tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:14:06 +0000Incubating Innovation and Teamwork at <i>The Economist</i>.<p></p> A story of <i>The Economist</i>'s digital incubation unit - Project Red Stripe. Published online and onpaper by <a href="http://triarchypress.co.uk/index.htm">Triarchy Press</a>.http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)Blogger30125InsideProjectRedStripehttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-4584926886666245090Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:49:00 +00002009-05-22T12:34:59.356+01:00'Hullo, my covey! What's the row?'Welcome to the long tail of Inside Project Red Stripe.Whether you are a salty young internaute, washed ashore here at the whim of some cyberstorm, or a crusty old bibliophile ploughing a lonely cyber furrow in the pursuit of experience and authenticity, it may be helpful to know the following:Inside Project Red Stripe is also a bookThis site is free; the book http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2009/04/hullo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/Gd8y0YxpEA4" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-4248092197153559250Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:45:00 +00002009-04-23T20:31:38.528+01:00whaleInscribdClick on the rectangle top right in the box below to see this chapter full screen. http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2009/04/inscribdwhale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/-ggd9yA4eM4" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-759482645890156829Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:40:00 +00002009-04-09T18:43:15.917+01:00InscribdClick on the rectangle top right in the box below to see this chapter full screen. http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2009/04/inscribd-drifting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/MBh47yUP1LM" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-6424852170876816741Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:19:00 +00002008-11-26T12:31:39.701Zteam membersbloggingTom: ‘Six may be too many for a creativity team. There are too many constituencies. There aren’t many bands which have got six songwriters trying to write the same song.’ This is going to be a noisy business, I thought, when I was invited to write this book. Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board, as Zora Neale Hurston put it. And Project Red Stripe was certainly a wish-laden ship; http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/08/ramming-speed_18.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/UhPHrkwI7ls" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-2787853326986995665Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:45:00 +00002008-11-25T16:27:59.684Zwebcamrichard oglework environmentstraw maninnovationsuw charmanjavier bajernicholas humphreyStewart: ‘We were going to decorate the room ourselves but we couldn’t be bothered.’7th FebruaryThe room is almost square. White. With an alcove for filing drawers and two stacking boxes that don’t stack. They stand lopsided, empty.Two tables are pushed together to make one and stand against the wall where the window is. The window goes from floor to ceiling, with a white blind pulled half way http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/thunderbirds-are-go.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/NK4h0M5q3us" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-2963911162315114705Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:33:00 +00002009-04-07T18:18:21.665+01:00outside innovationcrowdsourcingpatty seyboldinnovationprediction marketsBefore starting, the team members were invited to read a number of books and articles:Last on the list was Patty Seybold’s Outside Innovation. I can’t do better than quote the introduction to her blog:What is Outside Innovation? It’s when customers lead the design of your business processes, products, services, and business models. It’s when customers roll up their sleeves to co-design their http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/outside-innovation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/E2JPjw-7pnA" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-2025061243051722398Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:12:00 +00002008-12-03T21:29:58.395Zstorytellingthe power of the talejulie allanwisdomkathy sierrasystems thinkingBefore starting, the team members were invited to read a number of books and articles: The fourth book on the reading list that Mike gave the team at the outset was The Power of the Tale. The authors demonstrate pretty convincingly how story telling in business can build honesty and trust, promote learning, develop new skills, break new ground (or paths) and create scenarios that you can use in http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/power-of-tale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/VmhjA_ZgiEY" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-9219090438696910865Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:55:00 +00002008-11-25T16:25:25.503Zclayton christenseninnovationreading matterdilemmas Before starting, the team members were invited to read a number of books and articles:For Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma is that, while listening to existing customers can inhibit innovation (because they don’t necessarily know what they want or what’s good for them), listening to existing customers can be the key to survival (because they sometimes know exactly what they want and http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/innovators-dilemma.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/zBShnps-Zt4" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-7592270622337931432Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:55:00 +00002008-11-25T16:41:16.905Zsticky wisdomcreativitystraw manreading matterenergyBefore starting, the team members were invited to read a number of books and articles: From Sticky Wisdom they had learnt that the six steps to starting something exciting in your company are … Freshness – this is lateral-thinking, out-of-the-box stuff: find other ways to describe things, find analogies in other fields, challenge assumptions and make random connections.Greenhousing – stay in the http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/sticky-wisdom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/bhFrIsvfa0g" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-5999872309390870680Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:43:00 +00002009-04-23T20:29:33.490+01:00russell hobanwhaleinnovationsally bibbmarketsenergydavid lairdOn 27th March the team agreed that their three top priorities in terms of markets that they were aiming at should be children, women and the third world (the last came soon to be called ‘philanthropy’). These had been whittled down and refined from a shortlist of four: ‘education, charity, women and leisure’. The decision was reached at Javier’s instigation to help the team move forwards at a http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/markets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/GUySLO7WLI0" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-8238654238193239460Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:25:00 +00002009-01-05T22:22:05.149Zdave pollardclayton christenseninnovationjeneanne raeIn setting up Project Red Stripe, The Economist unquestionably did the right thing, according to specialists who know a lot more about innovation than I do. Jeneanne Rae and her colleagues analysed sixty recent innovations in the service industry, including in-depth interviews with key team members (How do they do that? I managed to watch one. A bit.) She wrote about her conclusions in Business http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/incubating-innovation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/AyjRqmo5XlI" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-3191017584181124826Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:42:00 +00002008-11-25T16:25:59.028Zdecision-makingteamworkingTom tended to go round and discuss ideas with, or canvass opinions from, the team members individually. Others preferred to ask everyone when they were all together.The team had, early on, had meetings where it was felt that time was wasted because people weren’t prepared or spoke for too long or confused the business of expressing views, sharing information and making decisions.The team’s http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/straw-man.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/Qvz1qcq19Gs" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-9216938682895353558Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:44:00 +00002008-11-25T16:28:36.986ZrevolutioninnovationHere's the Hollaback Intrapreneurs’ rap. It’s terrible. But much better if you know Gwen Stefani. Writing in The Economist in 1982, Norman Macrae credited Gifford Pinchot III (who sounds like one of those enthusiastically sleek-haired dogs in the Pedigree Chum ads) with inventing the word intrapreneur. Although Macrae was writing more than 25 years ago, many of his ideas about the participatoryhttp://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/intrapreneurship-rap.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/mwhDCk-XGhY" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-9097022924171933647Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:39:00 +00002009-04-23T20:32:18.896+01:00creativitydeleuze and guattariwhalemoby-dickidea harvestinginnovationStewart: 'There was a problem with us not being able to pick an outcome.'Herman Melville's Moby-Dick 'is not like the little cat or dog owned by an elderly woman who honors and cherishes it'. He is no ordinary whale. In the same vein, Project Red Stripe's big idea, whatever it was to be, was not like the kind of idea that you have in the bath.Of course, it could have been an idea that you have inhttp://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/becoming-whale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/q6LwZv6e_Pg" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-6179123779412383797Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:55:00 +00002008-11-25T16:28:53.287Zwork environmentsecrecyathanasius kircher societywikinomicsinnovationlinnaeuskathy sierrachris locketransparencyprKathy Sierra (who crossed swords for a while with Chris Locke, the co-author of the magnificent Cluetrain Manifesto, of which more later) talks a great deal about innovation. Here's a piece from a blog of hers:'Professionals' in any field come in two flavors: Knowledge Sharers andKnowledge Hoarders. The hoarders believe in the value of their 'IntellectualProperty'(IP). The products of their mind http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/interviews-with-horses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/3iJFNDp11P8" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-1393453546155202140Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:58:00 +00002009-02-19T11:43:46.048Zwork environmentJoanna: 'Stew...'Stewart (whose grip on other languages was tentative and whose favourite foreign phrase was the mysterious 'schappa la dente'): 'Comment allez-vous?'Joanna: 'J'ai un question.'Stewart: 'Steady.'I notice how some team members use headphones to insulate themselves from the noise of group interactions (and, thereby, exclude themselves from those exchanges). The laptop screen http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/corporate-plants.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/vmQcoTlAo3o" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-5346126680392888380Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:59:00 +00002009-05-01T13:52:33.125+01:00ted levittcrowdsourcingregent's parkcreativityslashdotidea harvestinggmcinnovationbecoming-whalemalcontentsJoanna: 'There's this idea that you can only create great ideas in a free-form, unstructured environment. I don't believe that.'In Creativity is Not Enough, Professor Ted Levitt (who later became editor of the Harvard Business Review and popularised the term 'globalisation') said interesting things about creativity and innovation: It is alleged that everything in American business would be just http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/creativity-and-innovation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/QyRm5MQ4Iqo" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-632167249842690381Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:32:00 +00002009-03-18T16:22:09.641Zlegodanishteamworkingleadershiplynda grattonA 2007 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review contained an article on Bridging Faultlines in Diverse Teams.Lynda Gratton and her fellow authors studied 55 project teams (as opposed to the one that I observed) and were able to reach some 'important conclusions'. Amongst these were the observation that the first faultlines that occur in teams are superficial ones that reflect surface-level http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/lego.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/MBj-STFYAis" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-3320810312276246029Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:53:00 +00002009-02-26T17:09:37.873Zwebcamourobourosmidas oracleRed Stripe had a webcam in their office pointed at the desk. Depending on where they sat, you could usually see everyone in the room.The people at Midas Oracle had submitted an idea about prediction markets.They thought it was a very good idea.After discovering that Red Stripe were unlikely to adopt it they became petulant and on 26th March posted a shot from the webcam showing Stewart reading http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/ourobouros.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/HZSADEh3y6s" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-1532188504315734976Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:38:00 +00002009-02-27T23:37:35.671Zborgesangsttim ingolddriftingzoosarie de geusweavinginnovationoliver burkemanbecoming-whaleintentionsandra reevebaz kershawkerkegaardpanicphil smithJoanna: 'I feel a little bit paralysed at the moment.'One of the many tensions (and I mean tension in a Newton's 3rd Law kind of way) apparent in Project Red Stripe related to direction-finding, goals, intentions and wandering around.With its very broad remit, Project Red Stripe gave its members enormous scope for 'wandering about' and looking for, or waiting for, inspiration. Now, of course, http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/drifting-angst-and-pan-ic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/MqyJGi_wC9o" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-5116456478354596604Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:40:00 +00002009-05-16T07:33:58.199+01:00lughenjoinfernohonestymotivationbabushkahispacejavier bajerThe team had a conference call with Javier. Javier asked them about their personal feelings and motivations about the project. The following extracts from their unprepared answers give a distorted and wholly unfair view of why the team were there. I quote them for several reasons:Steven (who is wearing jeans): 'I'm hoping that my work will provide potentially an out from Beijing [after the six http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/motivations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/iK7tP8jSMGQ" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-8714938821501238481Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +00002009-02-06T13:10:36.532Zoblique strategiessean murphyinnovationdilemmasyour mistake was a hidden intentionI'm not sure who to credit here (although Freud would seem like a good starting point for the headline, even though it's actually Peter Norton's rather Revised Standard translation of Brian Eno's King Jamesian 'Honour thy error as a hidden intention').You probably know of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies. For reasons I don't quite understand, http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/oblique-strategies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/o3x16cSYL_g" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-1969955230579821129Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +00002009-03-04T14:04:03.275Zjoseph schumpeterludwig von bertalanffya fish called wandaequifinalityfichtesystems thinkingfrederick taylorFrederick Taylor (right), the father of scientific management and a modernist to the core, believed that there was 'one best way' to do anything. (This was the underlying principle of the ideology of technocracy.) He was a closed systems man.The ineffably named Ludwig von Bertalanffy (left), one of the founding fathers of what we now call Systems Thinking, was an open systems man. He looks http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/equifinality.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/0CF4B6gBn5A" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-6098890446702086952Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:23:00 +00002009-06-18T11:46:16.019+01:00social networkingkidsregent's parkidea harvestingmarketsRegent's Park, 5th February 2007Here are the ideas the team shared at the very start in a meeting mentioned in maps:Steve's presentation was not so much a thought-out idea as a gathering of thoughts. Many Economist readers, he supposed, would have sent a letter to the editor and would have moved from being communication Luddites to being heavy Internet users, but probably wouldn't download a http://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/those-ideas-in-full.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/_58h_Wsr5C0" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450582196285187021.post-6666800920053610963Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:25:00 +00002008-11-25T16:26:42.314Zwisdom of crowdshenry chesbroughcrowdsourcingwizardswikinomicslughenjopurposive inflowsidea harvestinginnovationdelphi techniquecathedral and bazaarDr Henry Chesbrough had a good idea about innovation and wrote a book about it. In fact, the idea was so good that he wrote three books, several articles and launched a website about it. Along the way he interviewed hundreds of people who confirmed his hypothesis that there are two sorts of innovation: open innovation and closed innovation. These can be given capital letters thus: Open Innovationhttp://projectredstripe.blogspot.com/2008/07/open-innovation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Carey @ Triarchy)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InsideProjectRedStripe/~4/9hOsrgTU2fo" height="1" width="1"/>