January 31, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
4 Ways to Create Talent Gravity and Get the Best People
“There’s no lack of talent out there; the key is creating gravity that draws talent to you.” Few companies aren’t envious of the incredible talent gravity that Google, Facebook, and Apple exert. Companies in these enviable situations literally have talent knocking down their doors. So how can you possibly compete? After all, you don’t have …
January 30, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2017
After a week of torrid voting and much passionate support, along with a lot of gut-wrenching consideration and jostling during the judging round, I am proud to announce your Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2017: . Sarah Miller Caldicott A great grandniec…
January 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Why I Wrote Storytelling at Work
In the past few weeks, quite a few people have asked me for the “elevator speech” about the book I wrote in 2015. I get it. These days, if you can’t deliver your message in 60 seconds or less you’re screwed. So here goes. Consider this my elevator sp…
January 29, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
We are in need of a common language for innovation
Any innovation common language needs working upon. It firstly needs recognition it is in our best interests to find a common point. It needs to be relevant to each of us, it must be current, appropriate, accurate and highly visible throughout the entir…
January 28, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Play-to-Win Strategy Canvas v3.0
A little over four years ago I designed and developed a wall canvas to be used when facilitating strategic choice-making with small teams. Over time, the canvas has evolved as I learned more and more about the art and discipline of strategy facilitation…what people struggle with most, where the resource of time is best spent, …
January 28, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
5 ways you are limiting your capacity for innovation
Every company wants to disrupt their market or category. But most game changers tend to be new entrants from other categories, entrepreneurs or small, regional, niche players. It is rare for established brands and companies to to truly upset the apple cart and upend their competition. Why do big companies find it so difficult to develop a new product/service or a business …
January 27, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
The Best of My Huffington Post Articles on Storytelling
You may not know this, but I have been a Huffington Post blogger for the past five years. During that time, I’ve published a number of well-received articles on storytelling, with a special focus on storytelling in the workplace. Below are links to …
January 27, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Innovation Needs Communication
In 2014, Thomas Royen, a retired German statistician, solved a puzzle that had stumped mathematicians for decades. Called the Gaussian correlation inequality, it involves the probability of a random point lying in overlapping shapes and is one of those…
January 26, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
14 Innovation Mistakes You Cannot Afford to Make
Do you want to create an innovation-focused culture in your organization? Are you struggling to make it a reality? Are you tired of wondering why your team’s ideas don’t always seem to pan out as originally planned? Or do your team’s problems actually stem from the idea-generating phase? There could be countless issues standing in …
January 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
ANONYMOUS REVEALED
I have a confession to make. Actually, it’s more like a revelation than a confession. You know all those fabulous quotes and articles you’ve read over the years with no attribution other than “Anonymous”? It was me. It’s true. I have written thou…
January 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
22 Awesome Quotes on Revolution
My new book, STORYTELLING FOR THE REVOLUTION, will be published in May. The revolution I’m writing about is not a political revolution, its a revolution of the heart and, more specifically, how we communicate wisdom to each other. My weapon of choice…
January 25, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Institutionalizing Innovation is a Lot like Parenting
Premise: I have read countless blog posts, wrote a few myself, watched videos, did innovation courses, read books on innovation, all in the quest to learn what makes innovation happen and if there is a way to institutionalise innovation. While there ar…
January 24, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
20 Things Happy People Don’t Do
“Try to give up one of each of these behaviors for the 20 remaining weeks of 2015 and I guarantee that you will be more successful and much happier.” Many things that we value in life are the result of accumulating stuff; experience, wealth, and education all come from adding more to what we have. …
January 24, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Healthy Visionaries
If you want to create a high-growth company or transform a slow- or flat-growth organization into a category-dominating leader, you cannot manage this type of growth with an MBA-styled leader who wants to function like a strategic CFO by mainly cutting costs and managing profit and loss. Companies looking to lead—to either invent or reset …
January 23, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Inside the Battery Race to Power The 21st Century
The garage startup has become as much of an American icon in the twenty first century as the automobile and the drive-in were to earlier generations. The idea that anyone with an idea can change the world is as romantic as democracy itself, but it’s not altogether true. A garage startup only works if there …
January 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
24 Quotes on Good Communication
1. “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker
2. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
January 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
When it’s time to think inside the box
It’s a common call – we want more innovation, disruptive innovation, new options. We need to think outside the box. It often makes sense to think outside the box. When the usual thinking hasn’t solved the problem, new approaches are needed. After all, if the same people are sat at the same table trying to …
January 22, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Seeking out new knowledge that flows
I have been heavily influenced by the great work of John Hagel and Deloitte’s “Big Shift Index” as a frame to measure the forces of long-term change. What really holds my attention is “knowledge flows” and they are suggesting we are moving from a world of push to a world of pull. The world is …
January 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Strategy Isn’t Just for the C-Suite
A significant portion of my strategy development work is with internal functions, a click or two below corporate and business unit strategy: marketing, human resources, purchasing, and even internal strategy groups. There is good news and bad news in t…
January 21, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
MICRO LEARNING for Innovators (in just 15 minutes per week)
Innovation is a huge topic in organizations these days. Every company is looking for new and better ways to do more with less, differentiate themselves from the competition, and unlock the hidden genius of their workforce.
At the same time, many organizations are budget-constrained. Flying in an outside consultant to lead a workshop or training can sometimes be cost prohibitive. This I understand.
Which is precisely why my company, Idea Champions, is now offering Jump Starting Innovation, a cost-effective way to stir the innovation soup — a virtual, self-organizing, just-in-time way to increase everyone’s ability to be a proactive innovator on-the-job. And it only requires 15 minutes per week.
TOPICS INCLUDE: Culture of Innovation, Creative Thinking, Idea Generation, Brainstorm Facilitation, Storytelling, Leadership, Mindset, Teamwork & Collaboration, Meeting Mastery, Listening & Feedback, Problem Solving, and Employee Engagement.
January 20, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAY TO CLOSE A SALE
Anyone who owns a business, whether they’ve been to business school or not, knows one thing: You need customers. No customers, no business. How you get customers, of course, is the question.
In my business, one of the main ways to get business is r…
January 20, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Is Smartphone Innovation Dead?
In the early days of cellular technology, a phone’s make and model would indicate vastly varying appearance and features from one device to another; burnt orange phones that flip horizontally to reveal a keyboard, razor-thin flip phones with brushed aluminum exteriors, rectangular Blackberries with their trackball and keyboard face. Nowadays, that’s not quite the case. …
January 19, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Journeys to Success with 6 Incredible Entrepreneurs
These six revealing videos of Elon Musk, Angela Ahrends, Steve Jobs, Daymond John, Reid Hoffman, and Arianna Huffington will Inspire your entrepreneurial journey. “Pessimists spend a lifetime waiting for perfection while finding imperfections in everything. Entrepreneurs commit to something imperfect and spend their lifetime perfecting it.” Your entrepreneur’s journey is unique but that doesn’t mean …
January 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Denying Apoptisis or Atrophy? Unhealthy Corporate Ailments
Corporations are not absolute and monolithic entities, but are instead as alive and dynamic as the people who work there. When corporations mistakenly presume rigidity, act as it immortal and refuse to adapt, they get a form of cultural cancer. Let’s explore this insidious conceit in more depth.
January 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Cultivating a Fail Fast Culture – Manifesting learning and exploration
This is the second blog in a series of 3 blogs, by Janet Sernack, on cultivating a fail fast culture. In my previous blog “What does it mean to cultivate a fail fast organizational culture” I shared what typically happens when people experience failure, and how important it is to uncouple people’s fears about failure …
January 18, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Eureka
Eureka means “I found it!” and was the phrase that exclaimed Archimedes after discovering that the volume of water that ascends is equal to the volume of the submerged body. It is about problem solving, learning, and discovery. So that is precisely the…
January 17, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
We Need Leaders who can Change Their Minds
Why do we find it so hard to change our minds? Why are we so critical of people who do change their minds? John Adair, the leadership expert, says that the most important (and often the most difficult) sentence for a leader to utter is, ’I admit that I was wrong.’ But on the rare …
January 17, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
One Hiring Mistake That Most Startups Make
The growth stage of a startup is scary and painful. With perfectly good intentions, founders make this mistake, that may lead to the company’s failure. When a startup is born, its founders are the creators of everything. They are the ones responsible for product (or service) development, for initial marketing and sales, and everything else that’s needed. They get their …
January 16, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
4 Things About Innovation And Creativity That We Can Still Learn From Albert Einstein
When we think of Albert Einstein, we inevitably conjure up images of the icon rather than the man. We see Einstein with his wild hair and his tongue sticking out or Einstein as a playful old man, riding a bicycle. We remember his cheerful confidence and his easy comfort with his own genius. He wasn’t always …
January 16, 2018 | by Chris Kalaboukis
Fluid Intelligence – Are you getting enough sleep to innovate?
Most Americans don’t even come close to getting enough sleep. The average in the USA is 6.8 hours, and in my anecdotal experience, many people working in high pressure, ‘innovation on demand’ jobs probably get considerably less than that. But a couple of studies suggest very strongly that sleep may be even more important for …