Wednesday, July 30, 2008
TRIZ travels
A basic precept of TRIZ is "somebody, someplace has already solved your problem"--maybe for a different reason, in a different industry, so searching for those solutions and adapting them to your problem becomes the new challenge for innovation.
BUT you can't even search if you don't know that the possibility of solutions exists. That's one reason that I continually encourage my colleagues, readers, and students to go to the international TRIZ meetings and the local/regional meetings, and to participate, not just "attend" to broaden and deepen their knowledge of what is possible.
This week we have reports on the TRIZ developers conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, thanks to Mikhail Rubin and his fellow organizers. See http://www.triz-journal.com/commentary/ellendomb for reports on days 1, 2, and 3. AND remember to check the TRIZ Journal calendar frequently--the Japan meeting is coming up at the end of August, and the Iberoamerican meeeting in October (yes, our friend Darrell Mann is a speaker and so am I, as well as the growing population of industrial and university TRIZ practioners from Mexico, Chile, Brazil, etc.) 
Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco is easy to reach by air from Europe and South America through Mexico City and from Asia and North America through Los Angeles and San Diego. Plan now to join us!
Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco is easy to reach by air from Europe and South America through Mexico City and from Asia and North America through Los Angeles and San Diego. Plan now to join us!Labels: TRIZ Conferences
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Holiday TRIZ
For my thoughts on using holiday/vaction time to practice TRIZ see
http://www.triz-journal.com/commentary/ellendomb
I've seen a number of organizations waste their TRIZ training, by waiting for an "important" problem. Most educators agree that if you don't use new learning within 2 weeks, you lose 80% of it! So, when you learn something new, you should use it as often as possible on a wide range of applications. Vacation is no excuse--you'll see plenty of problems to solve, or you'll see examples of how other people have solved their problems. Collect them, analyze them, use them, and your own capability will increase.
Share your examples with others through comments on this column, or through the TRIZ Journal commentary column or forum column, or write an article--we're always looking for new authors.
http://www.triz-journal.com/commentary/ellendomb
I've seen a number of organizations waste their TRIZ training, by waiting for an "important" problem. Most educators agree that if you don't use new learning within 2 weeks, you lose 80% of it! So, when you learn something new, you should use it as often as possible on a wide range of applications. Vacation is no excuse--you'll see plenty of problems to solve, or you'll see examples of how other people have solved their problems. Collect them, analyze them, use them, and your own capability will increase.
Share your examples with others through comments on this column, or through the TRIZ Journal commentary column or forum column, or write an article--we're always looking for new authors.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Innovation Requires Trust
I frequently read Report 103 and find both new ideas, and old ideas presented in a new way. The current issue is at http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20080715
Both articles are very useful:
1. Many companies are using their innovation methods for cost cutting. These are the same methods that were previously used for product/service development. This is no surprise to TRIZ folks, who see that the approach to ideality requires both the improvement of the system and the reduction of costs (that ideality equation again.)
2. Innovation requires trust. Employees won't share their ideas with the company if they don't trust the company--this could be trust that they will get credit or rewards if the company has a reward system, or it could be trust that the idea will be developed and contribute to the creator's professional pride. Lack of trust can be because of the employer's past behavior, or, harder to counter, because of a previous employer's behavior.
Yes, there is some advertising for an idea management software system, but it is pretty well separated from the articles.
Readers: do you want these kinds of references?
Ellen
Both articles are very useful:
1. Many companies are using their innovation methods for cost cutting. These are the same methods that were previously used for product/service development. This is no surprise to TRIZ folks, who see that the approach to ideality requires both the improvement of the system and the reduction of costs (that ideality equation again.)
2. Innovation requires trust. Employees won't share their ideas with the company if they don't trust the company--this could be trust that they will get credit or rewards if the company has a reward system, or it could be trust that the idea will be developed and contribute to the creator's professional pride. Lack of trust can be because of the employer's past behavior, or, harder to counter, because of a previous employer's behavior.
Yes, there is some advertising for an idea management software system, but it is pretty well separated from the articles.
Readers: do you want these kinds of references?
Ellen
Labels: ideality, innovation culture
Monday, July 07, 2008
New blogs and Wiki--Innovation and TRIZ
Frequent readers know that I have regarded this blog as an experiment, and that when the TRIZ Journal started its "commentary" and "forum" columns, I started putting most of my "TRIZ for the Real World" thoughts in those two venues. Thanks to all of you who have participated in those dialogs--the experiment in ways to increase TRIZ discussions is ongoing.
This month I've discovered two new blogs, both on the general theme of innovation, with specific topics and articles on TRIZ. Both are excellent, and I recommend them to readers.
Jim Belfiore's "Thirty minutes from Andromeda" at
http://andromeda-30.blogspot.com/ combines personal musings, technical articles, and travel topics. I've persuaded Jim to let us reprint some of his columns in the TRIZ Journal--if you enjoyed (or learned from, or got mad at...)them, you may want to read the extensive archive.
John Cooke's "The Innovator's Sweet Spot" at
http://www.cocatalyst.com/blog/ covers a wide range of innovation topics, with excellent research on examples and case studies. I've already entered comments on 4 of them (3 to agree and amplify, one to disagree--maybe that will get interested readers to go look at the comments sections!)
Bill Fowlkes has developed a Wiki called TRIZ World at
http://triz-world.wetpaint.com/
About a dozen people have made significant contributions, and many more have made occasional posts. It needs a lot more participants to reach the critical mass of people who can develop a significant body of knowledge. It is easy to participate--very intuitive interfaces. Reward: the more you post, the bigger your picture gets in the little thumbnail collection! (I thought this was a good example of a TRIZ concept of use existing resources--rewarding you with your own picture.)
Anybody have other new sites to recommend? Please send comments!
This month I've discovered two new blogs, both on the general theme of innovation, with specific topics and articles on TRIZ. Both are excellent, and I recommend them to readers.
Jim Belfiore's "Thirty minutes from Andromeda" at
http://andromeda-30.blogspot.com/ combines personal musings, technical articles, and travel topics. I've persuaded Jim to let us reprint some of his columns in the TRIZ Journal--if you enjoyed (or learned from, or got mad at...)them, you may want to read the extensive archive.
John Cooke's "The Innovator's Sweet Spot" at
http://www.cocatalyst.com/blog/ covers a wide range of innovation topics, with excellent research on examples and case studies. I've already entered comments on 4 of them (3 to agree and amplify, one to disagree--maybe that will get interested readers to go look at the comments sections!)
Bill Fowlkes has developed a Wiki called TRIZ World at
http://triz-world.wetpaint.com/
About a dozen people have made significant contributions, and many more have made occasional posts. It needs a lot more participants to reach the critical mass of people who can develop a significant body of knowledge. It is easy to participate--very intuitive interfaces. Reward: the more you post, the bigger your picture gets in the little thumbnail collection! (I thought this was a good example of a TRIZ concept of use existing resources--rewarding you with your own picture.)
Anybody have other new sites to recommend? Please send comments!
Labels: TRIZ links, TRIZ Wiki
