Mills Scofield

APRIL 29, 2019

Because the key to innovation isn’t processes, stage gates, weird exercises, or competitions. It’s not processes, it’s people. When you get enough of them together, you create a blue lobster organization – one that creates positive disruption. The key to innovation has been and always will be People. Blue Lobsters. Not anymore.

Innovation 140

Innovation Stage-Gate Blanchard Social Capital 140

Mills Scofield

MAY 13, 2019

This process, in-it-of-itself reminded me of how meaningful the individual experiences we bring to the table are. This was a rare moment in my educational experience where I relied on my intuition to brainstorm, create, and deliver the thousands of decisions that were made throughout the process. Kathy Spoehr, me, Yuna.

Uncertainty 188

Uncertainty Class Education Retail 188

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Nextsensing is a process that I have been refining for several years. These three steps (observing-organizing-originating) are the heart of the nextsensing process, which strives to leverage our cognitive, emotional and social capacities to unravel new meaning from current data and events.

Industry 181

Industry Definition Discount Public Relations 181

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 3, 2012

I became curious about process, what to look for first, then second, and then third on the income statement or balance sheet. I was becoming a process thinker. By constantly improving our thought processes, we can improve our working intelligence and translate that into work performance.

Entrepreneur 170

Entrepreneur Learning-by-Doing Library Mentor 170

Mills Scofield

APRIL 29, 2019

Because the key to innovation isn’t processes, stage gates, weird exercises, or competitions. It’s not processes, it’s people. When you get enough of them together, you create a blue lobster organization – one that creates positive disruption. The key to innovation has been and always will be People. Blue Lobsters. Not anymore.

Innovation 91

Innovation Stage-Gate Blanchard Social Capital 91

Mills Scofield

APRIL 7, 2014

In the “old” days, a commitment’s path to success was fairly clear, linear, defined and prescriptive: follow this framework or process, and you’ll get there. We may need to create our own frameworks and processes. Today, the path is usually messy, ambiguous, paradoxical, and maybe unknown.

Commitment 175

Commitment Project Bottom-up Learning-by-Doing 175

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 2, 2014

Integrating Design Theory & The Scientific Process by Hanna McPhee (Brown ''14) ~ Hanna also hosted an Innochat , She''s one of the leaders on Techstyle Haus , She''s co-president of Brown''s STEAM & on & on. Let Them Fail by Robin Pendoley ~ we need to accept & learn from failure in all sectors, including non-profits -- Yes!

Innovation 174

Innovation Learning-by-Doing Technology Strategy 174

Mills Scofield

AUGUST 15, 2014

love, courage, prudence) to the design process and innovation. Since 2008, RISD and Brown students have united innovators around the globe, across many disciplines in a common goal, "Building a Better World". This year, I''m honored to do a workshop on applying Aristotle''s classic virtues (e.g, My r equired haiku : Oceans deep hide rare.

Workshop 122

Workshop Education Innovation Goal 122

Mills Scofield

JUNE 19, 2023

As such, encourage people to participate in the decision-making process so they buy into the strategy, rather than being told what to do. The following practices assume that commitment is beneficial to obedience : Involve and empower. People want to make a valuable contribution rather than be treated as a cog in the wheel. Lead by example.

Commitment 91

Commitment Follow-up Morale Micromanagement 91

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

Some organizations have an innovation process that includes assessment of successes and failures – but they measure what’s already gotten into the innovation pipeline, not what didn’t even make it in! Innocide is pre-process murder. Perhaps the subtlest of all is Suinnocide – killing innovation within us.

Innovation 118

Innovation Politics Process Examples 118

Mills Scofield

MAY 13, 2019

This process, in-it-of-itself reminded me of how meaningful the individual experiences we bring to the table are. This was a rare moment in my educational experience where I relied on my intuition to brainstorm, create, and deliver the thousands of decisions that were made throughout the process. Kathy Spoehr, me, Yuna.

Class 91

Class Education Retail Course 91

Mills Scofield

DECEMBER 5, 2014

It provides highly targeted, real-time intelligence that serves up insights INSIDE of the new product development process at the exact moment when conclusive, authoritative insight is most needed; when it’s literally make or break. How Does This Change the New Product Development Process? Reduce Investments of Time + Money.

Stage-Gate 128

Stage-Gate Productivity Products Innovation 128

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 21, 2011

In Part I of how Menasha Packaging started a culture of collaboration back in the early 1990’s, Jeff discussed the need for collaboration on the plant floor and how the training and cultural process developed, including the first year of formal training. Workflow systems and processes were changed.

Committee 101

Committee Training Teamwork Long-term 101

Mills Scofield

APRIL 10, 2017

So often, when a project or product doesn't go well or fails, organizations do "post-mortems" - they go over what went wrong, why, sometimes rushing to blame people first instead of looking at processes. What if we started doing pre-natals instead of post-mortems?

Project 70

Project Productivity Products Process 70

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

As a millennial leader, I see the ways our generation’s coming of age in the workforce has prepared us to lead from these spaces, to support a more inclusive and empathetic framework, and to embrace failure as an inevitable process towards achievement. Delegation.

NGO 175

NGO Short-term Delegation Finance 175

Mills Scofield

APRIL 20, 2013

Silk: Making silk “thread” is a difficult process. Customers ask if Celia Grace silk is organic or pesticide free and whether silk worms are killed in the process. It requires growing mulberry trees, raising silk worms, unwinding cocoons, spinning thread, and crossing the border from Vietnam to Cambodia.

Supply Chain 159

Supply Chain Fashion Proposal Learning Curve 159

Mills Scofield

JULY 30, 2012

In the "old" days, a commitment's path to success was fairly clear, linear, defined and prescriptive: follow this framework or process, and you'll get there. We may need to create our own frameworks and processes. It's a discovery, not a prescriptive process, with many ways to get where we're going, not "a" way to succeed.

Commitment 125

Commitment Bottom-up Project Learning-by-Doing 125

Mills Scofield

MAY 29, 2013

There is a general, overarching understanding that real-world experiences are incredibly valuable to one’s learning objectives and personal formation, but there are countless questions surrounding how to evaluate, assess, and guide the learning process within such an organic structure.

Education 166

Education Innovation Project Mentor 166

Mills Scofield

JANUARY 6, 2013

During 2012, creating a process for internal innovation moved to our priority list. From social media tools to business process gamification to digital wallets, we received over a dozen great ideas.

Innovation 130

Innovation Incubator Brand Document 130

Mills Scofield

MARCH 2, 2020

We may not yet have all the right tools, methods, and processes to recognize and measure outcomes, but that’s no reason not to try. We have a plethora of apps for our smartphones and tablets (output), but how many do we consistently use—and how many actually improve our lives (outcome)? Let’s create them together while we change our world.

Management 127

Management Travel Constraint Workshop 127

Mills Scofield

DECEMBER 11, 2010

Last week's provided great discussion on various tools and processes for innovating. Innovation3: Crowdsourcing, Tools & Culture Summit Jackie Hutter , and I did a workshop on Leading Indicators for Innovation (which I'll share soon).

Innovation 120

Innovation Meyer Workshop Tools 120

Mills Scofield

JULY 27, 2014

In the process, I too have learned that in every organization something works and change can be proactively and positively managed. The leaders of the remarkable Rocky Flats transformation succeeded because they appreciated the value of raising questions no one else was previously asking-and discovering powerful answers in the process.

Positioning 170

Positioning Power Leadership Energy 170

Mills Scofield

JANUARY 12, 2011

Recently, my friend Jackie Hutter and I did a workshop on Leading Indicators for Innovation from 2 aspects: 1) how can you look around you for leading indicators of areas ripe for innovation; and 2) what are leading indicators in your innovation process itself. Jackie coined the phrase, “Lens Shifting” wh [.].

Innovation 115

Innovation Workshop Process Disruptive Innovation 115

Mills Scofield

MARCH 27, 2011

But, you can innovate processes, procedures, your supply chain…how you define ‘work’! There are many areas in which to innovate. Everyone thinks of products and services first. No area of innovation is ‘easy’, but some seem harder than others.

Supply Chain 105

Supply Chain Innovation Process Productivity 105

Mills Scofield

JUNE 5, 2013

The final and definitely the most difficult process of this all was finding a manufacturer. This was the most draining and scariest process of creating Mrked because we knew our selection would impact the quality of the cases. After months of conversations and samples, we were able to finalize our manufacturer.

Fashion 194

Fashion Education Library Quality 194

Mills Scofield

AUGUST 7, 2017

Our undergraduate degrees ranged from STEM to STEAM and while many of us didn’t or hadn’t directly used our area of concentration a lot since college, the process of architecting our own education and learning how to ask great questions, which was key to our undergraduate success, led to our success after college.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Agility Sample Advice 132

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Ian Gonsher does research and teaches at Brown University focused on the design process and creative practice, including Design Studio and Entrepreneurship Engineering Design projects in the School of Engineering and Designing Humanity-Centered Robots in Computer Science with Michael Littman where Legos are prototyping tools.

Engineering 70

Engineering Workshop Magazine Creativity 70

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Ian Gonsher does research and teaches at Brown University focused on the design process and creative practice, including Design Studio and Entrepreneurship Engineering Design projects in the School of Engineering and Designing Humanity-Centered Robots in Computer Science with Michael Littman where Legos are prototyping tools.

Engineering 70

Engineering Workshop Magazine Creativity 70

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 18, 2010

I'm still trying to process the last week; a wonderfully relaxing and productive (not an oxymoron) sabbatical on the dock in Maine, a day at Brown with terrific kids (I'm ready to go back) and BIF-6. If you are ever, ever able to attend BIF's annual conference, spare nothing and go.

Innovation 107

Innovation Conference Process Productivity 107

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

While processes are important, ideas come from interactions between and among humans. HR needs to support the culture change to enable innovation; and the upcoming generation isn't going to settle for an ‘administrative-only' role. Innovation is primarily a social thing.   [.].

Innovation 93

Innovation Process 93

Mills Scofield

MARCH 2, 2020

We may not yet have all the right tools, methods, and processes to recognize and measure outcomes, but that’s no reason not to try. We have a plethora of apps for our smartphones and tablets (output), but how many do we consistently use—and how many actually improve our lives (outcome)? Let’s create them together while we change our world.

Management 91

Management Travel Constraint Workshop 91

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 2, 2010

As I'm reviewing business plans from college grads I'm mentoring (as an alumnae mentor at Brown Univ ) and from Glengary , the VC firm I'm a partner in, this whole business plan process is getting to me. So much of what I see in biz plans is, pardon the phrase, BS.

Planning 93

Planning Mentor Review Marketing 93

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

The rapid design-prototyping-iterating process resulted in several potential hardware and software products. Last April, I helped at the Assistive Tech Makeathon for students to create communication solutions for people who can’t communicate (like ALS). Get Innovating Women.

CTO 142

CTO Engineering How To Innovation 142

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 2, 2012

describing the collaborative creative process - iterations, failures and successes. With three principle actors driving the process, the design was still collaborative in nature and yet had more focus and intentionality. My friends, Annie Kahl and Dan Festa had sent up a flock- load of duct tape to the class to play with.

Class 178

Class Project Long-term Engineering 178

Mills Scofield

MAY 8, 2012

Their story of doing well and doing good is one of the most powerful I’ve seen in blending innovative business models, techniques, processes and social impact. One of my favorites is Runa , a B-Corp started by some Brown soccer players, classes of ’08.

Innovation 170

Innovation Business Model Goal Class 170

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

You know when you have an idea for a new business, product, service or process and you tell someone and they pick it apart? They tell you all the reasons it won’t work. You get really really peeved and annoyed and say to yourself, “They just don’t ‘get it’ ”? Frustrating isn’t it?

Innovation 105

Innovation Advice Marketing Planning 105

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

At Bettcher Industries, we love the meat processing industry; we’ve always loved the meat processing industry and one reason we do is because many others don’t. Special guest blog post by Don Esch, President of Bettcher Industries of his story at BW-Center For Innovation & Growth 's Innovation Summit.

Succession 70

Succession Industry Stage-Gate CFO 70