Carla Johnson — RE:Think Innovation and the Wheel of Innovation

"Innovation isn't a gift. It's a simple, repeatable five-step process that anyone, at any level, can learn — with nothing more than a stack of Post-it notes."

Carla Johnson, author of RE:Think Innovation, is on a mission to teach one million people to consistently come up with new, great and reliable ideas. In this anniversary-edition conversation, she takes Aidan McCullen through her updated Wheel of Innovation — observe, distill, relate, generate, pitch — and the cautionary tales that show why so many good ideas die in the boardroom.

In this conversation, Carla reveals:

• Why a pet-flavoured water startup failed — and the warning signs it ignored
• The "CF-uh-O" who killed a Disney-inspired pitch, and what it teaches about how ideas are packaged
• What brand detachment disorder is — and why "that would never work here" is your most expensive excuse
• How Big Ass Fans transplanted the customer experience of Zingerman's Deli into an industrial fan company
• How the CDC's zombie apocalypse campaign got 60,000 hits in an hour and put Dr. Ali Khan on stage at Comic-Con
• Why Great Ormond Street Hospital brought in Ferrari's Formula 1 pit crew to cut surgical handover errors
• How Tim Washer turned the Cisco ASR 9000 router launch into a Valentine's Day love story
• Why real creativity only starts after your first 200 ideas
• The "how might we" language shift that stops your brain killing ideas before they're born
• How to give feedback that builds perpetual innovators instead of silencing them

Chapters:

00:00 Innovation Is A Process

00:49 Why RE Think Matters

02:10 Thirsty Pet Cautionary Tale

05:01 Defining Innovation Clearly

07:29 New Great Reliable Ideas

09:54 Perpetual Innovators Explained

11:03 Mentorina Pitch Gone Wrong

15:10 Brand Detachment Disorder

18:29 Complexity Bias In Innovation

22:07 Brand Transplant Big Ass Fans

25:38 Constraints And If Onlys

28:23 CDC Zombie Preparedness Win

33:18 Wheel Of Innovation Update

33:53 Constraints Spark Creativity

34:27 Cisco Router Love Story

39:32 Observation Drives Innovation

45:01 Distill Dots Into Patterns

48:05 Relate Ideas To Brand

53:00 Generate 200 Ideas

55:50 Pitch The Idea Journey

59:32 Feedback That Builds

01:04:19 Where To Find Carla

Find Carla Johnson at https://carlajohnson.co — take the innovation archetype assessment and sign up for her fortnightly newsletter.

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About The Innovation Show: the Thinkers50-recognised podcast where square pegs find their place in a world of round holes. Hosted by Aidan McCullen, author of Undisruptable, it brings you conversations with world-class authors, scientists and practitioners on disruption, innovation, change, transformation and leadership.

Website: https://theinnovationshow.io

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