Eureka! Ranch Blog
How Leadership can Learn to TRUST their Teams
After 48 years of innovating and 33 years of consulting – I believe that the ROOT CAUSE of a lack of innovation at most companies is the lack of TRUST that leaders have in the ability of their teams to innovate successfully.
Innovation Mixologists & Bartenders
A wise man taught me recently the difference between a Bartender and a Mixologist.
A Mixologist is a guru who creates cocktails. The mixologist is a celebrated celebrity.
A Bartender is a friend who creates connections. The bartender is a teacher, listener and friend.
Walking the Talk – I Need Your Help with Failing!
The following is my first draft of a commencement speech to a Graduate school that I’m giving in May. I’d love your ideas and advice.
Family and friends this is a very special group of people. To be awarded an advanced degree requires that the candidate formally or informally make an original contribution to the world’s knowledge.
You Change the World When You Change Your Mind
The last song of the Broadway musical Kinky Boots is a lesson to everyone “You change the world when you change your mind.”
A mindset of curiosity discovers new ideas.
A mindset of experimentation sparks fresh ideas.
A mindset of learning sees failure as a critical step in the journey of innovation success.
A mindset of discovery enables serendipity.
The Joy of Failing
This past week I’ve been pushing myself to new levels of failure. I’m not talking polite “excuse me” failures I’m talking about down right UGH that didn’t work.
In some cases they were public failures – messing up the cooking of a meal – making mistakes on some math – not saying the right things at the right time. In other cases they were private mistakes that I came to realize privately.
5 Reasons Organizations Don’t Pursue Big Ideas
Following the financial crises of 2008, organizations pulled back from
“thinking big” and embraced small, incremental ideas. The problem with this is these ideas still require investment of time, energy and money but with very little financial and emotional return. The result is a lot of “talk but no action” on the ideas.
What Will You Innovate & Build?
In 1947, Ole Kirk Christiansen purchased a plastic injection-molding machine. Some questioned why he did so, because for the previous 17 years he had been a carpenter and made primarily wooden toys, including traditional stackable wooden blocks.
By 1951, more than half of the outputs from Christiansen’s toy company were plastic. This despite his native country’s trade magazine, Toy-Times, believing that plastic would never be able to replace traditional wooden toys.
Is It Time To Try Something Weird?
One hobby I enjoy in my free time is brewing my own beer. The obvious benefit is a fridge consistently full of beer, but what really makes it fun is experimentation. When I first started home brewing I would get kits from the local brewery supply store and follow the recipe. The results were good beer, but nothing truly unique.
How Good Is Your Guru?
Who among us has not smiled at the “Netflix Event” story? The little upstart bringing a behemoth to its knees by defying the odds, reinventing the business model and disrupting an entire industry. As well as we know the story, these events are hard to see while in progress. These are easiest observed after the fact.
Disruption has been happening for a long time, consider…