I promissed you the presentation from Susanne - here it is 
Please comment on the different posts below.
Archive for June, 2005
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A new book from industrial design expert Craig Vogel says companies must continually adapt their products if they are to compete.
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As Naina from ASIDE quotes: “… as technological progress increasingly satisfies current human needs, individuals become less concerned with technological development and turn more toward personal growth, unique experiences and other activities which, wj
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Interview with Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the man with the “Flow Concept”
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After conducting extensive research, Dr. Michael Kirton has found that people fall into two broad families which represent creative style; Adaptors and Innovators
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Entrepreneur.com says: “Your business can’t survive without some creative thinking” and mentions de Bono and John Kao
What did you learn today?
-Unfortunately I just arrived but maybe that is okay in order to answer the question…. Regarding the presentation of Søren Merit about the Danish design tradition. How is the Danish tradition user orientated? Because it is crucial to understand what user orientated acutally is.
- Søren Merit: One of the key elements of Scandinavian design is functionality. Understanding of how the product is going to be used. Certainly we have become much more advanced over time but if you compare it with the tradition in for example the latin countries the design is much more about expression. So much more about functionality.
- But isn’t there a contradiction between functionality and experience? Because to me functionality is rational and experience emotional?
- Søren: I fully agree! Because functionality is going much more toward experience with emotional aspect. We here in the North are more modest about emotions and expressing ourselves so this is a part we can become better at.
- At this table there are lots of people from arts and theater. You are famous for the dogma films which are famous and good because of restraints - can we find the dogma rules of innovation?
- Betina: Many people think that innovation start with a piece of blank paper. We ask: do you have a good idea? That is difficult to say. You have to put som restraints, some limits within which people can be creative.
- Barry Katz, what did you learn today?
- Barry Katz: the presentations was liberatingly free of cliches. But despite talking about diversity, many were very polite and there were actually many disagreements underneath. First Nel from Unilever told us that the more diverse a group is the more efficient it will be. Then we heard the opposite from the next speaker… From one man we heard both that tradition is good and tradition is bad. Post its are good, post its are bad. So there is a lot of contradictions. This indicates a very interesting time where the old and simple system is no longer reliable. We are in a period of considerable confusion and we must learn to use this confusion to move forward instead of being intimidated by it.
-Bettina: This is central to innovation. The ones that are able to use innovation are the ones able to identify and use the contradictions. You need more than one person to get innovation. You must develop mechanisms to get the best of both the one person and the group .(…) It is about managing contradictions and find out what is the most appropriate response according to the context. Finding the contradictions…
- Roxana: There is a quote from Rumi: "On the other side of right doing and wrong doing there is a field - I will meet you there."
- What do you think Susanne? What do you agree with?
- Susanne: It’s been incredibly interesting to see different aspects of diversity. There has been very different approaches to diversity and how we can understand it and use all aspects. The presentations were not alike and did not agree, and I am delighted about that.
- Something that you did not agree with?
- I don’t know if it’s all about diversity of mind. There is a strong link between diversity of mind and the people bearing that mind. We have to use that link.
… And now time for drinks, networking, dinner and more networking… :o)
Paul Bennett - IDEO, London
Companies doesn’t innovate – people do!
Companies aren’t diverse – people are!
Companies aren’t creative – people are!
It’s not about talking about diversity, design and innovation - it’s about actually doing it!!
Susanne had a brilliant presentation taking about here research. The main purpose of her study is -
- THE PURPOSE IS RATHER - TO UNDERSTAND THE MECHANISMS OF DIVERSITY
- AND HOW THEY AFFECT INNOVATIVE PRACTICE
She pointed especially to the differerent relationships between Innovation and Diversity -
5 drivers:
- Absorptive capacity
- Requisite variety
- Network variety
- Creative destruction
- Problemsolving / decision making
3 destructive drivers:
- GOAL INCONGRUENCE
- INTERGROUP ANXIETY
- MISCOMMUNICATION
Susanne, please unfold these verey interesting headlines for us……please
NB. In a day or two I’ll make a extended post about some of the drivers.
Susanne Justesen presented her Ph.D research on the relation between innovation and diversity - not trying to document if it exists, but how!
One interesting point just for at start:
In groups with homogenious members diverse opinions will be neglected referring to the need of efficiency, and the members will very often make decisions based on personal opinions and preferences. Furthermore homogenious groups will be very introvert and not try to seek knowledge from outside.
Heterogenious groups will have more discussions and often also conflicts leading to hopefully better qualified decisions - that will be made on grounds of research or at least qualified arguments. Heterogenious groups will furthermore tend to seek more information from outside.
When do you participate in a group where you all agree just a little bit too much?
In more heterogenious groups
Orchestrating innovation is like organising a dinner party: you provide for nice food and drinks, interesting people and inspiring settings - but from then on you can never predict how the evening will evolve.
Karsten Zakarias - heard and remembered by LK.
I’ll try to collect as much as I can and send it to you directly - interested? Please mail me at hans dot henrik at hoejberg dot dk
Karsten Zakarias (Nokia) & Ouafa Rian - B&O
Interesting experiences - they experienced that Innovatis is a non-linar process.
Management team faces problems in managing the process - it’s more about leadership. It’s a complete other aspect.
- Diversity is THE leverage point to deliver complexity.
- Innovation is non-linear: Chaotic, unpredictable but NOT coincidental.
- Experience + value = meaning
- Innovation leadership is creating perspective asking questions and formulating language
- Organisations need channeling NOT management
- Innovation is everybody’s task
- Utilizing boundary objects
- Team structure.
Btw - Karsten and Ouafa pointed to a very interesting article covering the field. Read more.
Mark Turrell - Imaginatik
It’s not about managing a spreadsheet with lot of ideas – its more about early stage concept management. Idea mangement.
The Innovative Imperative
- Global competition
- Avoid commoditization
- Deliver organic growth
- Expand markets
- Leverage Interlectual property
- Changing regulation…
- …and next year only gets challenging
The growth gab – you need to have a plan for where the future revenue is coming from.
Describe the growth/innovation – gab.
The idea Management Process
- Events
- Generate
- Capture
- Build
- Evaluate
- Select
I’ll come back to the slides presented.