Innovation in Mission Resource Center

Have you ever sensed your company’s innovation efforts stalling—not because of a lack of effort, but because something in the process feels off?

"The word “innovation” itself may be a barrier because of what people perceive it to be – risky, expensive, complicated."

"Effective leaders have discovered that successful innovation is often characterized by paradox, and they address the following twelve factors through focus and action..."

Subtractive actions can be a powerful way of dealing with emerging situations where resources are tight.

Exploring a broad set of innovation definitions in search for clarity. 

"Companies that keep investing in innovation to adapt their offerings and operating models to changing requirements and prepare for entirely new value propositions in the Next Normal."

"You don’t need to rely on lone geniuses or bet the house on breakthrough ideas. In the right circumstances, normal people and normal organizations can do extraordinary things. And it all comes down to the culture."

"When you have a limited budget, you simply don’t have the luxury of ignoring problems. You have to face up to them and solve them or you won’t survive."

A very helpful matrix for understanding your innovation approach.

"Nostalgia is one of the most powerful forces that prevents both individuals and organizations from moving forward on mission."

"We don’t always believe things because they are correct. Sometimes we believe things because they make us look good to the people we care about."

"Attempting to innovate in a communal context needs even more order. You need a way to organize ideas, set a vision that guides the innovation, and have open lines of communication among the innovators. Innovation ecosystems, according to their definition above, are designed to accomplish just this."

A rich library of innovation tools and templates designed to support innovators.  

If you are setting up an innovation team, this planning tool walks you through all the steps. 

Carla Johnson offers a helpful assessment to identify your innovation archetype. 

Seeds Innovation Lab offers a simple assessment to measure your organization's culture. 

Outcomes offers a third-party innovation maturity assessment that can be used individually or as an organization. 

"This particular tool helps teams develop deep, shared understanding and empathy for other people. People use it to help them improve customer experience, to navigate organizational politics, to design better work environments, and a host of other things."

A simple presentation explaining basic innovation principles that apply to any project or organization. 

Four entrepreneurship models to guide innovation within established ministries. 

Exploring how to move beyond the complexity of global nonprofit work to the simplicity that allows for creativity and change. 

"From the first wave of textiles and water power in the industrial revolution, to the internet in the 1990s, here are the six waves of innovation and their key breakthroughs."

"...innovations can be categorized within a range of 10 distinct dimensions—and anyone can use the resulting strategic framework to analyze the competition, to stress test for product weaknesses, or to find new opportunities for their products."

"With sweeping data covering half a million surveys in 152 languages, Valuegraphics identifies 56 values that influence human behavior. It uncovers what people care most about around the world, through a contextualized dataset."

A free course from Seeds Innovation Lab

A free course from Seeds Innovation Lab

A suite of online learning to prepare an innovator.