Tension

Book excerpt: REDISCOVER AND LIBERATE YOUR CREATIVE GENIUS The challenge facing today's business leaders is how to transform the tension between running the businesses of today and innovating to build the businesses of tomorrow-how to change and innovate while dealing with the relentless and rapid changes buffeting us daily. Tension: The Energy of Innovation teaches you how to ride the innovation cycle and lifecycle to discover brilliant ideas and drive those ideas forward through all four phases of innovation development to achieve large scale success. Harnessing Tension Accelerates Innovation and Fuels Your Creative Genius. Becoming an innovator is analogous to biking-we need to ride a different bike depending on the terrain; and we need a different approach during each phase of the innovation lifecycle. Learn how to manage and excel during the Discovery phase, the Incubation phase, the Acceleration phase, and finally the Scaling phase. In the Discovery phase we ride rugged mountain bikes built to survive the risks we face as we explore challenging and unknown terrain. In the Incubation phase we need a hybrid bike that can handle both mountain trails and roads, so a potentially innovative idea can be incubated to create a prototype and complete a pilot. In the Acceleration phase we innovate the business model to ensure commercial success. This requires a road bike-aerody¬namic, light and fast to allow you to quickly pass competitors. The final phase is Scaling where we apply Lean Six Sigma practices to scale the busi-ness and ensure profits, returning full circle back to the stationary bike.