Category: innovation
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Emotion AI
The latest version of Gartner’s hype cycle for Digital Marketing has an interesting addition which they’ve placed almost at the top of the peak of inflated expectation: ‘Emotion AI for marketing’. Gartner VP Nicole Greene describes Emotion AI as using: ‘…AI techniques to analyze the emotional state of a user (via computer vision, audio/voice input,…
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Transformers, and creative innovation
What’s the connection between Transformers and one of the most innovative lunar rovers to have been invented? The answer is this wonderful example of using partnerships and external perspectives to challenge norms. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, asked Takara Tomy (the company behind toys such as Transformers, amongst many others) to design it’s small lunar…
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The Art of Noticing
‘Interesting isn’t a personality type, it’s a set of habits and a way of seeing the world‘ Russell Davies The other day I came across this extract from Russell Davies’ book Do Interesting: Notice. Collect. Share. In the post Russell writes about a talk he gave years back on ‘How to be interesting’: ‘The way…
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What shockwave jams tell us about getting stuff done
Ever been driving along a busy road with the traffic flowing along nicely and then for no apparent reason and with no obvious obstacles or changes in road conditions it starts to jam up? We’ve all been there. Believe it or not these types of traffic jams have a name – shockwave jams – referring…
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Red Teaming
I was in a client workshop last week and we were discussing the benefits of having an organisational culture and environment that encourages comfort with dissent. Many teams struggle with conflict but the ability to healthily disagree with each other is one of the foundations of psychological safety and high-performing teams. One of Amy Edmonsdon’s…
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On First Principles
My favourite example of the power of first principles in coming up with breakthrough ideas is an experiment run by Dr. Tina Seelig, at Stanford University. She split her class into fourteen small teams and gave each group five dollars and two hours in which their challenge was to make the highest possible return. They…
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On Xerox PARC, and the failure of execution
“Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry, could have been the IBM of the nineties, could have been the Microsoft of the nineties.” Steve Jobs When Xerox opened their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1970 it brought together talented computer engineers, scientists and programmers who were tasked with inventing the computing technologies of the…
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Using SAMR to navigate technological change
One of my favourite frameworks for helping to understand and navigate technological change is the acronym SAMR, which stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition. SAMR originates from the education sector, and was created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura as a way for instructors to understand how they could best integrate new technology and tools into…
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Who really invented the light bulb? On collaborative innovation, and the stories we tell
Ask anyone who invented the light bulb and most people would probably say Thomas Edison. And yet, whilst Edison patented the first commercially successful bulb in 1879, the invention was (like many innovations) a cumulative and widely collaborative affair. Several innovators paved the way for the modern electric light bulb including Alessandro Volta, Humphrey Davy,…
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Breaking out of optimisation
I wrote a post last month on understanding technological-driven change and innovation through the lens of optimisation and transformation. Both can deliver significant benefits but they are fundamentally different approaches. Optimisation involves first order change. It relates to adaptations within the current system or structure that are designed to improve. It tends back to homeostasis…