MICHAEL DRACKERT

A frog-Design Session

frog Design: Discover - Design - Deliver

1) Discovery: Unpack the context and details of the challenge. Take persona/customer journeys to explore the target users “touchpoints”

2) Ideation: With a defined problem, generate as many ideas as possible and expand thinking about the solution space. Employ lateral thinking, then add a layer of constraint to the ideation season.

3) Refinement: Start pushing/pulling at the design directions as you get into the details of the solution.

4) Documentation: Prototyping and presenting solutions.

5) Presentation: Focus attention on driving synthesis of the challenge and throttling the energy/pressure on the teams towards ideation and refining solutions.

Earning License to Lead - Richard Edelman

In order to achieve License to Lead (PDF), I suggest that businesses pursue the following course:

1) Principles-based Leadership Replaces Rules-based Leadership—We need to be seen as having an operating credo, not simply obeying the law but operating in a smart zone beyond minimum public expectation and legal strictures.

2) Take On Issues of the Time—If you are a brand, emulate the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, which connected deeply with women by becoming an advocate for female self-image. If you are a corporation, explain why fracking is good, what chemicals are being put into the ground and then recovered for proper treatment. How you do what you do is now everybody’s business.

3) Radical Transparency—Establish benchmarks for performance, then go public with the results. Hold your executives accountable not just for financial metrics but for social ones, such as environmental standards or proper supply chain practice.

4) Employees First—Instead of the usual practice of communicating first to Wall Street, regulators and media, talk first with employees because trust is built from inside out.

Richard Edelman, CEO of public relations company Edelman

The 6 Principles of Jugaad

1. Seek Opportunity in Adversity - Never look at a glass as half empty, but as half full. Reframe every challenge.
2. Do More With Less - That’s about both reducing costs and raw materials, also adding more value. It’s not just about cheaper products, but also adding tremendous value. It’s not about poor quality.
3. Think and Act Flexibly - Do not be attached to any business model. Think like IBM, which redid its values.
4. Keep It Simple - Sometimes, companies lose touch with this idea, and tend to over-engineer products. Simplicity also applies to customer interactions, and of course product and organizational goals.
5. Include the Margin - Often times, in the West, companies look at marginal segments as  low income and not not profitable. Think of Walmart, now innovating by setting up money centers in stores, servive households are underbanked. They can cash checks in stores and transfer money. This is the “bottom of the pyramid” as C.K. Prahalad said, but in the United States.
6. Follow Your Heart - This is where you’ll find empathy, passion, intuition, all important qualities. Yes, they’re less about “knowledge.” But now we’re entering a correction era after the Great Recession. By following your heart, you’ll find a larger purpose for your company and products, more employee engagement, more loyalty to your brand.

From Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth

Set and pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals…

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Timely

Read more here.