Skip to content

Speech on the Skills of Practical Innovation

Phil McKinney
Phil McKinney
1 min read
Speech on the Skills of Practical Innovation

This weeks podcast is a recording of a recent speech I gave titled “Practical Innovation Skills”.

The underlying theme was on using creativity, innovation and ingenuity techniques to achieve ALL of your objectives – not just your work/professional objectives.  What do I mean by objectives?

ob·jec·tive  [uhb-jek-tiv] – something that one’s efforts or actions are intended to attain or accomplish; purpose; goal; target

Isn’t that what creativity is all about?  We tend to overlook the practical uses of the creative tools and skills we use at work/school in our everyday lives.  For example, how about using some of those same skills to be creative in selecting the next vacation spot for your family.  How?  Using the FIRE process that is the core of the Killer Innovations approach.

  • Focus: What countries or continents have you not been to?  What vacation activities have you not tried before?
  • Ideation: What activities could we do within the area of focus that allows all of the family members to enjoy their hobby/passion?  What have been the one experience your spouse has always wanted to do?
  • Rank:  What are the best ideas from the list of possible vacations?
  • Execution:  Go have the vacation!

What is holding you back from bringing your full creative ability to everything you do?

Studio SessionsPast Shows

Phil McKinney Twitter

Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.


Related Posts

How to Improve Your Weak Signal Judgment

Noticing a trend is easy and almost worthless. Predicting which one reshapes a market, and acting early, is where innovation pays.

How to improve your judgement on which weak signal to act on

How to Improve Your Second-Order Thinking Skills

The most expensive failures don't announce themselves. They start as weak signals somebody noticed once and explained away. Second-order thinking is how you stop being that somebody.

Second-order thinking

How to Improve Your Inversion Thinking Skills

Most innovation tools teach you how to win. Inversion thinking teaches you how to lose on purpose, so you catch the failure while you can still change course.

Image of inversion thinking - showing Phil McKinney inverted.