Kevin Minne
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Collaboration Innovation, Partnering for Profit!

2/20/2015

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Albert Einstein once said that “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

This quote is even more valid today as the size and complexity of our problems are bigger than ever.  More and more the most challenging problems we are facing cannot be solved within the circle of our control.  This challenge applies to local and well as global businesses and even the geopolitics between nations.  It is so much easier to solve the problems within our control and not worry about problems we can’t control and in fact that is what most conventional wisdom promotes.  After all, the only tool we have to solve problems outside our control is influence and using influence to solve a problem has a much less certain outcome that control.  However, when the problems choking your business or national performance reside outside your control it requires a much more innovative collaboration than ever before.  Unfortunately, many believe that the only problems you can solve are the ones you can control and therefore expend all their energy trying to gain more and more control of every one and everything.  The most successful models for innovation in business always involve collaboration with numerous disciplines within an organization and at time partnering with external entities even though they may be competitors.  Politicians could learn a lot from the most innovative companies.  It is not about selling or pushing your ideas but about being open to collaboration that can alter or improve your ideas and produce better results for more people.  Learning how to collaborate more effectively is truly an innovation in itself and will induce more innovation in many other spheres.  

The cornerstone for innovative collaboration is truly believing that any idea can be improved (a strong dose of humility).  I will never forget my boss who had many more years of experience and wisdom than my 21 years but was ready to to sit down and listen to my thoughts and ideas (which didn’t turn out to amount to much at that time).


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Seeing is Believing

2/13/2015

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Having spent a number of years in the Building Industry I can tell you that there is no better way to bring a dream to fruition than to have a clear and detailed plan to work with.  It is like our minds won’t believe it until we see it.  I cannot tell you how many times I had customers tell me to “just make it nice” or try to describe their project in words because they didn’t want to pay for drawings.  However, without a visual  picture of the dream nothing can move forward on the building project.  So often, when I would sit down with my clients and convince them to take the time to draw their vision it would create new questions and open up possibilities that they had never dreamed of.   Of course taking the time to create that picture enabled us to then share the vision with so many other experts that would be needed to build the dream into reality.  Those are great lessons for any innovator!  You may have a great idea in your head but until you can see it and share what you see with others you can’t build it.  That goes for any vision of creating a great working environment or a designing a better way to schedule work or creating a more effective work process.  This is basic goal setting methodology but so absolutely necessary for anyone who wants to improve and innovate.  A drawing is the first step and one of the most basic prototypes that will help you launch your vision.  So, take the time to draw your vision in such a way that others can understand and act on it without much explanation.  This will go a long way to helping you become a breakthrough innovator.


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From Dull to Disney

2/6/2015

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Innovating with the product experience.  For most of us there isn't much chance to experience our own product and service from a customers perspective.  It is like that unknowable perspective of how we personally are seen and experienced by others.  But maybe there are things we can learn without having an out of body or out of company experience.  There are days we are pretty sure that we come across as dull and boring and other days as animated and interesting and the same can go for our products and services.  We can be pretty sure that waiting in line is dull and boring for most people but maybe there are ways to make it more interesting.  Tom and David Kelley of the award-winning Palo Alto-based global design firm IDEO tell us about what one big bank did to help customers cope with the monotony of line waiting.  They provided an interesting distraction during the wait and even though the wait time didn’t get any shorter, it seemed shorter and that made customers happy.  Or take the transformation story of GE’s cat scan machine.  It was a great product that did a great job of cat scanning only it was still scaring the little kids that came for a scan.  This often resulted in cancelled scans and costly rescheduling until the brilliant Doug Dietz at General Electrical Medical Division reinvented the experience with pirate themed adventures.  Suddenly what was once a terrifying experience to be avoided was transformed into an adventure that made kids want to do it again.

Wow!  What possibilities this opens up for every product/ service experience!  The payoff is huge for any one that takes time to reinvent their product experience to make it more entertaining and enjoyable for both the producers and the users.  


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Coming Soon!  Kevin's New Book: "The Quest For Innovation".

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Building blocks for uncovering the hidden opportunities for  business growth and performance.  
  • If you ever wanted more than the daily work routine out of your job or business.  
  • If you have had a measure of success but still feel like you are falling behind personally, professionally or financially. 
  • If you ever wanted to push your business or profession to new levels of significance.
Then this book will provide tools to unlock the hidden explorer in you so you can discover and conquer new worlds of opportunity.


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