Innovation

A Pause to Say Thank You

2014 was quite the year for The Human Factor, Inc.! As usual, it included a lot of learning and adapting on our part to make sure we’re still meeting your needs and fully supporting your success.  For example, we launched the neuroprompt subscription series (https://ad934.infusionsoft.com/app/storeFront/showProductDetail?productId=86), a fun and convenient way to prompt yourself to pause…

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The Danger of Deadlines

We all know the value of a good deadline. It helps us get focused, motivated, and sharpens our thinking, right? Not so fast. Current brain research suggests that, in most cases, deadlines do the exact opposite – creating stress and tension while limiting our thinking. Having a sense of urgency does stimulate the part of…

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Are You Pausing to Just Look?

Have you seen those Magic Eye 3D books? I came across one recently, and they are amazing!  Each book contains two-dimensional pictures that look like nothing more than random patterns repeated over and over again across the page. But – and here’s where the magic occurs – when you focus the eyes in a certain…

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Are You Ready to Win in 2014?

Did you blink and 2013 zipped right by? Don’t worry, it happened to me too. Which means it’s now time to start getting ready to win in 2014! Here are the top five things you can do to prepare your organization to win in the year ahead. 1. Get clear on winning (your destination). Specifically,…

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Innovate Your Business Model… or Die

Kids say the darnedest things! Recently, researchers asked a group of 12-year olds if they typically listen to music on YouTube, an iPod, or a CD? Not surprisingly, the majority answered “YouTube.” However, the second most common response was, “What’s a CD?” Researchers also asked a group of high school students how they most often…

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A Tale of Gut-Wrenching (Literally!) Innovation

Logan Ebert was born without most of his esophagus, the tube through which food travels from the mouth to the stomach. From day one, this healthy, happy teenager who just graduated from high school had to be fed through an artificial tube just to stay alive. When his parents began researching “esophageal atresia,” as the…

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Three Innovation Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

When was the last time your company came out with something really new? How long has it been since you totally reinvented a critical business process that resulted in significant cost savings or productivity increases? If you can’t remember (or you can remember but it’s been so long you don’t want to admit it) you…

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Five Steps to More Engaged Employees

According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace: 2010-2012 report, employee engagement levels remain stagnant in the U.S, with only 30% of American workers saying they feel “engaged, involved in, enthusiastic about, or committed to their workplace.” Which means that seven out of every 10 employees are just going through the motions. That’s no way…

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Big-Time Change Ahead for College Campuses

Last week I wrote about how disruptive innovation from mobile technologies is turning the banking industry upside down. Now it’s higher education’s turn. As a parent footing the bill for a college student, I say it’s about time! An article in the Wall Street Journal reports that since 1990, the cost of attending college has…

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Your Phone is Now Your Bank: Are You Ready for Disruptive Innovation?

Does your bank fit inside your cell phone? If not, it soon will. And if today’s banks don’t come to terms with this fact very soon (as in starting yesterday), they may no longer exist in 10 or even five years. How’s that for disruptive innovation? I just finished reading Bank 3.0 —Why Banking Is…

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Taking the Mystery Out of Innovation

Many people see innovation as a mystifying process that requires blinding flashes of creative insight to come up with new products that change the world. In reality, there’s nothing mysterious about it. As defined in the dictionary, innovation is simply “making changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.” Those blinding…

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Prepare to Be Disrupted

A few months back, I wrote about how the current cycle of tech disruption is significantly faster and broader than previous cycles. As a result, new products and technologies are causing us to re-imagine almost everything we do in business and in daily life. Well, prepare to be disrupted, starting with where you spend most…

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