IN THIS ISSUE:

• Letter From Sarah
• Feature Article: Trends as Innovation Transformers
• Out of the Box
• Events and Resources
• The Edison Awards
• About Sarah Caldicott

www.powerpatterns.com

Dear Innovator:

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" Lorraine Dangle, my high school guidance counselor, embedded that question deep in my brain during relentless mock interviews senior year. Miss Dangle insisted that to succeed in a college interview, it was crucial for high school seniors to see their future vividly, and be able to describe where they saw themselves in that future.

Miss Dangle's savvy preparations stirred in the recesses of my mind a few weeks ago when a colleague announced he was leaving his oh-so-amazing job to pursue what he described as "Tom 4.0."

While reading his email, I wondered, "Where does Tom see himself in 5 years?"

What is your vision of the future? Where will you be in 5 years? Where will your business be? Have you considered the new skill sets you and your employees need to thrive in that future? What will the business climate be like? What "shocks" to the political or financial system could occur over the next 5 years?

Sarah with Alan Scott of Green Building Services. Alan is an active member of the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

Trends Help Create a Picture of the Future
Creating a powerful relationship with the future is a fundamental success factor for every innovator! This month's issue is dedicated to helping you use trends as one vehicle for designing the future, and connecting to it. Trends help us crystallize new pictures of what is possible. When married with customer needs and other data, trends also create traction for scenarios that intercept profitable new innovation opportunities.

Edison loved using trends and other data when thinking about the future. For example, while forecasting for investors what the size of the electrical power industry would be 30 years into the future, he created 12 different scenarios. Each scenario incorporated different assumptions about the economy, the price of power, the penetration of electrical power stations, and more. He considered trends in growth rates for the U.S. population, and even trends in the number of people living in cities versus rural areas.

This month's feature article will help you build new mental muscle around working with trends. Five different trend types are described, including a fascinating environmental trend which promises big ripple effects. (See photo at right for clues!)

Future Will Revolve Around "Re-Skilling," Deep Learning Experiences
Using trends effectively is a skill set that connects us to other kinds of "nonroutine" thinking...exactly the kind that Edison embraced! This month's Out of the Box article illustrates several new trends in what it takes to succeed in today's workplace. Learn why "nonroutine work" is skyrocketing as a core requirement for employees now and over the next decade, and what you can do to "re-skill yourself" for future success.

Read in Events and Resources why an American Express blogger recommends Innovate Like Edison as a guidebook for refreshing your creative juices, and how she is applying Edison's networking skills to the world of social media. (Amazingly, her approach connects to one of the Technology trends in this month's feature article...)

The 2011 Edison Achievement Awards winners were just announced a few weeks ago! Read on to the Edison Awards section to see who they are! (Hint: They both have a unique connection to Edison.)

New TABLESTAKES© Innovation Game Builds on Edison's Five Competencies
In the August edition of Out of the Box I highlighted how leading edge organizations are creating new kinds of learning experiences for employees as a way to continually "re-skill" themselves. New research conducted by the prestigious European school INSEAD (European Institute for Business Administration) says game-playing is actually a learning experience that promotes deep brain activity in adults.

And not only that...it turns out that game-playing accelerates creative outcomes and cultivates insightful decision-making...a kind of "re-skilling" in and of itself.

To help organizations ignite innovative thinking across a large number of employees, a colleague and I have developed a new game which incorporates Edison's own innovation competencies within a fast-moving 21st century context. It's called TABLESTAKES^©, and can be played by 20 to 50 people at one time!

Over the course of a single day, TABLESTAKES^© allows teams to generate output relevant to the innovation process that currently requires 8 weeks or more. Imagine generating 8 weeks of insights in only 8 hours! (I think Edison would be intrigued....)

If you'd like to find out more about TABLESTAKES^© and how it can ignite innovative thinking in your organization, email me at info@powerpatterns.com. More details will follow soon!

To your innovation success,

PS: Please share this newsletter with a co-worker or a friend!

Feature Article - Trends as Innovation Transformers

(click here to view past newsletter issues)

We see the word "innovation" used so freely today that I fear it may be starting to lose some if its punch. It seems every new car, every new hair colorant, every new glimmering in the eye of a CEO is dubbed an "innovation."

While it's easy to get discouraged about this casual banter, here's a way to re-engage your enthusiasm for innovation while also developing new skills around how to spot trends and apply them.

A major part of innovation success revolves around an ability to see things newly. In particular, the innovator must master the ability to create visions of the future - even diverse scenarios of the future - then begin generating a pipeline of activity around the most promising scenarios.

Trends served as an innovation accelerator for Edison. He mastered connecting his laboratory research to trends in the marketplace, then married these insights to customer needs and market gaps.

This month's article offers a first step for you to begin "re-skilling" yourself in just this way...seeing the future through the lens of trends. Understanding and applying trends offers an excellent way to begin re-skilling yourself as an innovator.

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" The 5 macro trends in this article will help you begin answering this question for your life and your business. Each trend description also includes the future impact it may have, and what Edison might say about it were he alive today. Become a trendwatcher and polish up your innovation plans for 2011 and beyond!

Look for Five Types of Macro Trends
The trend acronym STEEP (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political) is one I read about on www.trendwatching.com, a fascinating and informative site that monitors diverse lifestyle and social trends. Using STEEP offers a hugely helpful starting point when parsing through the kinds of trends you want to track and which you can put aside. Here are the five STEEP categories:

MACRO TREND CATEGORY	CONCEPT TO ILLUSTRATE
S = Social trends	New mommas are 30-something
T = Technological trends	"What's near me?"
E = Economic trends	Livin' in the city
E = Environmental trends	The green building revolution
P = Political trends	US workers grow younger

Each type of STEEP trend is illustrated in one paragraph later in this article. Focus your thinking on how these trends might affect you, your family, or your business. Sources for each trend are included in case you want to pursue more information about it!

Re-Skill Yourself as a Trendwatcher
Here are four quick pointers to get you into trend watching mode. (If you're re-skilling, it's always helpful to have ground rules...)

• Key trends are available for free or at minimal cost in major published sources: Don't feel like you have to have a big budget to track trends. Use the daily news sources you're already reading now. Edison avidly tracked trends by reading the newspaper and published industry sources. He consistently used trends to guide his innovation efforts after failing in the launch of his first patented invention (the Electronic Vote Recorder,1869). White papers also represent an excellent resource! Don't forget to tap these!
  
  
• Trends measure detectable changes: You can distinguish a trend from other forms of data because they include an increase or a decrease in something measurable over time. Webster defines a trend this way: "...the general movement in the course of time of a statistically detectable change." For example, the body's temperature is not a trend. It's a factoid that doesn't change. The body remains at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit unless you have hypothermia, or a fever. Similarly, a kilometer is always 1000 meters. It doesn't vary...ever. Both of these examples illustrate facts, not trends.
  
  
• Trends differ from fads because fads are rarely measurable: Fads tend to be surges of momentum based on shifts in tastes or preferences. Although fads clearly can have impact (remember the Pet Rock?), they are tougher guides for innovation because they flit in and flit out with few chances for measurement. Market-moving innovations can last for years - or even decades - when trends connect to needs and not fads.
  
  
• List your sources when quoting a trend: Be sure to consistently note the sources of any trends you serve up to others. Saying "Oh, I just read it somewhere" won't suffice. Although it may lead you to maintain stacks of hardcopy articles - or manage online files chock full of links - offer the publication, dates, and even authors of your sources...don't cut corners!

For more tips on "how to spot a trend," check out this link: http://trendwatching.com/tips/.

STEEP: Five Macro Trend Types Plus Examples, Impact

S = SOCIAL TRENDS

• Example - Many new mommas are 30-something

In a trend which defies the recent drop in fertility rates in industrialized countries, fertility rates are increasing in the U.S. among older women. According to the 2006 National Vital Statistics Report, the biggest increases in birth rates from 1990 to 2004 occurred among females over age 30. For women 35 to 39, the birth rate jumped 43% from 31.7 births per 1,000 women to 45.4. For women 40 to 44, it climbed 62% to 8.9 births per 1,000 women from 5.5. And for those 45 to 49, the rate rose 250%.

(Source: Wall Street Journal, 4/22/08)

IMPACT: Older mothers often choose to work longer, temporarily stepping out of the workforce as they have children but then re-entering sooner than younger mothers do.

WHAT EDISON MIGHT SAY: Older mothers are a powerful consumer group with high levels of education and income. Understanding their needs allows for the creation of vast new markets.

T = TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS
• Example - Focus information layers on "What's near me?"
The information bombarding us via smartphones, laptops, and social media technologies has skyrocketed to numbing proportions. Over a 5-month period (Dec 2009 to May 2010), the number of Tweets on Twitter alone zoomed from 1 billion to 2 billion per month. To maintain relevance within this cacophony, information layers (think individual messages) which answer the question "What's near me?" hold growing relevance. The number of queries to leading sites which track meeting places now exceed 10% of total queries and are growing fast. Employment growth in organizations which feed the "information layering" trend within the U.S. economy has accelerated. Google's employee count rose +19% over the past year, Facebook rose +70%, Twitter +203%, and LinkedIn +200%.

(Sources: Google Battles to Keep Talent; Twitter Continues Rapid Growth;
Trend Watching - Mass Mingling)

IMPACT: Stay relevant in your messaging by layering facts regarding location-based data into your messages and ads. These can be personal or business-focused in their theme.

WHAT EDISON MIGHT SAY: Create new markets for your business by seeing what points of interest are near you, and use these to create geographically-based communities or communities-of-shared-interest that link to your organization.

E = ECONOMIC TRENDS
• Example - Livin' in the City

By 2050, 75% of the world's population will be urban dwellers. Only 10% of the world's population lived in cities in 1900. It took just over 100 years for this figure to balloon to 50%, and now urban dwellers are projected to constitute 75% of the world's population by 2050. The impact of rising urban populations was noted several years ago by The London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank. Together, these organizations published a report in April 2007 entitled, "The Endless City: The Urban Age Project." Their work specifically assessed growth patterns in six major cities (New York City, Shanghai, London, Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Berlin) located on five continents. Diverse forces including economic, social, political, and educational factors play a role in the projection of the continued expansion of urban populations globally. The impact of continued urbanization on the US economy will be significant, as the current US population base (2010) is approximately 310 million. By 2050, U.S. census estimates project it will be 439 million, yielding 42% more people in 40 years with about 100 million of these flowing into cities.

(Sources: Business Week, 4/28/08; About the Urban Age Project;
Demographics of the United States )

IMPACT: Continued urbanization will impact energy usage, architectural styles, transportation systems, education, and political representation.

WHAT EDISON MIGHT SAY: Cities are engines for the adoption of new infrastructure. Consider technologies that will create new kinds of infrastructure for the next century.

E = ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS
• Example - The "Green" building revolution

Retrofitting existing buildings with environmentally friendly materials will drive major "green" economic growth in the next 5 years. Although increases in the environmental friendliness of transportation systems (ie. electric vehicles) and energy delivery (wind power, solar power) have already begun, one of the biggest contributors to lowering carbon emissions will involve transforming existing buildings to become "green." The U.S. "green renovation" market will more than double in the next 5 years, moving from $71.1 billion today to $173.0 billion by 2015. Creating totally new "green" commercial buildings will also advance from $35.6 billion in 2010 to $81.8 billion by 2015. Momentum has been driven by the Sustainable Committees Challenge Planning Grant program, sponsored by the federal government. Since the government itself owns thousands of non-green buildings, state and federal governments are paving the way for this trend through grant moneys and other incentives.

(Sources: Fast Company, 7/2/10; U.S. Green Building Council)

IMPACT: Diverse industries feed the construction and renovation markets, creating a massive "green" ripple effect. Major global companies like GE have already begun establishing new business operations focusing specifically on green building technology.

WHAT EDISON MIGHT SAY: Make these technologies easy to explain and easy to adopt in daily routines. This will create viral impact for your innovation approach.

P = POLITICAL TRENDS
• Example - Younger US workforce signals new prosperity, political shifts

China's population is roughly equal to that of the US, Europe (excluding Russia) and Japan combined. By understanding the workforce growth trajectories of these nations, we can know a lot about how the balance of political power will operate in the world. Over the next 40 years, US projections indicate Japan and Europe will see their working populations shrink by 30 and 37 million people, respectively. But China's working age population will keep growing for approximately 15 years, then turn down as economic wealth expands. In contrast, the US working population is getting younger over this period, and will become the second youngest in the industrialized world within 20 years. By 2050, the U.N. projects China will have 100 million fewer workers than it does today. Although India will add the most to its workforce in 40 years (300 million people) the U.S. will continue to benefit from a higher birth rate than its industrialized counterparts, and add 35 million working-age persons over the next 40 years. This means the US will have the second youngest workforce in the industrialized world, adding vigor to its economy and driving engines of growth less available to economies with a higher percentage of individuals over 60.

(Sources: New Geography; Wall Street Journal Online)

IMPACT: A younger workforce will fundamentally reshape consumption patterns and political power.

WHAT EDISON MIGHT SAY: Begin positioning your brands and portfolios to reach a broader, younger audience than what you might be targeting today.

What You Can Do Starting Now
Become a trendwatcher! Create a vision of the future using those trends noted in this article as well as other trends you're tracking. Choose one or more of these questions to answer as a way to begin re-skilling yourself and your colleagues:

1. How could any of the five trends noted in this article potentially influence your company's current vision of the future, or the vision of the future you have for yourself?
   
   
2. What new business concepts could emerge from these five trends?
   
   
3. How could the trend yield innovative new products, services, or experiences for consumers or businesses...or both?
   
   
4. What new audience(s) could you reach if any one of these five trends were to bear out? Are any of these audiences connected to the ones you serve now? If so, how?
   
   
5. How do the five trends connect to consumer or business needs? What patterns do you see?
   
   
6. Hold a multi-hour trend jam-session with your colleagues. Require everyone to bring 4 trends. Call it something fun, like "The Trender Bender." What trends did you share? Which resonated the most? What did you learn as a result of sharing your trends?

Tuning in to trends offers you new perspectives on how to think like an innovator. Use trends as a tool to accelerate your innovation success!

In the next issue: Theme for 2011 - Integrating Collaboration and Innovation

Out of the Box

Non-Routine Work Has Become the New Normal: Are You Reskilling Yourself?

Years ago I was an avid fan of the tv shows that aired in the days leading up to the Academy Awards. Although most Hollywood reporters got pretty creative in their interviews, one standard question always seemed to be: "What do you do on a normal day?"

Wow. Does anyone ever have a "normal day" now? It turns out few of us do...especially when it comes to work. Less and less of what we do in the workplace now would be termed "routine."

Consider the chart below, which I stumbled upon after a colleague sent me a blog post mentioning Thomas Edison's unique work style. As noted in this month's feature article on trends as innovation drivers this chart offers us a unique way to begin thinking about how workplace trends impact our daily lives.

The chart reveals a dramatic shift in how we are working today. Starting with some big spikes in 1990, work has become increasingly "nonroutine." Nonroutine work is defined as requiring more dialogue, more collaboration, more cross-functional interaction, and more self-guided leadership. (As one example, consider all that's been happening at Zappos under CEO Tony Hsieh.) Rote forms of engagement (ie. the "routine" tasks above) are rapidly dwindling.

Nonroutine approaches to work put a huge onus on creativity and innovative thinking. Nonroutine workstyles also require organizational intelligence - meaning that companies need to structure themselves to allow for these nonroutine skill sets to flourish. In August's edition of Out-of-the-Box, I described how Netflix has been successfully supporting nonroutine work in its employees, creating talent density within its organization. In the case of Netflix, it has a high percentage of internally directed employees who can provide self-guided teams and create self-guided leadership structures.

Begin Re-Skilling Yourself for Nonroutine Work
So, how do you personally stack up on these "nonroutine" skills? Where would you see yourself on this chart?

Here are five things you can begin focusing on to "reskill" yourself to handle more nonroutine work. Although each of these mirrors activities which took place in Edison's labs, the items noted below are taken from a white paper authored by Dr. Rustin World of St. Mary's University. Rustin's insights are drawn from a famous book on creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entitled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

1. Ability to screen out irrelevant stimuli.
   
   
2. Ability to stay on task for extended periods of time.
   
   
3. Ability to provide immediate feedback about what you are doing and learning.
   
   
4. Lack of fear or self-consciousness in your approach.
   
   
5. Ability to consistently bring high skill level to a high-level challenge.

Just like my colleague Tom in his quest for Tom 4.0 (see this month's Letter from Sarah), use the workstyles chart plus the above guidelines to consider what You 4.0 could look like.

Press forward toward mastery of the items above as you consider ways to reskill yourself! The next decade will prove anything but routine, so prepare yourself now to tackle nonroutine workstyles!

Events and Resources

The Edison Awards
Dedicated to America's Innovation Competitiveness in the 21st Century

Congratulations to Our 2011 Edison Achievement Award Winners!

The Edison Awards team is thrilled to announce our two outstanding winners for the 2011 Edison Achievement Awards! This distinct honor is offered to leaders who have made a significant and lasting contribution to innovation throughout their careers. Both of this year's winners have a unique connection to Thomas Edison, and will receive their 2011 Edison Achievement Award at the annual Edison Awards ceremony in New York City on April 5, 2011.

John Hendricks, Founder and Chairman, Discovery Communications

Our first winner, Founder and Chairman of Discovery Communications, John Hendricks, created the Discovery Channel in 1985 as the first cable network in the US designed to provide high quality documentary programming allowing people to explore the world and satisfy their curiosity. John has been the driving force behind the Discovery Channel's dramatic growth over the past two decades. Today, his cable network reaches over 60 million viewer in over 150 countries.

Discovery's stable of companies now also represent a branding powerhouse. Its more than 100 networks worldwide represent 27 entertainment brands, including Science Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Hub and forthcoming OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. Edison would be pleased to see that - following his invention of The Movies in 1893 - the worlds of entertainment and education have found a happy intersection at the Discovery Channel.

Alan Mulally, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company

Our second winner, Alan Mulally, has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer at the Ford Motor Company since 2006. Prior to joining Ford, he served as the Executive Vice President of the Boeing Company and President & CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

In selecting Mr. Mulally to receive the 2011 Edison Achievement Award, the Steering Committee was drawn to the boldness of vision and leadership he has brought to Ford.

Mulally is widely credited with having led the turnaround in the company's performance during the worst economic crisis in decades, delivering continuously improving performance in areas such as new product design, corporate profitability, and exiting bankruptcy without government intervention.

Edison would be thrilled that a leader of the company established by his long-time friend, Henry Ford, is being recognized for its outstanding achievements!

Nominate an Outstanding New Product for an Edison Award
Do you know of an organization that has launched an outstanding product or service in the last 18 months? Nominate it for a 2011 Edison Best new Product Award! Go to www.edisonawards.com and complete the nomination form today. Nominations close on December 10th...so act now!

About Sarah Caldicott

Sarah Miller Caldicott is a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, a 25-year marketing veteran, and co-author of "Innovate Like Edison: The Five-Step System for Breakthrough Business Success." She has assembled teams of highly experienced consultants and trainers to assist her in bringing Edison's Five Competencies of Innovation™ to organizations of all sizes. Sarah and her teams are capable of addressing business challenges from a diverse array of industries, in either a business-to-consumer or business-to-business environment.

Sarah is a dynamic and award-winning speaker, whose engaging style combines substantive business content with humor. Her invaluable experience offers an ideal resource for organizations seeking innovation success in today's rapidly integrating global marketplace.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Sarah received a BA from Wellesley College, where she was named a Wellesley College Scholar. She also holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Sarah resides in Oak Park, Illinois, and has two teenage boys, Nicholas and Connor. For additional information on Sarah, click here.

©2010 by Sarah Miller Caldicott. All Rights Reserved.