For various clientsΒ – on various projects – I’ve worked up fake front page newspapers from the future.Β It’s an excellent way of getting people to think about the future in a more tangible manner.
However this site is in a whole new league, and is unbelievably good. Check out the date of the site. What’s more staggering is that the paper also went out in print.
The adverts are as good as the contentΒ – one of my favourites is below:
Β Hats off to The Yes Men.
(via IFTF)
If you are after a good overview of disruptive/discontinuous approaches to innovation, then look no further than the UK organisation Advanced Institute of Management.Β It has compiled an Executive Briefing that is comprehensive in its coverage of the field. The blurb reads:
In a fast moving world, one of the biggest challenges facing organisations is dealing with discontinuous innovation (DI).Β This briefing documentΒ focuses on at what some leading organisations are doing in this area it suggests 12 different strategies for developing a search capability to detect triggers of discontinuous innovation. These strategies are also useful for more conventional innovation, and all organisations should employ some at least, if they aim to remain both competitive and durable.
The Futures approach we use at Innovaro with clients such as Shell and GM (Europe) is referenced, although not quite in the full context.
Direct download of the PDF is also available.
The latest edition of the Innovaro publication “Innovation Leaders” is now available. As the name suggests, it looks across a number of sectors to identify the companies that are leveraging innovation to the maximum benefit. You can download the summary or buy the book from the Innovation Leaders website.
If you are in The States this week, and want to hear more about the book Innovaro, then the founder of Innovaro – Tim Jones – will be doing a live interview discussing the research innovation in Ireland on CNBC for the “Business of Innovation” 2008 series which goes to air in the next couple of weeks.Β USA this Thursday at 8pm/ET (1am GMT).
(edited update reflects the changed focus of the interview)
The Foresight Department of the UK Government Office for Science has released a new update to The Horizon Scanning Toolkit. “Exploring the future: tools for strategic futures thinking” discusses 24 different futures techniques.
If you are in any way interested in futures approaches, methods and case studies, this is a treasure trove of information which will keep you occupied for days.
It is a project that has been put together by the ever enthusiastic and sound futures/innovation/branding thinker Patrick Harris of thoughtengine.
I’ve made a small contribution to the toolkit via a recording of my thoughts on the subject of using folksonomies.
Via the Australian bog – InnovationΒ Feeder – comes this rich vein of futures and technology related links.Β Highly recommended but comes with a “time suction” warning…
Β Most of the work I perform with clients usually involves some form of workshop.Β My preferred – and proven – format usually is for a multiday event.Β Inevitably there is some degree of pushback when I recommend that we go for two, or even three days.
In most organisations people are used to half day sessions where they can quickly get back to the “important stuff, ” such as checking email and answering phone calls. If they do have an “off-site” event that goes for more than one day, it’s common for this to have a significant ‘team-building’ component that usually translates to mean ‘we’ll get some time playing golf’.
However there’s many reasons why you should hold multiday events.Β Not least of which is that after a good sleep you are better equuipped to resolve problems.Β Evidence of this is cited in a few places, such as New Scientist and the BBC.
Firstly, here’s the New Scientist take:
Ever wondered why sleeping on a problem works? It seems that as well as strengthening our memories, sleep also helps us to extract themes and rules from the masses of information we soak up during the day.
Bob Stickgold from Harvard Medical School and his colleagues found that people were better able to recall lists of related words after a night’s sleep than after the same time spent awake during the day. They also found it easier to recollect themes that the words had in common – forgetting around 25 per cent more themes after a waking rest. “We’re not just stabilising memories during sleep,” says Stickgold. “We’re extracting the meaning.”
And, more recently, the BBC
Sleeping on a problem really can help solve it, say scientists who found a dreamy nap boosts creative powers. They tested whether “incubating” a problem allowed a flash of insight, and found it did, especially when people entered a phase of sleep known as REM.
Volunteers who had entered REM or rapid eye movement sleep – when most dreams occur – were then better able to solve a new problem with lateral thinking.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published the US work.
“We propose that REM sleep is important for assimilating new information into past experience to create a richer network of associations for future use”
While this is useful information to reinforce the need for multiday events – especially around innovation and strategy – it’s also got some unexpected benefits for office workers stuck in the tedium of a corporate job that bores them to tears.
Armed with the above findings, they can safely snooze at their desks, armed with the retort: “I was problem solving.”
