companies, along with the Whitehouse and SEC, just agreed to create a broadband offer at an affordable price. While these companies in the cable industry compete, they collaborate when it is the right thing to do. For eleven years, Craig has run the Interactive Case Competition with graduate-level students. The competition presents real-world challenges to students and brings in industry experts to guide and coach them. The last competition focused on figuring out how to motivate people to connect once broadband is widely available and affordable. The winning team from Drexel University created a plan where households with students could get more broadband at an affordable price. This competition, along with the CableLabs 10G Challenge, is a great way for innovators to help improve impactful technologies.

Security and privacy are key issues in the tech world today, for individuals and corporations alike. Many companies have no choice but to put up big safety walls to keep them protected. Whether you are a large or small company, security is a problem you must deal with. On the other hand, individuals have more freedom to ignore these worries. With all the ransomware headlines popping up these days, some people feel safer offline. There will no doubt be people who aren't trusting of broadband once it is widely available. It will be interesting to see how companies present broadband to those who have never been online.

Craig is a leading authority, writer, lecturer, research analyst, and historian on the cable industry, broadband, interactive media, television, digital technology, and wireless. Craig serves as the Founder, President, and Senior Market Analyst at Interactive TV Works, a consultancy based outside New York City. Craig has more than 30 years of business and tech writing experience, previously including top editor positions with Electronic Media and Cablevision Magazine and columnist for Multichannel News. He was inducted into Cable Pioneers in 2020.

To connect with Craig, check out his LinkedIn here.

Today's show will be a commencement speech I virtually gave on the biggest barrier to innovation.

Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause pain or a threat. For humans, fear tends to build on itself. Fear stands for false evidence that appears. Our brains can take "false evidence" and twist it into the worst potential outcome, making it "appear real". This occurs as we strive for perfection, whether as an employee, spouse, leader, parent, or in this case, a student. The reality is that nobody is perfect, and failure is an unavoidable part of life. The most successful people have become "comfortable" with the education failure brings.

The real problem is conformity, which is thinking and acting the same as everybody else. No matter how much you conform to what others are doing, you can't avoid failure. Taking what we think is the "safe" approach puts us at more risk. It takes bravery to step out and leave the warm space of conformity to try something new. Because the world is rapidly changing, what constitutes success in the future won't be the same as in the past. When I started my career, success was defined as doing the tasks that my boss assigned to me. In the new creative economy that we are moving towards, the definition of success is creating valuable ideas that solve problems. In a recent study, only 25% of the population believe they are creative and offer value through their creativity. So why do 75% of the population think they are not able to contribute to the creative economy? They don't see being creative as normal and fear the uncomfortable risks innovation brings. Society needs your human ingenuity and creativity to solve some of our biggest problems and create opportunities for the future. Welcome failures and step out to unleash your creativity today!

An innovation strategy is a plan outlining how a business will create, develop, and bring new products or services to market to gain a competitive advantage. A strategy guides the efforts of individual employees or entire teams and tailored to the organization's unique needs. It also helps ensure the organizations' innovation initiatives remain competitive and relevant. Businesses without innovation strategies lose to competitors.

This definition includes things like creativity, risk-taking, and newness. Understanding these terms ensures everybody is on the same page when brainstorming and developing new ideas.

This description helps team members understand how new ideas are developed within the organization and provides a framework for brainstorming and ideation. The description tells how ideas are generated, evaluated, and implemented and explains the overall innovation management approach.

Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, and aligned with the organization's overall business strategy. A goal example is to develop a new product that will generate a specific dollar amount within a particular timeframe.

Key stakeholders could be the CEO, senior management, marketing department, and R&D department. It's essential to identify and consult with them when developing the innovation strategy plan so they can provide input and help to ensure success.

It's crucial to identify financial and non-financial resources to support the plan, such as funding for R&D, marketing, employee training, office space, equipment, and software.

An implementation timeline helps team members stay on track and ensures meeting the plan's goals within the set timeframe. The timeline should be specific, including milestones to meet the goal.

This assessment plan should include the number of new ideas generated, the number of ideas implemented, and their level of impact. It should also have feedback from employees, customers, and stakeholders, which can be used to adjust the innovation strategy.

To ensure best practices are shared and implemented, organizations should have a system for documenting and sharing them accessible to all employees. This could be a database of best practices, a wiki page, or a blog.

The evaluation should include a review of the technology itself and its feasibility for implementation. The team should also assess the risks and benefits of using the technology and whether it aligns with its innovation goals.

This section is essential because it outlines procedures for protecting and managing the organization's intellectual property and should include a plan for dealing with intellectual property disputes.

This policy should outline the types of innovation training and development programs available to employees. It should also include a plan for assessing the effectiveness of the programs and provide guidelines for how employees can access them.

The budget should include funds for R&D, marketing, employee training, and a fund for unexpected expenses. It's essential to regularly review and update the budget and consult with team members to ensure everyone is on the same page.