Giving Shape to the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation

Giving Shape to the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation

Starting a new innovation initiative can be overwhelming, especially when tasked with improving a company's portfolio of ideas. The fuzzy front end of innovation can be challenging to navigate, but there are resources available to help. While idea management software can be beneficial, it is essential to establish a solid foundation of understanding innovation first. This includes finding a space to relate what idea management means to you and your organization, building knowledge and awareness through a discovery, learning, and evaluating pathway, and deepening the front end of understanding through external awareness and market capture. It is also crucial to filter out the noise from raw ideas and to constantly challenge and synthesize ideas in order to build a portfolio of promising concepts.

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10 Innovations That Will Make Your Business Greener

10 innovations to make your business greener: encourage alternative transportation, recycle, go paperless, switch to cloud-based systems, use post-consumer waste paper, revise procurement policies, reduce energy consumption, conserve water, use green web hosting, and make sustainability part of company culture.

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Design Thinking for Educators | InnovationTraining.org

Design thinking can be a useful process for educators to teach critical thinking and creativity skills to students. Here are five resources to help implement design thinking in the classroom: Ideo’s toolkit, Business Innovation Factory, Stanford d.school, readings on design thinking, and Edutopia’s video collection.

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Getting Started with Continuous Improvement, Part 3: Continuously Improving

Learn how to make continuous improvement 'stick' with your team with tips on establishing a regular cadence for Kaizen meetings, tracking Kaizen activities on your team's Kanban board, celebrating small wins, and making continuous improvement part of your team's onboarding process.

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