Two ways to Drive Performance Improvements

A recent post on GapingVoid talks about another performance equation (I shared one yesterday on my blog here): Performance improvements = Reducing Errors + Increasing Insights – Gary Klein The author of the post argues that while there is a lot of focus on reducing errors in organisations, there is not enough focus or energy spent on increasing the number of insights that people could share and use to drive productivity improvements. I think there are many reasons for this behaviour. Firstly, we are biologically attuned to negative information more than anything else. So, it is obvious that we are […]

This is the Highest Leverage Activity for Leaders

Don’t think of an elephant!! Did you think of an elephant? Did you think of how an elephant looks like? Did you see an image of an elephant? Did you think of a large animal? Did you think of black or a trunk or a sound or anything else that we can relate to an elephant? If you are like the most of us, when asked not to think of an elephant, we automatically think of something that is relates to an elephant. This is instinctual. This is what is called framing. In this example we activated the frame of […]

3 Ways to Systematically Come Up with Breakthrough Ideas

Every organisation and every leader that you talk to today, wants to build a culture of innovation and a breakthrough product as soon as possible. However, if we look closely, there are three ways to come up with an idea that has the potential to become a breakthrough innovation: Imagination Insights Challenging current assumptions Lets talk about all the three in a bit more detail. Imagination:  This is probably the way all of us think that we will come across an idea that truly has the potential to become a breakthrough innovation. This is exactly how Einstein developed his theory […]

To Be on the Safe Side

More creative ideas and innovations have been killed by these six words than by anything else. There have been enough studies that have shown that as humans, we are more loss averse than we are open to gains. So, if we truly want creativity to thrive in our organizations, we need to find a way to circumvent this strong human tendency. Some ideas on how to accomplish this are: Set Clear expectation when defining the problem statement about what you wish to accomplish. If you are looking at coming up with a breakthrough idea, make it clear that it is […]

PBTO12: Making Breakthrough Innovations Happen with @PorusMunshi

Who is on the show today: In today’s episode, we have Porus Munshi, author of the best selling book “Making Breakthrough Innovations Happen”. Why is he on the show I have worked with Porus on an innovation project and from experience know that he is a great coach and has the uncanny ability to guide the teams to achieve their goals without any compromises. His understanding of the breakthrough or leapfrog innovation process is very deep and I have learnt a lot in every conversation that i have had with him over the past few years. . What are we talking […]