[music]. Welcome to the class of Strategic Innovation Class, Leading Strategic Organizations.

I have this little lecture here that is, we'll call lecture as much as an overview. I want to go step through the syllabus with you and lay out what my expectations are and what your expectations what you can expect from me as we can go through this. And I though in face-to-face class I normally go through the syllabus the first day of class. So I thought this would be helpful for us to look at some, some basic things clear. Please use the email address here oh, coursera-owens@vanderbilt.edu. That way I can see it my TA's can see it, we can all see that thing and, and make sure that we can respond to any questions or issues that you have right away. Probably the best place is to put things in the forum and if, if you need to contact me directly go ahead and use this email address. Let me talk about an overview of the class here. I'm going to go through a copy of the syllabus so I'd recommend you print one out and take a look at it yourself. Basically, this class is about managing strategic innovation and change. What I want to do is help you to diagnose innovation failures before they occur. And so the idea is that if we can predict when innovation failures are likely to occur, when can become strategic by getting around that by moving into a different place. The stuff we're going to talk about, the framework that I use. The framework that I developed is grounded in social science research, it is also, tested through business practice. I really would even call this as one of the best practices for innovation. Best practices for managing innovation. And also, this course is not about managing technology. We're going to talk about technology, we're going to use lots of examples from technology but this really is a course about managing people. And people who are engaged in innovation and positive change. And it's different than managing people in a machine, or in sort of a machine way or an administrative hierarchy.

We're going to learn about why that is. But basically, that's what this class is about. So, so those kinds of questions, hopefully by the end of the course, you'll be able to answer some of these questions. Things where are, I think are important to discuss for one, what are the conditions of successful innovation? What cause innovation to fail? When it doesn't work, why doesn't it work? What makes creative people creative? And is it something in their personality? Is it something else that, that happens with them? How do you manage creative teams? How should you manage creative teams? And it's a very important thing that we often try to manage them in the same way we'd manage other teams. And we don't get the outcomes we expect. And wonder why it's a problem. How do you lead an effective brainstorm process? You often going to, to the conference room and brainstorm and then don't feel good about the outcome. Well, why is that? What can we to change that? What can we do to make it better? Innovation portfolios, you know, do you have one? How can you have one? How do you manage one? That is if you have more than one innovation projects, we need more than one way to solving the same problem. That's what cost do the portfolio so how do you manage that? Okay. And the third, the last question, I think is the most important question. Why do so many great ideas get killed? Now again, the answer to that in the first lecture is as you watch that. Okay. So, let's get to look at some of the perspectives in the course. Basically the course I was really thinking of, as, a, it's about this process of generating ideas, assessing ideas, and then implementing ideas. So generating ideas is easy. I could sit here and have a thousand ideas right now. What's hard is getting your ideas listened to, acted upon and actually implemented in the organization. So what we're going to do is think about that and make sure that process works for

us. The second thing that I think's important is developing some techniques for improving creativity. Both in yourself and also another people. And so if we can, by doing exercises, by especially if you're participating in a project by doing things that's basically surface your ideas and behaviors about innovation, then you can begin to change them. If their behaviors need changes, then you change them. If your behaviors are good then you can feel good about them. You can feel strong, you can lead with those behaviors. As far as the history of this course, this course has been taught to MBAs executive MBAs, all kinds of people. Also I do as a seminar so a lot of people come in and do a two day seminar with me that we work on these, Problem with making innovation better, making innovation work in our organizations. Thousands of people have taken the class, and they have been successful with it. So I think that's if you fall into that category, hopefully you'll find this is going to be something that works for you. And in the curriculum, in the MBA curriculum, this is a project-based synthesis course. So basically, it's a course where we can take all the other things that you know. I know some accounting, I know some management, I know some strategy, I know some operations, and bring it together and synthesize across the core. In the project that we do. And so, the idea is also to get practice at managing people, at managing innovation projects. Because, leaving a school, after leaving a class like this, you're certainly going to be asked to take on new. And exciting and you should in an organization so you want to be able to be good at that, have to have some practice at that. Now let me tell you a little bit about myself. Too much here but basically I am a professor of the practice of Management Innovation which means I actually do a lot of teaching. Do a lot of consulting. I'm at Vanderbilt University. I'm also join appointment at the school of Engineering.

Education-wise. I do a lot of education. I do a lot of consulting with organizations. If you can see some of the kinds of organization that I work with. I do, I work as a product development engineer and designer at company called Idea which some of you may have heard of. I did product design for clients like Apple, Dell, HP, Corningware, Diamond Band, companies like that. I learned how to be a designer, I learned a lot about constraints. And that's something based by experience there to really, sort of, inform how this framework came together. And I've also been a CEO. I've been a CEO of Griffin Technology. Griffin Technology is a company that makes iPod accessories. And so I was the CEO there, and the company is, is doing well and is still kicking. Maybe some of you own Griffin products. My education, I have a PhD in Management science and engineering from Stanford University, that's where I went to school. It was a joint program between business and engineering and so I'm an engineer, I'm in the business school. I also have a Masters in Product Design from the what was the predecessor of the d.school at Stanford. And I also got my undergraduate there a long time ago in electrical engineering and I have been since was registered as a PE in electrical engineering. So I know about engineering and I got to a point where I realised like it's the people, we really need to think about people much more than about the stuff. So, when we talk about the pert, the primary learning objectives of the course which are to get a cross-disciplinary understanding of the general conditions. So basically, What conditions does it require for innovation to be successful. And if I could understand those conditions, I could say, hey, I have those conditions in place, or I don't. And that would be, would allow me to become strategic about moving forward. I need a framework for diagnosing which conditions are satisfied in a given situation. So if I'm in a situation, can I use this framework to say, you know what, this is missing and that's missing. So that's part of what we're doing also. This is diagnostic function.

Then finally once you know whether you can be successful. And whether you know what the constraints of life ought to be. How do you develop and execute the strategy to overcome those constraints? So how do we actually do this thing called innovation? That's what we're after ultimately in here. So basically, there are video lectures. There's a series of quizzes that are embedded in the videos. And all that stuff, that's machine graded. And this is really sort of pushing at understanding the conditions of innovation success. So I have this framework. And we're going to talk about what conditions have to be in place. What I also expect of you is to, besides watching the video lectures, and. And doing the quizzes, is making sure you participate in the online forums, certainly to read what other people post, but also to participate in that actively. The diagnostic framework, is going to come to the lectures, do the assigned reading and do some case studies. We're going to have some case studies as we go through. Also going to do a weekly Innovative constraint surveys, that's a survey where you go take the survey, it's going to give you some ideas about how you might stand relative to others in the class and others in my database of innovators. And also, you're going to do some assessments of the work of your peers. So that is, we're going to some of exercise you're going to actually submit and you will exchange with other, other people You're, you're work and they'll give you feedback and assessment on that work. And that's going to be an important part of what we do. And then finally we'll be developing and executing a strategy. Our third learning objective is going to come through the exercises, through the cases through diagnostics Also through the team based innovation project if you have at all possibility of doing the team based project I highly recommend it. It will really be at a great deal of your learning and testing of this material and mastery of this material, in this course. So the learning pedagogy, the way that if we go onto the next page, the way that

we're that I'm approaching this is through this how people learn language. Call it just a learning methodology. So we go, start with an experience, a little story, discussion boards, projects, exercises, things to get in touch with your intuitive sense of what It is that we're talking about. Next, we'll move to lectures. Which is understanding. And that's about formal understanding. I'll give formal language. I'll use theories of ways that we talk about this thing from a scientific perspective. The idea is not to be high faluting. That is, not to be, overly formal just to be formal. But it really is to be clear and articulate, and. Precise in our language. Because that helps us understand better. That helps us communicate better. We'll then apply and once we understand the learnings we'll apply the learnings through the assignments, exercises and projects. And then finally we'll reflect, that is we'll sort of step back and say okay what just happened, how do I think about that. We do that through written exercise, through peer evaluation, through the thought questions that are going to be sprinkled throughout the lectures and the course material as we go. Okay, this class has three course tracks, so the three tracks are: there's basic level, and the basic level, expecting about three to five hours per week, basically you'll receive it's like auditing a class. And so you'll watch the lectures you'll, you'll do the quizzes and you'll do the diagnostic and that's pretty much it. Its a small time commitment but you do actually have to do that in order to get the statement of completion. And I. Believe to actually get something out of the class. The advanced level, the advanced level is a little bit more of a time, commitment for six hours a week. If you finish this, you'll get the statement of accomplishment and if you wanted to have a little bit more advanced proficiency, and this is everything short of doing a project which is the master level, which is the project. And that's the time commitment is, it

grows again, six to ten hours a week. Really depends on how aggressive a project you choose, the difference between the advanced level and the, and the studio master level. But basically here, the Certificate of Studio Mastery really is about how do I apply this stuff? Can I apply it? Have I applied it? Can I prove that, that's been done? So those are the three basic course tracks and, and you'll choose one of these and, and go through in that way. The basic level assignments, let me just take of these three things. This one's the basic level, and so there's weekly video lectures inline. Quizzes with those lectures. The video stops every few minutes and you will be get a load of the quiz. Most of the quizzes are completed, not completed. The quizzes at the end of the lecture, sorry, at the end of the week are actually graded and those are important to do well on. There will be reflection papers and the reflection papers, excuse me, weekly readings. The weekly readings are Presented as links, they are always free. And you're just to read the link and then actually there will be a, a, a place where you can certify that you've read the reading for that week. And then finally, there's the Weekly Diagnostic Constraint Assessment. And that's the survey that I'm going to ask you to complete. It has a number of questions that are actually interesting questions that cause you to really think through the course material You know, have a sense of whether the, the information we're talking about applies to you in your situation or not. And, and you get a chance to think about some situations of when it does apply, and why it would apply. The advanced level assignments start with the individual reflection exercise. So you'll do the constraint diagnostic. And then you'll actually you'll take the diagnostic, you'll get your results. Then you'll write a small, a two paragraph, 10, 100 to 200 word reflection on that. Second thing is the, the assessment of that. And so you have to actually do the

assessment,[COUGH] and then give, Give feedback to your fellow students. So that's how you get credit for is by actually giving the feedback. And then also what I'd like at this level is dicussion participation. That is you go to the boards. Each week, I'll post a topic for us to be, to discuss and to talk about. And I'll expect you to go to the board and actually engage in that discussion. Your grade here is basically based on how many times you post. And probably limit your posts to about two or, or, or so per week, related to the discussion. Because with so many people here it's going to get pretty crazy. But we'd also like to hear from you, but we'd also like to hear from everyone in the course. And finally, there's this studio mastery version of the class. Track, let's call it. And so here your going to do a team-based innovation project. And this is about collaboration. This is about deeper engagement with the course material. As in fact, the course material goes along in a process that mirrors exactly what the, the process of the project. And so when we talk about individual, then this will make sense later. When we talk about individual constraints, then we'll, then you'll be at that stage in your project. When we talk about group constraints, you'll be at that stage in your project. And so you have direct immediate application of the material. So there's the formal process. Each week will be very clearly defined deliverables. If you follow this rule, follow the instruction, and follow the assignments and do them, you will get through. There will be no problem you will absolutely get through. You can do any problem, or any size in any way appropriate, although let me tell you the simpler projects tend to be. These actually they tend to not only be easier. They tend to have more learning. Because if you do something complicated, and you can't do it because it's complicated, you won't know why it didn't work. If you try to do something simple, and it

doesn't work, then it's very easy to pinpoint why. It's also easier to pinpoint why it did work. And in terms of your project, you would expect it to implement the solution by the end of the course. That is to implement. You want to make this thing happen. So I'm not looking for, well, we're going to, and then we might, and someone should. It really is this is what we did, and this is it's implemented, and I can show you how it was implemented by us, through this course. And it's going to be, require the time, money and other resources that you have, that the members of the team have. There's nothing, there's no other resource that you have access to from my side. If you're going to look for other people to join a team go to the class discussion board. We're going to try and create a topic on that along with the topic of what are meaningful projects. What's a good size, the scope of project. All right just quickly to go through some of these mastery projects, Week 1. I'm requiring you to, submit a team roster whose on your team in the team. And a project brief. What is the project going to look like what are you trying to do. That's a group deliverable. Next week. Week two, these are always due at the end of the week. Week two will be a design brief a peer, its basically a peer assessment you're going to take the design briefs from the prior week and give people feedback on theirs. As well, you're going to start your 101 ideas generation. So we're going to do is that week. We're going to, I'm going to give you a process for generating 101 ways to solve the problem that you've set out in your project brief. Next Week 3 is Concept Definition Forms. And so in the concept definition forms are concepts, sol-, solution concepts that you have for your, problem. And your team has to complete four of those, and you can submit those for feedback. You'll get the feedback assessment and you'll give feedback the following week. Week 6, there's a diagnostic peer

assessment. So basically what I'm asking in weeks excuse me, in Week 5, there's a diagnostic. What you're going to do is look at your project and do a diagnosis of it, a formal diagnosis of it to see what kind of constraints you're likely to face. You're going to get feedback on that the following week and you're going to give feedback to others on their projects as well Week 6 is also per, project prototyping plan. That will make sense later, but basically, it is just a one page Gant chart or a schedule of what are the things you are going to do to be sure your project gets fully implemented. Week 7, there are no project deliverables. And so that's the week to actually implement your project. And then Week 8 is the project presentation video. And there I'd like you to do, well, basically what I'm asking for is a two-minute video where you document your project and how you went about as a team doing your project. And you're going to post that into a site that we're going to name later. So when that time comes, you'll know. But basically it's a two-minute video. And then what's going to happen also is we're going to give peer assessment and feedback to others About their projects as well, and we're going to receive the feedback as well. And it's really very, usually very positive feedback. Even if your project doesn't work, that is a fine outcome, as long as we know why it didn't work. As long as we can point to the things that you would change the next time you did the project. Okay, there is a course FAQ. Go ahead and read the FAQ, and I don't need to belabor it here but there are lots of questions that come up again and again. And so, those will be listed in the course FAQ and, and there's did I repeat in the in the course syllabus? Oh, I'll just move on right ahead here. What was I going to say? Let's see yeah, the schedule. So, what I've done is it, I'm not going to go to any detail in the schedule part here. But just to say that each week, I have listed out basically three levels, three

tracks, are you in the basic track, the midlevel track or the studio, mastery track. And if you're in the basic track, you just do the things in the first column. If you're in the advanced track, you need to do the things in the first column and the second column, and the third track, you need to do all three. And, and again, I've given you the time, estimates for how much time it is that you need to spend. In each case, there's a lecture, there's reading, there are quizzes, online diagnostics. Those always happen in basic deliverables, advanced level deliverables you can read those. You know, the reflection exercise the peer assessment the feedback so again these are very specific deliverables for each week. And we'll also go by branch mean time zero as the time that the, the deliverables are due. So you can see Weeks 3 and 4. It, it might be interesting to look at the, studio mastery part. Where you can see that these things are spread out. It's not, in a, an overwhelming amount of work but it is a certain amount of work if your going to do the studio mastery level. And each week, I'll do a small video I call Prof Chat where I will work, basically talk to the people doing the project specifically. And talk about some hints some hints for how it is that we might go on doing our projects, making our projects better. And so again,uh, we move thru each week Let me step back for a second each week. So the first week is about the introduction, that's where we are now. The second week has to do with the individual level, what happens for individuals in our own personal creativity. The third week is about groups, move to the group level and talk about what happens in groups and why groups are very, very different than individuals. The fourth week we're going to talk about organizations. Move up to the organization level and talk about why organizations would or would not be innovative. We are going to also then move to the industry level in Week 5. And we're going to look at industries and what happens with strategy, with

structure, with excuse me, strategy with Competition with markets, then those, that kind of thing, then you'll see them there Week 5. And then on week 6 then, we'll issue societal constraints. How does society stop invasion from happening? What does society have to say about the things that are good for it or bad for it? Week 7 is a level of the technology. And what goes on technologically. We're going to talk a lot more about knowledge than we are going to talk about actual technology itself. But I think it's important to think, to talk about. And then finally the last week we're going to talk about leading an innovation strategy. What is it about portfolios, how do we think about innovation. What are the things we can do in order to make innovation happen, again and again, and again, so that we're finally good at it. Okay, with that? Let's get started.