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“Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery.” – Mark Amidon

How many life changing ideas do you figure have been thought up over the centuries, yet no one ever heard about them?

How many times every day do you imagine a brilliant concept is presented to a decision-maker, only to be shot down and buried forever?

How many creative geniuses do you think are really able to effectively communicate and present their ideas to others? Not everyone is a Steve Jobs. In fact, very few of us are. Which is one of the key reasons why Steve Jobs is, well, Steve Jobs.

Creativity and innovative thinking don’t really require clear, effective communication. Big brained scientists with minimal social skills think up mind-blowing ideas in the privacy of their labs every day. But true innovation requires that those remarkable, game-changing ideas make it through the gauntlet of judgment and criticism, all the way through to completion, where they can deliver real, lasting value. That simply cannot happen if no one knows about them and enthusiastically supports them. And that requires effective communication and presentation skills.

As Howard H. Aiken is quoted as saying, “Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.” And while ramming it down their throats might not always be required, a little persuasion almost always will be.

Communication is the often forgotten, essential component of innovation. True, it’s not as sexy as all those other components we love reading about, things like creative ideation, strategic implementation, enhanced value, disruptive technology, elegant design and a dozen or so other overused buzz words. But in the end, if your big idea is not clearly and persuasively presented to your collaborators and decision makers, it will simply wither on the vine.

We’ve all seen it happen, especially in a group brainstorm session. Someone at the table has an idea, a good idea, one they love and that has real merit. Unfortunately, they don’t have the confidence and expertise to articulate it persuasively. A louder voice and bigger ego in the room shoots it down, and there it lies. Sometimes a supportive comrade will pick up the idea and champion it to the group. But if a skilled communicator doesn’t take up the challenge, it’s dead.

The good news is that communication and presentation skills can be learned and mastered by anybody. As with any other discipline, there are simple, proven methods and techniques that can help you speak with authority and influence the opinions and decisions of others. So if you are going to be an effective innovator, or even a contributor to the innovation process, you had better start boning up on your communication skills.

Here are a few tips to help you sell your next big idea…

1. Know What You’re Trying to Achieve – Before you open your mouth, think for a moment about what you want your words to actually accomplish. Are you trying to convince someone that your idea is the best there is, or simply one of several worthy of further consideration? Are you attempting to get final approval for your idea or simply create the opportunity to present it up the chain of command? Is your idea fully fleshed out or just an embryonic concept? Such things can have a profound impact on what you say and how you say it. So take a moment or two to think about what you wish to achieve before you speak, and you will have a much better chance of choosing the best words to help you attain your goal.
2. Know Who You’re Talking To – One of the great revelations most people have when mastering communication and presentation skills is that their audience often doesn’t really care all that much about what they have to say. In fact, the people you present your idea to only care about one thing… what’s in it for them. To sell your idea, you need to understand ahead of time what the other person’s agenda is, what their goals and objectives are in a given situation, and then frame your communication in the best way possible to let them know you understand, and that your idea can help them achieve their goals. Will your idea make them (or their team) look good? Could it result in a bonus or praise from management? Is it so risky that they might be hesitant to support it? Remember this number one secret of great communicators – know your audience well, and tell them what they need to hear. That is persuasive communication.
3. Know What You’re Going to Say – Seems obvious, right? But how many times have you opened your mouth and realized, almost immediately, that you were saying precisely the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time? If you’ve taken a few moments to focus on the first two steps, this third one becomes a lot easier. What do you have to say to this person in order to get them to respond the way you would like them to, right now? That’s precisely what you want to say at precisely this moment.
4. Know How You’re Going to Say It – As the saying goes, you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. Of course, you can kill a lot more with a flyswatter. Too meek or too bold an approach will not do the trick when presenting an idea for approval. How you deliver your message can be just as important as the message itself. Consider the situation. Is the mood upbeat and congenial or tense and combative? Are ideas being shot down faster than they can be spoken, or is everyone being overly supportive and not really giving anything real, critical evaluation? Are you on a tight deadline or do you have time to spare? Take the temperature in the room before you start selling. Make sure your manner and tone are confident, but appropriate.

Is it really possible to do all of this in the middle of a brainstorm, or even a business presentation? Of course. Masterful communicators and presenters do it every day. It just takes a little awareness, attention and practice. Don’t wait until your job depends on it. Start using these four simple communication tips today. In no time you will be able to consider all of these things in just a few seconds.

Many people think that being a confident, persuasive communicator is something you’re just born with. Nothing could be further from the truth. Communication is a skill. Learn it, master it, become a more valuable part of the innovation cycle – and start seeing more your ideas become a reality.

A recent article on CNN.com, “Learn the five secrets of innovation,” by Mark Tutton, focuses on the results of a six-year study conducted by professors from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University. 3,000 executives and 500 innovative entrepreneurs were involved in the study, which also included interviews with the likes of Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Michael Dell (Dell Computers).

The results of the study are hardly earth shattering. But they are important for anyone interested in developing their innovation chops and enjoying the resulting rewards.

The verdict? “Coming up with brilliant, game-changing ideas is what makes the likes of Apple’s Steve Jobs so successful…”

Stating the obvious? Well maybe not to everyone.

Business leaders around the world are struggling to crack the code of innovation. They focus on re-structuring, re-invention, short-sighted innovation initiatives, revolving door consultants, creativity boot camps, etc.

But apparently what it all comes down to is the ability to generate great ideas. Do that well, and all the other stuff more easily falls into place – if for no other reason than the fact that you are generating great ideas about those things, too.

From "Learn the five secrets of innovation," by Mark Tutton, CNN.com

According to the study, there are 5 key skills necessary to be a prolific innovator (a.k.a. idea-generator) – associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and discovering.

It seems these skills have more to do with how one acts as how one thinks. Prolific innovators are always proactively searching for new ideas, new connections, new perspectives. Theirs is not a passive activity; they don’t sit around waiting for the Muse to visit or the lightning bolt to strike. They pursue ideas daily and relentlessly.

It is this skill set, this business activity, that will forever more be the definer of success.

So how can you ensure you have a whole army of Steve Jobses generating innovative thinking in your organization?

Remove the impediments and allow it to happen. Create an environment that facilitates idea-generation. Nourish it with acknowledgment, training, tools – and rewards for achievement. In a recent post here, “Google’s 80/20 Formula – It can work for you!” we briefly described Google’s take on the issue… encourage employees to spend 80% of their time on core projects, and 20% of their time on “innovation” activities that peak their own personal interests.

How much does your organization to do foster innovative thinking? Do you invest 20% in it, like Google does? If you did, what returns might you realize?

The ability to generate innovative thinking is not an inherent trait; it is based on a set of skills that anyone can learn and develop. Exposing yourself to new ideas and observing the world around you can drive innovation.

All it takes is doing it. As one of the men behind the study, Insead’s Hal Gregersen, put it, “Studies have shown that creativity is close to 80 percent learned and acquired,” he told CNN. “We found that it’s like exercising your muscles — if you engage in the actions you build the skills.”

Start building your innovation muscles now. And watch the ideas start to flow.

After all, when you cut through all the hype and Ivy-tower debate, innovation at its core is really just a child’s game of connecting the dots in new and imaginative ways.

Back in the days before email chains, when clever quips were Xeroxed  and faxed between offices so many times, they often became illegible, many people displayed an 8-1/2 x 11 page on their wall that advised visiting colleagues…

Fast, Good, Cheap. Pick 2.

The idea was simply that it is impossible to deliver anything of high quality if you don’t have the time or budget to do the job properly. You may be able to skimp on one or the other, but you always have to compromise something – fast, good or cheap.

Who knew at the time that “Fast, Good, Cheap” is actually a classic example of an engineering concept known as The Project Triangle, designed to show three “corners” of a project to demonstrate opposition.

If only this relatively manageable condition still existed, business success would be far less challenging. Unfortunately today, in the vast majority of businesses, there is a fourth corner that outranks the other three – the consumer.

In this era of instant access to information, the ability to comparison “shop” for virtually anything offered in commerce, and the rather sudden and rapid expansion of the competitive marketplace (you no longer only compete with the guy across the street – you compete with the woman across the globe), consumers call all the shots. And if you don’t say, “How high?” when they say, “Jump!” they will most certainly find someone else who will.

They want it fast.
Apple iPhone users begin clamoring for the next release of hardware of firmware before the most recent version has had a chance to cool off from coming out of the oven. Zappos.com customers expect to receive their shoes overnight. And that new, state-of-the-art laptop I bought last month? It’s too damn slow!

They want it good.
If the plight of the American auto industry tells us nothing else, it tells us that. An entire industry that once dominated the industrialized world was on the verge of extinction – and would’ve ended up there, too, if not for charitable government intervention. There is simply no more room in the marketplace for shoddy anything – because someone else will always provide better, if you can’t. And the consumer will have no qualms about kicking you while you’re down.

They want it cheap.
Well, let’s at least say “good value.” A friend of mine who has owned a design firm in New York for over twenty-five years (no small feat) recently told me that he was getting the same fees for services in the 80s that he is today. TWENTY YEARS AGO! Plus today clients expect the work faster and there is significantly less loyalty. Let them down, they’re gone. This is not unique to his business. It’s every business.

The cause of all this, of course – and the solution – is the rampant pace at which business innovation takes place today. Smart organizations (again, think Apple, Google, Zappos, Amazon, and all the others consistently ranked as “most innovative”) are able to rethink, reinvent, retool, restructure and reposition faster than you can say “cloud computing.” The new “business as usual” is that there is no more business as usual.

So what’s a poor company to do? Simple – follow the example of the big boys. Innovate…constantly. Not whenever a problem comes up. Whenever the sun comes up. Today you need a great idea every year, every quarter, every month, even every day.

Innovative thinking fuels innovation. So start thinking! Ideas are the key, then acting on those ideas and seeing them through to completion.

The days of “pick two” are gone forever. It’s time to understand that you work for your customer. Period. Don’t meet their expectations, anticipate and exceed them. Don’t wait for ideas to come to you, go after them every day. Don’t expect customer loyalty, demonstrate loyalty to your customer.

So what are you going to work on first? Fast, good or cheap?

Pick three.

We all know we’re living in the Information Age – and how vital a role the Internet plays in the free dissemination of all that information.

What many may not realize, however, is that the availability of information isn’t simply a byproduct of advancing technology – it’s what people want.

A recent article at emarketer.com, “Americans Want Brands that Inform,” focused on findings in the “Global Web Index” from Lightspeed Research.

The third most important action a brand can take to make itself relevant to consumers is “Provide me with new ideas and thinking.” Only “news” (which scored only slightly higher) and “product discounts” (no surprise in today’s economic climate) ranked higher. Way down the list were things like “Sponsor my favorite sports team” and “Associate with celebrities that I like.” (Sorry Morgan Freeman.)

And where do they want their ideas and information to come from? According to the article “…US consumers found social network contacts and bloggers that they read regularly more trustworthy than major journalists, television news readers and radio presenters. Celebrities and TV show presenters were tied with politicians for the dishonor of being considered least trustworthy.”

So what does it all mean for business? That if you want to survive, you had better be able to supply your customers with a constant supply of fresh, new thinking.

It means you need ideas. Lots and lots of good ideas.

In the not so distant past, the demand for fresh thinking wasn’t so fierce. Sure, great ideas were always needed, but not overwhelming quantity we need to produce today.

Companies everywhere are buckling under the pressure to deliver innovative thinking at ever increasing speed. Many use decades-old processes for generating, sharing and developing ideas. Many still consider “creativity” something magical, rather than a systematic process that can be implemented every day. And many simply have no idea…how to generate ideas. They just know nobody in their organization is coming up with them.

It’s time for business to understand that nothing happens without an idea – not a product design, not a marketing plan, not a sales strategy – and invest appropriately in the thing their consumers want most.

How’s that for an idea?

Recently Fast Company published its 2009 list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies. Team Obama topped the list (which could, and probably will be the subject of another post). But as amazing as that news was, what struck me was that 33 of the previous year’s 50 did not make the list.

Wait… 33 of 2008’s 50 most innovative companies fell from innovation grace just one  year later? How is this possible? How can 33 of the world’s most innovative organizations fail to continue being innovative, or at least exceptionally innovative? Wasn’t there innovative prowess enough to keep them innovative?

Better yet – what about the 33 million companies that weren’t even in the running? In this era of “innovate or perish,” a topic we discuss often, how is it that so few companies are really doing much that’s innovative – even when they’ve managed to do some of it in the past?

One of our most popular, recent Tweets stated that thinking about innovation isn’t the same as innovative thinking. And that gets to the crux of the matter. There is a lot of talk about innovation these days. But when it comes right down to it, most organizations don’t really do much about it, or at least not much that leads to real, ongoing innovation.

Bringing in management consultants doesn’t do it. Announcing a new era of corporate innovation doesn’t do it. Adding the word to the mission statement doesn’t do it, and neither does charging managers with the task of fostering more innovation in their teams.

In fact, simply “creating a culture of innovation” alone doesn’t do it.

Of course, innovation does require a fertile culture, in the sense that an environment must exist in which it can actually happen. Innovation requires creative thinking that is allowed to be freely expressed and acted upon. A culture that reacts to “think different” – even “think different” that ultimately fails – with disapproval, will not inspire the courage it takes to put one’s ideas on the line.

But it’s the people, not the culture, who innovate.

In the end, what is really needed for innovation to happen is a combination of motivation, freedom, systems, knowledge and responsibility.

Motivation to make the effort in the first place.

Freedom to explore and express, without fear of reprisal.

Systems for sharing, developing and promoting ideas throughout an organization.

Knowledge, talent and skills required to actually transform an idea into a viable plan and, ultimately, a reality.

And responsibility for ensuring that it all happens.

Who is responsible for ensuring that these various, essential elements are in place? Leadership, of course. If history and the news tell us nothing else, it proves that real, ongoing, effective innovation is a top-down process. It must be mandated, inspired, nurtured and championed by the company leader. Apple, Google, Amazon, Zappos – oh, and of course, Team Obama – all have innovative leaders driving the process. Why? Because others in an organization will rarely have the courage or freedom to take on the challenge. Only a leader will.

Innovation is a complex process that involves emotional, psychological, technical and operational factors. If you’re missing just one, you will never (or no longer) find yourself on the “most innovative” list.

Better luck next year!

We will be speaking at the upcoming New York Entrepreneurs Business Network Speaker Series 1: Skills You Need to Succeed in Your Business, on Wednesday, November 4th.

The event will be held at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle (Lincoln Center), 1972 Broadway, New York, NY 10023 and begin promptly at 9:15am. Price: $10.00 in advance/$20.00 @ the event.

For more information, or to register, please visit
http://www.ny-entrepreneur-network.com/calendar/11593673/

We hope to see everyone there!

It’s a well-known fact that Google employees are encouraged to spend 80% of their time on core projects, and 20% of their time on “innovation” activities that peak their own personal interests. This 80/20 formula can also work for any organization that desires to ramp up its innovation spirits. Here are some helpful tips we found on the Mama Bee blog. Mama Bee is an information site for working mothers in the corporate world.

Google’s 80/20 Innovation Model

The ITO (Innovation Time out) policy encourages Google employees to spend 80% of their time on core projects, and roughly 20% (or one day per week) on “innovation” activities that speak to their personal interests and passions. These activities may benefit the company’s bottom line – as in the case of Gmail, Google News, AdSense and Orkut. But more importantly they keep employees challenged and engaged in ways that aid retention and keep staff learning and growing.

Imagine a scenario where you could spend 20% of your time on projects that you think could benefit your company or world, and that you “own.” That could stimulate you to think differently and passionately about the other 80% of your work, leading to a more fulfilling professional experience

Of course, this model works well for developers, engineers and other creative types. What about for the rest of us? Is there an 80/20 innovation model that could help your administrative assistant do his or her job better? Help middle managers make the leap more effectively to senior staff? Energize senior staff by offering mentoring and stewardship opportunities around such projects?

Innovation is the key for companies surviving this economic downturn. Here are some thoughts on implementing an innovation policy in your workplace:

1. Create a formal process for project selection, monitoring, and evaluation. At Google they track innovation time and know exactly which projects are being pursued. Employees who want to take advantage of innovation time off should submit a brief proposal and timeline, and be able to articulate how they will measure success.

2. Don’t worry about failure. In some ways innovation, like so many other things, is a numbers game. You throw up 50 projects, and maybe one or two stick. Most will fail, but you can’t know which will work unless you try. Failure is a critical p[art of true innovation.

3. Start small. Successful pilot projects help to leverage support and build awareness. Encourage your employees to create scalable projects that can be launched with relatively little investment.

4. Let your staff shine. Champion good ideas by facilitating and advocating, but let your employee present directly to senior management. Managers benefit when CEOs see that they have recruited intelligent and insightful staff.

5. Manage expectations. Not every project can be seen to fruition – in fact 95% of projects generated by your innovation policy won’t go anywhere. You don’t want disappointed, disillusioned employees, so manage their expectations.

About The Mama Bee:

The Mama Bee offers tips, news and commentary for mothers working in the corporate world. For more information visit:

http://themamabee.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/management-friday-googles-8020-innovation-model/

One recognized approach for developing innovative ideas is to bring together two seemingly unrelated elements, and see what you can create from them that is new, different and value-added.

If this isn’t just such an example, I don’t know what is.

The Roomba autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner used to create powerful artistic images, both photographically, of vibrant light and motion, as well as in print.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/roomba/pool/show/

Great fun to look at. And the floor got cleaned at the same time. How’s that for innovative efficiency?