LEADERSHIP BLOG

Even some of your team’s greatest innovative ideas can unfortunately fall flat and never reach the point of implementation. Ideas generated through brainstorming followed by engaging in expansive thinking finally become great ideas when they are seen to stand the test of scrutiny.

Jumping...

 Taking action is a critical aspect of innovation. We often think of introducing new ideas when we consider innovation, yet without action all the ideas fall flat and never emerge as true innovation. 

"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." ~Theodore...

Rather than a big move, small steps will give your idea the best chance to fully evolve. When embarking on something new there is much you don’t yet know and so much yet to learn. An experiment is exactly what you need to start off on the right foot and increase your chances of success.

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While a foundational aspect of innovation is generating and vetting ideas . . . ideas alone are not enough to lead to action. Even when you've narrowed it down and decided on the idea you want to pursue, you likely have one more step before setting the action plan in motion: “Selling the...

With the many decisions leaders make every day, some decisions are left hanging. Most of the time more information is needed or the timing is not quite right. Sometimes, though, the unmade decisions are left lingering and for teams working toward a purpose this can be frustrating or even...

Innovation is surfacing ideas, expanding on them, evaluating them, deciding what to try out, taking action, evaluating the experiments, and generating more ideas to make it better or do it differently. This cyclical process that is at the heart of innovation that leads to more thoughtful...

We may often think of ideating as synonymous with brainstorming. Yet, I would propose that brainstorming is an incomplete description. We want more than just a list of possible ideas . . . we want to hear different perspectives, see connections and make that list as robust as possible.

To enhance...

A group of people coming together to create forward momentum for the organization can be a complex meeting to facilitate! This is the experience of many nonprofit leaders with diverse constituencies who have “voice” into the momentum you’re trying to build. 

I’ve been...

How do we as leaders go beyond simply generating more ideas and move towards giving voice to a broad range of ideas? It’s easy to inadvertently stunt the ideating process. People can start debating the worthiness of one idea or another too early in the conversation. Stronger voices that are...

Innovation goes beyond simply generating new or more ideas. It’s surfacing ideas, evaluating them, deciding what to try out and assessing what needs to happen to make it better or do it differently. It’s an ongoing process that is at the heart of innovation. 

Ideating on its own...

I’m sure you’ve heard that necessity is the mother of invention. We experienced it with the “necessity” arising from an unexpected pandemic. We learned new ways of adapting, many of which we unpacked in our Lessons from Leading Remote blog series. 

Now that the...