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Culture

These essays on innovation culture cover the importance of having the right culture. Through stories, examples, and research findings, I explore how to craft a winning culture of innovation, so teams are motivated, focused on making an impact, and successful in delivering innovations that customers love. Plus, I share insights into the key practices needed to create and sustain a culture of innovation from start-up to large enterprise.

The Best Creative Thinking Tool You Probably Haven’t Tried

While we all have a go-to creative thinking tool that always works for us, we should always be open to trying new tools. I’m sure you’ve met a humorless person before. They’re those people that take everything far too seriously and never find humor in life or other people. If you want to be creative

creative thinking from humor

The One Thing That Will Kill An Innovation And What You Can Do To Avoid It

When most innovators pitch what they think is the next brilliant innovation, I’m shocked by how many of the innovators will make what sound like extreme claims without taking take the time to fact-check.  While fact-checking is most commonly applied to journalism. There have been many public reveals

fact versus fake lightbulbs

The Power of Human Ingenuity

“What are you going to do about it?” My grandmother was chastising me for whining about how life wasn’t fair – or some other perceived injustice. What could I do about it! I was only a kid. It’s someone else’s job to fix it! Or at least I thought so.  Instead of letting me pass […]

How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? asked Dorothy. I don't know, replied Scarecrow, but some people without brains d

An Ethics Crisis in 2020 – Here Is To A Better 2021

Given the esteem and trust we grant scientists and innovators, how could this happen?  How could research fraud, falsified data, and unproven conclusions result in 1,800 papers in leading journals and peer review articles being retracted in 2020? And this is not an anomaly. [1] Two decades ago, jour

Ethical Research - Do What Is Right Not What is Easy

4 Leadership Struggles I Had to Overcome

Many leaders act as if the point they’ve reached in their careers was easy to reach. This week on the Killer Innovations show, I will be discussing the various struggles all leaders face and how to counteract them. From my perspective, as I progressed throughout my career, I ran

Leadership

Six Innovation Skills Everyone Needs

What are the innovation skills needed to be successful in creating new ideas and products? Many people often find themselves void of creativity in the innovation world. This stems from a deeper issue. On today’s show, we will go through in more detail what innovation skills separate those that

Innovation Skills

Ideas + Innovation Culture = Innovation Success

Innovation is all about translating ideas into real products, real services and real solutions.   Ideas without execution are a hobby.  Is your organization in the business of innovation?   This week’s show boils it down to a simple equation.  Ideas + Innovation Culture = Innovation Success.  The process starts with ideas and

Innovation Success

So Your Idea Got Rejected

Your idea was rejected. Criticized. Dumped on. You were told to give up. I have yet to find anyone who likes to have their ideas rejected. But if you want to succeed in innovation, you have to put yourself and your ideas out there which means you will get rejected. You have no other choice. […]

rejected

Six Practices of Successful Innovators

Innovations surround us.  Things we enjoy and rely on everyday are thanks to successful innovators.  These are people who had an idea and, through hard work and creativity, turned it into an amazing innovation.  In what ways did these people think differently? What practices made them successful? Ma

successful innovators

My TEDx Talk: Do you have Impostor Syndrome … too?

What happens when you share the secret that has been feeding your impostor syndrome for more than 25 years? In this TEDx talk, I share a secret that I kept hidden for 25 years and the result of that secret being revealed on the front page of a national newspaper. Through this journey, I was forced [

Phil McKinney talk on Impostor Syndrome at TEDx Boulder 2018