Our latest thoughts on innovation, design, and transformation.
TOPICS
Innovation Series: Douglas Ferguson talks to multidisciplinary designer Lisa Baird about her career journey, falling in love with the problem, the helpfulness of curmudgeonly people, and the deeper systems underneath user experiences.
Innovation Series: Douglas Ferguson speaks with Tom Counsell, Executive Director of B-Hub Prague, about how to build a team that can harness raw potential, being diplomatic about failure, and the amazing innovative power of poor communities.
Kris Pennella, Director of Red Hat’s Open Innovation Labs, is on a mission to assist companies in getting products to market faster by transforming their…
Throughout his experiences as a consultant and at NASA, Steve Rader focuses on the use of crowdsourcing to generate innovative ideas and unlock improvements. He…
"I love running fast. I'm not so much a jogger. I like to sprint." In his earlier days, Dr. Ralph-Christian Ohr was a track and…
I recently spoke with the incredible Tamara Ghandour–author, founder, and president of LaunchStreet, keynote speaker, and creator of the proprietary Innovation Quotient Edge (IQE) assessment.…
When several students at Davidson College in North Carolina pitched an idea to design and teach their own course, the small liberal arts school was…
As part of our Innovation Series, I recently spoke with David J. Bland, Founder & CEO of Precoil and co-author of Testing Business Ideas. We…
Lumos Pharma is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing new therapies for people with rare diseases. Its focus is prioritized in areas where the…
How are your virtual meetings going? If there's room for improvement, we are here to help. Adjusting to the virtual landscape can be a doozy…
When you view your business through the eyes of a customer, what do you see? That is what a design thinking approach to business is…
Control the Room Podcast: host Douglas Ferguson talks with Jake Knapp, the creator of The Design Sprint. They discuss Jake's best-selling books and their relevance to the COVID pandemic, how to remove shame from our dialogue about racial barriers, why Jake hates meetings and more.
There’s a better way to run virtual Design Sprints. The current virtual Design Sprint system doesn’t model the real world, and it’s a problem for…
Yes, there’s a lot changing in our world, but not our ability to collaborate, creatively solve problems, and design impactfully. We aren’t able to converse…
For the vast majority of the world, all work and meetings are now virtual. If you’re worried about what this means for productivity and meaningful meetings,…
When exploring how to communicate more effectively in meetings, we stumbled upon a golden archive that opened our eyes to the long-standing, poor productivity habits…
We don't always need a meeting; unnecessary meetings waste time and money. Use the Should We Even Have a Meeting Test to decide if you should have a meeting.
A successful meeting needs structure and purposeful activities that facilitate collaborative work between attendees, not an hour-long PowerPoint presentation or endless debate. There is a…
Control the Room Podcast: Douglas Ferguson speaks with Michael Wilkinson, CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, about his path to the International Association of Facilitators Hall of Fame, what makes a great facilitator, and the six P's of preparing a meeting.
Innovation Series: Douglas Ferguson talks to multidisciplinary designer Lisa Baird about her career journey, falling in love with the problem, the helpfulness of curmudgeonly people, and the deeper systems underneath user experiences.
Voltage Control helped Cisco Systems, Inc. build a successful virtual training program for it security business and established a virtual meeting process at its Large Virtual Meeting Workshop.
The Design Sprint is a staple structure in the world of facilitation for solving big challenges. Get to know the "what, what, when, where, and why" of running this five-day process.
Control the Room Podcast: Douglas Ferguson talks to Alison Coward, founder of Bracket, about how to make space for conflict, why there is power in the introduction, and how your team can define who they are as an objective. Listen in to find out how to understand the context of what you're working in, how you can create the environment to do your best work as a team, and why shared empathy across a team is so important.
Arguably one of the most famous Albert Einstein quotes is: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting…
Treat meeting prep like a surgeon preps for surgery–strategically, meticulously, and with eyes wide open.
How are your virtual meetings going? If there's room for improvement, we are here to help. Adjusting to the virtual landscape can be a doozy…
Virtual facilitation is more important now than ever. The Great Pause has called upon the need for remote leadership to help the world navigate the…
Bring Your Ideas to Life
Innovation can seem complex or reserved for the exceptional. But we believe innovation is for everyone. We’ve set out to illuminate a path for you to: generate bold ideas, visualize and share them, overcome obstacles, and turn your idea into reality. Our books are equal parts guidebook and stories from years of experience helping companies adopt an innovation mindset and culture. They’re practical & actionable, so you can get started now. We hope they’ll help you on your journey to realizing your biggest, boldest ideas.