Idea Champions

APRIL 11, 2024

Since 1987, Idea Champions has been designing and facilitating a wide range of brainstorming sessions, creative thinking trainings, and innovation workshops for more than 130 organizations in 11 different countries. During that time, we have worked with just about every industry on planet earth and every kind of mindset.

Brainstorming 26

Brainstorming Training Ideation Idea Generation 26

Gregg Fraley

JANUARY 24, 2019

In the innovation space there is endless discussion about frameworks. Just kidding, Design Thinking can be a good choice, as can Agile, or Lean, or your own blended system. There is also a lot of yakking about culture. There is also a lot of yakking about culture. Which is best? Can I blend frameworks?

Project 70

Project Idea Generation Innovation Design Thinking 70

Idea to Value

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

And companies regularly boast about how they are spending millions (and sometimes billions) of dollars into research & development to come up with innovative new offerings. Now, I’m going to outline step by step what enables a company to deliver those ideas. These are the capabilities we are about to explore now.

Company 276

Company Underperforming Technical Team Innovation Leadership 276

Leanstack

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

We’re already at the 10 year anniversary of the Lean Startup. ideas that went on to spark the global Lean Startup movement. By now, “almost everybody building products” has at least heard the term and has been exposed to the big ideas. Yet, when we look around we don’t find the corresponding adoption across teams.

Underperforming Technical Team 49

Underperforming Technical Team LEAN Tools Product Development 49

Gregg Fraley

APRIL 20, 2021

MCPS is suitable for individuals or teams. MCPS perfectly complements innovation frameworks like Design Thinking, Agile, and Lean, and quality frameworks like Six Sigma. And, it has more sophisticated tools for corporate innovation teams handing large scale challenges,” said Gregg Fraley, CEO of Gregg Fraley Innovation (GFi).

Creativity 98

Creativity Training Tools Culture 98

Jeffrey Phillips

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Note that what my clients are asking for is to create an innovation capacity that outlasts a product need, or market gap, or executive team member. First, make innovation important to the CEO and the executive team. How do you make innovation important to an executive team?

Innovation 157

Innovation Culture Training Project 157

Gregg Fraley

AUGUST 22, 2018

When I step into a room to facilitate a strategy, innovation, or idea generation session I usually find a great deal of energy. Teams and work groups don’t know how to be collaborative. What’s needed is energy AND knowledge about How To Do Innovation. Energy is Not Enough, Get Training in Innovation .

Training 48

Training Idea Generation Innovation Creative Thinking 48

Leanstack

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

We’re already at the 10 year anniversary of the Lean Startup. ideas that went on to spark the global Lean Startup movement. By now, “almost everybody building products” has at least heard the term and has been exposed to the big ideas. Yet, when we look around we don’t find the corresponding adoption across teams.

Underperforming Technical Team 45

Underperforming Technical Team LEAN Tools Product Development 45

Gregg Fraley

APRIL 22, 2019

Design Thinking alone will not guarantee success (or any other framework, Agile, Lean, etc.). Very few organization’s are any good at all at Brainstorming/Idea Generation. Innovation team leaders who avoid conflict are doomed to fail. Innovation team leaders who avoid conflict are doomed to fail.

Training 58

Training Innovation Programs LEAN Innovation 58

Idea Champions

AUGUST 21, 2020

"Participants continue to leave your course excited about their new implementable ideas and innovations re: new and existing products and services." - Jim Schultz, Managing Director, NYNEX. Idea Champions helped us generate powerful new ideas and engage with such energy that, six months later, their impact still hasn't worn off!

Brainstorming 52

Brainstorming Idea Generation Entrepreneurship Creativity 52

Gregg Fraley

JUNE 15, 2019

Classic Improv games are adaptable for visioning, exploration, problem framing, idea generation, solution development, and planning. The key benefit is simply getting to a breakthrough insight or idea much faster. It’s Not About Comedy. You see, it’s not about comedy, using Improv in business.

Team Building 53

Team Building LEAN Design Thinking Agile 53

Innov8rs

MARCH 26, 2023

Strategy is often made by elite teams and can thus be limited by their biases about competitors, customer needs, and market forces. By adopting an open strategy, leadership teams can access diverse external knowledge sources and become aware of their biases, while also building buy-in to accelerate execution.

Disruption 52

Disruption Strategy Strategy Groups 52

Gregg Fraley

AUGUST 1, 2018

MoshPit has teams combine new technology with existing processes, products, IP, market insights, and services, in an exhaustive way. Ideas for innovation projects emerge from the intensive sessions. The secret sauce in the design of a MoshPit session is how fresh thinking is scaffolded through the discovery and idea generation process.

Technology 50

Technology Internet of things Ideation Artificial Inteligence 50

Gregg Fraley

SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

Nine Questions CEO’s Should Ask About Innovation. Tell me what I should be thinking about.” I replied “you need to be thinking about project cycles and measures.” Nine essential questions CEO’s should be asking about innovation. Do you empower your team (see point #1 above)? We were at a social event.

Project 74

Project Training Design Thinking Innovation 74

Jeffrey Phillips

MARCH 20, 2015

I'm about to leave for a well-deserved vacation, but I wanted to leave you, gentle readers, with a parting shot to contemplate before I go. Time to do an effective job generating ideas and solutions. It does not start and end with idea generation. Of course all of these are important.

Roadmap 100

Roadmap Innovation Culture Engagement 100

Econic

MAY 23, 2019

It should drive your team. 80% of CEOs believe their current business model is at risk– and it’s the innovation team’s job to tap into this belief and clearly show them how your efforts will lead to new business models and growth. Some questions your team should be able to answer: What’s your company’s vision for the future?

How To 98

How To Innovation Innovation Programs Project 98

Gregg Fraley

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Why are idea generation tools for deliberate combinations needed? Steve Jobs said innovation is about connecting the dots, and I suggest that dots are easier to connect, if there is an awareness of what dots are available to connect. It’s assumed that the team of idea people will just do combinations organically.

Ideation 52

Ideation Innovation Processes Trends Exercises 52

Gregg Fraley

MAY 1, 2018

This series of posts on innovation fundamentals is not about frameworks. It’s about the cultural basics underlying them, and all innovation. Frameworks assume: engaged leadership, talent on the team, day to day creativity, curiosity, and domain knowledge. There is no innovation without creativity. A mandate to innovate.

Innovation 70

Innovation Culture Creative Thinking Design Thinking 70

Econic

APRIL 10, 2018

It should drive your team. 80% of CEOs believe their current business model is at risk– and it’s the innovation team’s job to tap into this belief and clearly show them how your efforts will lead to new business models and growth. Senior team not aligned or embracing. CEO does not fully embrace the effort.

How To 109

How To Innovation Innovation Programs Project 109

Gregg Fraley

AUGUST 28, 2018

It includes an overview of key frameworks ( Design Thinking, Agile, Lean, TRIZ, Synectics, Stage-Gate, CPS ) and their essential tools. In addition, it covers management mandates, project cycles, resourcing, idea management systems, idea generation, concept development, prototyping, and pitch presentations.

Course 26

Course Training Idea Generation Brainstorming 26

Paul Hobcraft

AUGUST 19, 2017

The first one shown, you could argue is more introducing the concept of mapping not explaining how to go about it and point to a recognized authority on this. Yet there have been consistent criticisms as the world of innovation has moved on” Forget Best Practice, It Is All About Next Practice. Let me know.

Crowdsourcing 199

Crowdsourcing Innovation Engagement Design 199

Econic

MAY 23, 2019

It should drive your team. 80% of CEOs believe their current business model is at risk– and it’s the innovation team’s job to tap into this belief and clearly show them how your efforts will lead to new business models and growth. Senior team not aligned or embracing. CEO does not fully embrace the effort.

How To 83

How To Innovation Innovation Programs Project 83

Gregg Fraley

MAY 22, 2019

Companies are investing in innovation training, mostly learning frameworks like Lean, Agile, or Design Thinking. Nearly all that training is for dedicated innovation teams , or employees who are focused on new product development. And management of operations is all about control. Dedicated teams are only part of the solution.

Training 45

Training Innovation Technical Review Culture 45

Gregg Fraley

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

In innovation work, ideally, a facilitator guides a team beyond its current knowledge zone and into a new place of greater understanding. Insights gained inspire ideas to create something new. Design Thinking, Agile, CPS/Osborn-Parnes, Lean, TRIZ and other innovation frameworks all have some scaffolding built-in. Get in touch!

Learning 45

Learning Underperforming Technical Team Training Innovation 45

Gregg Fraley

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

The content is about how the best organizations do it; mindset, frameworks, project selections, and how to create the elusive culture of innovation. Gregg talks specifics about: How to quickly assess your current innovation culture and process. Getting innovation teams and projects started and accelerated.

Design Thinking 51

Design Thinking Innovation Project Idea Generation 51

Gregg Fraley

AUGUST 30, 2016

Innovation is complex and difficult — but one thing about it is not. What’s quite simple about innovation is that projects are what make innovation real. Thinking about things is not innovation. Having beers and kicking ideas around are not innovation. Lean is not innovation. are Not Innovation.

Project 50

Project Big Data Innovation Brainstorming 50

Idea Champions

JUNE 26, 2019

Here's what Idea Champions' clients have to say about the value they've received from engaging our brainstorm facilitation services. Through your brainstorm facilitation, we gained more than 100 original ideas of high quality. The Idea Champions team brings a creative, energetic and fun approach to idea generation.

Brainstorming 31

Brainstorming Entrepreneurship Creativity LEAN 31

Qmarkets

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Globally, TSYS was able to engage more than 3,000 of their technology team members, train over 100 change agents and leaders to drive new innovation initiatives, launch more than 50 complex LEAN projects, and much more. Want to learn even more about this unique finance process improvement project?

Software Review 40

Software Review Crowdsourcing Technical Review Project 40

ITONICS

MAY 14, 2018

Bezirk , a startup of crack engineering team inside Bosch figured that retail IoT is a great market that needs personalization. The term comes from the English and is based on the Lean Startup Model by Eric Ries. This award is given to the team whose idea eventually failed but brought the business the most valuable takeaways.

Company 57

Company Technical Review Software Review Innovation 57

Idea Champions

OCTOBER 13, 2015

In the past few years I have noticed a curious trend in the media -- one I can no longer ignore -- and that is the appearance of seriously derisive articles about brainstorming by self-declared pundits and free lance writers. Earth to journalists on deadline writing about brainstorming for a flight magazine. Think Jobs and Wozniak.

Brainstorming 20

Brainstorming Idea Generation Groups Creativity 20

Gregg Fraley

JANUARY 30, 2019

Comprehensive Immersion Course for: Innovation Project Managers, Teams, Executives, Facilitators. Send new project leaders, managers, facilitators, and essential innovation team members. Gregg instructs ways to blend frameworks and use the best tools within frameworks such as Lean, Agile, CPS, or Design Thinking. Cycle metrics.

Design Thinking 9

Design Thinking Training Ideation Course 9

Paul Hobcraft

NOVEMBER 22, 2015

Many clients are simply building their innovation teams with individuals that have had some given time consulting to offset, defray and strengthen their own in-house capabilities. Today I think part of the clients experimenting and learning internally is due to this disappointment with the consultant.

Innovation 60

Innovation Collaboration Technical Review Leadership 60

Integrative Innovation

AUGUST 1, 2014

For the specific case of business model innovation, our improved and advanced version of the Lean Canvas has proven its value since it allows an easy entry into more general business model canvas frameworks. However, from the practitioner’s perspective implementing ambidexterity requires some more thinking.

Technical Review 67

Technical Review Radical Innovation Innovation Marketing 67