When I need a quick kick in the pants, I reach for Tom Peters’ Brand You 50. Each one of his 50 tips are tow trucks pulling me out of what ever rut I find myself in. This is why I’m so excited about his new manifesto from Seth Godin’s ChangeThis project. This I Believe! […]
Category: Innovation
Want Better Collaboration – Improvise
The earlier collaboration techniques post (Stop Asking Questions) was based a key to successful improvisation. This post digs further into the relationship between improv and collaboration. Good improvisational comedy teams believe a group of individuals working together can start with nothing and quickly create something engaging, desireable, useful, and valuable. From this perspective, the keys […]
Pushing the Envelope of Business Requires a Strong Identity
“Hardball involves playing the edges, probing that narrow strip of territory—so rich in possibilities—between the places where society clearly says you can play the game of business and those where society clearly says you can’t.” An exerpt from the Harvard Business School’s The Hardball Manifesto. The article’s examples of Hardball companies – Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, […]
Do As Little As Possible – Part 2
He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line. This exerpt from The Case of the Empty Soap Box at Jon Strandes’ Storyblog is an excellent example […]
Faster Big Macs Through Outsourcing
2 minutes 36 seconds is the industry average for a McDonald’s drive-thru transaction. How does Steven Bigari keep his 12 franchises under half that? Outsourcing. All the drive-thru orders at his Missouri resturants are taken by a call center in Colorado Springs – increasing his capacity 15%. Brilliant. Original Article: New York Times, 18 July […]
Changing the Government
Government agencies are some of the most notorious change resistors. In 1999, the Mint started to change that reputation – receiving a customer satisfaction rating second only to Mercedes Benz. “In the old days, we shipped fewer than 50% of our orders within eight weeks. Today, if it takes two weeks for customers to receive […]
Repeating the Same Action and Expecting a New Result?
Engagement at meetings and excitement about projects is down. A number of key people are leaving. The passion that sparked our initial conversations is waning. One of our clients is at a turning point with their organization. A number of never-been-tried-by-us suggestions were thrown around in a recent strategy session. Most of them immediately dismissed […]
Daily Productivity Tips
We’re working with a number of clients to make their days more effective. One of the smallest, yet most profound changes is making each meeting a working meeting. Though powerful and effective, this technique does go against more than 96 years of conventional wisdom This technique works especially well for document review meetings – have […]
Hotel Room as Showroom – Part 2
Starting this week and running through Sept. 20, guests can check out the cameras, take pictures and print them using an HP Photosmart 245 photo printer installed at the hotels Following up on the original Hotel Room as Showroom article, Yahoo Reports that Fairmont Hotels and HP are partnering to offer guests digital camera rental […]
Do As Little As Possible
How little can I do to successfully reach this goal? Continually asking youreself that questions is the best ways to minimize rework, reach goals quickly, guarantee sustainable solutions, and design for wear. This approach creates a functional prototype quickly, keeps stress levels down, and keeps product teams lean. Johanna Rothman has an excellent post highlighting […]