I was at a wine club get-together early this week and ran into a fellow I'd met two or three times before.  We'd forgotten each others' names, and after we'd reintroduced ourselves he said to me, "I remember what you do.  You are an Innovational Speaker." 

I must say, I really liked the sound of that.  From now on, whenever I give a presentation, I'm going to describe myself that exact way.  Matt Homann, Innovational Speaker. 

Thank you, Tom.

Gretchen Rubin talks about keeping a one-sentence journal.

Now, each night, I write one sentence (well, actually, usually it’sthree or four sentences, and I type them into the computer) about whathappened that day to me, the Big Man and the girls.

It’s a good place to record those kids-say-the-darndest-thingsmoments. I always think that I’ll never forget, but I do. Until mymother reminded me, I’d forgotten about the time when, as we weredriving on the Bruckner Expressway, after I said to the Big Man, “Havewe ever driven on this road when the drawbridge has been raised?” theBig Girl piped up, “If that’s the drawbridge, where’s the castle?”

My hope is that, years from now, when I’m trying to remember whatlife was like at this point, I can look back at my one-sentence journal.

This is a great idea, not just for our personal lives, but for our professional ones, too.  What if you decided to focus your journal on the one lesson you learned each day?  The one-sentence structure makes it easy to commit to.  I think I'll give it a try.

This is an interesting Q and A with Dr. Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School, on the challenges to big-organization innovation.  My favorite:

What is the hardest part of executing innovation?  For a breakthrough idea to have a chance, there must be a carefulapproach to building the new business unit .The new business must bedesigned in such a way that they can forget, borrow, and learn. Theyare the three fundamentals. They must forget the parent company'ssuccess formula, borrow the parent's resources, and learn how tosucceed in a new environment. It's kind of like when you leave home togo to college. You forget your parent's rules, borrow their laundryfacilities, and learn how to succeed on your own terms.

I think the "forget, borrow and learn" concept translates into a great facilitation tool as well:  Ask the group to divide up into three smaller groups, and ask each to take turns deciding what they need to "forget," what they need to "borrow" and what they need to "learn" to make their project/company/initiative/life a success.

Chris Bailey suggests we shake up our office floor plans:

Creativity doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Sparks of creativity are also generated by shifts in thinking and being around folks who are different from us. So, shake up that floor plan by creating workspace pods where each person is from a different department. In nearly every organization, people are clumped together by their function: marketers sit together, salesfolks sit together, account managers sit together…you get the picture. This may have made sense in the days prior to IMs, emails, and videoconferencing. Now, we tend to do it because it’s mindlessly ingrained in our business thinking. Time to get mindful again. If your organization appears to be siloed and you can’t figure out why, take one good look at where folks sit every day.

Grant McCracken thinks about why we struggle with new ideas:

... the first time we heard of them we were obliged to struggle. What is this? What do we need to think to grasp it? What assumptions does it challenge? What new assumptions does it require? How does this new understanding fit with the other things we think we know? Perhaps it changes much of what we think we know...if only we could see how.We have more ideas, with more space between them, and we cannot accommodate these ideas, let alone think them, unless we are prepared to treat with, engage in, endure, and if such a thing is possible, cultivate cloudiness in new ways.

Hands down, my favorite part of the Fortune Innovation Forum was the Innovator’s Studio.  The Studio was developed and staffed by Play, an innovation consultancy headquarted in Richmond, Virginia.  Intended to be an immersive innovation play-pen designed to engage the otherwise-conservative conference audience and get them to think differently, the Studio was an extremely cool place to think about innovation, talk with like-minded innovators, and (of course) play.

First, the Good:

• Play employees were awesome.  Engaging, talented, enthusiastic, and smart.  Every one of Play’s people I spoke with (almost thirty of them) shared the same fantastic qualities, but were unique in an interesting way.  Kudos to Play’s founder, Andy Stefanovich, for assembling such a great group of people.  If I were looking for a job, the first place I’d apply is Play. 
• The Studio looked amazing.  I’ll update this post with some pics by tomorrow.
• The creative concept behind the Studio was well executed.  There were huge paint-by-numbers murals, video “confessional booths” for attendees to record their thoughts, artists drawing attendee’s creativity and innovation visions, binoculars to look at things differently, etc.etc.etc.  Everything worked, and for those attendees who took the time to play in the studio, the immersive experience was first rate.
• The “Lending Library” was a fantastic idea (and one I’ll steal ASAP).  Play brought in a series of cool “experts” that Studio attendees could “check out” for conversation for 20 minutes at a time.  Very innovative concept and very well done.  Look for this at the next Idea Market and future LexThink! events.

Next, the Not-So-Good:

• The Studio was rarely full.  This is not Play’s fault, but rather a fault of the conference as a whole.  Instead of integrating the Studio with the rest of the Innovation Forum, there was very little connection between the two.  If the speakers in the auditorium were like class, the Studio was recess.  And just like I remember from third grade, there was never enough time dedicated to recess.
• The Studio dumbed-down Play’s capabilities.  Play does incredibly high-level strategy and brand consulting for a number of Fortune 500 companies.  The “play” metaphor helps them to more quickly engage their customers to get better work done.  The Studio didn’t demonstrate just how smart Play can be, but instead seemed a fun diversion from the heady innovation concepts the speakers talked about.
• Some of the creativity exercises were too complicated.  There was a huge story that attendees were supposed to read, and then, with the help of artists, draw the ending (or something like that).  The story was too long and the exercise not explained well enough.  I think it scared away some participants who would have benefited from the experience.

What I’d Change:

• Build a more seamless connection between the Studio and the rest of the Innovation Forum.  Speakers would be required to spend at least an hour in the Studio, interacting with attendees, answering questions, and even participating in the Lending Library.  Play’s talented facilitators would take turns attending the speeches in the auditorium, and then head to the Studio to continue the conversation, by using Play’s methodology to coax breakthrough ideas from attendees. 
• Dump the conference’s “networking” breaks, label them “recess” and hold them in the Studio.  Break attendees into small groups based on their interests, companies, challenges, or the color of their shoes and make them “do” something.  The networking would happen accidentally, instead of on purpose, and attendees could practice what the speakers preached. 
• Organize 10–20 person hour-long “field trips” out of the conference venue and on to the streets of New York.  Each could be focused on a different aspect of innovation, or be designed to solve a certain common challenge.
• Create an “Idea Wall” or “Idea Gallery” with tons of provocative questions and answers posted by the attendees.  I’ve done this a bit with the Idea Market and at my retreats and it works well.
• Reserve 30 tables at NYC restaurants, each staffed by a Play employee.  Attendees would sign up, and answer a few silly questions.  People with common interests would be seated together.  Amazing conversation would ensue.

Finally, I’d give Play an entire track (with speakers, workshops, etc.) at next year’s Innovation Forum to see just what an Innovation Consultancy could do with an Innovation Conference.  If Play wants some help on making it happen, they know where to find me.

 

Going to a conference?  Here’s a mini-manifesto to help you get the most out of your conference experience:

Know Your Questions.  Seek Your Answers.  Never attend a conference without at least three questions you want answered.  Never leave until they have been.

Their Conference is Your Focus Group.  Want to measure the pulse of the marketplace?  Want feedback on your idea, product, or business model?  Go to a conference populated by your ideal customer.  Forget the sessions.  Hang out in the hallway.  And listen.  A lot.

Be Smart.  Be Helpful.  Then Be Quiet.  Other attendees may have come to the conference to meet people like you.  They may want and deserve your help (and you, theirs).  They didn’t come to hear your hour-long presentation.  Please understand the difference.

Paper Works Best.  Your ability to pay attention to conference speakers and attendees is inversely proportional to your ability to pay attention to the outside world.  Stow the laptop, turn off the BlackBerry, pull out the Moleskine, and start writing.  Oh, and if you can’t leave the real world behind for an hour or two, please don’t leave it at all. 

Vendors Matter.  Vendors are like puppies.  They crave your attention.  Give it.  They know your industry and the other attendees better than you do.  Talk with them.  Learn from them.  Then take a few pens.

Blogging is not Participation.  We get it.  Your blog has tens/hundreds/thousands of readers who can’t wait to hear your take on the last speaker’s presentation and about how crappy the WiFi is.  Your “audience” will be there tomorrow.  Your fellow attendees will not.

The most important people at the conference are sitting next to you.   Think Tom Peters gives a rat’s ass about your new business strategy?  Is Seth Godin going to give you personalized marketing advice?  Of course not.  The people at any event who are most likely to have already faced your challenges (and maybe even solved them) aren’t the highly-paid keynoters, but rather your fellow attendees.  They are like you.  They can help you.  Ignore them at your peril.* 

 

*NOTE TO CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS:  If you don’t provide AMPLE opportunity for your attendees to interact with each other, your conference sucks.  A twenty minute “networking break” doesn’t cut it, and neither does keeping the bar open until three in the morning – though at least that’s a start.

 

You’ve got to see this:  RollerMan 

I just got an invite to participate in the Fortune Innovation Forum as a guest blogger.  Since I’ve now become a Yes Man, I agreed without hesitation.  I’m still trying to get all the logistics figured out, but I will be in NYC from Tuesday, November 28th until Friday, December 1.  If you are going to be at the Forum, or would like to get together, please let me know.

I’ll have a lot more on this in the next few days.  And if anyone knows of a great place to stay near Lincoln Center that doesn’t cost $600 per night, please tell me about it. 

 

I don’t really need another blender, but I want one after seeing this:  Will it Blend?  One of the best viral marketing ideas I’ve seen in a long while.