Some really interesting thoughts related to ‘Innovation’ from the IDEO CEO, Tim Brown (Source: McKinsey Quarterly, November 2008).

1. All we do is try to have new ideas…

2. …focus completely and utterly on experimentation, on exploring ideas for the sake of exploring them, and on bringing unlikely people together to work.

3. …if we spend too much time focusing on doing our projects on time and on budget – running our kind of business well – then the ideas we generate aren’t as good.

4. Innovation is not a continuous activity; it’s a project-based activity.

5. It’s often the role of senior leadership to defend new ideas until they’re actually out in the marketplace and able to stand up for themselves.

6. The biggest barrier (to innovation) is needing to know the answer before you get started.

7. It’s better to have a bigger ecosystem for innovation than a smaller one. You’re going to get more ideas and increase the likelihood of better ideas.

8. …a competitive issue for nations in the future will be the ability of the general populace to generate and develop ideas.

9. Foundations and corporations are playing roles that they weren’t playing before in public services…there’s an opportunity both to improve the life experience of many, many people and to create quite a lot of economic benefit…