Building An Innovation Stack (with Jim McKelvey)
Build an unbeatable business, one crazy idea at a time.
Build an unbeatable business, one crazy idea at a time.
To remain curious and creative, protect your mind.
To innovate, you must train yourself to see the world differently.
How to innovate in uncertain times.
Don't just settle for the most comfortable or obvious one.
Regardless of your role, you have to be creative every day. You have to solve problems under pressure, make connections, see patterns, and convince others. On this episode, Kathryn Haydon is here to share some insights into being more creative with tips from her book The Non-Obvious Guide To Being More Creative.
Some ideas are so crazy that "moonshot" doesn't even do them credit. "Loonshot" seems more appropriate. On this episode, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bachall is here to teach us how to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries with insights from his new book Loonshots.
In 2015, a strange new competitor appeared to challenge cloud accounting software company Freshbooks' dominance in their space. The new company, called Billspring, had a fresh look and feel, and seemed poised to pose a serious threat to Freshbooks. However, all was not quite as it seemed. On this episode, CEO and Founder Mike McDerment shares the story of how an unlikely competitor completely re-invented the face of the company.
You're probably really skilled at what you do. However, this can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you can take shortcuts that help you create more value faster for your clients or organization. On the other, the more skilled you are the easier it can be to slip into ruts and "safe thinking." On today's episode, Jonah Sachs, author of Unsafe Thinking, will help shake us out of our creative ruts and help us think more boldly.
Why the right mix of Stability and Challenge is essential to brilliant work.
When you think about innovation, what comes to mind? Blue-sky ideas? Complete disruption? Something no one has ever seen before? Yes, those are important. However, today's guest David Robertson believes that in our pursuit of disruption we often overlook a very valuable source of new value: little ideas. On today's show, he shares how companies and teams are leveraging little ideas to delight their customers and win fierce loyalty with insights from his book The Power Of Little Ideas.
Your human instincts are fine-tuned for survival, not innovation. This is handy when you're escaping a lion in the wild, but not so great when you need to come up with an amazing new idea for that client project you're working on. On today's episode, Adam Hansen shares a few insights for how to overcome those baked-in instincts with tips from his book Outsmart Your Instincts.
Jane Chen is the co-founder of Embrace Innovations, a company that's created an innovative product called the Embrace Warmer. It helps mothers of pre-mature babies living in developing countries keep their baby warm at the fraction of the cost of a typical incubator, and it's a complete game changer.
Have you ever been at a cocktail party, had someone ask you what you do for a living, and wished you could come up with something impressive-sounding to wow them? Adam Stelztner probably never experiences that. He's an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on flight missions including Galileo, Cassini, and Mars Pathfinder, and the Mars Exploration Rover project. He has a lot to say about innovation and leadership.
Adam Steltzner has a more interesting job than you. And me. And probably most of the people listening to this show. He's an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he helps design things and land them on Mars. In today's episode, he shares some of what he's learned about doing hard things, and some insights from his new book The Right Kind Of Crazy.
To be valuable and effective you need to understand which kind of innovator you are.
Dr. Keith Sawyer shares insights from his new book Zig Zag: The Surprising Path To Greater Creativity, and his advice for how to grow your creative capacity.
Insights on how creative pros can "reboot" in the changing marketplace.