Want to be a better problem solver? What if the solution is to get in the mud?

In this episode, I interview Joe De Sena. He's the founder of Spartan and is the host of CNBC's No Retreat: Business Bootcamp.

This incredibly powerful show puts business people in physically challenging situations as a way of getting them to be more resilient.

In this episode, here are some of the questions we tackle:

• Why Spartan? He feels that businesspeople need to treat themselves like an Olympian - going for the gold medal.
• Why the TV Show? A lot of people like the idea of being in business but might not be fully committed.
• What is the Show? The use of military-style training, tackling obstacles to build resiliency skills.
• Why Physical Challenges? If you can master being under tremendous physical and mental stress and still push through and  keep it together, you're unbreakable.
• Why Do Businesses Fail? Most businesses fail because they quit when it gets hard.
• How is the Show Constructed? Each week, three business issues are identified and then physical challenges are constructed to help them get stronger in dealing with them.
• Why Does It Work? He uses an analogy on how steel is made:you heat it, pound it, and then drown it. His physical process is about tackling the problems and searing it into their brains.
• What are the Results? Each week, at the end of the show, the positive impact is shared. For example, one company increased sales 170% in just three months.
• How Has This Been Applied to Your Business? Joe shares how the pandemic decimated the Spartan business and how his process helped keep the company afloat (this is a very compelling story).
• What are the Three Top Challenges for Businesses? 1) Communication, 2) Process (having Standard Operating Procedures), and 3) Cash.

And we covered so much more.

We also discovered that we both are Cornellians who lived in Boston and now live in the Orlando area. Small world.

This is an episode you won't want to miss. Please share it with others who might find it valuable. And be sure to watch the show on CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/no-retreat/

In this freeform podcast episode, I share my thoughts on my next book: DIVOT.

A divot is a term from golf. It's when you swing at the ball, if you go too deep, a chunk of grass goes flying, and this is a divot.

And that's the premise of the next book - how can we go deep and create more customer value?

Rather than changing direction (pivot) it is about deep value creation.

In this episode, I cover a number of different topics related to the book:

• Where do we double down on our investments?
• How can we identify our differentiator and use that to prioritize investments?
• How can the divot help create employee engagement and reduce burnout?
• How can we best motivate employees (compensation, community, contribution)?
• How can we provide stability for our employees (vs feeling like employees are working in quicksand)?
• Why divoting is not the about standing still but is about going deeper.
• The 5D of Differentiation (Distinctive, Desirable, Durable, Disruption-Proof, Disseminated)
• Why we want a laser focus on investments rather than diluting and dissipating our energies
• ...and much more

I cover a lot of territory in this episode!

If you have any stories to contribute to the new book, please drop me a line.

P.S. Note that the title may change. The content might shift. And in the end it might be something other than a book. But the general philosophy of whatever I create will remain the same.

To celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States, I decided to share this segment from my book, Goal-Free Living. Chapter 4 is entitled, "Want What You Have." Instead of looking for more and creating a different future, appreciate what you have now.

Before we get to the podcast, I want to share two items:

1. My "Purple Monday" sale  - $50 off the Personality Poker® Starter Kit and a free copy of Best Practices are Stupid if you buy a copy of Invisible Solutions. Sale ends December 3rd. Learn more here: https://stephenshapiro.com/purple-monday/
2. The launch of my new yearlong peer-to-peer mastermind as just announced. Learn more at www.invisiblesolutionsmastermind.com. If you qualify and this is of interest to you, please schedule a discovery call to explore this further.

In the podcast I share a number of stories that will hopefully inspire you to have a deeper appreciate for where you are in life, even if things are challenging at the moment.

Happy Holidays!

This podcast celebrates 20 years since the launch of my first book, 24/7 Innovation. It also marked the time when I left Accenture and started my own innovation business.  In honor of this special period in my life, I read the Prologue to that book and share some thoughts on where we have come in the last two decades.

In this episode, we explore:

• how innovation and management theory have followed the times of the day (from Taylor to today)
• why past innovation strategies have focused on "boxes" (activities) while newer models  focus on "lines" (interconnections) 
• why jazz is a good metaphor for innovation in that it is a collaborate and improvisational approach that adapts to new realities
• the recent progress innovation has made to move towards "lines" rather than boxes
• why relevance and adaptability is more important than ideas or novelty

Thank you to everyone who has made the past 20 years possible!

Stephen

What if instead of thinking outside the box, you want to find a better box?

This is Chapter 4 from Best Practices are Stupid.

We explore the power of Challenge-Centered Innovation (CCI) and why it leads to higher ROI than idea-driven innovation.

In this episode, we explore

• Einstein's perspective on innovation (hint: the problem is more important than the solution)
• Hollywood's point of view on thinking outside the box (hint: don't)
• The advantages of Challenge-Centered Innovation
• The key things you do up-front with CCI: assign owners, sponsor, resources, funding, evaluators and evaluation criteria
• How ideas are like fishing with a net in the middle of the ocean while CCI is like targeted fishing with the right lure.

The content in this episode is crucial to my overall work and sets the stage for future chapters. 

What if asking for ideas is a bad idea? 

In this episode, I share Chapter 3 from Best Practices are Stupid. In it, we explore why looking for a quantity of ideas can be the downfall of your innovation efforts.

You will hear:

• How several companies started with idea-driven innovation programs that led to the demise of their innovation efforts
• Why the signal-to-noise ratio might be one of the most important measures to consider for innovation
• The three categories of ideas, and why suggestion boxes lead to a lot of duds
• Why idea programs can be useful for PR or for getting people on-board with innovation, but not for ROI
• The behind-the-scenes story of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill innovation efforts 

This episode provides one of the cornerstones of my work. In the next Best Practices are Stupid episode, we will go even deeper when we explore why you don't want to think outside the box.

What if the best solutions to your internal business problems can be found by looking externally? 

In this episode, I have a conversation (using the Invisible Solutions® lenses) with my friend and colleague Jon Fredrickson. He is the Chief Innovation Officer for InnoCentive (a Wazoku company) and has 15 years of deep open innovation experience.

The conversation covered a wide range of topics including:

• According to a study conducted by Harvard, over 80% of solvers of InnoCentive challenges would not fit the hiring profile of the client
• One company replicated 15 years of R&D history with one problem with a 60 day challenge - and they got a better answer
• If you start looking externally, you can find a kernel of a solution which can be brought back to the organization and adapted
• Open innovation enables parallel processing of problem-solving which can speed time to solution

There were so many stories, such as how a radiologist solved a problem on how to identify fractures and fissures in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to find natural gas or oil deposits.

I think you'll really find this conversation fascinating.

Learn more about InnoCentive

Learn more about Wazoku

Read about my strategic partnership with Wazoku/InnoCentive

Get the Invisible Solutions® Lenses

Chapter 2 from Best Practices are Stupid: How Can You Avoid Becoming a One-Hit Wonder?

Last week in Chapter 1, I explained the three levels of innovation (event, capability, system). In this week's episode I share more details on what it takes to create level 2 - an innovation capability.

When you think about innovation as a repeatable and predictable process/capability like any other part of the business (e.g., finance), it opens up some new perspectives.

An innovation capability contains 5 components:

• Strategy
• Measures
• Process
• People
• Technology

We explore all 5 components briefly - which sets the stage for the rest of the book. The remainder of Best Practices are Stupid is organized around these pieces.

NOTE: Although it is not made clear in this chapter, one key difference between an innovation capability and (for example) a finance capability is involvement. Finance is a department with a limited number of people. Innovation is not. Innovation needs to involve the entire organization whenever possible. The role of the innovation team is to set standards and processes that the rest of the organization can use. More on that in later chapters.