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Age of Innovation

July 1, 2010 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

The Age of Innovation is upon us.  Learn how to be innovative or get run over.

It’s interesting I have grown up in the information age. However with the advent of Google most information is free and there are

Thanks to Nasa for this drawing

Thanks to Nasa for this illustration

volumes, billions of volumes created everyday. I have realized over the past year that we are in a new age. Most people don’t realize we are into a new age for sometime. I am starting to find more signs of this. I did a search of innovation on the Wall Street Journal and found this article by Russell Garland ” A Golden Age for Innovation ”  Garland quotes Jeff Bussgang as the one coining the phase.

Living in the United States we grow up with the belief we can do anything, and anything is possible.  This is the essence of freedom and is at the root of innovation and inspiration.   I use the Wright Brothers as one of the best examples of innovation.  For thousands of years people believed flying was impossible, even though they constantly watched birds fly.  Even a great Scientist, Lord Kelvin, told a reporter in early 1902 that Flying “would never be a commercial success … and people should stop waisting their lives” a few people had died trying.  In December 1903 the Wright Brothers took their first flight at Kitty Hawk.

Over that pass 100 years or so if you invented something you created it, patented it, sold it and made money.   With the industrial age we learned how to make things faster and cheaper.  With the advent of the information age we find the cheapest places to have things made and manipulated.  So giant very well funded companies are winning the day.

Be warned the winds of change constantly blowing.  Sometimes these winds are hurricanes that decimate an industry.  Example the Music industry vs the MP3 Hurricane.

Just like the manufacturing jobs that have left the US over the past 30 years a fairly rapid pace.  Now information jobs are even more rapidly leaving the US.  Not so much that they are done cheaper, and they are done cheaper, but many times the resources can’t be found here in the US.  So now the information workers need to realize winds of change are blowing and I as well as you need to adapt to survive.

Here is how to adapt, and living in the United States with the most freedoms, is perfectly placed to handle the “New Age of Innovation”

Here is how I am, and hopefully  you are, going to survive this new age.

About

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Results of Innovation

June 7, 2010 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

Innovation creates;

  • Increased Productivity
  • Lower Labor Costs
  • Motivated Employees
  • Loyal Employees
  • Happy Employees
  • Happy Owners

One of the common questions that gets asked as people talk is “What do you do?” I think most of us know what we do, and can explain it to people. However, after you talk to people can they tell their friends what you do. I have been trying now for six months to get it to the next level. Now I think I have it.

So when people ask me what I do I can tell them, “I am a business consultant that increases productivity and lowers labor costs.”

These seam like they would not go together. That is where the magic of innovation comes in.  The first and most critical step for innovation is “asking questions.”  Such as; “How can we do this better?” “How can we do this faster?”  ”Why am I doing it like this?” “What does the customer want?”

The next step, and the most powerful, is listening to the answers.  Without listening innovation will never live.  This is also the phase of innovation that involves creating the plan of action.

Next is ACTION,  this is where experimentation puts new innovation into play and where the results are found, tested, and improved.  This is the exciting part,  whether it’s a success or failure.  Like Thomas Edison, you must be prepared to fail.  Learning comes from failure and should be expected.   Failure should be also be painful, pain is what we learn from. I have spent more than 20 year experimenting, feeling the pain and finding what works.   Good planing and experience can avoid experimentation and pain.

Once the learning is complete this where companies pull ahead of their competition and win the day.   Increasing productivity and lowering labor cost are big parts of helping companies find the win.

With my 20 years of experience(from experimentation and pain) I can help significantly reduce

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Facebook Question – Do you love your career?

May 26, 2010 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

Well Do you? I posted the question today on Facebook. If you do why? There were more responses to that comment than anything else I have ever posted. Most of the people didn’t answer the question. A couple thought I was trying to push some MLM, some responded honestly, and one asked why? I know I hit a chord because of all the comments. A couple of times in my life I have loved my career. One of those times I was gluing rocks together.
I believe the times I have really loved what I was doing is because I had complete freedom to choose my own destiny and create cool things for the company I was working for. I love creating systems that maximize efficiency. I love creating environments where innovation will thrive.

I have a friend that is that kind of situation now. I heard a guy on the radio stating that 60% of people interviewed in their job where unsatisfied, because they were board. This tells me they know they are capable of more, but they don’t have the freedom to make a difference. I believe there is going to be a major shift in America’s workforce in the next 10 years.

I believe we all want more freedom to provide for ourselves, our family, and make a difference in the world. Every company that creates that environment is going to conquer in the future.

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Not just “Think Different”

May 7, 2010 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

Find out the five “Discovery Skills” innovators use on a daily basis to find new ideas.  The good thing is that these things can be learned and cultivated.  Steve Jobs and Apple have it partially right with “Think Different”  However, acting different is the essential ingredient to innovation.

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It’s amazing what a little honey will attract

April 19, 2010 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

Things in the world, and the world its self, seem a bit shaky.    Where can one find a bit of stability.   I’ve pondered these questions more intently as of late and I have come to a conclusion.  We must constantly question everything.  I believe most humans hunger for things to stay the same, for things to always be as they ever were.  However thing are constantly changing, business, society even the very ground we stand on.  The only safety we find can be found in constantly questioning.  What if our job went away?  What if I have to move to another town?  What if there is an earthquake?  What if the things my parents told me about God are wrong?  What if the things my science teachers/professors are wrong?  Some times the answers we find are the answers we always find.  Two plus two is still four.  However, at some point someone asked the question why can’t men fly.  And instead of believing what had always been said, “People were not born with wings and cannot fly.”  They discovered a way to fly.  We all need to be looking for ways to make our lives better, our families lives better and the lives of those around us better.  We constantly need to be asking  how can I make things better.  I believe this is what is going make us successful in the future.

As I start to get excited about this new way of thinking.  I am starting to realize how sweet this idea really is I start to find many others that are preaching a very similar idea.  I believe we are moving from the information age into the innovation age.  We all must learn how to innovate on a daily basis to be successful in the future.  The difficult part about constantly questioning and constantly trying to innovate is that it is counter to human nature and our desire to setup systems and rituals that we can be comfortable with.  Our world, the actual ground we walk on, the society in which we live and the customers for which we provide services are constantly changing an shifting and unless we, our families, our business and our society are constantly innovating we will not be able to keep up with the constant changing environments within which we all live we will be pushed aside and left for dead.

Now is the time to question?  How can I do better?  What can I do better?

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Disruptive Innovation

November 18, 2009 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

Get ready to take the gloves off and start smashing faces. This is what I see as disruptive.

I have been reading more about innovation.  I read a great article today about the different types of innovation; “Sustained Innovation” and Disruptive Innovation. Eric Zeitoun – Article on innovation I am hearing the term “Disruptive Innovation” more and more. I am a disruptive innovator. What I do, at best, is uncomfortable for people to embrace but more often upsetting to the effected. But just like the training that goes on for any athletic endeavor is painful. But makes playing the game so much better.

I am really enjoying the insights people share on the internet about pay for performance, innovation and motivation

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Science Not Art, But It Is A Beautiful Thing

November 16, 2009 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

IronCastingIstock

It’s amazing the authors of this story don’t have any idea why the “magic” is happening in the story. I think it’s safe to say when something gets called “Art” is basically misunderstood. As read over this article – The Art Of Motivation It is clear by the sub heading Nanette Byrnes and Michael Arndt are baffled by what they saw. They know it is amazing! But they can’t quite put there finger on what is happening at Nuccor. They did a great job of reporting the facts. Here are some amazing facts. A steel plant in America with a 389% return to the investors. While many tech companies like Amanzon and Microsoft could not even come close to the profits. Another fact is that the workers are making 3 times the national average.

Right from the beginning it is obvious they don’t really understand what is going on. The subheading reads “What you can learn from a company that treats it’s employees like owners” The subheading should have read “Learn from a company that knows how to motivate employees to act like owners.” The important thing is the sentence is the “Act”ing. This is the critical piece to this puzzle. This is basic science. You find out what the owner wants. Then you find out what the employee wants and then you make that the same for both. The is were the “Magic” happens. But it is pure science and not art or magic.
This is a great article because it proves that will be effective anywhere.

Motivation applied properly gives beautiful results.

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On Building a Ship

October 28, 2009 By Dee Gardner Leave a Comment

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. – - – from the blog of Inkling Corporate blog
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery – Author of The Little Prince

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