Lessons In Innovation From Guy Kawasaki

I’m currently in Atlanta, GA live blogging the Catalyst Conference. During this time, I’ll be dropping the leadership wisdom shared by the amazing speaker lineup.

Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. He is on the board of Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). He is also the author of The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University, an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

How to be innovative by Guy Kawasaki

Lessons In Innovation

  1. Great innovation occurs when people decide to make meaning: People are drawn to meaning. Without it, it’s hard to be innovative.
  2. Make a mantra: Create a 2 to 3-word phrase that people can get behind. Keep it short and sweet.
  3. Jump to the next curve: Organizations typically define themselves by the things they do. This makes it hard to jump to the next curve.Take the ice industry: They began by cutting ice out of frozen lakes -> Next came the ice factories and the ice delivery man -> Finally, came the refrigerator/freezer. The previous companies from the curves never jumped the curve.

    Don’t be like the ice companies.

  4. Roll the dice
  5. Don’t worry, be crappy: When you jump curves, ship it. You may not be perfect, but you can get it out.
  6. Let 100 flowers blossom: You may think you know who your customers are going to be.  Then you release and the wrong customers come.What do you do when this happens? Declare victory.

    Why? Because you can shift and pivot because and pick the flowers that blossom.

  7. Polarize people: Organizations typically want to get everyone gathered around singing happy songs. This isn’t what great organizations or churches do.They polarize people.

    Understand that great things polarize people. Not everyone is going to like it.

  8. Churn baby, churn: This is all about taking version 1 and moving to version 1.1 or version 2. You have to listen to people once you’ve shipped and begin making the changes needed.
  9. Niche thyself: Find yourself in the corner of valuable and unique.
  10. Perfect your pitch: Customize your intro, 10-20-30 rule (10 slides – 20 minutes – 30 optimal font size), Always use a black background.
  11. Don’t let the bozos grind you down: There are 2 kinds of bozos in our lives. The one we realize who they are and the one that you can’t recognize.They look the part, play the part, and were lucky to get where they are. Be careful of these bozos.

Great Products Are:

Deep

Intelligent

Complete

Empowering

Elegant

You can make your organization or church have these attributes. Doing so will make your organization seem great.

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