Innovation in Practice

Task Unification: Under Armour ‘Smart Sneaker’ Uses Task Unification and Attribute Dependency

Under Armour via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Wouldn’t your regular workout be that much better if recovery time was reduced to a minimum? Under Armour thinks so and has just filed a patent detailing two versions of a sneaker in development. The sneakers are aimed to reduce recovery time by monitoring an athlete’s blood pressure via their running shoe. One version of the shoe demonstrates the Attribute Dependency Technique and the other version also incorporates Task Unification. These are two of the five methods that make up Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT).

Attribute Dependency works by creating (or breaking) a dependency between two attributes of a product or its environment. Task Unification involves assigning an additional task to an existing resource. And that resource is in the immediate vicinity of the problem, or what we called The Closed World. Essentially, it’s taking something that is already around you and giving it an additional job.

According to Under Armour’s patent application, the first version of the sneaker links to a wearable device much like a Fitbit which transmits the athlete’s blood pressure reading. That would then be used to adjust the sneaker’s sole for optimal blood flow. In other words, it’s Attribute Dependency at work!

In the second version, the wearable device is left off since the sneaker itself contains a blood pressure detector, allowing for adjustment of the shoe as needed. This version is a perfect example of how many innovations incorporate multiple innovation techniques at once. In this case, it’s both Attribute Dependency and Task Unification, as the shoe takes on a new function of reading the athlete’s blood pressure in addition to adjusting for optimal fit.

According to Fox News,

In the patent filing, Under Armour said the sneaker is meant to help its wearer recover after a “strenuous workout.”

“There exists a need for a device and method to effectively pump blood through the plantar venous plexus and support recovery after engaging in athletic activity,” the company wrote in its filing, dated June 25.

Systematic Inventive Thinking is something everyone can learn. And you can utilize either of these techniques to innovate helpful products. Visit these links to learn the step-by-step process for using Task Unification and Attribute Dependency.

 

Global Innovation Platform SOSA Partners with Elron

SOSA, the leading global innovation platform that connects international organizations to innovative technology, has entered into a strategic partnership with Elron, a top Israeli early stage investment firm specializing in cyber. SOSA recently partnered with the New York City Economic Development Corporation to help launch NYC’s first-ever Cyber Center, dedicated to transforming the city into a global leader of cyber security innovation and talent. SOSA’s access to the NYC system of enterprises and investors, coupled with Elron’s strong technological, business and industry expertise and nine cybersecurity portfolio companies, promises a unique collaboration that will boost the cyber ecosystem worldwide.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Elron, and serve as a bridge between the burgeoning United States and Israeli technology systems,” said Uzi Scheffer, SOSA’s CEO. “We know Elron will fully leverage the programming and networking offered at SOSA’s Global Cyber Center; from industry-specific events to a virtual testing ground to run simulations, there’s no shortage of opportunities for collaboration to drive strategic investments and cyber technology implementation in leading corporations in New York City and Israel. Elron will also be able to take advantage of our growing worldwide presence and connections as we look to expand to Europe by the end of the year.”

SOSA will connect Elron with its network of 250 multinational corporations and investors, and more than 15,000 startups, enabling the company to better connect business to solutions, expand its investor base, and advance its portfolio companies.

“We have observed increased interest in cybersecurity in New York City, and strongly believe in the potential for Israeli companies to thrive there,” noted Elron CEO Ari Bronshtein. “Combining our experience with SOSA’s unique position and innovative approach, we look forward to developing strategic relationships with other key players in the U.S. cyber market, in order to strengthen our portfolio companies’ business opportunities and partner with other investors.”

SOSA is at the center of Israel’s thriving tech ecosystem and the hotbed of innovation coming from the East Coast, perfectly positioned to connect the two networks. As businesses look for global solutions and advances, SOSA will play an integral role in joining these groundbreaking companies with corporations, governments and cities across the world. By partnering with SOSA, companies within virtually any vertical are able to discover new growth opportunities and exceed customer expectations.

“It’s a great opportunity for U.S. enterprises and venture capital firms targeting the Israeli cybersecurity market to engage and gain exposure to innovators, startups and strategic investment opportunities,” noted Zohar Rozenberg, Vice President of Cyber Investments, Elron. “Joining forces with SOSA will better enable us to fulfill our shared vision of building a strong bridge between the Israeli cyber ecosystem and the New York hub.”  

To learn more about SOSA or to join its extensive global network of corporations, startups and investors, please visit https://sosa.co/. 

ABOUT SOSA:
SOSA, a global innovation platform with centers in Tel Aviv and New York, serves as an ecosystem partner that connects corporations, governments and cities to the most innovative technologies. SOSA’s innovation network provides access to more than 15,000 start-ups, 250 investors, venture-capital funds and international corporations, including Jefferies, Munich Re, HP, E.ON and more. SOSA was founded in 2014 by a group of prominent Israeli investors and entrepreneurs, in order to create a unique place for the technological innovation industry, aimed to promote joint business activities. Each year, SOSA generates dozens of POCs and enables thousands of business interactions among its members.

Learn more at https://sosa.co/ and via social media on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

ABOUT ELRON:
Elron is a leading early-stage investor committed to turning promising ideas into global industry leaders, with a proven track record of investments and successful M&As worldwide. Elron invests in medical devices, cyber security and IT.  Since its establishment in 1962, Elron stands on the forefront of Israeli innovation both as founders and early investors in companies across various industries such as Elbit, Medingo, Given Imaging, Cloudyn and Cyber Secdo.

Featured in BBC Article

I had the privilege of recently being interviewed by Alex Hannaford, a BBC journalist for an article that ran last week. In his article, “How hindsight bias skews your judgement”, Alex discusses the dynamic of hindsight bias and its impact on decision making.

Hindsight bias, also known as the “knew it all along” effect, is the inclination to see events that have already occurred as being more predictable than they were before they took place. Hannaford reached out for my input after reading my material on the topic. And I was able to provide tips for avoiding hindsight bias.

You can read the full article by going to BBC.

Be a Catalyst for Change

Professors change the world, one student at a time.

I’m regularly asked about my transition to academia. The first question I ask the professional considering the switch is whether he or she has the commitment and the courage to do it.  

It is a distinct privilege to hold a faculty position, no matter what institution you land in. As a professor, you have the chance to make a difference in the lives of others–students, faculty colleagues, the department, the university, and the surrounding community. As a professor, all these groups expect you to be a catalyst of change.  

In my new book So You Want to Be a Professor: How to Land Your Dream Job in Academia, I go beyond how to land a job in academia and share advice on how to be successful as a professor. This is the time to not only empower students to learn the structures and knowledge to succeed, but also to provide value from the wisdom you have accumulated during your years of working. As a professor, you have the opportunity to teach them as a whole class but to change them one student at a time. Students will remember you forever if they see you really pulling for them.  

Your colleagues can benefit from your experience, too. Help them consider new research opportunities. Connect them with your vast network of former colleagues, customers, suppliers, even competitors. Look for ways to help the department be more vital, better funded, more efficient, and more prominent in the field.  

I wish you luck in your journey to jump to the front of the line. It’s a difficult journey, but worth it. I hope my new book can help you get there. After all, you come this way only once. 

Announcing LinkedIn Learning a-la-carte!

Many of you enjoy the benefit of sharpening your skills through LinkedIn Learning courses. To date, LinkedIn offers access to their entire course library via subscription. I am excited to announce that starting this Wednesday, March 27, LinkedIn will begin testing an “a-la-carte” model that will let learners like you purchase individual courses as an addition to the subscription model.

I’m also glad to share that a number of my courses are included in this testing period. If you are a motivated learner with one-time learning needs, or if you aren’t familiar enough with LinkedIn Learning to commit to a subscription, I recommend you consider one of the following courses as an opportunity to experience for yourself the value of LinkedIn Learning.

Courses available via a-la-carte beginning March 27:

·      Business Innovation Foundations

·      Marketing Foundations

·      Branding Foundations

·      Marketing Foundations: Understanding Consumer Behavior

·      Sales Management Foundations

·      Leading a Marketing Team

·      Top 10 Marketing Challenges

·      Identify Sales Growth Opportunities

·      Measure Salesforce Effectiveness

·      Sales Forecasting

·      Creative Thinking

·      Key Account Management

·      CMO Foundations: Marketing for Social Change

·      B2B Marketing Foundations: Pricing Strategies

Now is the time to prepare

Universities and colleges are often the largest single employer within their region. In the United States, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show there were nearly 1.9 million postsecondary teachers employed in 2014.

If you want to be a professor, you need to land just one of these positions!

The theme of my new book is how to jump to the front of the line and land a job as a professor.

One of the first steps to answering that question is determining which lines to join. Believe me, there are a lot of people standing in a lot of lines for academic positions. You need to find the lines that are most likely to lead to a job for you.

Waiting until you retire is not the right approach to seeking a teaching position. This book demonstrates the need to begin now, while you are still in the workplace, to develop an extensive network at your target schools. This is also the time to develop your teaching skills. This is the time to strengthen and shape your personal brand as the expert in your field. It is time to reveal to the world that you are an aspiring professor just waiting to burst out and start making a difference in the classroom.

The challenge during the preparation phase is to do all this while holding down a full-time job. It is even more difficult to do all this with more than one target university.

Do you want to be a professor now or in the future? If so, read my new book to prepare.

Launching My Latest Book

I’m thrilled to let you know my new book, So You Want to Be a Professor: How to Land Your Dream Job in Academia, just launched!

If you or someone you know ever considered teaching, I hope you read this book. But first, I’d like to share why I wrote it.

Experience has shown me that 9 out of 10 professionals fantasize about being a college professor at some point in their career. Competition for college professor roles is fierce. Few spots open up for even the most experienced practitioners. When they do, there is a long line of people with extensive experience and abilities waiting at the dean’s doorstep.

I had the good fortune of becoming a full-time professor after a thirty-year professional, non-academic career. Many people ask how I made the transition and then ask, “How can I do it, too?”

This book is the first roadmap for working professionals from any field who want to become a college professor, now or later. I’m not aware of another book out there that addresses this topic and sets a path for how to get there.

I hope this book inspires you to prepare no matter when you want to start: now, mid-career, or post retirement. It provides examples of actions to take now to prepare to land — and succeed in — an academic role in the future.

Wondering if college teaching is for you?

Read my book and find out.

Introducing Switchers

I am excited to announce a new book that was just released by my friend and colleague, Dawn Graham. Switchers is the first book written specifically for the career changer, to help them to realize their dream of landing in a new industry or function.The first step is recognizing that the usual rules and job search tools won’t work for a switcher. Resumes and job boards were designed with traditional applicants in mind. Career switchers have to go beyond the basics, using tactics tailor-made to ensure their candidacy stands out. Switchers provides a step-by-step guide, chock-full of actionable tips and useful tools, that empower readers to figure out their next move and draw a roadmap for how to get there. What’s more, it peers into the mind of the job seeker and hirer, revealing what fears may be holding them back from going for a job or choosing a candidate. Switchers reveals how to:

• Understand the concerns of hiring managers—and think like they do
• Craft a resume that catches hiring managers’ attention within six seconds
• Spotlight transferable skills that companies covet
• Rebrand yourself—aligning your professional identity with your new aspirations
• Reach decision-makers by recruiting “ambassadors” from within your network
• Nail interviews by turning tough questions to your advantage
• Convince skeptical employers to take a chance on you as a switcher
• Negotiate a competitive compensation package—even as a “newbie” to the field

Career changers face unique challenges that demand fresh approaches. Packed with psychological insights, practical exercises, and inspiring success stories, Switchers helps you leap over obstacles and into a whole new field. Want to pull off the most daring—and fulfilling—career move of your life? Read Switchers.

Dawn Graham, PhD is the Career Director for The MBA Program for Executives at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, where she partners in setting strategy and supporting the EMBA students in achieving their career objectives through extensive programming and individual coaching. She also hosts a national call-in radio show on Sirius XM (Channel 132) “Career Talk,” writes regularly for Forbes.com under their leadership channel, and teaches Persuasive Communication to Wharton undergrads under the Management Department.  Dawn’s new book “Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success” (HarperCollins Leadership/AMACOM 2018) engages her background as a career expert, licensed psychologist and former corporate recruiter to provide a roadmap for career switchers to get beyond the hiring bias and land the job they want.

Attribute Dependency in Bifocal Glasses

Bifocal users must no longer battle their strange, new lenses, thanks to the technology of Mitsui Chemicals of Japan. This spring, Mitsui launched their TouchFocus line, one touch e-focus glasses that make both near and far viewing possible.

TouchFocus glasses are a perfect example of the Attribute Dependency technique at work. Attribute Dependency is one of the five innovation methods of Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT). It works by creating (or breaking) a dependency between two attributes of a product or its environment. As for TouchFocus, one touch of the sensor on the side of the frames activates liquid crystals in the lower half of the lenses, allowing the wearer to see objects close to them. Then, touching the sensor again returns the lens to a regular view.

Mitsui Chemicals states:

At first glance, TouchFocus™ appears to be simply a pair of stylish glasses, but hidden inside the frame is an electric circuit. With a touch to a sensor installed in the temple, the liquid crystal lenses are activated which allow the eyewear to change focus from distance to close instantaneously.

It’s true that anyone can learn to create by utilizing the SIT methods. If you would like to get the most out of the Attribute Dependency Technique, follow these steps:

1. List internal/external variables.
2. Pair variables (using a 2 x 2 matrix)

• Internal/internal
• Internal/external

3. Create (or break) a dependency between the variables.
4. Visualize the resulting virtual product.
5. Identify potential user needs.
6. Modify the product to improve it.

For a brief video that displays the TouchFocus, visit BBC News.

Running Effective Innovation Workshops

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that innovation is a team sport. The strongest teams are characterized by functional, gender, and cultural diversity among its members. And, teams that are successful at innovation are committed to ongoing growth via avenues such as innovation workshops.

When it comes to running effective innovation workshops, here are some things to keep in mind:

First, decide where to hold the workshop. Now don’t get carried away here. Any room will do. You don’t need a so-called innovation room with bean bag chairs and frisbees. I’m not a big fan of these rooms because I don’t think they do anything to boost creativity. Just find a room with comfortable chairs and flip charts.

When you begin your workshop, start by identifying the constraints around the problem. Constraints might include budget issues, timing, or legal and regulatory boundaries. List them all. Without constraints, the ideation will lack focus. You’re likely to generate ideas that are too wild to be viable.

Next, make sure you and the participants define the closed world around the problem. Where you define this imaginary space around the problem will have a big impact on how you apply each technique.

Now decide which of the five techniques to apply.  

Once you select the techniques, create a list of the components and attributes by writing them down on a whiteboard, a flip chart, or a pad of paper. Make sure you number the list. That helps keep the workshop more organized as you work through the lists.

When you apply a technique, be sure to work in smaller teams of two or three people, not as one large group. Working in pairs is also more efficient.

As you apply a technique, assign each pair a different component from the list. That forces them to really focus, and it increases their chance of coming up with a creative idea. Be sure to set a specific time limit, say 3 minutes. This further constrains their brain to think inside the box.

When ideas are generated, try not to identify them with a specific person. Otherwise, people may bias the idea depending on who generated it. A simple way to do this is to have people write down their ideas. When giving credit for the source of an idea, make sure it’s from the pair of colleagues, not just one person. You have to find ways to strip ideas of their identity. This will make sure ideas don’t get thrown out prematurely.

A typical workshop can be anywhere from an hour in length to several days. Innovating is hard work, so be sure to manage the group’s energy level. Take a lot of breaks during the workshop, and mix up the activities to keep people engaged.

Using good facilitation techniques will make sure you get the most out of your creativity workshop.