Welcome to the very first show from Innovation Lab, entitled ” “Innovation Lab – Episode 0: Introduction”.
The purpose of this first episode is for me to work out how to record, produce and distribute a podcast, and for you to work out how to listen to it, make sure it is what you are looking for (sorry, listening for), and enjoy it!
Listen to the show in MP3 audio format: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/216583116-innovationlabradio-innovation-lab-episode-0-introduction.mp3
The full Podcast feed (copy and paste into your podcast listening application):
Show notes:
(Show opens with various audio snippets from Nick speaking at various conferences, being interviewed on Youtube and on BBC radio) In order: 1) IAB Engage Conference 2014 when I give an amusing intro as I have to follow an inspiring speech on making the world a better place! 2) Interviewed about introducing an API for Tesco – ‘Exciting Ecommerce’ blog during a conference I’m attending in Berlin. 3) IAB Engage Conference 2014 “Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission” and “Get into trouble with le leadership team twice a year!”. 4) Giving a live demo of a computer webcam scanning a barcode and adding Cola to an online basket at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles, 2008. 5) Being given the interview treatment about a new accessible website for vision-impaired customers on BBC Radio 4’s “In Touch” programme in 2004. 6) IAB Engage Conference 2014 – “Tolerating Failure”. 7) Concluding my presentation at Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles, 2008.
Script:
Hello I’m Nick Lansley, and those sound clips are just a selection of my public speaking at conferences and on the radio, spouting the various joys of my role over the last 15 years!
A very warm welcome to my Innovation Lab, a show about how to live and breath the concepts of innovation, whether in your business, your own work role or your life. Innovation is an attitude and I have a quarter century of skills and experience in making it work for a major UK corporate retailer, Tesco. I’m fortunate to have been a member of the founding team of Tesco’s online service back in the mid-1990s, and ever since then used the tools and techniques of innovation in order to create the best experiences for customers and colleagues.
Well up until recently when Tesco and I parted ways on the friendliest of terms through accepting my request for voluntary redundancy so that I could [posh voice]pursue some personal goals[/end posh voice] – well between you and me, take a nice break, then step back and work out what had made innovation work at a company like Tesco.
Because I find, as I speak to my friends in the industry, innovation is working better in some companies than others, and in some they don’t even bother thinking about innovation.
So here’s the thing: This show is all about living what you do as an Innovator. Given that the word “Innovation” is so misused these days, there needs to be a path cut through the nonsense, lies, and exaggeration so you can see Innovationn for what it is: “Doing the same old pointless thing a different way. Alternatively, creating something brilliant in such a way that it takes twice as long and costs three times as much as the old fashioned way of doing the same thing.” – no wait that’s a definition in the Urban Dictionary!
No innovation is actually “A marketing ploy used by organizations that have exhausted all other plausible excuses for introducing ill-conceived products, policies, practices and/or services that will ultimately prove to be counter-productive.”.
No wait that’s Urban Dictionary too!
Let’s try wikipedia:
(audio of computer bleep)
(voice fx) “Innovation is a new idea, more effective device or process. Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.”(/end voice fx)
(audio of 2nd computer bleep)
Getting there – let’s try my definition: (voice fx)”I firmly believe innovation to be something that impacts colleagues, customers, or society in such a way that it makes their life better, simpler or cheaper.”(/end voice fx)
And by the way the ‘something’ can be a product, a service, or even an idea, a way of thinking, a positive change in behaviour, attitude.
That’s how I have executed Innovation in my various work roles and indeed in my life. Attitude is the key, and this show is all about showing you a way of thinking that will allow you to treat everything you think, say, and do in an innovative manner.
As I say this show will help you live and breath the concepts of innovation, whether in your business, your own work role or your life. If you are thinking of having an innovation discipline in your organisation, or you are in an innovation team, I hope to be able to help you become more efficient in your innovative efforts. But even if your work is a long way from the innovation team’s door, you can apply the tools and techniques I’ll be discussing in your role. And I think it will help you in life too, the way you interact with others, understanding other people.
I’ll also be teaching you some mental tools that force you to think objectively about your innovation projects, freeing you up from your filtered, coloured views that are likely to misshape those projects or worse, their outcomes.
I also want the show to be interactive, so you can engage and shape content and share your views. I’m the first to admit that when it comes to innovation I don’t know all the answers. But I do know some, and I have some great friends in the industry to help you find out more.
So that’s what Innovation Lab is all about. This ‘episode 0’ is both for you to understand what to expect and for me to set up all the various mechanics to get the show recorded, produced and distributed to you. Hopefully I’ve whetted your appetite and I look forward to recording the first full show which will air shortly.
Make sure you’re fully subscribed to the show feed by following the information and show notes on my web site www.lansley.com – that w w w . l a n s l e y .com – and I’ll speak to you soon.