How to make innovative thinking your competitive advantage with Carla Johnson

Innovation Talks

Carla Johnson is a global keynote speaker, author, marketing and innovation strategist, and innovation architect. She is the author of RE:Think Innovation: How the World's Most Prolific Innovators Come Up with Great Ideas that Deliver Extraordinary Outcomes. Carla was formerly the Programme Director of Digital Marketing at HARBOUR.SPACE and the Director of Media Relations and Employee Communications at Time Warner Telecom. She has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is a graduate of the Influence / ICAN Leadership Institute. On a mission to teach one million people how to become innovative thinkers, Carla has partnered with leaders and Fortune 500 brands to train thousands of people to rethink the work they do and make an impact.

Carla joins me today to discuss fostering a culture of innovative thinking and turning it into a competitive advantage. She explains how observing the world around us can increase creative thinking. She outlines the six innovation archetypes and explains how understanding these archetypes can improve teamwork and idea generation in organizations. Carla also highlights the bottom-up approach to building a culture of original thinking and innovation and underscores the role of structured processes in idea generation and problem-solving.

“Innovation really is everybody's business and we all have the ability to contribute if we just understand how.” - Carla Johnson

This week on Innovation Talks:

● Carla’s background and work as an innovation architect

● How design architects did design thinking before it became popular

● How creatives and innovators are perceived differently in organizations

● Connecting emotions to products and user experiences

● The relationship and difference between innovation and creativity

● Why creativity is undervalued in organizations

● How observing the world can fuel creativity and innovation

● RE:Think Innovation and Carla’s goal to teach a million people to become innovative thinkers

● The six innovation archetypes and their application to teams and organizations

● The importance of culture-shapers and storytellers in today’s companies

● How diversity can make innovative ideas powerful

● Bringing empathy into the innovation process

Resources Mentioned:

● Book: Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp

Related Episode:

● RE:Think innovation with Carla Johnson

Connect with Carla Johnson:

● Carla Johnson Website

● The RE:Think Lab Newsletter

● Book: RE:Think Innovation: How the World's Most Prolific Innovators Come Up with Great Ideas that Deliver Extraordinary Outcomes

● Book: Union Pacific and Omaha Union Station

● Carla Johnson on LinkedIn

● Carla Johnson on Instagram

● Carla Johnson on Twitter

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