The Thinking.school Podcast

This is the final episode of dissecting the 'Design Sprint' to understand what it is and how it works. In this episode, we look at execution - how to build a road-map that keeps you focused on working through a set of ideas and avoids the trap of getting stuck trying to solve a single problem which might not even be the right one to solve...

Over the next few episodes, we dissect the 'Design Sprint' to understand what it is and how it works. In this episode, we look at the convergence phase. How can we bring all those ideas together into something that we can manage? We look at some go-to tools to help in any situation.

In this episode, we look at the ideation phase. How can we stimulate lots of ideas consistently? We look at some go-to tools to help in any situation.  

Over the next few episodes, we dissect the 'Design Sprint' to understand what it is and how it works. In this episode, we take a look at Data: Having data is an essential part of effective problem solving in any design sprint. How should we gather and work with data to be most effective?

Over the next few episodes, we dissect the 'Design Sprint' to understand what it is and how it works. In this episode, we take a look at Challenge Statements: What are they? How do you make a great one that can inspire as well as challenge? Tune in and find out...

Over the next few episodes, we dissect the 'Design Sprint' to understand what it is and how it works. In this episode, we take a high-level look at the Design Sprint: What is it? What is it used for? How do you solve challenges with it? Why is it any better than just coming up with a solution? Tune in and find out...

I was inspired to produce this episode while I was reading Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft by Gregg Pascal Zachary. Reading about the management style at the time of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, I was reminded of the intrinsic paradoxes of leading innovation: how to balance the freedom and creativity required for great ideas to get a shot - while at the same time providing structure and discipline to drive organisational performance. So how do you balance the paradoxes of leading innovation? How do you 'unleash' and 'harness' your people's talent at the same time? Tune in and find out...  

This is the second episode in the two part series on my experience of Virtual Reality after visiting the SwitchOn event in Ipswich.  SwitchOn was held at Fire Station 101, which is an amazing innovation hub based in Ipswich (Regional Queensland).  While there was an array of different technologies on display from the exotic AmigaOne, to retro Vic 20, the piece that stood out for me was having a day of playing with the Vive and live presentation sessions from experts on VR and 360-degree immersive film technology.  This episode is looking at the future of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 360-degree Film as all these technologies converge. Special thank you to John Doolan from ThePulse  Listen to the Podcast here or subscribe on iTunes, Player.FM and iHeartRadio.

The next two episodes I am sharing my experience of Virtual Reality after visiting the SwitchOn event in Ipswich. SwitchOn was held at Fire Station 101, which is an amazing innovation hub based in Ipswich (Regional Queensland). While there was an array of different technologies from the exotic AmigaOne, to retro Vic 20, the piece that stood out for me was having a day of playing with the Vive and live presentation sessions from experts on VR and 360-degree immersive film technology.  

This week I am digging into the Thinking.School vault and we're going back to medieval times as we visit Ironfest from last year. History is often seen as being dry and boring - the act of memorizing facts and figures with no practical use. In reality, history can reveal so much when it is truly explored. It is a source of inspiration and innovation. Of course 'living' history can be a lot of fun too - Ironfest certainly is that. Hopefully this week you get a chance to look in to a subculture that provokes ideas and also leaves you inspired to visit Lithgow to taste the action first-hand next year!

Thespian's guide to Design Thinking: how we can use acting to build empathy In this episode I'm sharing a section on empathy from the Innovation Leadership program I ran recently. Empathy is a slippery word, and it's one of the areas people struggle with the most when it comes to implementing Design Thinking. It's so hard to get out of our own skin and truly understand other people's situation. That's where actors have an advantage - it's their job. The craft of acting has a long lineage of seeking to more deeply understand their characters - more deeply portrey their reality. We want to look at this for inspiration when it comes to effective Design Thinking.  

User experience design, that is, the way we design software for humans to use it, is changing dramatically. It's changing exponentially. This episode poses a question: what is the limiting factor when it comes to user experience design? How can we be ahead of such a fast-moving industry? Find out...

We use computers every day, yet we don't seem to have a clear way of thinking about computer security in a way that can make sense to everyone. How we think about complex ideas changes our relationship to those ideas; are they based on something you can grasp and extend upon? Are they impossible to get a sense of - ending up in the 'too hard' basket? This episode is designed to help make computer security simple and accessible to everyone - while showing you how to find those 'foundation concepts' to get even just a little clarity on the most complex ideas.

The Japanese phrase "Kaizen eno Yon Dankai" translates to "Improvement in four steps" and was made famous from the success of the Toyota Way in automotive manufacturing. Kaizen is a daily process, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (muri), and teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business  Sounds a lot like innovation to me. This episode looks at the four steps of Kaizen and how you apply them to being consistently innovative no matter what you do.

This episode: Exploring why Design Thinking has become so popular. I wanted to dig a bit deeper, so we're exploring the emergence and convergence of iterative business processes as technology has transformed business from the end of the 20th century. Why Design Thinking is dominant when there are other problem solving frameworks out there. And the importance of Design Thinking in the new 'Creation Economy' where automation, AI and machine learning has transformed how we value work.

We spend so much time teaching kids spoken and written language, yet we seem to relegate visualization skills, communicating through diagrams, one of the most powerful communication and collaboration tools we have as humans, to a small part of a math class building graphs - and that's about it. This episode we're looking at the concept of 'visual vocabulary' and look at some practical examples of it in action.

This episode looks at an article published on Harvard Business Review that finds Cognitive Diversity, not Diversity, is what defines highly functioning innovative teams. We're also reviewing an article by Shane Parrish, published on the Farnam Street blog called the Metagame - which I felt was not quite right. So, we're looking at TWO metagames and the difference between them.

Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more. Often, creating an inclusive environment that accepts each individual's differences, embraces their strengths is confused with the concept of actual diversity. In this episode, I am exploring the line between these two ideas with the idea that there are actually two kinds of diversity: passive and active diversity - and they can exist in isolation from each other. Find out more in the podcast...  

A bit of nostalgia for me this week as I cast my mind back to the days of playing with the Commodore 64 and learning how to code. While there is some nostalgia there, the way in which we learned to code in those days provided a valuable skill. The skill of reverse-engineering. In this episode of the Innovation Podcast learn about reverse-engineering mindset and how you can apply it to nearly anything and rapidly accelerate your learning.  

Have you ever tried to get people to do something that needs to be a habit? Even if they agree it's something they need to do - even if they <i>want</i> to - it often just doesn't happen. Why is this the case? How can you change it? Use the behavior change formula. Listen to the podcast to find out more... Check out BJFogg's <a href="http://www.behaviormodel.org/">Behavior Model</a> website for more information on the behavior change formula.