Michal Naishtein
February 3, 2010

“99c? I’m investing in a million” - Marren Buffet, on SIT’s new iPhone app

What do you get when you mix systematic inventive thinking, a funky digital interface and a little party fun? You get the PIG - Party Idea Generator - SIT’s first ever iPhone app. Eight months in the making, PIG is the “baby” of SIT’s Futures, the team responsible for extending SIT’s know-how into exciting new areas, in collaboration with developer Vevent.

The PIG developed from the idea of finding a way to use SIT’s thinking methodology to apply innovation to everyday tasks. This new application helps users unleash their imagination and generate original ideas for their next party.

Using a series of fun triggers based on the Subtraction and Multiplication tools, PIG users can “invent” with everyday party items (e.g. Guests, Drinks, Music), transforming them into wild and wacky themes and activities for their party.

Continue reading ‘“99c? I’m investing in a million” - Marren Buffet, on SIT’s new iPhone app’

Posted in Creativity and Ideation categories |
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Amit Mayer
January 26, 2010

Innovation is in order?

If we try to list the barriers to innovation, cognitive fixednesses will be very close to the top of the list. One of our main challenges as facilitators is to help our clients break their fixednesses as part of the attempt to promote innovation. One interesting aspect of these fixednesses, and particularly structural fixedness, is their relationship with language.


Let’s consider the word “order” for example. WordNet defines order as “logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements” and “a condition of regular or proper arrangement”. These definitions, coupled with another meaning of the word – “a command given by a superior that must be obeyed” – can help us understand the power of structural fixedness. It highlights our tendency to embrace order and structure as positive attributes that are not only valuable, but also natural.

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Posted in Fixednesses and Insights categories |
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Shachaf Snir
January 14, 2010

Sustainable innovation. How far should we go?

In the last decade, it seems that if there is any agreement about anything, it is that we need to save the planet, and take responsibility for the environment and our influence on it. Never before has the color “green” received such significance and value.

Considering the great resources governments and companies dedicate to the purpose of sustainable innovation, we should ask ourselves – how should we manage our innovation? Can we go “too far”?

Let’s try and answer this question, using one of Boeing’s latest and most innovative projects as a case study: the new 787 Dreamliner.

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Posted in Greenovation and Insights categories |
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Orren Shalit
and
Gunnar Storfeldt
January 11, 2010

Walk the Talk!

In our previous post we wrote about how talking about innovation is not enough: you also have to act on it. In this post we will give you our insights on how to translate the innovation and creativity talk into real action.

If you are the kind of leader with the insight that innovation is important, and you also do not accept that relying on chance or unpredictable events are valid leadership qualities; if you are the proactive, hard worker who wants to create innovation, what can you do?

Here’s a suggestion for a good start:

* Acquire knowledge – Learn about how you can implement effective innovation through systematic and focused efforts. There are many good training programs and tons of literature for this. Start with a simple test, by asking your associates how they define innovation. If you can agree on this, you have a base to build on. Then move on to gaining more knowledge about principles and models for systematic innovation.

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Posted in Insights and Organizational Innovation categories |
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Amit Mayer
December 29, 2009

SITE SEEING no. 2 | NPD @ Leeds, UK


As part of what may be called our daily “routine” we find ourselves leading innovation processes with various companies all over the world - from Cincinnati to Melbourne, from Tokyo to Stockholm, and from La Pas to Moscow.
These innovation processes are usually very intense, and leave little time for anything other than work. But those of us who like photography take advantage of those few free moments for exercising our hobby. In our SITE SEEING posts we want to share with you some of the photographs we took, and some of the stories behind them.

The photos in this album have been taken in Leeds, UK during a weeklong New Product Development process with Unilever. The high profile of the brand, coupled with other unique aspects of the process, made it a very interesting project. We were lucky to work with a group of talented and friendly people, that were kind enough to show us around Leeds despite the intensity of the project.

As we reached the final phases of the project we realized that although the participants were very passionate about some of the ideas, there was no agreement around which ideas we should be passionate about… So, before the formal rating of the ideas, we decided to use a tool called “Articulating the WOW”.


Continue reading ‘SITE SEEING no. 2 | NPD @ Leeds, UK’

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Roni Horowitz
December 25, 2009

What do cloud watching and new product ideas have in common?

When’s the last time you did some cloud watching?

Now there’s a creative, relaxing activity to do with the kids! Think about a kid who looks up at the sky and sees a cloud in the shape of a camel. The shape of the cloud is, of course, determined before the child attributes it with the function of being a camel.

How does creativity change in the transition from a process that begins with a function to a process that begins with a form? The cognitive psychologist, Finke, examined this in an interesting experiment:

A test group was given the task of creating an idea for a new product. The invention had to be made up of 3 items (or forms) out of a collection of 15 items that were presented to them. The items included a circle, a cone, a rod, wheels, string, and … additional 10 shapes.

Each person was asked to create a new, useful, product out of 3 items.

To keep the thinking process more focused, a general category was chosen - toys, for example, and their invention had to fit in to this category.

Continue reading ‘What do cloud watching and new product ideas have in common?’

Posted in Creativity and Ideation categories |
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May Amiel
December 15, 2009

Mission: Impossible

Members of Amdocs senior leadership got together for an innovation camp that began with an impossible mission - to create the Creativity and Innovation Center in Sderot, in the south of Israel, all within less than 20 hours!


The center in Sderot is now part of the “Tachlit Center“, which serves over 70 youth at risk that have dropped out of conventional educational establishments, and through this work exerts positive influence on the entire community in various ways.

SIT was the prime facilitator for this innovation camp.

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Posted in Organizational Innovation categories |
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Orren Shalit
and
Gunnar Storfeldt
December 7, 2009

Talk or Walk?

As specialists in creative processes and innovation, we have worked with many companies over the last ten years, giving us many years of real experience in creating innovations and actually implementing them on the market. And, after talking to thousands of managers, the situation is clear to us:

Most everyone strongly feels a need to continuously renew their commercial offering and working methods to keep competitive in the market. They follow the modern mantra of ‘differentiate and create value’ and to achieve this, everyone wants to be more innovative.

Indeed they all like to talk the creativity and innovation talk. Most managers agree that innovation is the last stronghold for competing in a global economy. Moreover, they are interested and fascinated by the thought of working systematically with innovation in order to gain a breakthrough to create growth and profitability for their organizations.

We all agree about all this… intellectually. But very few translate this talk into action.

Continue reading ‘Talk or Walk?’

Posted in Organizational Innovation categories |
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