Author Archives: Paul Sloane
We often find ourselves in a position where we need to influence other people. We might want to change their mind, to sell them on an idea or to secure their agreement to a proposal. A fruitful way to approach these situations is to use the three Greeks, ancient concepts that are proven to work. In my experience most people use only one of the three Greeks and they would be much more effective if they used all three. Continue reading
Across the world millions of babies die within the first week of birth. Most could be saved with the use of incubators, which are widely available in the developed world but not in under-developed countries. Much of the medical equipment that is donated to hospitals in these countries falls into disuse because of the lack of spare parts or shortage of trained technicians. There is also a common problem with interrupted power supply. Continue reading
We can broadly simplify innovations into two kinds – incremental and radical. Incremental innovations are improvements to current products, methods, processes, services, partnerships and so on. Customer complaints and suggestions are a good source of ideas for incremental improvements. So are the people who work in the organization. If you ask customers how your product could be better or if you ask employees how their job could made easier they will come up with plenty of proposals. Continue reading
Many CEOs and leaders talk about the importance of innovation in their organizations. But often their words are bland and vague – just a form of management-speak. If you want people to really believe then why not explain exactly what you mean with a Declaration of Innovation. Continue reading
The Disney Method is a parallel thinking technique which has some similarities with the Six Hats. It is particularly useful as a group analysis tool for an issue and it leads to idea generation and idea review. The team adopts four different thinking modes as outsiders, dreamers, realisers and critics. Continue reading
When consumer spending falls, as it has recently, retail becomes a desperately competitive business. The natural reaction is to compete on price with sales, customer discount coupons and special offers. Continue reading
