The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

When it comes to the process of generating ideas, the default answer is to host a brainstorming session. Are there other ways to generate new ideas that are not dependent on traditional brainstorming? Today on Killer Innovations, I am going to share with you five that I use.

Mind Mapping and Wishing

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

• Develop your problem statement.
• Write down the problem statement in the center of your idea (whiteboards work great).
• Expand on this problem statement by surrounding it with terms that better describe what you need.
• Now add a second layer to each of your needs describing how you might be able to solve for these individual challenges.
• Keep adding to your mind map using the steps above until you have sufficiently broken down your problem into manageable parts.

It is a fantastic ideation technique that encourages creative answers. Another great way to generate new ideas is wishing. Wishing encourages your team to let imaginations run wild. Assuming you have a well-researched and understood problem statement, ask each participant to dream up the most unattainable solutions they can think of 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:

• What makes them so impossible?
• How can that idea be scaled down?
• Which features of that wish could we integrate into this other approach?

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

Six Thinking Hats

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:

• Logic- the facts.
• Optimism- the value and the benefits.
• Devil's Advocate- the difficulties and dangers.
• Emotion- Feelings and intuitions.
• Creativity- Possibilities and new ideas.
• Management- Making sure the rules of the hats are observed.

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 for extended sessions, rotate the hats to others so everyone gets the opportunity to see the problem and ideas from a variety of different perspective.

Brain-writing and Forced Combinations

One challenge for generating ideas is to get everything that is rattling around in your head out. In this exercise, each participant takes a piece of paper and writes down a few rough ideas for solving the problem statement. Each piece of paper is then passed on to someone else, who reads it silently and adds their own ideas to the page. This process is repeated until everyone has had a chance to add to each piece of paper. Once each participant has retrieved their original piece of paper, they read and organize the ideas. Then each participant shares the notes and ideas on their piece of paper. The big advantage of brain-writing is that it makes sure everybody has an opportunity to share their ideas and it also reinforces the idea of "building on the ideas of others." The last way to generate ideas I wanted to share is one I have used with my own product teams. The premise is to look at non-logical combinations to create entirely new ideas. This exercise involves bringing together ides that serve very different needs or interest to form a new concept. How does this work?

• Bring a bag of random items to your ideation
• Draw up two lists side-by-side of the items in the bag.
• Ask a team member to pick two or more items and explore different ways they can be combined.
• On the list, draw a line for each combination shared with a brief description of the ideas that resulted.
• Put the items back in the bag.
• Next person selects two or more items and repeats the process.

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

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Everybody wants and needs change, but on the other hand we enjoy doing what we do well. We tend to limit ourselves to the things we know we do well. When it comes to innovation, this plays out in spades when a new innovation team reaches success. They become repetitive in their process, believing the steps are what lead to success. This week on Five Minutes to New Ideas we will talk about how the only way to change creativity and generate new ideas in our lives is to do it deliberately. We all can do things to get ourselves out of our old ruts and avoid the habit trap.

This week on Killer Innovations, I will discuss how to use both individual ideation and team ideation to generate disruptive ideas that will create high impact innovations.

Individual Ideation

When kicking off individual ideation, you need to ensure that the mechanics are in place.

• Make sure everyone has a stack of yellow sticky notes and sharpies.
• They will be asked to write one idea per sticky note.
• Set the expectation of time and minimum of ideas.
• No editing.
• No talking.
• Write legibly and big.

At the end of time, see how many have hit their idea quota. Then let them take a break before the next set of exercises. Now that everyone has their individual ideas in front of them, each person should take turns and go up to a flip chart and place each of their sticky notes on the flipchart and read what they wrote. Once everyone has shared their ideas, the group should step back and look at the flip chart. In some sessions, I will circle the group and have the team come up with a name for the group of ideas that are the same or nearly the same. I recorded a video of a grouping exercise I facilitated for a workshop for the US Department of Education. You can find it on my Youtube channel. Next, we want to see if there are any wow ideas. Hand out to each person on the team four sticky notes. Each person should have their own color so they can know who/what they voted for. Rules for this exercise:

• No talking.
• Place all four of your dots on a specific idea, not a group. It is okay to place more than one dot per idea. Do not overthink it and do not move other people's dots.
• Time the activity (no longer than ten minutes).

You now have everyone's ideas on the flip chart, grouping of everyone's ideas into similar overlapping ideas and marked ideas.

Group Ideation

Innovation is a team sport and that applies to ideation. The benefit of a group is when we build on each other's ideas. So, the next exercise emphasizes looking at the individual ideas and asking how to make them better. Ground rules for group ideation:

• One at a time (choose someone else's idea, not your own).
• Ideate (think out loud).
• Let ideas trigger ideas.
• Build on, develop and expand each other's ideas.
• No evaluation.

So, the exercise is:

• Build on each other's ideas.
• Select one idea you are excited about.
• Add new ideas.
• Group ideas together.
• Time the exercise for twenty-five minutes.

The next step is to now rank the groups you have come up with. It is important that you rank before you dismiss the team. You can learn more about ranking at Killer Innovations or in the chapter of my book. So, why does this process work?

• This is not just a group exercise.
• You get the benefit of individual ideation which is great on generating raw ideas.
• You get the benefit of group ideation.

These exercises are trusted and used by thousands of organizations and governments around the world. I would love to hear the results if you try this inside your team or organization. I you need help in setting up a test to see if this will work in your organization, go here. Put in your contact information and someone will reach out and help you think through how to test it in your organization.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

I find it interesting that we usually get from other people what we expect from them. The longer I live the more I realize the impact attitude has on me. When it comes to success attitude is more important than the past, your education, more than money, more than circumstance, and more than what other people think. This week on Five Minutes to New Ideas we will discuss the importance of the attitude of an innovation leader. An innovation leader needs to set their expectations high. Sow hat will your expectations be?

Today’s show is going to be a look behind the scenes around the time when I took over as CTO at HP.  This time is so important because it is the time that I came up with the concept “The Innovation Program Office.”  In today’s show we will talk about the pros and cons of the “IPO”, what are some of the things you need to think about regarding the “IPO”, and will it work for you?  The concept of “IPO” still applies today, and hopefully by the end of the show you will have your own insight of how it can apply to what you are trying to do in the organizations you serve.

History

A lot of traditional teams set up to “do innovation” by creating an innovation team.  This makes the innovation team a target because people not on the team no longer saw innovation as part of their job.  What a lot of organizations experienced was that it was hard to scale. Scaling is the key factor because scaling limits impact.  Even with major significant support, no organization can grow a dedicated team large enough.  Innovation is not a team of people where you have an innovation program office, innovation is around a capability that an organization can and should have that is part of that core of how you do things.  New teams need to show innovation value right away with a near zero team members. Most likely you will have zero funding yet, you need to show an early win. How do new teams do this? By getting others to support them.

Let them get credit for the early wins.

Be viewed as a resource to help.

Let the group benefit (new product, revenue, marketplace credit, etc.).

If you are in the innovation game and it is all about you getting the credit, the odds of you being successful in this game are near zero if not zero.  

Role of the Innovation Program Office

The role takes on many forms but the role of the “IPO” is establishing the innovation framework, securing the funding, project selection and tracking, and training and supporting the teams as they innovate.  The first thing the “IPO” needs to establish is the framework that the broader organization will align around. You need to adapt the framework to the language of the organization.  Getting others to adapt it is a “change management” process. At HP the gradual roll-out to get the framework established takes over two years for 20,000 employees. Once you have the framework in place, you need to look at the metrics.  Understand how executive decisions are made and adapt metrics to it. Test your “alpha metrics” against yourself and against your peers.

Does it reveal something?

If you have the info int eh past, would you have made different decisions?

Your objective is to find metrics that are:

Predictive of future challenges and opportunities.

Give you enough foresight to change directions and have an impact.

Satisfies the “fear” response from execs.

Prove to management that innovation can be managed.

Key with funding in the “IPO” is to move it from underneath the normal budget process and control.  Once you have the metrics it is much easier to secure the funding. Start small, prove yourself, and grow the funding.  Look forwards to what you will do not what you have done in the past. Remember that you are competing for money that could be used in other ways.  Next is project selection and tracking:

Define the criteria for project selection.

We used ranking questions.

Create their own.

Re-evaluate the selections to improve how you identify the projects that will have the biggest impact.

Once you have everything in place: the framework, metrics,

Today's show is going to be a look behind the scenes around the time when I took over as CTO at HP. This time is so important because it is the time that I came up with the concept "The Innovation Program Office." In today's show we will talk about the pros and cons of the "IPO", what are some of the things you need to think about regarding the "IPO", and will it work for you? The concept of "IPO" still applies today, and hopefully by the end of the show you will have your own insight of how it can apply to what you are trying to do in the organizations you serve.

History

A lot of traditional teams set up to "do innovation" by creating an innovation team. This makes the innovation team a target because people not on the team no longer saw innovation as part of their job. What a lot of organizations experienced was that it was hard to scale. Scaling is the key factor because scaling limits impact. Even with major significant support, no organization can grow a dedicated team large enough. Innovation is not a team of people where you have an innovation program office, innovation is around a capability that an organization can and should have that is part of that core of how you do things. New teams need to show innovation value right away with a near zero team members. Most likely you will have zero funding yet, you need to show an early win. How do new teams do this? By getting others to support them.

• Let them get credit for the early wins.
• Be viewed as a resource to help.
• Let the group benefit (new product, revenue, marketplace credit, etc.).

If you are in the innovation game and it is all about you getting the credit, the odds of you being successful in this game are near zero if not zero.

Role of the Innovation Program Office

The role takes on many forms but the role of the "IPO" is establishing the innovation framework, securing the funding, project selection and tracking, and training and supporting the teams as they innovate. The first thing the "IPO" needs to establish is the framework that the broader organization will align around. You need to adapt the framework to the language of the organization. Getting others to adapt it is a "change management" process. At HP the gradual roll-out to get the framework established takes over two years for 20,000 employees. Once you have the framework in place, you need to look at the metrics. Understand how executive decisions are made and adapt metrics to it. Test your "alpha metrics" against yourself and against your peers.

• Does it reveal something?
• If you have the info int eh past, would you have made different decisions?

Your objective is to find metrics that are:

• Predictive of future challenges and opportunities.
• Give you enough foresight to change directions and have an impact.
• Satisfies the "fear" response from execs.
• Prove to management that innovation can be managed.

Key with funding in the "IPO" is to move it from underneath the normal budget process and control. Once you have the metrics it is much easier to secure the funding. Start small, prove yourself, and grow the funding. Look forwards to what you will do not what you have done in the past. Remember that you are competing for money that could be used in other ways. Next is project selection and tracking:

• Define the criteria for project selection.
• We used ranking questions.
• Create their own.
• Re-evaluate the selections to improve how you identify the projects that will have the biggest impact.

Once you have everything in place: the framework, metrics, funding, project selection and tracking, you then need to role it out and scale it across the organization.

Impact and Pitch

In "IPO" it is about transforming the approach. It is not about being the innovators but instead being the enablers of innovation.

• Keep the "IPO" small.
• Avoid being viewed/perceived as competition to others in the organization.
• Not about the doing but the enabling.

For HP, "IPO" was never bigger than thirty-five people.

• We provided funding that was outside the budgets.
• Teams did not need to compete for money against items already generating money.
• Off the radar from their management team.
• Spread the money freely; show that you are willing to fund things that you may not see as being successful.
• Do not appear biased to your own or your team's ideas.

How do you convince leadership to create an "IPO"? Identify the challenges the organization will face without an innovation capability.

• Speed of change.
• Changing customers.
• Market expectations.
• Competitors who are changing.
• Draft and get alignment around the problem statement that the organization can rally around.

What do they want?

• Understand everyone has a boss.
• Everyone wants to look good to their boss.
• How can you help them look good to their boss?
• How can you model true partnership?
• They want to be the hero.

What do you want?

• To show what you can do.
• Show success and impact.
• Transform an organization.
• You should not want to be the hero. You want to be the guide.

How do you structure it so everyone gets what they want?

• Focus on the agreed problem statement.
• Do not forget what they and you want.
• Each decision you make ask yourself:
  • • Does this help solve the problem statement?
    • Does this help them achieve what I want?
    • Does this help me achieve what I want?

The "IPO" is an important resource, whether you create it as a separate team or use support from outside resources.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

There's an old saying that goes like this, "Speaking with passion but without the facts is like making a beautiful dive into an empty pool." To convince or persuade others to believe in your idea, you have to base your idea on incontestable facts that can be readily grasped and understood. When it comes to innovation, you not only need to get people to support your idea, but also to fund it. On this week of Five Minutes to New Ideas we will be discussing the importance of facts. What part of the story are you telling about your ideas based on absolute truth?

So, you are about to pull together a team of eight to twelve people into a brainstorming session; do not make the mistake that 90% of us make…no area of focus. Most teams will be given the challenge of to "quickly come up with a product idea." The results can be predicted; poor to none when it comes to creating any form of disruptive ideas. This week on Killer Innovations, we will talk about four steps to better brainstorm problem statements.

Brainstorming

When you pull together a team for brainstorming, creating focus is critical. When I say "creating focus" I mean that you need to tell the brainstorm team:

• Who has the problem?
• What exactly is the problem?
• Why is it important to solve?

In full or multi-day brainstorms, I have the teams develop their own problem statement. I set aside between four to eight hours to create a proper problem statement. Do no scrimp on this; spend the time! A well-defined focus via a well thought out problem statement will generate more and radically better ideas when you are ideating. The core elements have to address one of the following:

• Solve a problem.
• Remove a barrier.
• Improve an experience.

And while you try to answer all of this remember:

• Need to be concise.
• Does not state or imply a solution.
• Specific enough to be solvable in the given time frame and with available resources or competencies.

Sounds hard doesn't it? Thus, why I spend four to eight hours crafting, testing and validating a problem statement before I bring the team together.

Good and Bad Problem Statements

I have a few different templates I use for creating problem statements:

• The (what/problem) affects (who/customer) the result of which (why/importance).
• (Who/customer) is affected by (what/problem), the result of which (why/importance).

So, what are the steps that would allow you to create a well-defined problem statement? The first step is to brainstorm the problem! Ask for people to list problems, challenges, friction in the system, barriers and unmet needs. The second step is to have each individual answer the "who, what, and why" we talked about earlier in the show. Step three is to then take the answers and start to draft problem statements using the templates. Then repeat the "who, what, and why", drafting multiple versions of the problem statements. Step four is to test it with the "who", the target segment.

Testing Your Problem Statement

Once you have a version of the problem statement that you think works, you need to test it with others. Never use yourself as a proxy; you are too close to it. You test it by writing it out, editing it, simplifying it, and making it tight and concise. Then find and talk to the people who you believe have the problem. Then ask them a set of questions to validate the problem and problem statement:

• Is this (team's hypothesis) a problem for you? Why or why not?
• What problem would be solved for you if the problem was fixed?
• How frequently does the problem cause a problem for you?
• What value would you gain if this problem was solved?

Now that you have a problem statement, I would recommend sharing it with the team for the brainstorm as "homework." Have the think about the problem statement and ask them to answer the validation questions from the perspective of the individuals who would receive the benefit from the brainstorm. If you would like your team to learn how to run radically better brainstorms by writing better problem statements then I would suggest you host a one-day Disruptive Ideation Workshop.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

The tech and tools we have now available for podcasts are far superior to what we had back when I first started recording my podcasts in 2005. This got me thinking about how wonderful innovation is and how easy it is to overlook it. Fifty years ago, we lived in a way that would be considered a burden today. While it is great to be nostalgic about the past, I cannot imagine going without the innovations we have today. This week on Five Minutes to New Ideas we will talk about how change from innovation is inevitable. If you continue as you have in the past, where will you be five years from now?

It goes without saying that not all ideas are good ideas that lead to market winning innovations. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that while failures will happen, we can learn from those that have gone before us in bringing innovations to market. This week on the show, we are going to look at the five worst innovation failures and see what could have been done differently.

Five Worst Innovation Failures No. 1: The Apple Newton

In 1993, Apple launched the Newton. While I tracked this product at launch, it was not one that I found interesting enough to purchase. It was not a success because it tried to do too much. What could have been done differently?

• Get the hardware right.
• Determine the most important features users are looking for.
• Establish a model of "continuous innovation" of adding features.
• Only release features when ready and at the quality customers expect.

Palm learned from one of the five worst innovation failures. In 1997, Palm introduced the Palm Pilot, using the lessons learned from the Newton. Palm focused on the minimal viable product. Rather than doing twenty things poorly, the Palm Pilot did its core functionality extremely well. The Palm Pilot dominated the PDA market for years.

Five Worst Innovation Failures No. 2: Microsoft Zune

In 2006, Microsoft introduced their portable music player, Zune. It was Microsoft's answer to the Apple iPod. Even with a ton of marketing effort the product never took off. There was nothing unique about it that would cause someone to switch from using an iPod to take up a Zune. The product was finally killed off in 2011. What could have been done differently?

• To win you need to commit. Taking half a step by introducing a re-branded product is not a winning strategy.
• To win against an entrenched leader you need to out-innovate them.

Five Worst Innovation Failures No. 3: HD-DVD

In 2006, Toshiba, with support from Microsoft, launched HD-DVD which was supposed to become the Hi-Def successor to the DVD. Standalone HD-DVDs players were sold and Microsoft's Xbox 360 had a HD-DVD option. Most will not recall the HD-DVDs versus Blu-Ray wars. It was a direct repeat of the VHS and Betamax wars. What should have been done differently?

• HP should not have switched its position based on incentives. It injected confusion into the market and impacted its technical credibility with its partners.
• Ecosystem partnerships are critical for most, if not all, major global innovations today.

Five Worst Innovation Failures No. 4: Samsung Note 7

In 2016, Samsung came out with the Samsung Note 7. This failed because it had a problem where it occasionally caught fire and exploded. Out of prudence, the phones were banned on flights and Samsung had to recall the entire line. What could have been done differently?

• Don't let the schedule dictate launch.
• Get the quality right.
• Customers will always reward quality with loyalty.
• Balance risk of new innovations.
• Learn from others.

Five Worst Innovation Failures No. 5: TwitterPeek

In 2008, Peek introduced Twitter Peek, a hardware device which allowed users to send and receive tweets using Twitter. It was the first Twitter-only mobile device. Peek took the minimal viable product to an extreme. TwitterPeek met broad skepticism in the press. CNN listed it as one of the top ten biggest technology failures of 2009, while Gizmodo went as far as to name TwitterPeek as one of the fifty worst gadgets of the decade. In 2012, Peek dropped all of its hardware devices and shifted to making software for OEM's. What could have been done differently?

• Be careful of going to extremes.
• Test/validate.
• Don't outsource everything to the big design houses.

We can learn a lot from the innovation failures of others. Failure is part and parcel of the innovation game. Don't shy away from looking deep into failures to see what can be learned.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

An institution's impact should be measured over time. The ability to produce a great product or service is linked to the inherent drive for quality from the team who builds it. This week on Five Minutes to New Ideas we will talk about the importance of quality. There is nothing more important than to instill in ourselves, our children, and grandchildren a love for quality. Quality puts the value into everything. You should never stop asking yourself how can I improve on the quality of what I do?

Many people believe when it comes to innovation, you've either got it or you don't. But innovation is a skill that can be learned, practiced and perfected. One area of innovation is ideation. Generating quality ideas is key to keeping the innovation funnel full. How do you get started in innovation if your team doesn't have confidence in their innovation abilities? One way is to have a disruptive ideation workshop. On today's show, I talk about how to create a disruptive ideation workshop.

Boot Camp Condensed

I teach my Innovation Boot Camp course two or three times a year. This is an intense four-day session that goes twelve hours a day. The objective is building the innovation confidence of the students. One common request from students is for a one-day version for their teams. So, I reworked the content and created a one-day version called the Disruptive Ideation Workshop. The workshop teaches a disruptive approach to generate more and better ideas using the FIRE method. The objectives: learn the skill, apply it, and have a pipeline of ideas for the organization. Two weeks ago, we tested the workshop. The class consisted of 25 senior leaders from a single organization (with zero background in innovation). The results exceeded everyone's expectations. One of the leaders in the class summed it up: "learning disruptive ideation that generated disruptive ideas." So, we named the workshop the "Disruptive Ideation Workshop."

The Disruptive Ideation Workshop in Brief

What does disruptive ideation mean? Disruptive means causing or tending to cause disruption; innovative or groundbreaking; unconventional, unorthodox, off-center, unusual, unfamiliar, unprecedented; pioneering, trailblazing, revolutionary, radical, advanced, newfangled, state-of-the-art.

The Disruptive Ideation workshop is built around two major objectives:

1. Teach a disruptive approach to ideation.

This will radically increase the number and quality of the ideas that a person and team can generate.

1. Through the process of learning, apply it to a real-world problem facing the organization.

At the end, students have a ranked set of disruptive ideas their organization can take forward.

To achieve these objectives, we teach background and skills and how to apply the skills.

This course has two major sections: Section 1) Foundation and Section 2) Skills and Application/Practice. Here's what we cover in each.

Section 1: Foundation

1. Myths and mysteries of innovation
2. Innovation skills (self-doubt/negative talk, imagination, seeing with fresh eyes, etc.)
3. Innovation Anti-bodies (ego, no risk, no change, etc.)
   • Focus
   • Ideation
   • Ranking
   • Execution
4. Innovation framework (FIRE)

The focus was on Focus, Ideation, and Ranking of the FIRE method. Special emphasis was placed on Ideation.

Skills Learned

Section 2 of the Disruptive Ideation Workshop was a walk-through of the elements in FIRE. Exercises allowed students to apply those elements to a real problem statement.

Skill number one was FOCUS. FOCUS is about defining the problem. Having a clear "problem statement" is critical. Without a well-defined problem statement, everyone jumps to generate ideas to solve something that is not clearly understood. In boot camp, the team spends half a day crafting their problem statement.

Skill number two is IDEATION. Walk through the use and power of the question to generate more and better ideas. Team ideation is built upon the ideas generated individually.

Skill number three is RANKING. Grouping ideas is the starting point. Then take the large number of ideas generated and find the top two to three percent of the ideas.

The last skill taught is EXECUTION. Take the raw idea from RANKING and put more thought behind it.

We also taught "Adapt and Adopt." Take the experiences in Section 2 and adapt the skills making adoption easier for their organization.

Lessons from the Disruptive Ideation Workshop

What are the lessons learned in conducting the Disruptive Ideation Workshop?

1. One-day is a unit of time that people can more easily step away from the day job.
2. The problem statement is critical. Spend time to get it right!
3. Limit the workshop to a reasonable number of students (20 max).
4. Establish clear next steps.
5. Plug students into a community. Keep the learning and excitement alive after the course ends.

If you are interested in finding out more about the workshop, send an email to us.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Are creativity and innovation only for the young? Silicon Valley has clearly bought into this premise. The truth of the matter is creativity and Innovation know no limit based on age. You can pick up creativity at any age. Do you or your organization hold a bias as to who can or cannot be creative? Listen to this week's Five Minutes to New Ideas for more on how age really doesn't matter in the innovation game.

Making hard decisions can bring the most seasoned leaders to their knees, no matter how calm they look on the outside. The fear of a better option (FOBO) can paralyze decision-making. It is also the enemy of innovation. In this show I talk about 4 ways to deal with FOBO.

FOBO versus FOMO

What is it that causes that hesitation at decision time? Patrick McGinnis calls it FOBO: the Fear of a Better Option. Patrick describes it as being "paralyzed at the prospect of actually committing to something, out of fear that we might be choosing something that was not the absolute perfect option." The result is that you get stuck in an analysis paralysis and never make the decision. The sister term to FOBO is FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out. If you miss out, you will not have that one magic piece of data that will give you perfect information. So, our fear of missing out feeds our fear of a better option. The result is saying "yes" to everything. I used to say "yes" to every request to speak or teach no matter the impact on myself or my family. When you combine FOBO with FOMO you can find yourself afraid of doing anything. That is FODA, the paralysis that turns into a fear of doing anything. What I had to learn was to say "no." Breakthrough came when a newspaper article was written about me which forced me to go public with a secret that fed my imposter syndrome.

The way that I deal with FOMO is I create criteria for myself that help me prioritize the requests for my time and attention.

FOBO in Innovation

When it comes to innovation, deciding to move forward on an idea, to commit to resources such as people and money, is ripe of FOBO. I have seen a leader hesitate to give a team the green light on a project because they are not yet convinced that it is the best/perfect idea. The truth is that no idea is a perfect idea. In this case, FOBO could be masking a more general fear of failure. But not deciding means zero chance of an innovative idea. The main object is to innovate and to do that, you need to try your ideas. You have to come to terms with the fact that most of your ideas are going to fail. FOBO, the fear of a better option, is the enemy of innovation. It is the tool antibodies will use to brush off your ideas.

FODA (the Fear of Doing Anything)

When you combine FOBO and FOMO you can find yourself in a paralyzed position not wanting to commit to anything. This is FODA, the Fear of Doing Anything. You need to learn to be decisive. Here are 4 ways to deal with FOBO and not get caught in the trap of FODA:

• The Ask and Watch method. Patrick McGinnis says to whittle your decision to two options. Assign each item to either the left or right side of your watch. Look down and see where the second hand is at the moment. Taking the final decision when you have two good options out of your control releases you from doubt.

• Criteria method. Create a clear criterion that works for you. Mine are the Five F's: Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness, and Finances. Score requests on your time against your list of criteria.

• The Innovation = Ranking method. When it comes to innovation use your funnel and ranking process to create a list of "next best ideas." These are the ideas based on their ranking score from the FIRE framework. With the ranked lists of your ideas, force a decision that says something like each quarter we will fund the idea with the highest score.

• The Trust but Verify method. Apply the old Ronald Reagan maxim "Trust your decision but verify." If the decision is not delivering the result you expected, then adjust.

These 4 ways to deal with FOBO will help you be aware of your own FODA and change. We will never have perfect information and, therefore, will never make the perfect decision. So, make your decision and move on. For any questions or comments send me an email.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Tony Robbins once said, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." You can apply this quote to networks, communities, family, and friends you socialize with. To change that quote a bit, you are the average of the five social networks where you spend the most time. This week's Five Minutes to New Ideas considers how our social networking reflects who we are.

Ethical lapses in some tech companies have grabbed headlines in recent years. Tech is changing daily, touching every aspect of our lives. It's time to define the ethical boundaries of technology. Without focus on ethics in technology, there will be huge unintended consequences. On today's show, Joe Toscano, joins me. Joe is founder of BEACON and author of Automating Humanity. He is also a former award-winning experience designer for Google. Joe's background in Silicon Valley and Big Tech has led him to explore tech in terms of ethics.

Leaving the Valley

After several years in the Silicon Valley "bubble," Joe decided to step away. Disconnect between life in the Valley and the world outside became his opportunity. Joe Toscano formed a nonprofit called BEACON. BEACON stands for "Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network." It is a social innovation organization. BEACON strives to connect the public to what is going on in the tech industry. BEACON provides insights to policymakers in defining ethical boundaries of technology. This tech insight equips them to address ethical concerns in a balanced way. BEACON works with technologists to create products that meet consumer demand and create positive social impact. Some tech leaders are content to leave it to regulators to define ethical boundaries of technology. Through BEACON, Joe takes a holistic approach. Shaping ethical boundaries of technology has many factors to consider. The effect on the consumer, small business, local and global community as well as Big Tech must be in view.

Lighting the Way

Regulators cannot keep up with the pace of innovation today. Joe believes there are certain things regulators must address. But, some things need to remain informal and driven solely by business. This is where the nonprofit side of BEACON comes in. It is about education, research, and creating public safety tools. The goal is to educate consumers and regulators to ask the right questions. BEACON partners with the University of Nebraska and Digital Futures Initiative. These partnerships center on ethics in technology.

BEACON has branched out this year forming a for profit side. In the for profit sector, BEACON is creating products that will help small businesses comply with regulations. The first product launching will generate required legal agreements. This will minimize legal expenses for small businesses.

Ethics in Technology

Businesses that want to set ethical boundaries of technology must change the mindset. BEACON advises that they must move their business away from the quarterly statistics and into the longer term.

What is one of the biggest problems today? The attention economy drives tech. This presents issues in terms of ethics. There is not a defined production value. There's room for innovation in defining what the production value is. The area of data is wide open for innovation. At the core, innovations like these require thought on the long term ethical implications. BEACON's work in the space of ethical boundaries in technology is timely and essential.

If you'd like to track what Joe is doing, visit https://www.beacontrustnetwork.com/ . For the latest, sign up for his newsletter. Pick up a copy of Joe's recent book, Automating Humanity, available through Amazon.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Time is one of those resources that we never have enough of. We are given 1,440 minutes each day and once it is gone, it is gone. When it comes to translating ideas into innovation, it comes down to opportunity costs. This week on Five Minutes to New Ideas I discuss opportunity costs. How can you help your team save time on things of low value to work on things of higher value? How will you prioritize your 1,440 minutes today?

The latest innovation of today can quickly be replaced with the next best thing tomorrow. Whether you're a newcomer to innovation or the 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 cycles of innovation.

Sage Advice: Don't Work for Someone Else

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 a group of engineers and started designing their own 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. Despite the fact that Ray had to rebuild the whole company, it remained profitable.

Forecasting Innovation Cycles

How do you lead companies through the high rate of innovation change? Ray was able to accomplish this successfully. Ray learned the cycles of innovation so he could forecast them. You have to know the cycles so you can 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 next winning product.

Getting Your Board Right

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 on 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 it's needed. You don't need board members who will pick you apart and create tension. Ray believes that Boards need to focus less attention on what investors or shareholders want. They need to put emphasis on what is best for the company and adds sustainable value. Boards should not be too independent. Independency leads to disconnect and a lack of understanding a company's intricacies and operation.

The Zinn Starter

With his wealth of experience in the heart of the startup capital of the world, 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 has the opportunity to 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.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Your idea was rejected. You were told to give up. If you want to succeed at innovation, you have to put yourself and your ideas out there. This means you will get rejected. The alternative is that your idea will never become a reality. Throughout the cycles of criticism, trust that the steps you are taking will lead to achieving your vision. What are you willing to innovate even in the face of criticism and rejection? Listen to this week's Five Minutes to New Ideas for insight on pushing through rejection to reach your innovation vision.