Upload
trinhcong
View
220
Download
4
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
PARTICIPANT GUIDE
© 2012 Linkage, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Linkage Thought Leader Series
How to Out-Innovate the Competition
Featuring Stephen Shapiro, Author of Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 1
Dear Participant:
Welcome to the Linkage broadcast, How to Out-Innovate the Competition. This broadcast from
Linkage’s Thought Leader Series features Stephen Shapiro, President and CEO of 24/7
Innovation, and author of innovation philosophy books like 24/7 Innovation and The Little
Book of BIG Innovation Ideas. As Mr. Shapiro shares in his latest book, Best Practices Are
Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition, “the key to innovating successfully involves
innovating efficiently,” and that is why it’s time to let go of best practices and out-innovate the
competition.
One concept stands out as a constant for today’s successful organizations — innovation. The
need to be innovative is no longer a strategy that you can implement part-time. Innovation can no
longer be spearheaded by one person or one team. Innovation must be part of your organization’s
culture if you want to gain the advantage that keeps you ahead of everyone else. You may even
be thinking that your organization already has an innovation mind-set. But what if everything
you’re doing to build a culture of innovation is wrong?
Innovation, like any meaningful strategy, only works when applied in an
effective and results-oriented way. In Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to
Out-Innovate the Competition, Mr. Shapiro busts the many myths that
surround innovation. His message is clear: innovation isn’t about the
occasional new idea. Companies that are making a mark in today’s business
environment make innovation a repeatable, sustainable, and profitable
process. Your innovation efforts have to be focused and strategic in order to
catapult your organization to the forefront of your target market. If you
implement Mr. Shapiro’s strategies and techniques, your competition will be
trying to catch up with you!
As Stephen Shapiro shares, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for innovation. His lessons are
useful at an organizational level, at an individual level, or both. Your job, as a leader, is to use
what works best for your unique situation. True innovators know that organizations who
continue to rely on traditional innovation methods will ultimately fail. In today’s volatile and
ever-changing business landscape you need an innovation strategy with a laser-focus that allows
you to gain measurable results that positively impact the bottom line.
In this presentation, you will learn:
Why you should hire people you don’t like. Bring the right mix of people to unleash
your team’s full potential.
To define challenges more clearly. If you ask better questions, you will get better
answers.
Why you don’t want to think outside the box. Instead of giving your employees a blank
slate, provide them with well-defined parameters that will increase their creative output.
Why failure is always an option. Looking at innovation as a series of experiments allows
you to redefine failure and learn from your result.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 2
These participant materials have been designed to complement your participation in this
broadcast with Stephen Shapiro. Use the materials before the broadcast to set the stage for the
broadcast. Learn more about Mr. Shapiro, and what you can do to step away from the old models
of innovation that are broken and inefficient, and move toward methods that produce results.
Use the materials during Stephen Shapiro’s presentation to take notes on important concepts. Mr.
Shapiro will use the 90 minutes to provide some prepared material on what you can do to break
out of the conventional innovation mold and create your own path to innovation success.
Most importantly, use the materials after the broadcast to help reflect on ways to embrace the
principles and implement the tools and techniques Mr. Shapiro outlines in his presentation on
How to Out-Innovate the Competition. Apply the strategies to unlock your innovation potential
and discover the key to the long-term growth you need to stay ahead of the competition.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 3
About Linkage
Linkage works with leaders and leadership teams worldwide to build organizations that produce
superior results. For over 25 years, we have delivered on this promise by strategically aligning
leadership, talent, and culture within organizations globally. We do this by providing strategic
consulting on leadership development and talent management topics and through our learning
institutes, skill-building workshops, tailored assessment services, and executive coaching.
Linkage is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts with operations in Atlanta, Boston, New
York, San Francisco, St. Louis and outside the U.S. in Athens, Bangalore, Brussels, Buenos
Aires, Hamilton, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait City, Mexico City,
Rome, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Vilnius.
Other Linkage Programs
Linkage’s broadcasts represent the best in leadership and management thinking, providing you
with:
Idea-generating programs by world-renowned and inspirational leaders.
A convenient, on-site option for educating your leaders and managers.
An innovative vehicle to deliver and drive the learning.
Check Linkage’s website (http://www.linkageinc.com) for additional programming, details, and
updates. Linkage’s featured speakers are available On-Demand via Webcast or DVD:
Doug Conant on TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the
Smallest of Moments
Paul Sullivan on Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Some Don’t
Jason Jennings on Reinvention
David Rock on Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working
Smarter All Day Long
Bill Conaty on Why Smart People Put People Before Numbers
Steven Johnson on Where Good Ideas Come From
Charlene Li on Open Leadership: Transform the Way you Lead
Atul Gawande on How to Get Things Right in a Complex World
Adrian Gostick on How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization
Michael Roberto on How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen
Carlos Gutierrez on Leadership from Top to Bottom
Marshall Goldsmith on The Positive Actions Leaders Must Take to Start Winning Again
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 4
Dan Heath on How to Change when Change is Hard
Malcolm Gladwell on Why People are Successful
Sheena Iyengar on The Art of Choosing
Hank Haney on A Roadmap to Excellence
Lynda Gratton on Creating Performance Driven Innovation within your Organization
Les McKeown on Get Your Organization on the Growth Track
Rosabeth Moss Kanter on Leading a SuperCorp
David Cooperrider on A Symphony of Strengths
Richard Boyatzis on Leading in a New World
Sandra Taylor on The Business Case of Corporate Social Responsibility
John Maxwell on The Five Levels of Leadership
Stephen M. R. Covey on Leading at the Speed of Trust
Randy Street on Using the A Method to Evaluate Talent
Peter Sheahan on Future Proof: How to be Up in a Down Market
Marilyn Carlson Nelson on How We Lead Matters
Tom Peters on Creating the 21st Century Organization
Michael Treacy on Sustaining Double-Digit Growth in Any Economy
Doris Kearns Goodwin on Team of Rivals
John Kotter on Leading Change
Marshall Goldsmith on Coaching for Leadership
Patrick Lencioni on Building and Leading a High Performance Team
Keith Ferrazzi on Relationships for Group Success
Warren Bennis on The Most Common (and Often Fatal) Failures of Top Leadership
C. K. Prahalad on Making Strategy Work: The Future of Value Creation
Ann Richards on Successful Leadership
Michael Useem on Reaching the Go Point
Clayton Christensen on Building a Successful Innovation-Driven Organization
Benazir Bhutto on Diversity
David Breashears on Vision, Courage, and Passion: Leadership at 26,000 Feet
Tom Davenport on Maximizing Knowledge Worker Productivity: The Next Generation of
Management
Tony Schwartz on Building Individual and Organizational Capacity in the Age of
Overload
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 5
Phil Harkins on Powerful Conversations
Mareen and Kimball Fisher on Leading High Performance Virtual Teams
Nick Washienko on Effective Leadership Communication
Noel Tichy on Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls
Quint Studer on Transforming a Corporate Culture to Drive Sustainable Results
Marilyn King on Envisioning the Gold: An Olympian’s Challenge to Business Leaders
Betsy Myers on Authentic Leadership: How You Can Take the Lead
Marilyn Tam on How to Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want
Michael Lee Stallard and Jason Pankau on Fired Up Leadership to Boost Productivity
and Innovation
Gail Evans on The Power of Working Women Working Together
Pat Mitchell on Leader as Mentor
Jack & Suzy Welch on Producing Results: Winning Through Flawless Execution
Rick Belluzzo & Jay Conger on Developing Your Leadership Bench Strength
Mike Krzyzewski & Catherine McCarthy on Coaching to Win: Developing People and
Teams Who Excel
Malcolm Gladwell on The Power of Rapid Cognition for Business Leaders
Dave Ulrich on Creating Your Own Leadership Brand
Dan Goleman on Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: Bottom Line Results
Bill George on Authentic Leadership: Recovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value
Sherron Watkins & Joseph Badaracco Jr. on Ethics in Leadership
Richard Branson on Lessons in Leadership
Future Broadcasts
May 15, 2012: Robert Knowling on Leading a Successful Organizational Transformation
June 28, 2012: Linda Hill on The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader
September 18, 2012: Walter Isaacson on Timeless Leadership: Leadership Lessons from
Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin
October 10, 2012: Eric Olson on Teambuilding and Leadership in the 21st Century
November 14, 2012: Mark Samuel on Unleash the Power of an Accountable
Organization
December 13, 2012: Sylvia Hewlett on Top Talent: How to Reengage and Reenergize
your Workforce
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About Linkage ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Other Linkage Programs .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Future Broadcasts .............................................................................................................................................................. 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
ON YOUR MARK: PRE-BROADCAST PREPARATION .................................................................................................... 7
Introduction and Basic Premise ......................................................................................................................................... 8
Question Preparation for Q&A Session ........................................................................................................................... 14
GET SET: PRESENTATION ................................................................................................................................................ 15
During the Presentation ................................................................................................................................................... 16
Notes ................................................................................................................................................................................. 17
GO: ON-THE-JOB APPLICATION...................................................................................................................................... 22
Post-Broadcast Activities ................................................................................................................................................. 23
Materials Written by Stephen Shapiro ............................................................................................................................. 42
FORMS .................................................................................................................................................................................. 43
Question Sheet ................................................................................................................................................................. 44
Broadcast Evaluation Form ............................................................................................................................................. 45
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 7
ON YOUR MARK
PRE-BROADCAST PREPARATION
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 8
Introduction and Basic Premise
“Too often, we try to fit in with the crowd. We play it safe. But innovation is about taking risks
while being true to you. This takes confidence. And it takes the belief that your ‘style’ is what the
world needs and wants. Yes, taking this risk may help you stand out. More importantly, it may
be the ticket to your success.”
– Stephen Shapiro
Innovation is tricky. Today’s organizations cannot afford to ignore the importance of standing
out in a crowd, of pushing the limits to stay ahead of the competition. Innovators are the leaders
that people talk about, the leaders that make a difference and take their organizations from today
into tomorrow — before anyone else does. The tricky part of innovation is avoiding the old
strategies that many organizations employ around innovation. As the saying goes, “if you do
what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” It’s safe to say that
organizations that out-innovate their competition don’t accept the status quo. They push the
limits and find new ways to deliver what people want — not just once, but again and again.
Innovation is not something you implement as a reaction to what others are doing; innovation
must be an integral part of your organization’s culture. In Best Practices Are Stupid, Stephen
Shapiro will teach you that “nonstop innovation is attainable and vital to building a high-
performing team, improving the bottom line, and staying ahead of the pack.”
Implementing a culture of innovation requires change — and change is hard. Creating an
innovation culture requires you to change not only the way you think about innovation, but
change how you innovate. It’s a tough challenge, but Stephen Shapiro’s strategies, concepts, and
techniques will enable you to take your innovation efforts to the next level. You can’t survive in
today’s challenging business environment unless you commit to consistently staying ahead of the
competition through innovation. What are you waiting for? It’s time to breathe new life into
your innovation thinking and practice. It’s time to be the company that everyone else is talking
about!
The excerpt that follows is from Best Practices Are Stupid and is reprinted with permission from the author, Stephen Shapiro.
On April 20, 2010, the environment was dealt a horrific blow. On that day, the Deepwater
Horizon oil rig exploded, spewing as much as 180 million gallons of crude oil into the waters off
the Gulf Coast of the United States. It took eighty-seven days to cap the gushing wellhead.
In the weeks following the explosion, scientists, movie stars, and concerned citizens tried to
devise ways to slow the flow. But workable solutions were hard to find and implement, as the
well was nearly a mile below the surface of the ocean. Repeated attempts failed.
In an effort to find better solutions, the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command, spearheaded by
BP, launched a Web site where anyone could submit their ideas in an online suggestion box.
According to USA Today, the Web site received nearly 125,000 ideas; 80,000 suggestions had to
do with plugging the leak and 43,000 with ways to clean up the oil.
Of these ideas, one hundred were deemed to have some merit and a couple dozen were tested.
Unfortunately, this
innovation strategy is
what many well-
intentioned companies
use in their quest to be
more innovative. They
operate under the
misguided belief that
getting more ideas
leads to better
innovation.
Organizations that use
this approach spend a
lot of their time sorting
the wheat from the
chaff. And sadly, most
of the ideas are
chaff…you don’t want
more ideas. You want
to focus your energies
on finding solutions to
pressing problems that
enable your company to
be more
innovative…The key to
innovating successfully
involves innovating
efficiently.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 2
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 9
On the surface, this might appear to have been a successful endeavor; BP was able to gather lots
of possible ideas to help end the disaster.
For a company that stood to lose billions of dollars in cleanup costs, relief payouts, and lost sales
due to bad publicity, this approach might indeed have been a good strategy.
But the resources necessary to respond to this type of disaster typically don’t exist within
organizations. Although a workable solution may have been found using this strategy, it is
unclear whether that was the case. Regardless, consider how many people it would take to
evaluate thousands of ideas. If one person could evaluate an idea in thirty seconds (which is
optimistic, especially for a technically complex issue like this) and could dedicate forty hours a
week to the task, it would take over half a year to evaluate that many submissions, a significant
investment for any company.
With an innovation strategy like this, finding a useful idea is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Or more accurately, it is like finding a needle in a stack of other needles.
Unfortunately, this innovation strategy is what many well-intentioned companies use in their
quest to be more innovative. They operate under the misguided belief that getting more ideas
leads to better innovation. Organizations that use this approach spend a lot of their time sorting
the wheat from the chaff. And sadly, most of the ideas are chaff.
As this book will reveal, you don’t want more ideas. You want to focus your energies on finding
solutions to pressing problems that enable your company to be more innovative. In fact, I’ll teach
you why the key to innovating successfully involves innovating efficiently.
The popular press and innovation gurus alike often provide well-worn examples that muddy the
waters on how to approach the innovation process.
Google reportedly lets it employees use 20 percent of their time to develop new ideas. “PhDs and
other smarty pants agreed to hand over their brains to the search giant for four days of the week
and, in return, they were given the fifth to work on any project of their fancy.” Many experts
hold this up as an effective way to innovate. In actuality, this investment was designed to help
Google win the “war for talent” and did little in the way of generating new revenue streams. In
spite of the huge investment, 97 percent of its revenues still come from advertising, the same way
it has always made money.
3M uses a similar strategy, giving employees 15 percent of their time to explore. When
discussing the 15 percent rule, someone from 3M once told me, “Which fifteen percent? I work
sixty hours a week and there’s no time for my fifteen percent.” The answer appears to involve
working weekends. As Les Krogh, retired senior vice president of research and development,
once said, “If 3Mers have to get something done, they’ll do it. They’ll take their 15 percent on
Saturdays or Sundays, if need be.”
Admittedly, 3M’s approach has indeed produced some amazing innovations. But will this
strategy work for your organization? Both Google and 3M benefit from a highly motivated
workforce that is probably more ambitious than employees in most organizations.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 10
So is there a more efficient way for you to innovate?
Allowing employees to dedicate 15 percent to 20 percent of their time to innovation efforts of
their choosing is akin to the infinite monkey theorem: If you give an infinite number of moneys
and infinite number of typewriters, they will eventually write War and Peace. The belief is that if
you give employees enough time to tinker around and develop enough harebrained idea, they will
eventually find the next big innovation (and no, I am not suggesting that your employees are
monkeys).
Although this might yield new ideas, it is hardly an efficient way to innovate.
Let’s face it, the old models of innovation are broken, are inefficient, and fail to produce results.
It’s time for you to be innovative about the way you innovate and apply some new thinking to
your innovation process.
This book is composed of forty tips designed to help you do just that. These tips are designed to
help you innovate differently. Innovate more efficiently. Innovate in a more focused manner.
Some tips are intended to change the way you think about innovation. Others are designed to
change how you innovate. Depending on your experience level, you may already be familiar
with some tips, while others will be new concepts for even the most advanced innovation
practitioners. Certain tips are useful mainly at an organizational level, while others are important
concepts for all individuals to consider.
In some cases, you may not agree with my point of view. That’s okay! The objective of each tip
is to get you and your team thinking. You don’t necessarily need to take what I say at face value.
Challenge each concept. Discuss it. See how it applies to your organization. There is no one-
size-fits-all solution for innovation. Pick and choose the tips that will have the greatest impact.
Although the tips are organized in a logical sequence, they can be read in any order and each
stands on its own. The first series of tips introduces some of the most important concepts relating
to “innovating the way you innovate,” and the remainder of the book is loosely organized around
the components of the innovation capability: process, strategy, measures, people, and technology:
Process: Most innovation efforts are ineffective and unfocused. To remedy this, you will
be introduced to challenge-driven innovation, an efficient process for addressing your
most pressing issues and opportunities.
Strategy: If you don’t understand your customers’ latent desires, your innovation efforts
will be comparable to a wild-goose chase. Armed with their true wants and needs, you
can develop a powerful innovation strategy.
Measures: Your measurement systems may inadvertently be killing your innovation
efforts. By making some simple changes to your motivation strategy, you can stimulate
creativity and foster innovation.
People: Innovation is dependent on having the right people — with divergent points of
view — in the right roles. The key is to treat each individual like an owner of the
business, pushing decision making to the lowest levels of the organization.
Tip 2
How Can You Avoid
Becoming a One-Hit
Wonder?
Make sure that your
innovation efforts are
predictable and
sustainable by treating
them like any other
capability in your
company.
Five key components
are required for
successful long-term
innovation: strategy,
measures, people,
process, and
technology.
For too long, innovation
has been relegated to
the darkest recesses of
R&D departments and
to the conference rooms
of well-meaning
brainstormers. But now
is the time to bring
innovation to the
forefront of your
business.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 14, 15, 16, and 17
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 11
Creativity: One aspect of the people dimension is competency. With innovation, one
specific competency involves the ability to develop creative solutions. Although
creativity is technically part of the “people” dimension of the innovation capability,
given its importance, I have dedicated a section to these techniques. These can be
used in brainstorming sessions or as instructional aids for helping people be more
creative.
Technology: Technology plays a critical role in finding solutions to challenges and
enabling collaboration. Although this is a distinct component of the innovation
capability, the world of technology is changing rapidly. Therefore, anything written in a
book would be immediately obsolete. As a result, appendix A contains an overview of
the technology landscape, and the most up-to-date information can be found on our Web
site.
I am always amazed by the high quality of people employed by companies around the world. I
am even more amazed by how little most companies tap into the innovative potential of these
employees. This book provides dozens of proven tips and techniques that will enable you to get
the most out of your workforce.
Innovation is the key to long-term growth. Although many companies are enamored with
utilizing best practices, as this book’s title suggests, duplicating what others are already doing
relegates you to a continuous game of catch-up. Following in the footsteps of others is the fastest
way to irrelevancy. Instead, create your own path. Find new and creative ways of staying ahead
of the competition. Only through repeated, rapid, and efficient change can an organization
survive and thrive in today’s volatile marketplace.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 12
Pre-Broadcast Activity: How Do You Approach Innovation?
“If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and 1 minute
finding solutions.”
– Albert Einstein
As Stephen Shapiro points out, there is no one-size-fits-all innovation strategy for today’s
organizations. If you are paying any attention to companies who successfully stay ahead of the
competition, you know that having an innovation strategy is critical — and you most likely have
your own. If you are like most organizations, your innovation efforts may be more of a process
and less of a culture. You define a problem or challenge, assemble a team to research the issue,
and then use any one of many different methods to come up with an innovative solution. But,
how often does this lead to successful innovation? It’s time to look at your organization and ask:
“How do you approach innovation?”
The self-assessment that follows will help you determine your current approach to innovation.
By taking an honest look at where you are at, you can apply the tips and techniques from Stephen
Shapiro’s presentation to boost innovation in your organization and make it repeatable,
sustainable, and a profitable process at the heart of your company’s culture.
First, come up with a list of problems, challenges, or opportunities your organization is facing.
Use the space below to develop your list. Use as much or as little detail as necessary to help you
set the stage for your innovation strategy. For this activity, you will only focus on one item from
the list, but the remaining items may be used in additional activities in this guide as well as
something to build on when you return to the job.
________________________________ ________________________________
________________________________ ________________________________
________________________________ ________________________________
________________________________ ________________________________
From the list above, select one problem, challenge, or opportunity that you would like to focus
on. Using this choice, answer the following questions around how you would approach an
innovative solution to this problem, challenge, or opportunity.
1. What are you currently doing to address this problem/challenge/opportunity?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Tip 3
Asking for Ideas Is a
Bad Idea
Organizations are often
enamored with
collecting a large
number of ideas from
employees and
customers. And
although these can be
useful for employee
morale, if you go down
this path, your
organization needs to
make sure to implement
enough of the ideas to
keep enthusiasm high.
Unfortunately, the lack
of traction gained by
most idea platforms
hurts morale and leaves
the organization with a
lot of extra work.
If you have an infinite
amount of resources,
time, and money, then
the idea-driven
approach can be useful
for finding hidden gems.
But sometimes the best
idea is to stop asking for
ideas.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 21
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 13
2. What approach would you take to innovate a solution to this problem/challenge/opportunity?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. What approach would you take to generate ideas? Who would be involved, and to what
extent? How would you capture any ideas?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
4. What measurements would you employ around your innovation efforts? What kinds of
measures would you use? How would you measure less tangible values, such as adaptability?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
5. How do you relate innovation to overall business outcomes and results?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 14
Question Preparation for Q&A Session
Stephen Shapiro will devote the last portion of the broadcast to answer your questions. Complete
the Question Sheet found on the next to last page of this participant guide and:
If you are participating in the live presentation of this program, you can submit your
questions directly from your webcast viewing window. You can also submit your
questions through email using the instructions on the Question Sheet. Your program
coordinator may collect your questions and send them in collectively. Email to:
If you are participating in a recorded presentation of this program, share your questions
with your program coordinator to be used during your post-broadcast activities.
Linkage is now accepting questions through Twitter. To follow the conversation online or to
submit your questions/comments during a live broadcast using Twitter, please use the hash tag
#LinkageInc.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 15
GET SET
PRESENTATION
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 16
During the Presentation
Participate! Listen actively — question concepts and “try them on” to see how they may
apply to you and your situation.
Take notes on the pages that follow. Capture key thoughts and ideas.
Be bold! Identify one thing to do and vow to take action.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 17
Notes
Please use the following pages to take notes.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Tip 5
Expertise is the Enemy
of Innovation
Expertise can indeed be
the enemy of
breakthrough thinking.
The more you know
about a particular topic,
the more difficult it is for
you to think about it in a
different way. You’re
solutions will most likely
be “been there, done
that” ideas that are
limited to your area of
expertise. If you want
breakthroughs, you
need to bring together
people from a wide
range of disciplines,
backgrounds, and
experiences.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 26 and 27
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 18
More Notes
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Tip 7
The Goldilocks Principle
Remember the story of
Goldilocks? She enters
the house of three
bears. After sampling
their porridge, she
decides to go to sleep.
She finds the papa
bear’s bed too hard, the
mama bear’s bed too
soft, and the baby
bear’s bed just right.
The same is true when
defining challenges.
They can’t be too big
(broad and abstract,
e.g., asking for “new
ideas”) or too small
(overly specific, e.g., an
extremely technical
problem that can be
solved only by one
discipline). They must
be “just right” — framed
in a way that maximizes
the likelihood of finding
a workable solution.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 26 and 27
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 19
More Notes
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Tip 9
What Did Edison Get
Wrong About
Innovation?
Edison is famous for
saying, “I have not failed
seven hundred times. I
have not failed once. I
have succeeded in
proving that those
seven hundred ways will
not work. When I have
eliminated the ways that
will not work, I will find
the way that will
work.”…regardless,
each of Edison’s seven
hundred attempts cost
him time and money.
Did finding ways that did
not work really add that
much value? Can your
organization afford
seven hundred
unsuccessful attempts?
Not in today’s
competitive
environment.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 48 and 49
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 20
More Notes
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Collaboration and
competition both serve
an important purpose in
the innovation process.
As Alexander Graham
Bell once said, “Great
discoveries and
improvements invariably
involve the cooperation
of many minds. I may
be given credit for
having blazed the trail,
but when I look at the
subsequent
developments I feel the
credit is due to others
rather than myself.”
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 61
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 21
More Notes
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Tip 13
Lessons from Indiana
Jones
In today’s world of data
mining and customer
analytics, it can be easy
to study your customers
from the comfort of your
desk…but most likely
you are only gathering
data about your
customers. As a result,
you are missing the
data of former
customers and people
who never were
customers. As for your
current customers, you
will only be able to
analyze their activities
associated with your
existing products and
services; you won’t be
able to identify
unarticulated needs.
The real treasure can
be found when you
leave your office, don
your fedora and
bullwhip, and study
customers with your
own two eyes.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 69
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 22
GO
ON-THE-JOB APPLICATION
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 23
Post-Broadcast Activities
Activity 1: Self-Reflection and Discussion
1. What in Stephen Shapiro’s presentation struck a special chord with you? Why?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2. Reflect on what you have learned about how to innovate successfully and efficiently. How will
you apply Mr. Shapiro’s strategies to improve the innovation efforts of your organization?
What steps can you take to create a culture of innovation that keeps your organization ahead of
the competition?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Continued on the next page.
Tip 16
Innovate Where You
Differentiate
All capabilities are
equal, but some are
more equal than others.
You don’t innovate the
same way for each
capability in your
business. And the way
you innovate will not be
the same as the way
your competitors
innovate.
So what is your most
important capability?
Although the question is
simple, the answer
requires significant
reflection and
alignment, and
answering it is important
for determining your
innovation strategy. In
particular, it helps you
focus your limited
innovation investments
on the capabilities that
will yield the greatest
impact.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 81 and 84
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 24
3. In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, the ability to innovate is critical.
Innovation can’t be a one-time event or even a capability. Today’s successful companies live
in an environment where innovation is a system — an environment where innovation is
embedded in everything they do. As Stephen Shapiro explains, “With embedded innovation,
people innovate to deal not only with ‘problems or challenges’ that are presented to them but
with everything they do. They continuously, even radically, improve their products,
processes, and organization. This creates exponential and ongoing value.” What will you do
to implement innovation as a system in your organization?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
4. What are YOUR leadership lessons? As a leader, you have the ability to shape how your
people embrace innovation. What can you do to encourage your people to think creatively?
How can you lead in a way that motivates people to go beyond their jobs and do the
unexpected? Be specific!
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Tip 18
Best Practices Are
(Sometimes) Stupid
For me to shoot par
would be a dream. But
for Tiger Woods, par
would be a nightmare. I
am reminded of this
comparison when I see
companies that are
satisfied to focus on
their understanding of
“par,” otherwise known
as best practice…par
won’t keep you alive in
the current environment.
Once something
becomes a best
practice, it is really no
longer a best practice.
Innovation is about
adaptability, your ability
to change in order to
stay one step ahead of
the competition. When
you copy someone’s
best practice, you are
not staying ahead; you
are playing a game of
catch-up.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 90
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 25
Activity 2: Expertise is the Enemy of Innovation
“If you are NASA and you have 100 aerospace engineers working on an aerospace engineering
challenge, adding the 101st aerospace engineer may not help that much. But adding a physicist, a
nanotechnologist, a chemist, a biologist, or even a musician may move your solutions in a
completely new direction.”
– Stephen Shapiro
Imagine you are called to jury duty for a high-profile case that — due to media attention — you
are reasonably familiar with. Take it a step further and imagine you are extremely familiar with
the circumstances, even an expert on all facets of the case. Could you be objective and put your
expertise aside to make a decision? Could you consider the information and think about it in a
different way? You might think so, but the reality is when you demonstrate expertise in any area,
you are less likely to be able to think about it in a different way. This natural tendency is the
enemy of innovation.
This may sound like a bleak prediction for you and your organization, but as Stephen Shapiro
points out, there is a way to overcome this obstacle: open innovation. “Open innovation is an
innovation process where you engage people outside your organization to help solve
challenges”…and there are great examples of this in the business world. Let’s take a look.
Expertise is the Enemy of Innovation
The excerpt that follows is from Best Practices Are Stupid and is reprinted with permission from the author, Stephen Shapiro.
Unilever, the giant consumer goods company, wanted to develop a toothpaste that would whiten
teeth without using the traditional methods of bleach or abrasives. The toothpaste experts didn’t
have a solution. Recognizing the limitations of their own knowledge, they asked themselves,
“Who makes whites whiter?” They quickly realized that a different Unilever business unit made
laundry detergents that whitened clothes without bleach. What they learned was that most
detergents use a blueing agent to make whites appear whiter. Armed with this information, they
created their “Signal White Now” (and other brands) toothpaste. Instead of using harsh bleaches
and abrasives, the toothpaste has a blue dye that runs through the middle and creates the optical
illusion of white teeth. Toothpaste experts were seemingly unable to solve this problem on their
own. The breakthrough solution was discovered only when people with different specializations
were brought together.
While this might seem surprising, it is not uncommon. Expertise can indeed be the enemy of
breakthrough thinking. The more you know about a particular topic, the more difficult it is for
you to think about it in a different way. Your solutions will most likely be “been there, done
that” ideas that are limited to your area of expertise. If you want breakthroughs, you need to
bring together people from a wide range of disciplines, backgrounds, and experiences.
This idea was confirmed by research completed by Lee Fleming, a business administration
professor at Harvard Business School. By analyzing seventeen thousand parents, he discovered
that the breakthroughs that arise from multidisciplinary work “are frequently of unusually high
value — superior to the best innovations achieved by conventional approaches.”
Tip 20
Motivate Like Maslow
Stop recognizing people
for doing their jobs.
When you hire someone
to work for you, it should
be expected that they
have a basic level of
competence. When you
recognize people for
doing what they are
hired to do, it reinforces
a culture where the
status quo is good
enough.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 12 and 13
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 26
His research highlighted the pros and cons of each method. He learned that teams composed of
people with similar backgrounds have a great number of successes yet yield fewer breakthroughs.
On the other hand, cross-disciplinary teams have a higher failure rate, yet their innovations are
more radical and have the potential to create incredible value.
Is there a way to get all of the benefits associated with diversity without any of the negative
effects?
Open innovation is an innovation process where you engage people outside your organization to
help solve challenges…remember the BP oil spill that was discussed earlier? BR received
123,000 ideas for solutions. Contrast that with the way open innovation was applied to another
oil spill — the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Back in 1989 the Exxon Valdez tanker crashed into a reef in Prince William Sound in Alaska,
dumping 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the water. Although some of the oil was
recovered, a large amount remained trapped under the ice. When teams tried to move the oil, the
water/oil mixture froze. Oil engineers worked on this challenge for twenty years without any
viable solution until they discovered open innovation. They posted a well-formed challenge to
the Web site of an intermediary, InnoCentive, a company that has a large network of experts from
a wide range of disciplines who solve complex problems for monetary prizes.
A solution to the oil crisis was found very quickly. Interestingly, the winning solution did not
come from the oil industry. Instead, it came from someone in the construction industry who had
a similar challenge with pouring wet cement; he needed to find a way of preventing it from
hardening right away. This chemist developed a device that vibrates the molecules so that they
flow continuously. He figured that if vibrations could keep cement from hardening, then a
similar concept could be adapted to keep the oil in the tanks from freezing. Bringing together
diverse disciplines through an open innovation platform solved this decades-old problem.
Another great example comes from NASA. Solar activity is a major problem for space travel and
can be incredibly dangerous for astronauts. For decades, NASA scientists had been unsuccessful
in trying to find a model that would allow them to predict solar activity with a high level of
accuracy.
To find a solution, they turned to open innovation. Their success criteria for the solution were
that the model should provide a prediction within twenty-four hours of the solar activity, be 50
percent accurate, and be within two sigma (a quality measure where higher numbers are better).
The best solution predicted activity within eight hours, was 70 percent accurate, and was within
three sigma. This was a huge improvement over NASA’s initial expectations. Who had the
solution? A retired engineer who studied dropped cell phone calls and in the process had
discovered a predictive model for solar flares.
Sometimes the best solutions come from outside your area of expertise and beyond the four walls
of your organization. In the end, you might just find solutions to problems that have stumped
experts for years.
“At a more sophisticated
level, innovation can be
part of a ‘process’. That
is, the organization has
a structure in place to
define problems,
generate/evaluate
ideas, and develop
action plans to
implement those ideas.
The result is a realistic
deliverable based on an
organizational problem.
However, the problem
with both of these levels
is that innovation is
reactionary and
discrete. It occurs only
when someone decides
it is time to innovate.”
Stephen Shapiro
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 27
Consider the problems, challenges, and opportunities you face as an organization. How often
have you invited people from outside your area of expertise into the conversation around
solutions? Is it typically your strategy to include only those who are familiar with your issues and
share the same background and experience? As the examples shared by Mr. Shapiro illustrate,
expertise can be the enemy of innovation. It’s time to turn your innovation strategy on its head.
For this activity, return to your list of problems, challenges, and opportunities from your Pre-
Broadcast Activity on page 12. Choose another that you would like to work on and write it in the
space below:
Working with other participants, form groups with people from different disciplines,
backgrounds, and expertise. In the event the larger group is made up of people from the same
discipline, background, and expertise, attempt to work with others that you do not normally work
with on a regular basis. You want your group to be as diverse as possible for this activity.
Share your issue with the others in your group and solicit their ideas for a solution. Use their
expertise in a different line of business or area of expertise to inspire some breakthrough thinking.
Capture the ideas shared in the space below (and on the next page) as you work together to
innovate a solution to your problem/challenge/opportunity. Take turns until every member of the
group has had the opportunity to share their problem/challenge/opportunity and gather input from
the diverse members of the group.
Continued on the next page.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 28
“An alternative (and
more insightful) way of
looking at problems is to
ask, ‘What is this like?’
Be a matchmaker.
Make connections. Try
and find analogies,
metaphors, and
associations that fit the
problem you are looking
to solve. Recombine
ideas in new
ways…when you have
many dots collected,
you have limitless ways
of recombining them to
create something new.
This is not about
invention, which is
pulling something out of
the thin air. This is
about innovation which
is about reconstituting
old ideas in new ways.
Don’t always go for the
obvious solution. Some
of the best ideas come
from some of the most
unlikely combinations.”
Stephen Shapiro
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 29
Activity 3: Hire People You Don’t Like
Stephen Shapiro’s tip #26 may have you scratching your head — hire people you don’t like? It
might sound like a recipe for conflict and stalemate. In reality, in situations involving high-
difficulty tasks, teams consisting of diverse personalities and styles consistently perform more
effectively. As Mr. Shapiro tells us, “This makes sense if you really think about it. Innovation
demands a diversity of perspectives, disciplines, and personalities. Having a group of people who
think the same way only produces more of the same. Having people on your team who get along
well may seem easier, but it will rarely lead to new and innovative ideas.”
We naturally gravitate toward people who are like us. Think about the people you work with who
have your same style and like to do things the way you do. They make you feel comfortable, tend
to agree with you, and working together is effortless. But do they challenge you? Do they push
you to think differently? Probably not — and therein lies the issue. When you work with a team
of people who are similar in background, expertise, or personality, your innovation efforts will
suffer.
In order to create a culture of innovation within your organization, you need to assess the
innovative style of each member of your team. Are you working with a team of people who all
think the way you do? Do they agree quickly and get things done, yet rarely think creatively or
find innovation breakthroughs? If the answer is yes, it’s time to challenge yourself to hire people
you don’t like; people who can help you become more effective and innovative. Remember
Stephen Shapiro’s insightful mantra, “The person you like the least, is the person you need most.”
On the following pages you will find an Innovation Style Quiz for you to take to help assess your
innovation style. For an even more accurate assessment of yourself and your team, Stephen
Shapiro has developed the Personality Poker® card game. As Mr. Shapiro shares, “The key to
high performing innovation teams is to make sure that each individual is ‘playing to their strong
suit’ while the organization as a whole is ‘playing with a full deck.’ You need to make sure you
have all of the innovation styles fully addressed in your organization.”
Personality Poker® is based on the principles that enable teams to achieve a more consistent and
repeatable performance. Personality Poker® can help you ensure that:
Everyone is in their optimal position.
Everyone understands that their role is crucial.
Everyone knows the exact function they need to perform.
Take an in-depth look at the individuals on your team and play Personality Poker® to spur
innovation and optimize growth in your organization. Use specially designed cards and Stephen
Shapiro’s cutting-edge techniques to identify people’s personality “hand,” which reveals where
they really belong in their organization, and how they can maximize their contribution. For more
information visit http://personalitypokerbook.com/.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 30
In this activity, you will take the Innovation Style Quiz to help you identify the right people for
your innovation team. The assessment and score key will help you quickly assess your
innovation style. For each row, rank the words from the most like you to least like you, where 1
represents most like you and 4 represents least like you. For example, if you are very
adventurous but not goal-oriented, you might rank the first row: intellectual 3, adventurous 1,
goal-oriented 4, cheerleader 2. (Note: An additional Innovation Style Quiz can be found on page
32 of this guide. Make copies as needed. The snapshot you create of your team’s innovation
style will help you determine if your team has the right mix of innovation styles.)
The Innovation Style Quiz is from Best Practices Are Stupid and is reprinted with permission from the author, Stephen Shapiro.
A B C D
Intellectual
_______________
Adventurous
_______________
Goal-Oriented
_______________
Cheerleader
_______________
Expert
_______________
Spontaneous
_______________
Driven
_______________
Diplomatic
_______________
Knowledgeable
_______________
Daring
_______________
Decisive
_______________
Sociable
_______________
Philosophical
_______________
Flexible
_______________
Direct
_______________
Gregarious
_______________
Discerning
_______________
Versatile
_______________
Competitive
_______________
Popular
_______________
Analytical
_______________
Creative
_______________
Disciplined
_______________
Nurturing
_______________
Logical
_______________
Visionary
_______________
Organized
_______________
Empathetic
_______________
Data Driven
_______________
Open Minded
_______________
Structured
_______________
Compassionate
_______________
Realistic
_______________
Insightful
_______________
Systematic
_______________
Loyal
_______________
Rational
_______________
Curious
_______________
Methodical
_______________
Considerate
_______________
Total:_________ Total:_________ Total:_________ Total:_________
Continued on the next page.
Creativity and
innovation come from
tension, giving rise to
differing viewpoints and
alternative ways of
solving problems. While
it may not come
naturally, if you want to
differentiate yourself
from the competition,
consider differentiating
your perspective by
surrounding yourself
with people who think
differently from how you
do.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 132 and 133
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 31
Scoring your Innovation Style Quiz
To score, add the columns. The column with the lowest score is your innovation style.
If column A is the lowest, you are analytical and are driven by facts.
If column B is the lowest, you like to generate creative ideas and engage in new
experiences.
If column C is the lowest, you prefer plans and actions.
If column D is the lowest, your focus is on people.
Those from columns A and C are often called “left-brained” and are typically “dot” thinkers
(looking at the attributes of a problem and generating solutions from there). They are great at
challenging ideas and helping to drive toward solutions that are implementable and will add
value. The risk is that these individuals can stifle innovation by over-challenging during the
divergent stages of innovation.
Those from columns B and D are often referred to as “right-brained” and are typically “line”
thinkers, as they are masterful at connecting dots (innovative thinking comes from making
connections). They are great at developing new concepts and engaging others in the process.
The risk is that they may get lost in creativity for creativity’s sake, or worry too much about how
others will feel, at the expense of powerful business solutions.
The innovation process goes from A to B to C to D. And although every style plays some role in
each step, each style is best suited to one step in particular:
Define the Challenge — this is best performed by the data-driven A’s.
Generate Solutions — the B’s can help develop creative solutions.
Plan and Execute — the methodical and goal-oriented C’s will ensure progress.
Engage the Hearts and Minds — the relationship-oriented D’s can rally employees and
customers so that everyone buys in and implements the solutions.
Remember, each style is critical to the innovation process.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 32
Additional Innovation Style Quiz. Make copies as needed for each person on your team.
Instructions: For each row, rank the words from the most like you to least like you, where 1
represents most like you and 4 represents least like you.
For example, if you are very adventurous but not goal-oriented, you might rank the first row:
intellectual 3, adventurous 1, goal-oriented 4, cheerleader 2.
The Innovation Style Quiz is from Best Practices Are Stupid and is reprinted with permission from the author, Stephen Shapiro.
A B C D
Intellectual
_______________
Adventurous
_______________
Goal-Oriented
_______________
Cheerleader
_______________
Expert
_______________
Spontaneous
_______________
Driven
_______________
Diplomatic
_______________
Knowledgeable
_______________
Daring
_______________
Decisive
_______________
Sociable
_______________
Philosophical
_______________
Flexible
_______________
Direct
_______________
Gregarious
_______________
Discerning
_______________
Versatile
_______________
Competitive
_______________
Popular
_______________
Analytical
_______________
Creative
_______________
Disciplined
_______________
Nurturing
_______________
Logical
_______________
Visionary
_______________
Organized
_______________
Empathetic
_______________
Data Driven
_______________
Open Minded
_______________
Structured
_______________
Compassionate
_______________
Realistic
_______________
Insightful
_______________
Systematic
_______________
Loyal
_______________
Rational
_______________
Curious
_______________
Methodical
_______________
Considerate
_______________
Total _______________
Total _______________
Total _______________
Total _______________
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 33
Activity 4: The Goldilocks Principle
One of the most memorable characters from our childhood is Goldilocks — a young girl who
stumbles upon an empty house belonging to a family of bears. After eating a bowl of porridge,
she decides to go to sleep but struggles to find a bed that is “just right.” Organizations face a
similar problem when defining the challenges they face. Stephen Shapiro tells us that when
framing challenges, you must adhere to the Goldilocks Principle. Creative problem solving is at
its best when challenges aren’t too big or too small. Instead, challenges need to be framed in a
way that maximizes the likelihood of finding a solution. Perhaps entering a home inhabited by
bears was risky, but Goldilocks slept soundly when she got it just right. As Stephen Shapiro
shares, “If we adopt this same rigor when defining challenges, we too just might sleep a bit better
at night, knowing a workable solution is just around the corner. So, remember: Goldilocks is a
great way to innovate.”
The article that follows is from Stephen Shapiro’s Web site http://www.steveshapiro.com/ and is reprinted with permission from the
author, Stephen Shapiro.
Ask a Different Question, Get a Different Answer
If you are a college sports fan, you will most likely
be familiar with the NCAA basketball playoffs. 65
teams in total compete. The games are organized
into brackets like the one illustrated here. Teams
compete with the hope of making it into the “sweet
sixteen,” the “final four,” and then ultimately being
crowned the champion. The tournament is single
elimination — that means that after each game, the
winner advances to the next round and the loser’s
eliminated.
With the NCAA tournament, the two lowest ranking teams compete against each other to get the
64th slot in the bracket.
The question is, “How many games need to be played in order to determine which team is the
champion?”
The only way most will be able to find the answer is to draw out the full bracket and count the
number of games in the chart. As a result, when I ask a group this question, it takes quite some
time for everyone to answer correctly.
However, consider this. If I were to phrase the question differently, I can guarantee that you
would find the solution instantly.
Instead of asking, “How many games need to be played in order to determine which team is the
champion?” what if I asked, “How many games need to be played in order to eliminate all of the
losers?”
Tip 25
View the World Through
a Different Lens
When you view the
world through the lens
that your new idea is a
good one, you see only
the evidence that
supports your
conclusion, while
subconsciously ignoring
all of the points that
don’t. In the process,
you might be making
some bad innovation
investments.
But being right can be
the enemy of good
innovation. As an
innovator, don’t get too
attached to your ideas.
Proactively play devil’s
advocate…This will
allow you to make better
decisions on which
innovations to pursue
and which ones to kill.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 111
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 34
The answer should now be obvious. If you have 65 teams playing, 64 teams must lose. Since the
tournament is single elimination, 64 games need to be played to eliminate all of the losers.
Therefore, 64 games need to be played in order to determine which team is the champion.
This simple exercise makes an incredibly important point. The way you phrase a problem will
lead you down the path of a particular thought process. This, in turn, will lead to a particular
solution. How you ask the question will impact the manner in which you innovate.
A company who brainstormed, “How can we more effectively use 360 degree feedback?”
completely missed the alternative methods for addressing their larger management issues. If they
had asked, “In what way might we create powerful leaders?” they would have found very
different solutions.
An office supply company that asked the question, “How can we more effectively sell our
products to school administrators?” completely missed the fact that the teachers were the real
buyers and that the administrators merely filled out the paperwork. In this case they should have
done their homework to understand the real buyer first before looking to find a solution.
Or when NASA wanted to “create a zero gravity laundry system” for space travel, they missed
out on possible solutions that involved other methods for cleaning clothes or creating a material
that does not require cleaning.
Asking the right question — the right way — is the surest way to accelerate your innovation
efforts and for finding better solutions. Just as the NCAA tournament example showed,
sometimes a very small change can have a significant impact on the way you view the problem.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 35
For this activity, you will revisit your list of problems, challenges, and opportunities from the Pre-
Broadcast Activity on page 12 of this guide. Choose one problem/challenge/opportunity from the
list that you would like to work on and write it in the space below:
Now, imagine you are getting ready to meet with your team to present this issue and find a viable
solution. How will you frame the problem/challenge/opportunity in a way that maximizes the
likelihood of finding a workable solution? Remember, it can’t be too big (broad and abstract) or
too small (overly specific). It needs to be “just right,” meaning more focused, more practical, and
more valuable. A critical step in trying to find solutions is to clearly define the challenge.
The questions you ask will also impact the solution. What questions could you ask to drive the
conversation towards a viable solution? Knowing the right questions to ask — and asking them
in the right way — takes effort and discipline. Too often individuals and organizations don’t
invest the time framing better questions that lead to better information.
Consider these useful factors when framing questions:
What are the leverage points for finding a solution? What is the one thing that has the
greatest impact in delivering the desired result?
Does your question imply a solution? What are you really looking to achieve? Frame the
question so you consider other approaches.
Does your question require a particular expertise? If so, re-frame it so that other domains
of expertise offer solutions.
Is your question overly complex? Find ways to deconstruct it into smaller and more
solvable parts.
Have you researched the facts your question involves? Too many questions are
formulated on conjecture rather than on real data.
As you prepare to map out your approach, the following example from Best Practices Are Stupid
clearly illustrates the importance of framing an issue and asking questions that are “just right”:
When a cell phone company wanted to improve customer service, instead of simply asking
people how to improve the customer experience, the company analyzed call data and found that
there were ten primary reasons why people dialed in to the call center. One of the most common
reasons had to do with a specific billing issue. The solution? It was concluded that the best way
to improve customer service in the call center had nothing to do with the call center itself.
Instead, it involved a change in the tariffs associated with this particular issue. This one small
change resulted in dramatically reduced call volumes and higher customer satisfaction. The only
way that this solution could have been found was by asking a more specific question backed up
by data.
Continued on the next page.
Tip 26
Hire People You Don’t
Like
Innovation demands
diversity of
perspectives,
disciplines, and
personalities. Having a
group of people who
think the same way only
gives you more of the
same. Having people
on your team who get
along well may seem
easier, but it will rarely
lead to new and
innovative ideas.
Instead, consider the
mantra “The person you
like the least is the
person you need the
most.”
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 131
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 36
Use the space below to prepare for the meeting with your team. Map out how you will frame and
present the problem/challenge/opportunity you face. How will you frame the issue? What are
some “just right” questions you can ask? Use the tips and techniques suggested by Stephen
Shapiro to maximize your team’s ability to find an innovative solution to your problem,
challenge, or opportunity.
Tip 30
Get Your Knowledge
Workers Doing
Knowledge Work
Innovation is recognized
by most companies as a
basic requirement for
ensuring business
sustainability. Cliché as
it may be, it is time to
“work smarter, not
harder.” Focus your
energies on the items
that are truly value-add
and differentiate you
from the competition.
Eliminate, automate, or
delegate the rest.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 149
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 37
Activity 5: How Can You Make the Impossible Possible?
“Sometimes we get stuck in the mundane. We get stuck in thinking about what’s real and what’s
actually possible.”
“But what if you could become masterful at making the seemingly impossible possible? What if,
instead of solving possible challenges, you started to solve seemingly impossible ones? What if,
instead of looking for realistic solutions to challenges, you started with solutions that seemed
impractical?”
– Stephen Shapiro
When you think of some of the world’s most innovative companies — Apple, Google, Amazon
— does the word constraints come to mind? Probably not. The words impossible, impractical, or
quit wouldn’t make the list either. Today’s innovation giants don’t let the impossible stop them
from believing they can make something happen. They don’t let constraints — real or imagined
— stop their innovation efforts.
The reality is that in many organizations finite resources and adherence to the status quo inhibit
innovation. Due to our fear of tough constraints and possible failure, we surrender and fail to
push the limits of our creative abilities. When you don’t attempt to make the impossible possible,
you never realize your true potential. As Stephen Shapiro tells us, it doesn’t have to be this way.
How Can You Make the Impossible Possible?
The excerpt that follows is from Best Practices Are Stupid and is reprinted with permission from the author, Stephen Shapiro.
When solving problems, we typically attempt to move from point A (where we are today) to point
B (where we want to go). But often we fall short and end up still at A...however, if we shoot for
point C (the seemingly impossible); we might just hit point B.
When solving a problem, a useful question to ask is “What are impossible or impractical
solutions?” This question will stretch your thinking. From there, you can then figure out ways of
making these impractical solutions practical. To encourage this kind of thinking, try this
technique. It can be done in pairs or with small groups. It is done in a few simple steps.
Step 1: As always, make sure you have a clearly defined opportunity/challenge statement.
Example: “How might we promote our new Internet-based business?”
Step 2: Have one person give an outrageous solution. I typically suggest that if it is not “illegal,
immoral, or impossible,” it is probably not wild enough. Example: “Rearrange the stars in the
sky to spell out our Web site address.”
Step 3: Have the other person (or people) list three attributes they like about that solution.
Example: (a) Everyone in the world can see it; (b) It is permanent; (c) It doesn’t adversely affect
the environment.
Tip 33
Someone Else Has
Already Solved Your
Problem
The best way to quickly
find solutions to your
challenges is to identify
someone who has
already solved the
problem — but in a
different context. That
is, someone from
another industry,
discipline, or practice
might have a solution.
Solutions can come
from
anywhere…sometimes
the best solutions
already exist in your
own organization…in
some cases the best
solutions will come from
outside your company
or even outside the
world of business.
Where will your next big
innovation come from?
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 160, 163, and 164
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 38
Step 4: Next, have the other person (or people) list three things that would make the solution even
better. Example: (a) Have it be visible twenty-four hours a day, not just at night; (b) Design it so
that you don’t have to look up to see it; (c) Create a concept such that people won’t have to
remember or write down the Web site address.
Step 5: Finally, use the attributes identified in steps 3 and 4 to either refine the original solution
or develop different ones. Examples: Attribute 4(a) (visible twenty-four hours a day) may lead to
the Web site address being displayed in lights in Times Square, New York City. Or “twenty-four
hours a day” and “stars” might get you thinking about movie stars and how they might promote
your business. Or attribute 3(b) (make it permanent) might get you thinking about other
permanent things, such as tattoos. What if you created a nicely designed temporary rub-on
tattoo? Or got nightclub owners to stamp your Web address on the hands of people as they
entered?
This approach works well because step 2 allows you to think without constraints. Step 3
“validates” the original solution and the person who generated it. And steps 4 and 5 make the
solution practical.
Instead of just going for what seems practical, shoot for the seemingly impossible…and make it
possible.
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 39
For this activity, form pairs or small groups. Revisit your list of problems, challenges, and
opportunities from the Pre-Broadcast Activity on page 12 of this guide. Choose another
problem/challenge/opportunity from the list that you would like to work on and write it in the
space below:
Using Stephen Shapiro’s simple steps, work together to make the impossible possible:
Step 1: As always, make sure you have a clearly defined opportunity/challenge
statement.
Step 2: Have one person give an outrageous solution. If it is not “illegal, immoral, or
impossible,” it is probably not wild enough.
Step 3: Have the other person (or people) list three attributes they like about that solution.
Step 4: Next, have the other person (or people) list three things that would make the
solution even better.
Step 5: Finally, use the attributes identified in steps 3 and 4 to either refine the original
solution or develop different ones.
Capture the ideas shared in the space below (and on the next page) as you work together to stretch
your thinking, and make the possible out of the impossible. Take turns until every member of the
group has had the opportunity to share their problem/challenge/opportunity and practice the
simple steps outlined above. Make the jump to the impossible (point C) and work from there.
You may find you end up at the possible (point B): an innovative solution that puts you ahead of
the competition.
Continued on the next page.
Tip 35
Don’t Put the “No” in
InNOvation
New ideas are often met
with the immediate
response, “Yeah, but,”
followed by a dozen
reasons why the idea
won’t work — we don’t
have enough money,
there is not enough
time, it’s good for
someone else but not
for us. Instead, use
“Yes, and.” This is an
improv comedy
technique where you
build on the ideas of
others using the words
“Yes, and,” while
eliminating “Yeah, but”
from your vocabulary.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 167
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 41
Final Activity: Action Planning
Now is the time to get moving. Everything in today’s broadcast supports the need to take action
and start implementing the lessons shared. Picture yourself six months from now. You’re
reflecting with a sense of pride and satisfaction on how you are finding innovative solutions to the
challenges and opportunities facing your organization. You’ve applied the innovation strategies
shared by Stephen Shapiro to be more focused and efficient in your innovation efforts. How will
you continue to develop a culture of innovation within your organization? What long-term
benefits will your organization achieve as you out-innovate your competition?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Back to the present. With the above goal set for six months from now, what intermediary steps
do you need to take to reach that goal?
What do you need to do within three months?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
What do you need to do by the end of this month?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
What do you need to do by the end of this week?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
What do you need to do tomorrow?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Tip 40
Predict What the
Competition Will Do
Next
Most organizations use
creativity to help them
determine what to do
next based on current
information. They
brainstorm ideas, select
the best solutions, and
then implement the
most promising ones.
Creativity is used to
determine what your
organization will do
next.
But in these rapidly
changing times,
creativity can be even
more valuable for
determining what the
marketplace and your
competitors will do next.
Stephen Shapiro
Best Practices Are
Stupid
pg. 182 and 183
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 42
Materials Written by Stephen Shapiro
Books
Shapiro, Stephen M. Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition.
Portfolio/Penguin, a member of Penguin group, 2011
Shapiro, Stephen M. Personality Poker: The Playing Card Tool for Driving High Performance
Teamwork and Innovation. Portfolio/Penguin, a member of Penguin group, 2010
Shapiro, Stephen M. Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW! John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 2006
Shapiro, Stephen M. 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of
Change. McGraw-Hill, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, 2002
Website
You may also benefit from visiting the following websites associated with Stephen Shapiro:
http://www.steveshapiro.com/
http://personalitypokerbook.com/
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 44
Question Sheet
Use this form to write your discussion question for Stephen Shapiro. Please write legibly.
Name (optional):
______________________________________________________________
Organization:
______________________________________________________________
Location:
______________________________________________________________
Your question (25 words or fewer):
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: Use the hash tag #LinkageInc
How to Out-Innovate the Competition Stephen Shapiro
The Linkage Thought Leader Series 45
Broadcast Evaluation Form
We invite your feedback on this presentation: How to Out-Innovate the Competition. Please return this
completed form to your site coordinator or fax it to 781-402-5556.
NAME________________________________ TITLE__________________________________
ORGANIZATION ______________________________________________________________
Please indicate functional area (only check one):
Finance Human Resources/Organizational Development Manufacturing/Operations
Marketing R&D Sales Other (specify) ___________________________________________
How many people do you have reporting to you (include all levels)? Number: ______________
Please indicate your job level (only check one):
President or Officer Vice President Director Manager/Supervisor Individual Contributor
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––- 1) Please indicate a rating for each of the statements below by checking the appropriate box.
Strongly Disagree
Somewhat Disagree
Somewhat Agree
Strongly Agree
The length of the presentation was ideal.
As a result of participating in this program, I will be more effective in my role.
The participant materials were useful.
The Q&A session was valuable.
2) Please give a general overall comment about the program: ___________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
3) How can we improve these broadcasts? __________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
4) May we use these comments for promotional purposes (including name and org.)? Y N
5) On a scale of 1-10 (10 = Outstanding), how would you rate this session? Rating: ________
6) From the Linkage Thought Leader Series lineup, which speakers are you most excited to see? (Please rate your top three, “1” being most excited.)
___ Doug Conant ___ Robert Knowling ___ Walter Isaacson ___ Mark Samuel
___ Sylvia Hewlett ___ Linda Hill ___ Admiral Eric Olson
7) For future lineups, which speakers would you be most interested in seeing? (Please rate your top five, “1” being most interested.)
___ Ram Charan ___ Chip Conley ___ Hillary Clinton Other:________________
___ Indra Nooyi ___ Robert Gibbs ___ Patrick Lencioni
___ Tim Sanders ___ Debra Lee ___ Mark Zuckerberg
8) Which types of speakers are you most interested in seeing? (Please rate your top two.)
___ Former C-Level Executives ___ Thought Leaders/Management Gurus
___ Political Leaders ___ Athletic Leaders/Coaches
___ Military Leaders ___ Other _________________________________________