In the last blog, we looked at the Impossible Problem Innovation Model® and started to deconstruct the concept of an impossible problem.
Let’s continue that focus because too quickly, people bypass the concept of clarity around a problem or opportunity. If you want to innovate and solve an impossible problem or leverage a fantastic opportunity you need to put in the work upfront to make that happen.
Read MoreGlobal industries and local communities struggle with the pace of change. Typically, the pace of change is reducing resources like time, money and people. Reducing resources creates difficult problems that appear to be impossible to solve, what we call impossible problems. In local and global marketplaces, impossible problems occur for organisations and for individuals. For all these impossible problems, we need brave individuals to take action to solve the problems and then implement the solutions.
Read MoreIf I had a dollar for every time a senior manager complained about departments fighting, I would be a Millionaire. It’s rare for departments not to fight. Is all conflict bad?
Read MoreImagine in your last meeting your sales manager says, “What do you want to do, increase sales or lower costs?” Well, when you put it like that , you must choose? But do you need to choose? Not always! In general, when asked, do you want me to do X or Y we automatically make a choice. Why?
Read MoreWhen faced with challenges that call for new thinking, how can you come up with fresh ideas, providing breakthrough thinking and innovative solutions?
Read MoreMany executives wish they could get their organisations to make decisions faster and get things done faster. Wishing they could get people to work together and make critical decisions to get projects completed. In many organisations, it is hard to get teams to move faster, but there are ways to get teams to decide faster and act faster.
We have a one day process called Solve Your Impossible Problem (SYIP), so I was fascinated to read this book. What’s different and when should we use the Sprint process?
Read MoreMany managers are not good at solving problems. What do we mean? Well, many managers don't dig deep enough. In their haste to prove they can solve problems, they react to the first possible cause of a problem.
Read MoreManagers constantly want to get better results, better results for themselves and better results for their organisation. One way to improve performance is to get improved performance from individuals. For managers to improve their own performance and their organisation’s performance, they need to know a secret.
Read MoreMany companies don't struggle with solving problems, but they do struggle with what is the problem. Across 17 countries, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg surveyed 106 C-suite executives from 91 private and public sector companies. 85% of executives said their companies were bad at diagnosing problems and 87% agreed this incurred significant costs. Most managers tend to leap straight into searching for solutions, without checking they deeply understand the problem.
Read MoreIt is one thing to have a problem to solve; it is another to use this as a means of improving and strengthening your business, to make it your competitive advantage. When you have a problem to solve and need to establish a project team, it's an opportunity to develop internal relationships and remove inter-departmental barriers.
Read MoreThe issue of creativity will determine whether or not your company will survive or become a statistic. Trying to create an environment that is conducive to creativity, both for yourself and your teams will ultimately become a top priority for your company. How can your team become more creative?
Read MoreMany managers say their meetings don't work, and get frustrated with wasting hours trying to solve problems and choose solutions, without generating any fresh ideas.
What if there was a process that could you help you with this?
Read MoreTo make a decision in a negotiation you need to understand what will satisfy you and what you need to do to satisfy the needs and interests of the other party. Do they value the process of expanding the pie or are they fixed on a single outcome?
Read MoreDoes this sound familiar?
This morning, three hours discussing the poor results from the employee survey and getting nowhere. We tried to agree some actions to improve satisfaction. But we went round and round in circles. Helen from HR wanted to find ways to get staff more involved. Mike in Manufacturing thought that was a waste of time and we should just rewrite role descriptions so everyone was clear what they should do. Sam from Sales thought getting more involvement from staff and new role descriptions were both a waste of time and that we needed to make our salaries more competitive in the marketplace. We spent 9 minutes just arguing why each of the three solutions were wrong.
No wonder many managers say their meetings don't work. So, what can you do?
Read MoreInnovation is not just about ‘out of the box’, ‘blue-sky’ solutions. Sure, we need to use some right-brain thinking to free our imaginations and find creative answers. But, you need to match this with a left-brain process and hard work. Organisations can do a great job and spend lots of time solving the wrong problem. So, it’s important to take the time to understand the real problem that needs to be solved and to make sure the real problem is well defined.
How do you define your problems?
Read MoreWe ended 2016 with a real wake-up call for everybody in a leadership, executive or management role – the status quo of business was disrupted.
Over the holiday break I would take a book down to the beach to read which inevitably attracted conversation from other beach goers, firstly on me being the only person reading a book with everybody else on some device.
I liked the book because it challenged some of my concepts around leadership and self-motivation and that is always a sign of a great book.
Read MoreIn a previous blog, we explored the market trends impacting B2B business negotiations and determined there were two main themes from these trends. The first of these being: Procurement - undervaluing suppliers.
The way organisations buy has become more sophisticated, so more companies have introduced professional procurement managers into their negotiations with suppliers. In today's business environment companies must pull every possible lever to improve profits, so getting a price reduction on a product or service is the easiest way to reduce costs. On face value getting cheaper prices seems an appropriate approach, however, we challenge that paradigm.
Read MoreToday, thanks to my friend Ian Byrne of Pegras, I read that everyday its estimated humans are producing data equivalent to 10 million blu-ray discs. The world in general and business in particular is overflowing with data. Back in 1978, Samuel Coleridge Taylor wrote: water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Perhaps if he wrote this line today he might say: data, data everywhere and not a bit to persuade.
As the tsunami of data washes over us, we drown. While the tsunami of data is new, techniques for understanding data are old.
Read MoreDo you need to unlock your creative potential?
Read MoreDo you have a problem that seems impossible to solve? One reason could be ...
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