Innovating with Meaning by Dr. Alex Pattakos

08:27 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Innovating with Meaning: Missed Opportunities

Welcome back to the Innovating with Meaning Blog!

Life is about choices.  Just like the contestants on the popular television show, "Deal or No Deal?", who have to choose between making a deal with the banker or carrying on with the chance of identifying a case containing a million dollars, we are all faced with making choices that send us along different paths in life.  Often, these choices can lead to fulfillment or, alternatively, to feelings of "missed opportunities".  These choices can be in our professional as well as in our personal lives.

Some of the missed opportunities others have shared with us include the following:

• Missing out on the opportunity to travel to a "dream" destination
• Missing the opportunity to learn from a "master" in a specific field
• Missing the opportunity to start their own business
• Missing the opportunity to really contribute in a unique way to their communities
• Missing the opportunity to pursue further education and/or change career paths
• Missing the opportunity to spend more time with family and friends

Each of these opportunities, which would (or at least could) have opened the doors to new learning and connections, was lost because the person felt that the risk was too large or because the person, consciously or not, gave into pressure to follow a path that others had written for him or her.

"Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!"--Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Innovation is about unlearning the old ways and forging into new territory.  Importantly, innovation is not just a topic for organizations.  In order to maximize our opportunities, we also have to embrace the concept of “innovating with meaning” in our own lives.  Yes, that's right.  Now is the time to start taking steps onto the path that you truly want to take in your life--both your personal life and your work life.  Are you "innovating with meaning" by making sure that you don't have too many missed opportunities in your life? 

Blog Co-Authors:

Dr. Alex Pattakos is the author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts (www.prisonersofourthoughts.com) and Elaine Dundon is author of The Seeds of Innovation (www.seedsofinnovation.com)

09:41 am | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

Innovating with Meaning: Mind the Garden!

Innovative breakthroughs come from people who are not afraid to challenge “the facts” and “the way it’s done in this industry.” What if Columbus had never challenged "the fact" that the world was flat? What if Ted Turner had never challenged "the fact" that people only want to watch the television news at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.? What if Howard Schultz (founder of Starbucks Coffee Company) had never challenged "the fact" that people will only pay $1 for a coffee? If you would have been in a meeting with Columbus, Turner, or Schultz, what would have been your response to their ideas?

Given the turmoil in today’s marketplaces, the ability to challenge “the facts,” as well as the ability to “unlearn” how things have always been done, are two fundamental skills for innovative thinking. To quote management and innovation guru, Peter Drucker, “If you want to do something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

Old thinking may be covering true innovative potential. Old thinking, in this context, needs to be removed in order for new thinking and, as we like to say, the “seeds of innovation” to take root. Just as a gardener clears out old plants and weeds to cultivate the soil and make room for the sunlight to shine on new plants, we must clear out old thinking in order to make room for new thinking.

Today’s marketplace is forcing us to forget some of the old rules and shift to having a more open mind toward “the way things can and will be.” Most of us would probably agree that the world--and especially the world of business--changed dramatically in September 2008. With all this turmoil also comes opportunity. New customer viewpoints and new customer needs. New employee needs and new employee expectations. Are you able and willing to weed out your old thinking and capitalize on these new needs? Are you able and willing to innovate in ways that truly make a difference and are meaningful?

Blog Co-Authors:

Dr. Alex Pattakos is the author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts (www.prisonersofourthoughts.com) and Elaine Dundon is author of The Seeds of Innovation (www.seedsofinnovation.com)

09:27 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Innovating with Meaning: A Wake-Up Call!

It seems fitting in light of the previous few weeks of turmoil in our financial world, that we, as co-authors of this blog, share our perspective on how we all can still Innovate with Meaning during these volatile times.

Many of us seek order and control over our world. We want proven answers. We want reliable forecasts. We want stability. We try so hard to keep things in what we believe is the “equilibrium,” despite knowing that the world is constantly changing around us, despite knowing that yesterday’s answers will not solve today’s problems, despite knowing that “equilibrium” is an illusion we have created to give ourselves a sense of security. Indeed, there is a saying, "If you want things to stay the same, then something is going to have to change!" How many of us ask for creative solutions but, at the same time, find ourselves reinforcing the acceptable “way of doing things in our industry?!” More often than not, we take two steps off the equilibrium platform to seek creative answers, but then rush back to our safety zones.

Innovation, by its very nature, involves deviating from the tried and true “way of doing things” and forging new pathways. It, therefore, involves the tension between the push to find new, innovative answers and the pull back to what we accept as the “right way.”  Indeed, the cartoonist, Chuck Jones, creator of the creative genius, Wile E. Coyote, has observed that "anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity." 

Against the complex backdrop of today’s marketplace, we still need to forge forward into new territory and not just focus on reductionary cost cutting. It is during these times, more than ever, that our commitment to meaningful values and goals comes into sharp focus. We need to focus on “what really matters” to our customers, our companies, and our employees, shedding the excess, frivolous activities and really getting in touch with what really matters-–what true value we can offer our entire community of stakeholders. Identifying this true meaning is hard work. But we have all had a wake up call this month–let’s not ignore it!  The time for Innovating with Meaning is here and now!

Blog Co-Authors:

Dr. Alex Pattakos is the author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts (www.prisonersofourthoughts.com) and Elaine Dundon is author of The Seeds of Innovation (www.seedsofinnovation.com)

09:23 pm | 0 recommendations | 5 comments

Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to the "Innovating with Meaning" Blog!

As the co-authors of the "Innovating with Meaning" Blog, we aim to share our perspective on how we have seen the discipline or field of Innovation Management evolve over the last decade and to where we believe the field will evolve, as well as share key lessons from our international best-selling books as they relate to these topics.  (As background, Dr. Alex Pattakos is the author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts, which focuses on how we can find deeper meaning in our work and everyday lives.  Elaine Dundon, MBA, is author of The Seeds of Innovation, which highlights numerous Innovation examples, as well as skill development in the key areas of creativity thinking, strategic thinking, and transformational thinking, each of which is critical, i.e., a core competency, for innovative thinking.).

As you know, Innovation Management is all the rage these days.  Having lead and participated in the emergence of this important field for the last decade, we have witnessed the transition from viewing Innovation as simply the commercialization of technology to a much broader perspective which encompasses Innovation in products, services, processes, and overall business and organizational strategies.

Global competition, the faster pace, and more demanding players all round have forced leaders to evaluate how they will lead and sustain Innovation. Never before has there been a greater need for strong leadership in the field of Innovation.

But we see many leaders struggling to truly lead their organization’s innovation agendas. We also see many leaders leading innovation for the sake of innovation. We see leaders embracing Innovation, then launching new products and services that really aren’t adding anything to the world or to the bottom line.

There is an overabundance of products and services from which to choose and many of these offerings are just duplications of what others are offering. Many new products and services, which are touted as innovative, don’t add any value or meaning in customers’ lives (to say nothing about the more broadly-defined "community of stakeholders").  Customers simply are not engaged.

Does the customer really want a new cherry flavor of your existing food product? Does the new food product you are offering help address the obesity problem or does it just add to the problem? Does the new paperwork system you introduced at your hospital really help simplify the process for your patients or does it just add more confusion? 

Is this happening in your organization? When you review your future, say 3 year, plans, are your innovations truly innovative and will they bring deeper meaning to your customers and employees?  Or are do they simply represent “lip service” to the overall trend of Innovation Management? In other words, are you truly “innovating with meaning?” We’d like very much to hear from you!

Dr. Alex Pattakos is the author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts (www.prisonersofourthoughts.com) and Elaine Dundon is author of The Seeds of Innovation (www.seedsofinnovation.com)