Five Ways to Kill an Idea
In her acceptance speech at the 2014 Oscars, best supporting actress Lupita Nyong’o passionately reminded us that “no matter where you are from, your dreams are valid.” This is not only true for people, but also for ideas. Truly original ideas often show-up in raw rough forms, and need to be nurtured to thrive. I often come back to this Synectics article “Five Ways to...
Idea Generation
There are several truisms that almost every company trot out: ‘People are our greatest assets…’; ‘We have a no-blame culture…’; ‘We actively encourage out-of-the-box thinking…’; ‘We’re committed to innovation…’. However, it is sometimes those who are charged with creating innovation that in the end stifle it; undervaluing creative people, tut-tutting at poor outcomes and sticking to tried-and-tested methods. Being innovative is a powerful skill, but...
Building an Inventive Organization
Jeff Mauzy Interview, Ubiquity e-zine Jeff Mauzy is co-author (with Richard Harriman) of the book “Creativity, Inc.: Building an Inventive Organization,” published by Harvard Business School Press (click here to purchase). He was a Partner at Synecticsworld. UBIQUITY: Let’s say that you are hired to give advice to an information technology company. When you show up on day one, how do you determine whether or...
Synecticsworld, Harvard Business School, and InnerCity Weightlifting creating solutions together
By Joe Gammal As athletes from around the world gathered in Boston on Marathon weekend and contemplated the 26 plus miles that awaited them Monday morning, the Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Club and Design Club, together with the innovation and design firms Synecticsworld and Makibie Design, harnessed the strengths and minds of a diverse student population to help Inner City Weightlifting to Design a...
Being in Permanent Beta
By Chipp Norcoss While reading Wired on a flight to Boston, I came across an article about Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn. As I read about the advice he gives in his book, The Start-Up of You, one of his main points just leapt off the page at me. He urges people to be in a state of “Permanent Beta.” For those of you...
5 x More Committed to Ideas
By Terry K. Gilliam Since the dawn of consulting, when leather was first fashioned into a briefcase, clients have questioned if they received the appropriate level of benefit from the time and money that they invested by engaging consultants. The stories of consultants’ reports placed on shelves, the contents and recommendations either rejected outright or ignored, are too numerous to be merely folklore. This is...
TEDxSF – Kyle Hermans
Kyle Hermans is a Principal for Synecticsworld and runs the West Coast division of the global innovation and creativity firm, who celebrate 50 years in delivering and facilitating organizations and their leaders to breakthrough creativity and innovation. Kyle is deeply committed to change the way people interact & inspire the way they relate to their world by releasing and enriching their creativity for both...
Effective Claims-Staking Lights Up the Consumer’s Mind
By Joe Giordano We have all seen the trailer, if not the movie, from Far and Away: Tom Cruise, a hardworking Irish lad – grand music pushing him forward, mayhem cascading all around him – races, hair streaking back, flag in hand, to stake his claim on the new land, earning his right to build his future. This kind of chaos makes for great cinema....
Steve Jobs and Synectics
By Leo Boudreau I have just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. First, I recommend this book to everyone. Isaacson has an ability to fully develop his topics and the book allows us to learn about Jobs and his approach to innovation and business. It is an interesting exploration of an iconic company and the genius that led it. Steve Jobs presents...
How to add Creative Thinking to Lean Thinking
By Chipp Norcross I’ve had many conversations over the years about how Synectics fits into a Lean organization. On a flight home to Miami, I realized that looking at Lean as strictly competing with Synectics is like saying hydrogen and oxygen can’t work together. The bottle of water on my tray table suggested otherwise. So, with one of our clients we conducted a Lean + Synectics...
New Product Development Seminar at the UCLA Anderson School
By Kyle Hermans Kyle Hermans is the Senior Director of Innovation Capacity at Gap Inc. Global, and was the head of Synecticsworld’s West Coast Office at the time of this article. As part of the MBA program at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the Synectics team provides a workshop on the Synectics Ipower5® system for New Product Development. The Synectics® Innovation Process enables innovative...
Synecticsworld 50 Years
A Journey through Synectics-based Discovery of Consumer Insights and New Product Development
What impact are you having in your meetings?
Kyle Hermans is the Senior Director of Innovation Capacity at Gap Inc. Global, and was the head of Synecticsworld’s West Coast Office at the time of this article. Synectics® tools and techniques are designed to push the climate toward collaboration. Setting ground rules which call for positive behaviors and minimize negative behaviors and have a major effect on the group’s results. In this video, Kyle...
TEDxSF Salon – Skoold: Reinventing Higher Education Panel/discussion
TEDxSF Salon – Skool’d: rethinking Higher Education As part of the TEDxSF Salon, SKOOL’d: Rethinking Higher Education focused on the need for innovation in higher education to create more affordable, accessible and relevant models for today’s world. “In order to reinvent education, we must first unpack the underlying assumptions and shortcomings of current models… Despite dramatic advances in technology and cognitive science, higher education hasn’t...
