Module 8: Driving Innovation Exponential

Roadmap
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Innovation is a state of mind—whether you think you can or
think you can’t, you’re right. —Peter Diamandis

Innovation is the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods. In business, this could mean
implementing ideas, creating dynamic products, or improving your existing services. Driving innovation is an
act of leadership, and it is especially important if you’re a CEO of a company, a manager of a group, or an
entrepreneur building a team.

DRIVING INNOVATION
1 Driving Innovation
2 Idea Exchange
3 Summary: Innovation & Breakthroughs

Create innovation in your own mind, your company, and in all that you do.

1 DRIVING INNOVATION
By driving innovation, you also drive maximum performance. This means more creative ideas and new
business models, which will be key to your success. Let’s take a look at different approaches to drive innovation.

Innovation is the exchange of ideas and the recombination of ideas.

It drives diversity and avoids uniformity.

8 MECHANISMS FOR DRIVING INNOVATION

1 Frequent Idea Exchange: (*see next section for details)
2 Constraints & Clear, Objective, Measurable Goals: Constraints drive people to think in a different fashion.
Instead of “thinking outside the box,” look for solutions in a constrained box to catalyze innovation.
3 Team Composition & Team Mashups: If you want true innovation, give the hardest, craziest
challenges to the youth (or at least youthfully minded) in your company.
• Interaction and exchange of ideas is critical.
• Small, youthful, risk-philic teams drive new ideas.
• Constraints with bold, clear and objective targets are key.
4 5-5-5-5 Mindset: Michael Schrage, an MIT researcher, created the 5x5 program to create an innovation
environment and to maximize innovation in your company. Here’s Peter’s variation of that program:
Creating 5-5-5-5 Teams:
1 Create Diverse Teams of 5 People.
2 Give them a Budget (e.g. $500 or $5K) to Experiment.
3 Give them 5 Weeks to Experiment.
4 Give them a Clear Focus to Organize Their Ideas Around a Moonshot or Your MTP.
5-5-5-5 Principles: The following principles shape an innovative mindset.
• Most Exciting Results: Make it clear that you are looking for the most exciting results.
• Failure is Okay: Remind teams that failure is not only okay – it’s expected.
• The Best Idea Wins: This is a competition, and the best idea gets rewarded.
• Collaboration is Key: Everyone gets rewarded if one team succeeds in reaching the target.
5 Four Key Motivators: Below are four motivators that drive innovation.
• Curiosity: Curiosity keeps us wondering “what if?”
• Fear: Fear is a strong driver—it’s what drove us to the moon. Fear is 30 times more powerful than curiosity.
• Wealth Creation: Wealth creation is a way of gamifying value creation in the world.
• Significance: Significance probably drives humans more than anything else. It causes us to risk our lives,
whether we’re crossing the  Atlantic or climbing Mount Everest.

© 2016 SUCCESS Partners Holding Co. All rights reserved.

8 MECHANISMS FOR DRIVING INNOVATION (cont’d)
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6 Born Above the Line of Supercredibility: When a new idea is born above the
line of supercredibility, you accept it immediately.
Supercredibility drives innovation. In each of our minds, we have a line of
credibility. When you first hear a new idea, you place it above or below this line.
If you place it below the line, you dismiss it immediately. If you place it above
the line, you’re willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, follow it over time, and
continue to make serial judgments. But we also have a line of supercredibility.
7 Team Isolation: It’s beneficial to isolate your team. It stimulates risk taking and encourages crazy ideas, which
increases your ability to drive innovation and disrupt existing markets.
8 Transforming Fear of Failure Into Failing Often, Failing Early, Failing Forward: Failing is a good thing – it lets you

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find the ways that don’t work. When failure is socially accepted, people take bigger risks.

IDEA EXCHANGE
True innovation is when ideas come together and recombine in different ways. As Matt Ridley famously
described in The Rational Optimist, it’s important for “ideas to have sex.”

Exchanging ideas drives innovation and empowers people.

MASHUPS
The following are ways of mixing up the status quo to spark idea exchange.
1 Open Up the Office’s Physical Layout: What happens when employees
aren’t separated by walls and doors?
2 Physical “Mashup” Locations: Set up one main bathroom and lunchroom to
force spontaneous interactions.
3 Concept “Mashup” Events: Cross discipline events, such as ‘Unconferences.’
4 Small Cross-Disciplinary Teams: Create passion-driven working groups, not
necessarily workgroups with similar roles or departments.
5 Ideas From All Levels in Organization: Breakthrough ideas can come from unexpected places – enable them to

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bubble up to the surface.

SUMMARY: INNOVATION AND BREAKTHROUGHS

Take your ideas and exchange them, build them, and attract people with you. Use the technologies we’ve been
talking about to enable your experiments as an entrepreneur. Find your passion, and then pursue it not just
locally, but globally.

Start with one person and target a billion.

BREAKTHROUGHS
• Innovation is the exchange of ideas and the recombination of ideas. It drives diversity and avoids uniformity.
• You can’t have breakthroughs without constraints. People can be complacent. Force them to think!
• Team composition is key. Select for passion and youthful mindset.
• How the world hears about your “crazy idea” matters. Launch it in a supercredible fashion.
• Organizations of any size mount an immune reaction to big, bold, crazy (i.e. disruptive) ideas. Give your
innovation team the gift of isolation.
• Where inside your organization do you encourage and try crazy ideas?

Peter’s Law: If you think it’s impossible, then it is for you.

© 2016 SUCCESS Partners Holding Co. All rights reserved.