C O N T E N T S

Preface: Welcome from the Author vIntroduction vii

I. The Basics of Innovation1. Towards a Culture of Innovation 32. Demystifying Innovation 11 3. Systems Thinking and GoInnovate! 194. Primary Principles 29

II. Generators - The Heart of the GoInnovate! System5. Generators Overview 376. The ValueSet 417. Creativity 518. Collaboration 579. Leadership 63

III. Cycle - The Course of Action in the GoInnovate! System10. Cycle Overview 7111. Visualizing the Ideals© 7712. Measuring the Gaps© 8513. Strategizing the Approaches© 9114. Projectizing the Details© 9515. Orchestrating the Results© 101

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III. Context - The Environment of the GoInnovate! System

16. Context Overview 10917. People 11318. Structure 12319. Process 12920. Technology 135

Epilogue: Making Innovation A Way of Life 139

Resources 141

Glossary 145

Endnotes 149

About the Author 153

GoInnovate!

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Welcome!

Every significant breakthrough in the history of man has been the resultof innovation. Nothing proceeds without it. From counting on our fingers tothe abacus to the calculator and the computer, all movement forward hasbeen the result of innovation.

From the first cavemen to space explorers, our survival and progress ashuman beings has depended on it.

And today, more than ever, business and government leaders at all levels are facing a serious dilemma—the challenge of doing more with thesame or fewer resources, and there's no relief in sight! The best solution isto increase productivity through innovation.

I have studied many successful innovators-individuals, teams andorganizations—to discover what they do that allows them to move aheadwhile other would—be innovators flounder. The GoInnovate! System is theculmination of my twenty-five years working with these groups to expandtheir capability to innovate swiftly, continually and effectively. As you learnand apply the GoInnovate! System, you too will increase your performance,influence and success at work and throughout life.

Most of the books written on innovation discuss theory and concepts at length, shortchanging the practical, “how-to” questions. GoInnovate!provides you with the principles, practices and tools to successfully innovateover and over again. This book is for executives who support innovationefforts, front line managers and leaders who pilot innovation teams as wellas anyone else in the organization with a commitment to innovation.

Your unique background and experience will serve as a valuableresource in your learning. Tap into that experience and the GoInnovate!System will take on greater personal meaning and value. In the process, youwill likely transform the way you view the world, your organization, the people around you and most importantly, your own capacity to innovate.

I welcome you to the wonders of innovation.

Andrew Papageorge Author of the GoInnovate! System

P R E F A C E

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Adhesives, baseballs, chocolate bars, dynamite, elastic, fishing rods,graham crackers, helicopters, Internet, Jell-O®, Kitty Litter®,

lunch boxes, motion pictures, neckties, onion rings, the printing press, Q-Tips®, roller coasters, sunglasses,

traffic lights, umbrellas, watches, x-rays, yogurt, and zippers.

What do all of these items have in common? These innovationscame into being because someone had a creative idea. However, innovationis not the same as creativity. As important as ideas are, they are just oneaspect of true innovation.

Even though innovation is understood by many to be the key toimproving processes, eliminating waste, improving productivity and increas-ing employee satisfaction, few organizations have a system for achievingconsistent results through innovation. While there are systems for all theother important functions—financial, marketing, manufacturing, customerservice—there is none for innovation. Yet it holds the key to improving allthe activities in the organization.

People fuel innovation. But merely sending a dictate telling employ-ees to be more creative and innovative doesn’t work. They need a system tohelp them do it—swiftly and effectively. The GoInnovate! System providespeople with tools to guide them step-by-step through the innovation process.It will guide people in “how to think” differently about themselves, theirteams and the organization. GoInnovate! will help them to think outside thenormal boundaries and draw upon their own and each other’s creativity.

Innovation is often misunderstood, but it can be understood. Theapproach detailed in these pages demystifies innovation by breaking it downinto understandable, logical components and then showing how it works as asystem. The GoInnovate! System stimulates people not only to accept change

I N T R O D U C T I O N

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but to be a part of it, thus opening the door for innovation to take placethroughout the organization. People want to be productive. They thrive in asystem that proactively supports them doing just that.

The GoInnovate! System works in any organization. It does notreplace management philosophy, policy or procedures currently in place. Itwill compliment your current structure and mode of operation and enhancethe value you receive from current initiatives and processes. You and yourpeople have spent too much time and money learning those processes.

The power of GoInnovate! is that it utilizes everything your organi-zation already knows and does well and enhances it, helping to direct andfocus those skills on innovation and doing it swiftly, continually and effectively. GoInnovate! will strengthen your existing systems while at thesame time expose weak areas and give you tools for improvement.

The effect of GoInnovate! when used completely and continually, is that the functionality of your organization will be vastly improved and people will be re-energized about their work and their interactions with colleagues.

Yet, GoInnovate! is much more than a system for innovation. It is a“framework for thinking” and making decisions of every magnitude—smallor large in your organization. Its benefits extend beyond the innovation effort to positively impact people’s work on today’s business, serving today’s customers. The result: substantial performance improvements and the abili-ty to accomplish more with the resources you have.

We appreciate those who have chosen to work with us by bringing theGoInnovate! System into their businesses. GoInnovate! Global clientsinclude: Intel, United States Air Force, Groupo Kimex, Estée Lauder,University of Texas, United States Postal Service, Singapore Police Force,SaskTel, SBC, City of London, Nordstrom, Hewlett Packard, Chevron, andnumerous other organizations interested in increasing their capability toinnovate—to generate wealth—in today’s economy.

I am also deeply grateful to all my colleagues, employees and friendswho have provided direction and encouragement along the way. A specialthanks goes out to Lee Berglund who was my partner early on, Rudy Platzerfor spurring me on to write the book and reviewing it in detail, Pat Kaufmanfor her expert guidance, Steven Haines for his help in exposing GoInnovate!to a wider audience, and Erin Thomas for being my editor and bringing it alltogether in the end. My wife, Mary Ann, has provided me unconditional sup-port and practical advice from the beginning of GoInnovate! in 1980. I ded-icate the book to my son, Alexander, who is my inspiration.

Now, the future is before you…GoInnovate!

GoInnovate!

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F O U R

Primary Principles

Principles are the foundation of theGoInnovate! System and remain trueregardless of changing conditions.

Understanding the value ofinnovation and the need to create aself-innovating organization is justthe beginning. Learning how to use asystem of innovation will create thatkind of organization. Three guidingprinciples underlie the GoInnovate!System of rapid and continual innova-tion and give it its foundation.

PrinciplesPrinciples are universal laws

that govern our lives. Like gravity, principles are true regardless of the cir-cumstances or conditions.

We do not learn

principles; rather we

unlearn beliefs that

are inconsistent

with them.

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GoInnovate!

Organizations are extremely complex systems. Rigid rules will notaddress the intricacy present during the innovation process. When the variables are few, control is possible and rules can apply. But when the variables are many and uncertainty is widespread, principles can direct deci-sions and guide behaviors. Learning and applying the GoInnovate! Principleswill allow you to work successfully within the high levels of intricacy anduncertainty that are inherent in almost any innovation.

The GoInnovate! Principles underlie and transcend the practices andtools contained in the three Components of the System - Generators, Cycleand Context, which will be discussed in subsequent chapters. Each of thePrinciples has major implications for how we go about innovating and areinvaluable guides for bringing about swift and continual innovation.

Primary Principle #1: Everything Is Connected To EverythingAll parts of the universe are linked together and interchange their

influences. As David Bohm, a physicist and contemporary of Einstein, oncestated, “We are all one…. Everything is connected to everything else. We arenot sure how this connectedness works, but there is a certainty that there is 'separation without separateness.’”

Quantum physicists like Bohm see all matter as being connected and inmotion. There is an "implicate order" that we can neither see nor sense in anyway. We as humans are part of this “wholeness” that is continually unfold-ing. Thus everything in the universe affects everything else, because all areparts of the same unbroken whole.

Australian physicist Paul Davies, Ph.D., explains it this way, “To thenaive realist the universe is a collection of objects. To the quantum physicist it is an inseparable web of vibrating energy patterns in which noone component has reality independent of the entirety; and included in thatentirety is the observer.”

All of our conditioning causes us to see the world as fragmented, asmade up of separate “things.” We tend to break everything into bits, likedepartments, nations and professions and then we continually try to connectthese “things” back together again. Rather than “thing-ness,” we need tolearn to see the world in terms of related parts of a whole.

You might doubt that everything in the universe is connected, but in amore pragmatic sense, we think you will agree that everything in an organi-zation is connected. By looking at the organization as a system in whicheverything is interrelated, we see how all the processes, people, structures,communications, and changes affect one another. In order for theGoInnovate! System of innovation to be successful, we must maintain anoverview of all these related parts throughout the main portion of theGoInnovate! System called the Cycle.

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Primary Principles

In recent GoInnovate! Academies we asked participants to identify howthings might be different in their organizations if everyone believed and livedthis First Principle that Everything is Connected. Some of their responses:

• Communication would improve.• Ownership of problems would be expanded.• People would be more helpful, kind and considerate.• Individuals would have greater interest in their work and in the

work of others.• Costly mistakes would be avoided more often.

As important as interconnectedness is, we see many examples in business where this truth is ignored:marketing departments that oversell production capability, research anddevelopment departments working without first consulting with marketing, and planning departmentsthat don't walk in lock step withfinance and other departments. Andthe list goes on. These actions resultin products that are too expensive toproduce, or worse, don't even meetcustomer demand.

With every innovation we con-sider, we should ask, "What affectwill this change have on other parts of the organization?" This should be thefirst acid test for every innovation, large or small and in every walk of life.An automated order processing system creates a backlog in the shippingdepartment. A new product's design is difficult to package and ship. A newmarket is developed which requires different distribution strategies. Suchconsiderations must be recognized and acted upon from the outset to avoidunnecessary confusion, waste and stress.

Primary Principle #2: Thought is GenerativeThe greatest discovery of all time…thought creates! Thought is causal.

Thought is the originator of everything that is brought into existence, thestarting point of every new innovation. This is a profound fact and a demon-strable one.

Thinking causes things to happen. Action, the movement of energy,flows from thoughts. Conditions are the effect of thinking. Thus newthoughts create new conditions.

With every innovation,

we must ask, "How

will this change

affect other parts of

the organization?"

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GoInnovate!

As Paramahansa Yogananda said, "Mind is the architect of the microcosm and the macrocosm. As water by cooling and condensatingbecomes ice, so thought by condensation assumes physical form. Everythingin the universe is thought in material form."

Our patterns of thought can holdus captive. Thought creates the worldaround us and then says, "I didn't doit." Physicist David Bohm talkedabout a "generative order" in which,depending on our state of conscious-ness, we "participate in how realityunfolds." Thought has developed insuch a way that it claims not to affectanything but rather relates to us what is real, what is true. But this is not true. Ideas and our thoughtscreate our conditions.

Consequently, organizations are in large part shaped by the way peoplethink and interact. To make organizations more innovative, we must changehow people think and interact.

Understanding that "Thought is Generative" is vital to innovating swift-ly, effectively and continually. The primary obstacles to innovation lie in ourmost basic ways of thinking. If these do not change, any "new input" will endup producing fundamentally the same results. So we must examine our thinking and thought processes from a personal, team and organizational perspective. What is our approach to solving problems, what are our basicbeliefs about ourselves, our work, our competitors, our ability to effectchange? Realizing that thought is generative can free our thoughts and consequently our actions.

Do you want to earn more money? Of course! But money is only amedium of exchange for ideas, goods and services. We provide ideas, goodsand services for money. If we want more money, then does it not make senseto look for the source from which all ideas, goods and services originate?

Imagination, ideas, our thoughts are the sources of all innovation, goodsand services. So if we want more money, we must improve the quantity,quality and organization of our thinking. The major problem with most of usis that we most often think about WHAT we think, rarely HOW we think.

The problem is behind us, not in front of us. Many of our old thoughtsand perceptions continue to affect our actions even though we are no longerconsciously aware of them. By changing our thoughts, we release ourselvesfrom the past.

We asked our GoInnovate! Academy participants to identify how things

To make our

organization more

innovative, we must

change how people

think and interact.

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Primary Principles

would be different in their organizations if everyone believed and lived thisSecond Principle that Thought Is Generative.

Some of their responses: • There would be less redoing, more thinking up front. • There would be physical spaces that enhanced thinking. • People would spend more time on 'how' they are thinking not only

'what' they are thinking.• We would do more listening and less judging of others.

Primary Principle #3: Everyone is Creative and InnovativeMany of us find it difficult to embrace the principle that says,

“Everyone is Creative and Innovative.” Society seems determined to “trainthe creativity out of us”. We aretaught in the rigid and unimaginative learning environments found in mostschools as well as being subjected tothe criticism and judgment of our parents, teachers and peers (often unintentional). Is it any wonder thatby the time we reach adulthood, mostof us believe and manifest the belief that we are not creative and innova-tive? But the truth is that everyone iscreative.

When initiating or participatingin an innovative process, we mustrecognize everyone's innate creative ability. Anyone can come up with agood idea, a great idea, or an idea that is valuable to the end result we areseeking. We have students in our GoInnovate! Academies who are ferventlyconvinced that they are not creative. We watch them participate in some ofour exercises and prove themselves wrong. As they absorb and practice thematerial, their innate creativity begins to flow. It is always an interesting andgratifying phenomenon to experience.

It was once thought that creativity and innovation existed only in theresearch and development or technology departments, or “at the top” of theorganization. In fact, it has always been associated with the people whoknow the most on a subject.

In truth, creativity and innovation is not limited to a chosen few. It isnot based on one’s intelligence, and it can be learned and cultivated throughour own efforts and the proper environment in the workplace.

Recently, a group of psychologists determined that out of people over45 years of age less than 5% are creative. At ages 40, 35, 30, 25 and 20, the

Throughout the

innovative Cycle, we

must recognize

everyone's innate

creative ability.

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percentage was the same—5%. At age 17, the number jumped to 10%. Atage 5, however, it was 90%. This shows that we all have creative potential within us, it has just been suppressed, or “trained out of us”. We are all creative.

In recent GoInnovate! Academies we asked participants to identify howthings would be different in their organizations if everyone believed andlived this Third Principle that Everyone is Creative and Innovative.

Some of their responses:• People would share their thoughts more openly.• People's ideas would be "explored" rather than shot down.• The whole environment would be more inclusive.• More ideas would be sought from "outsiders". • Radical thinkers would be welcomed.

Synopsis

• The three Primary Principles of GoInnovate! provide the foundation for the GoInnovate! System and are woven throughout the process.

• Principle #1: Everything is Connected to Everything

• Principle #2: Thought is Generative

• Principle #3: Everyone is Creative and Innovative

"If you hear a voice within saying, 'you are not an innovator,' then by all means, boy, innovate and that voice will be silenced."

~ Vincent Van Gogh