Innovation in Practice: Five Year Anniversary

This month marks the five year anniversary for Innovation in Practice,
and I want to thank my readers and supporters who follow it.  Blogging is rewarding, but challenging.  Most bloggers quit within two years for a variety of reasons: lack of motivation, lack of strategy, no one is reading, nothing to write about, or not enough time.  Fortunately, I have yet to be hit by any of these except perhaps the last one – time constraints – which will never go away.

My goal is to make this blog different from other innovation blogs and websites.  Instead of focusing on why innovation is important, I focus on how innovation happens.  My sense is corporate leaders realize already the importance of innovation, but they struggle with how to put it motion.  Calling a consultant is not the answer.  Learning the skill of innovation to be self sufficient is the answer.

The themes of this blog are:

• Innovation can be learned like any other skill such as marketing, leadership, or playing the guitar.  To be an innovator, learn a method.  Teach it to others.
• Innovation must be linked to strategy.  Innovation for innovation’s sake
  doesn’t matter.  Innovation that is guided by strategy or helps guide
  strategy yields the most opportunity for corporate growth.
• Innovation is a two-way phenomena.  We can start with a problem and innovate solutions.  Or we can generate hypothetical solutions and explore problems that they solve.  To be a great innovator, you need to be a two-way innovator.
• The corporate perspective, where innovation is practiced day-to-day, is what must be understood and kept at the center of attention.  This is where truth is separated from hype.

2012 was a special year for me.  My co-author, Jacob Goldenberg, and I completed our first book together (Simon & Schuster, June 2013), and we have two more in progress.  I am more engaged in innovation research and technology at the University of Cincinnati, and I continue to teach the SIT method there.  I am fortunate to continue working with various multi-nationals on their innovation programs.

2013 will be a year of change.  I plan to take this blog to the next level with a number of initiatives.  I plan to offer more resources for readers so they can learn the SIT method.  I hope to have resources for teachers and professors who want to include the SIT method in their creativity courses.  I plan to highlight and recognize the practitioners who put SIT to work in their organizations.

I want to thank Jacob Goldenberg, Amnon Levav, Yoni Stern, and the entire team at S.I.T..  Also, Christie Nordhielm and Marta Dapena-Baron at Big Picture Partners, Bob Cialdini at Influence at Work, Yury Boshyk at Global Executive Learning Network, the Washington Speakers Bureau, and my fellow faculty at the UC Lindner College of Business.

A special thanks to my family.