Innovation in Practice Blog
How to Use Systematic Inventive Thinking for Cutting Costs and Increasing Productivity
Innovation is commonly misperceived as a means to create brand new shiny products, design colorful marketing campaigns and create a lot of buzz and commotion. We invite you to learn how our systematic and pragmatic approach to innovation can impact your manufacturing processes and professional services by finding new ways to cut costs, allocate resources and create value for you and your customers. In our 45 min webinar you will: • Learn how inventive thinking can be successfully applied to increase productivity • Get introduced to some of the SIT thinking tools and principles • Understand how SIT complements existing methodologies used in your organization such as LEAN, Kaizen, and Six Sigma.
Innovation Sighting: Clothing to Keep You Cooler
The Columbia Sportswear Company is launching a new line of clothing that keeps you…cooler. The Omni-Freeze® is a specialized fabric weave that increases the surface area of the fabric that contacts your bare skin. This transmits heat faster and feels cooler to the touch.
This is a great example of the Attribute Dependency Technique, one of five in the S.I.T. innovation method. Attribute Dependency differs from the other templates in that it uses attributes (variables) of the situation rather than components. Start with an attribute list, then construct a 2 x 2 matrix of these, pairing each against the others. Each cell represents a potential dependency that forms a Virtual Product. Using Function Follows Form, we work backwards and envision a potential benefit or problem that this hypothetical solution solves. In the case of Omni-Freeze®, the dependency is created between body temperature and layers of clothing.
The LAB: Innovating a Museum with S.I.T. (June 2012)
According the Center for the Future of Museums, many non-profit museums in this country are struggling from a broken economic model. Attendance and memberships are declining as consumers are given more choices of how to spend their time. To attract more, museums need to have good storytelling, stagecraft, showmanship, great imagery, and great sound. They need to tap deep passions and emotions to create “product” that is meaningful to audiences. Otherwise, many museums will shut down.
For this month’s LAB, let’s apply the innovation method, S.I.T, to a museum. Students from my Innovation Tools course at the University of Cincinnati created new concepts for a local museum, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The students portrayed the concepts in a Dream Catalog as a way to visually tell the story. You can download the entire catalog here.
Mastering Innovation Through Action Learning
Teaching innovation begs two questions: what to teach and how to teach it. For me, innovation begins with the generation of new ideas, so I emphasize cognitive methods such as Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT). I learned it from Amnon Levav and his colleagues while I was at Johnson & Johnson. It’s superior to other methods I’ve tried, so I continue teaching and using it in practice.
What’s the best way to teach it? To master innovation, you must experience it. I find Action Learning is the best instructional approach for innovation.
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