Frans Johansson on innovation, diversity of teams, passion

April 3rd, 2007 Lois Kelly Posted in Innovation |

Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, gave a thought-provoking and inspiring workshop today at the Business Innovation Factory.

Takeaways:

All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas (And the further apart the ideas, the more innovative they are.)

Diverse teams drive innovation. (Research shows that diverse teams — people from different fields, cultures, perspectives — are much more productive than homogeneous teams. In the first couple of weeks homogeneous teams are more productive, but then the diverse teams kick in in high gear.)

Innovative teams generate and execute more ideas. (Did you know that Prince has written 1,000 songs that he hasn’t yet published? No wonder the guy’s work has been so amazing over so many years.)
Innovative teams and people find inspiration from fields of cultures other than their own — and have the curiosity and courage to explore those connections.

Passion helps us continue driving forward with innovative ideas — even through failures. (How to find your passion? Stating your passion by answering this question helps us define our passions: “What would you like to accomplish in your organization or in your life?”
Having more resources doesn’t decrease the risk of failure? (So what are so many of us waiting for? It’s not so much about the money as it is tapping into our real passions.)

P.S. — Thanks to Professor Walter Carl for his blog post on Beyond Buzz. In addition to being a highly respected teacher at Northeastern University, Walter is an innovator in word of mouth marketing. Check out some of his research if you’re trying to figure out how to measure WOM. A few things he likes about the book:

“We hear a lot these days about how companies need to “get into the conversation” but her book makes this very concrete and tangible, peppered with examples from actual companies who have done so successfully (or not so successfully).
- My favorite chapter is “Building a ‘talk’ Culture” (Chapter which goes into how companies need to rethink how they organize themselves. The table on page 167 “New Functions, New Competencies” is especially interesting. It lists eight functions that are needed to do conversational marketing, what the traditional roles were, and what the new competencies are.
Most of all, she shows how communication and conversations are central to the lifeblood of organizations, and that it’s essential to develop the requisite skill sets for people throughout the organization.”