ThinkBalm seeks interviews about the technology selection process

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

Are you a business or technology decision maker who helped your organization choose an immersive platform or application during the past year? (A partial list of immersive platforms and applications is here.) If so, we would like to interview you for an upcoming research report. These interviews will contribute to our analysis for the upcoming ThinkBalm report, “The Enterprise Immersive Technology Decision-Making Guide.” We expect to publish the report in December and it will be freely downloadable from the ThinkBalm Web site.

If you would like to be interviewed for this research, please contact us at info@thinkbalm.com.

 

More info about the study

We will be conducting research into how Immersive Internet advocates and implementers involved in the technology selection process picked the right solutions for their organizations.  The primary question we are setting out to answer for business decision makers is, “How do I choose the right enterprise immersive technology for my organization’s needs?” The resulting ThinkBalm report will be a tool to assist business decision makers in the technology evaluation process.

This report will not compare particular software or service offerings against each other or recommend one vendor over another. Rather, it will be a use case-based guide designed to help business decision makers ask and begin to answer the right set of questions for their particular situation. We’ll focus on use cases like meetings, learning and training, conferences, business activity rehearsal, collaborative design and prototyping, data visualization, system and facility management, and human resources management. You can find additional details about The Enterprise Immersive Technology Decision-Making Guide in this blog post.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Innovators ask good questions – BIF-5 Summit day two roundup

by Erica Driver.

Yesterday was the second and final day of the Business Innovation Factory Summit (BIF-5). BIF-5 was an extraordinary meeting filled with lessons, insights, and inspiration. (For my take on day one, see the Oct. 7, 2009 blog post, “Lessons learned from innovators at the first day of BIF-5 Summit.”) I’ve been afflicted with the same bug as many of the other 300 people who participated: difficulty sleeping, and a compulsion to share the stories I heard. BIF founder Saul Kaplan warned us this would happen, and posted this on Twitter after the close of the summit:

 

The theme from day 2: “Question”

The strongest innovators question everything. Some questions kept recurring during the presentations. These questions are relevant to Immersive Internet adopters and technology marketers, who are trying to effect change in an early technology market:

• Why do we do things this way? Bob Schwartz, currently general manager of global design at GE Healthcare, asked himself, “Why does it have to be this way?” He was talking about the uncomfortable, “coyote” experience (cold, hard, emotionless stare) people have when giving blood at Red Cross blood mobiles. Stephen Tractenberg, president emeritus and professor of public service at George Washington University, commented on the legacy of the US higher education system. Why do we let a $2 billion university facility lie fallow for 4 months of the year? Our system is based on an agrarian model, as if students have to go home for the summer to help with the crops. Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the TED conferences and author of 82 books, insisted that the house lights be turned up and the stage spotlights turned down, after multiple previous speakers complained about the blinding lights. He said, “Why do we put up with anything? Why? If you have an itch, just scratch it, no matter where it is or where you are.” The lesson: the answer to “Why do we do things this way?” rarely is “just because.” If we dig deep enough, we may find an old, dead legacy. Understanding the legacy is an important first step for people trying to make changes.
• What do you want to do? Dr. Alice Wilder, educational psychologist and TV producer who worked on Blues Clues and other shows for children, asked, “Are you a big idea person, or a common sense implementer?” Both types are needed for invention to become innovation. Bill Taylor ruminated on the “What do you want to do?” question while he and fellow co-founder Alan Webber were being interviewed about their experiences founding, running, and then selling Fast Company magazine. When they launched Fast Company they wanted to write about the world as it could be and they thought it should be. Patricia Seybold of Seybold Group described how the question, “What do you want to create?” is core to the philosophy of the African Rural University for Women, where she is a council member. Students work with their families to envision what they want and then put a plan in place for achieving it. The lesson: innovators may not know how they’ll get where they want to go, but they uphold a clear vision of what they want to accomplish.
• Are you doing something you love? Bob Schwartz put it this way: “How do you find meaning in what you do? How do you give people rich experiences?” He was referring to work he’s done ranging from creating consumer product packaging at Procter & Gamble to redesigning the experience children have when getting an MRI using GE Healthcare equipment. Richard Antcliff, CTO at the NASA Langley Research Center, is one year into a management experiment in which he is letting the Strategic Relationships Office organize itself into teams. Employees and even contractors work (at least part of the time, in the case of contractors) on the projects they find interesting. Bye bye hierarchy. See the org chart below. Alan Webber, who has a new book out called Rules of Thumb, recommended that we all keep two lists: 1) what gets you up in the morning and 2) what keeps you up at night. By keeping these lists at hand, and living by them, we can make sure we are doing serious work that is meaningful. The lesson from all these storytellers: if people follow their passion and do something they feel is important, that are engaged and productive. And the world becomes a better place in the process.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Lessons learned from innovators at the first day of BIF-5 Summit

by Erica Driver.

A challenge after a day at the Business Innovation Factory Summit (BIF-5) is synthesizing all the stories I’ve heard. Today, nineteen people each took the stage at the Trinity Repertory theater in Providence, Rhode Island, for 5 to 15 minutes to tell stories about innovation. They work in a wide variety of industries and have various job functions. Some are entrepreneurs and others work for Fortune 500 companies. I discovered that next-generation car maker Local Motors, which is built on an open innovation model, is in my own back yard. Carne Ross, former British diplomat and founder of Independent Diplomat, shared some of his experiences in Iraq and Kosovo, and on the UN Security Council. Greg Matthews of Humana talked about his team’s efforts to help transform a health insurance company from being in the business of sickness and death to being in the business of life and happiness.

The common thread that connects today’s speakers is that they pursue change; all are innovators in their domains. Themes that are valuable to Immersive Internet adopters and technology marketers flowed through today’s stories:

• Games and play are elements of learning and work. Greg Matthews of Humana said, “Everybody likes to play games.” The innovation team he’s on at Humana develops games designed to help people stay fit. Max Geiger, co-host and simulation consultant for the Deadliest Warrior TV show, said, “What we do is play. Play with science. Play is a real-world version of simulation.” Bruce Nussbaum, professor of innovation and design at The New School and contributing editor for BusinessWeek referenced John Seely Brown, saying, “Tinkering is back. Creating things, doing things is back.” Don Tapscott, author of about 10 books including Grown Up Digital and Wikinomics, said that in a $4M study he undertook, he found that between the ages of 8 and 18 years, the human brain develops differently based on the kinds of activity in which kids are involved. Kids who exercise their minds, including through multiplayer video games, develop critical thinking and leadership capabilities.
• People who serve as bridges play an important role in innovation. Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at MOMA, said, “In the future, some curators will sift through information to make it accessible to people.” These curators are the bridge between people and the information they want and need. Saul Kaplan, founder and chief catalyst of Business Innovation Factory (BIF), took it further and said, “The next hot job will be curating.” Ethan Zuckerman said, “When you’re encountering other cultures, find the people who are bridge figures.” He found that people who seek out bridge figures often then become bridge figures themselves.
• Innovators lean on mentors and role models. Innovators take comfort in, and try to emulate, the bravery and wisdom of those who came before them. Several presenters mentioned family members. Both Sarah Endline, mastermind and chief rioter of Sweet Riot, and Jay Rogers , president, CEO and co-founder of Local Motors, named their grandfathers as great influences in their lives. Don Tapscott said he turns to kids — including his own. Melissa Withers, executive director of BIF, named BIF founder Saul Kaplan as one of her great role models — along with her husband, and along with Michael Samuelson, president and CEO of The Health and Wellness Institute.
• Innovators are determined to overcome adversity. Many of today’s speakers told personal stories of overcoming adversity, whether personal illness or the doubts of others. Jay Rogers of Local Motors said, “I become deaf . . . I have trouble hearing when people say it’s improbable.” Michael Samuelson talked about the difficulty facing breast cancer, as a man, and his fight to overcome it. He also made the point that he ignores people who tell him he’s being unrealistic. Gina Malone, futurist with Hasbro, kept working through treatments for metastasized breast cancer, pouring her energy into helping kids with AIDS in Zambia. Melissa Withers of BIF shared a hilarious story about her husband’s discovery of something not funny at all: the fact that he had testicular cancer.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.