Darin Eich, Ph.D.

Visualize Your Innovative Future

Darin Eich — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:14:14 +0000

Innovation inspires motivation!

Innovation is a motivator to take action. We love to come up with that new idea. We love to figure out how to do something better, or solve a problem. We love to take these opportunities and make something positive happen.

So, what is your reason to innovate? What kind of future do you want to realize? What’s your innovation vision? In this activity, you will visualize a very positive image of your future. This will help you think about your “innovation for what.”

Think about an innovation challenge you want to work on. Hopefully you’ve already done a little bit of research and thought about the problems and opportunities that were presented by this challenge. Get this challenge in your mind.

Dream it and see it in your mind.

Now…pretend it is one year from now. Imagine you successfully innovated in response to this challenge. You spent the time to develop some ideas, turn them into concepts and launch them. What was the result of all that work? What does your mind see?

What happened? What does the future look like now? What is your work like? What is your group like? What is your organization like?

In what areas have things become better or different?

Pretend we are meeting one year from now. Visualize yourself reporting on how excellent the last year has been. What is your innovation vision, and what is the result you imagine? Write your vision down. Think of it like a YouTube highlight video. What would be in that video? Capture the thoughts your mind is giving you. This is your vision of an innovation future.

Share your innovation vision.

Now that you have an innovation vision, share it with your colleagues. Get them on board. Have conversations with other people to get their suggestions and opinions. It is important to involve other people, including your stakeholders, colleagues, and students.

Use this opportunity to start the innovation program to develop ideas to realize this future vision!

This article is taken from the online video-based program Program Innovation. Sign up for a free sample workshop from the program here, see details on the full program at ProgramInnovation.com, and see other programs, speeches, and more at DarinEich.com.

Why Innovate? Respond to Change Naturally.

Darin Eich — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:15:37 +0000

Responding to Change

In many cases, we need to innovate because we must respond to some kind of change.

This change could be something we perceive as bad and we want to fix. It could be something we don’t know whether it is bad or good. It could be something we know is good, so we need to seize the opportunity. Change is natural and so can be responding to it with growth and innovation.

One thing we don’t want to do is just stay the same, not respond to change, and wither or become like that unused, dusty cassette tape you have. Not doing something when innovation is needed is often the worst option. As we know, change is always happening and is increasing at a rapid pace, making innovation important on a continuous basis.

The Frog Metaphor

I’ve heard a metaphor story that relates to our need to respond to change. Let’s think about why we need to take action to change by looking at the frog. Frogs like water. This frog is in a pot of water at room temperature. In this pot, the frog is comfortable, so he’ll hang out there. But if we take the frog out and put it into a pot of water that’s boiling, it’s a shock. The frog will jump out of there right away!

Now, let’s put the frog back into a pot that’s at room temperature, where the frog is comfortable. If we turn on the burner to slowly heat the water, increasing the temperature slowly but surely bringing it to a boil, what happens?

Sooner rather than later, the frog becomes frog soup. He never saw the clear-cut need to jump out of the pot. He never had a direct signal to change, and it crept up on him gradually.

Always Be Innovating!

This is why we need to always be innovating. We may not always get thrown into a pot of boiling water and need to jump or respond but I think many of us can feel the heat as it creeps up. In this case it is better to react sooner rather than later. We need to always be thinking about innovation by rooting down and branching out in our lives; by generating new ideas; by responding to change.

Don’t conduct the frog experiment at home…but do conduct the oak tree experiment…always growing and changing through the seasons by rooting down and branching out. Innovation is a powerful thing. It is also a natural thing. We are designed to grow and change.

The Innovation System: 7 Steps to Developing Innovative Ideas

Darin Eich — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:38:55 +0000

To successfully innovate and develop our ideas to high-impact levels, we need to approach it with systems thinking and go through stages.

After working on innovation projects with a lot of organizations and institutions; reading many books, articles, and blogs; and launching my own innovations on a frequent basis, I’ve synthesized an innovation system that helps you see your ideas come to life with impact.

Starting new things is not easy. New things fail all the time, so we need to increase our opportunity for success. A more scientific and systematic approach is the answer.

The Innovation System

7 Steps to Developing Innovative Ideas

This innovation system is a process we go through stage-by-stage, step-by-step, activity-by-activity.

Clarify the challenge. Research to identify problems and opportunities. Start with a meaningful challenge, and gain insight. Get the opinion of the people you serve. What do they think the problems, challenges and opportunities are? We need this diversity of views to get a clear idea of what the challenge really is. You probably know what a lot of these people think, and you probably know how to get that information from them.
Formulate questions. Break that challenge down. Turn it into a series of questions, and organize them from more general to more specific. A large number of general questions will lead to a small number of specific questions.
Generate ideas. Use those questions to generate ideas. Gather a lot of them. Generate them yourself, and gather them from outside sources. Observe what ideas arise, but don’t judge them yet.
Analyze and synthesize ideas. Sort these ideas out once you have a lot of them. Throw them into a funnel to narrow them down. Sift and winnow. Go from a ton of ideas to the ones you want to really develop.
Develop concepts. Flesh out your ideas a bit more. Develop those best ideas into full-blown concepts.
Test and select concepts. Now you’re getting close to launching your innovation. Test out the concepts that remain to see if some are better than others. See how your stakeholders feel about these concepts.
Communicate and advance. Communicate to everyone else about your best concept. You are ready to take action and launch it. Get it out into the world!

Innovation never stops, so keep working on it. Activate your idea and keep working through the innovation process to keep making it better. Start over again with the open loop of innovation. The best way to innovate successfully is to make active and continuous innovation a part of your culture.

Innovating the Keynote Speech: A New Experimental Higher Impact Approach

Darin Eich — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:13:27 +0000

A Different Kind of Keynote Speech

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” -Benjamin Franklin

I’m experimenting with innovating the way opening or keynote speeches happen at events to have a higher impact on the attendees. I want to involve them, help them build relationships and accomplish something meaningful to them within 50 minutes. I’ve developed a new kind of keynote speech for that purpose. As a speaker, my role is more facilitator who facilitates activities instead of just lecturing. It is an innovative experience for the audience that they get to co-create.

Visit my speeches and workshops page to see the different types of creative keynote speeches that get the audience speaking, communicating, engaging, and collaborating. This improvisational style can be much more effective because it is about the people in the audience taking action…not passively sitting and listening. The members of the audience actually connect and create and it leads to a more productive conference or program.

This is a clip from a student leadership conference at a university. This style can be even more effective with professionals. Interested in innovation, leadership development, and learning? Subscribe to my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hWQ7A

Blogging and the Future of Higher Ed

Darin Eich — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:23:57 +0000

What is important in higher ed right now?

Recently, we have been working to really think about what is important in higher education right now. For the last few months, we’ve been looking at various aspects of higher ed as we build our new site, UniversityWebinars.org, and one thing we’ve seen again and again is the importance of higher ed-focused blogs. Everyone from students to college and university faculty look to blogs for the plethora of diverse and unique perspectives with which they write. Blogs help us to understand the present and see the future of higher education. It is a rapidly changing time for students, faculty, and staff as well as higher education innovators.

Saying that blogs are important is one thing, but understanding why is another. With the overwhelming amount of information out there, someone needs to help separate the wheat from the chaff. While we were able to find plenty of lists that recommended higher ed blogs for different reasons, we wanted to do the leg-work behind putting all the best – and current – blogs in one place. So we did exactly that!

Methodology Explained

I explained our methodology in a previous post, but the basic idea is this: we took a list of 200+ higher ed blogs that were already recommended, added a few of our own picks, and then analyzed each of the blogs at various levels. We looked at everything from relevance of content and connection with the community to uniqueness of perspective and more. Once we had a refined list, we published that on UniversityWebinars.org.

After that, we took our shortlist and spent a lot of time really looking for the best gems among them. My team and I took this information and voted on which blogs should make the cut. Naturally, there were some disputes, which were solved with one-on-one conversations about the individual votes.

The result was this top 25 post, listing the best of the best in higher ed blogging over at UniversityWebinars.org. But this isn’t the end. I want to take our work even farther to continue learning about what really matters in higher education. After all, innovation wouldn’t be innovation without constant learning!

So, what’s next?

Well, there are really two things we would like to do for starters.

Communicate with bloggers to learn about what’s changing in higher education. To innovate and learn, you need to know where change is happening, as well as where there is room for change. My team and I plan on spending time communicating with bloggers both on this top 25 list and on our extended shortlist to hear their voices and the voices of their readers.
Survey bloggers, students and higher education professionals. We want to learn not only what is important to bloggers, what what is important to students learning in higher ed environments and higher ed professionals providing that content.

Once we communicate with bloggers and spend some time surveying students and higher ed professionals, we’ll have a better idea of what next steps need to be taken in order to continue providing innovate resources and help university professionals not only adapt to the rapid pace of change in higher education, but leverage it.

The Best of the Best in Higher Ed Blogging

You can also view the entire list of top higher education blogs here.

How To Hack Your Own Higher Education… For FREE

Darin Eich — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:18:33 +0000

Innovation in Higher Education

With tight budgets, busy lifestyles and demanding employers, having a solid education is more important now than ever. The last few years have seen an explosion in the increasing cost of a college education. Don’t fear, there is also an explosion of cost-saving opportunities for a world class education. With the rapid growth of education technology, online learning resources to serve this higher education need have also seen explosive growth, including UniversityWebinars.org, Coursera, Udacity and edX. But with a sea full of higher ed videos, many of which come from colleges like Harvard and Stanford, where do you start?

With all of the online courses, university videos, lectures, and seminars available to you, it is key that you drive the vehicle of your own learning. You are more in control now so take advantage and be effective for your own personal growth and development. Innovative programs can help you to reflect and strategize to create your own plan unique to you. Watching university videos is great, but it’s not enough. You need to apply this new knowledge to enhance your learning and development. Don’t just watch, do! Here are some tips to do just that.

8 Tips for learning from free education courses, programs, & videos

Create something useful. Watch a video, and actually create something from it! When you know you are working to create something, you will listen much more attentively.
Journal. Reflection is a powerful technique for learning. Describe what you are learning, and apply that knowledge.
Have a project. Pick a relevant project to apply your knowledge. Maybe you already have a big project, and what you learn from the video can help.
Build your own program. Don’t just watch one video; do a series and integrate them together for your own development. Think of it like assembling a variety of courses to create your own program. You can also combine this self-built program with already existing personal development programs, like Create Your Path.
Have a partner. Don’t do it alone. Go through the video programs with a friend or colleague. Share your insights with each other.
Teach someone something. Before you start your next video program, think about who you would like to teach. Who else could benefit from what you are about to learn? Accepting the challenge of teaching will help you internalize the information on a deeper level.
Learn from those who came before you. Research already exists on how to design your experience so that you have a high impact. My book Root Down & Branch Out: Best Practices for Leadership Development Programs details the best practices for designing programs for learning.
Go mobile! Short on free time? Want to learn on the go? Use your phone, tablet or other mobile device to participate on your time.

About the author: Darin J. Eich, Ph.D. is a keynote speaker and founder of many educational innovations like University Training and this Innovation Program.

Recommended Higher Ed Blogs for University Faculty & Staff

Darin Eich — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:38:25 +0000

If you would like to improve or innovate within higher education, blogs and university video sites should be a source you turn to for ideas, news, and trends. You probably already read journals in your field (where articles are validated, but not very recent) and publications like the Chronicle of Higher Education. For new ideas and nearly real-time news, follow twitter, linkedin, Facebook, and other social media sources. I like to read blogs, because they integrate a lot of social media and traditional publication news sources…plus they tend to be more creative, personal, and fun to read. Many times, the posts are short, summarizing, synthesizing and helpful if you want to innovate in higher education.

Our Method

In 2012, we began looking at higher ed blogs as a key resource. In order to help separate the wheat from the chaff, we evaluated the blogs we came across, creating a list of the best ones. The blogs we found cover a wide range of topics and perspectives, but our methodology stayed the same. To create this list, we analyzed blogs at two different levels.

Level 1: We generated a list of over 200 higher ed blogs that we found already recommended by other sources. With this list in hand, we reviewed each blog one at a time, noting the ones we would recommend.
Level 2: Our editors visited the recommended higher ed blogs, assessing them for content quality & quantity, post frequency, comment volume and engagement with the higher ed reader community. They also looked a variety of other factors, including relevancy, helpfulness, insight, design, reputation and more.

Blogs can be a great source for current information, and much of the content is focused on helping you learn and adapt to the future of higher education. Many of the blogs I follow share college and university trends, including tips, tools, techniques, personal experiences, and thoughts for improving how students are educated and how higher education institutions are operated. Give our list a look and let us know in the comments your favorites and if there is a higher ed blog you would like to suggest too.

Here’s the list of top higher education blogs from UniversityWebinars.org.

Higher Ed Blogs for College Professionals

Finding & Building Personal Artifacts to Gain Wisdom, Perspective, and Direction

Darin Eich — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:55:08 +0000

Previously in the Create Your Path program, we identified your passionate interests and strengths. By listing or using the Mind Map activity, you mapped those interests and strengths out to create a visual representation of you. Now, we want to essentially zoom out in order to zoom back in and bring it all together. The goal at this point is to identify which artifacts show your specific strengths, interests and/or values in action. We want to either find an artifact you have already created – perhaps without knowingly building an artifact – or create a new one that represents your experiences.

What is an artifact? Here is how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it:
a : something created by humans usually for a practical purpose; especially : an object remaining from a particular period
b : something characteristic of or resulting from a particular human institution, period, trend, or individual

We can create our own artifacts that visually show our own lives. An artifact is helpful, because it helps both us and others to understand through the visual or object. In our digital era, an artifact could be a webpage, comic, blog post, audio file, slide, or video. Artifacts like these are easy to create and equally powerful to help you understand and share your story.

At the next level, you can be purposeful about your creation and use of your personal artifacts. I recommend using your artifact to show and tell the story of your strengths, interests and values in action. They are great to include in portfolios, or to bring to interviews and presentations. An artifact will make it easy to portray that story to others. The most important thing is to gain more insight and clarity into these aspects of you that are working together, how they fit together, and how they align to create a flow experience where you are at your best. Maybe your artifact showcases one of those key experiences we looked at earlier in the Create Your Path program.

This article is taken from the online video-based program Create Your Path. Sign up for a free sample workshop from the program here, see details on the full program at InnovateYourself.com, and see other programs, speeches, and more at DarinEich.com

Tools for Self-Understanding: Inventories, Assessments, & Surveys

Darin Eich — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:26:41 +0000

At some point, you have probably taken a survey, or maybe even used a fun app to help you gain a greater understanding of yourself. Maybe you played the “true colors” board game. Perhaps you’ve done the popular Myers-Briggs (MBTI Personality Assessment) at a college workshop. When I did the MBTI I found out my personality type was ENFP (extroverted, intuitive, feeling, and perceiving). There are a number of assessments, inventories, and questionnaires that can help you gain awareness about who you are and identify what categories you fit in best. These personality, strength, style, skill, and value assessments can be excellent starters and clarifiers for self-understanding.

It seems like you can do a quick survey to learn about yourself in almost any way – from fun things like which animal or Star Wars character are you, to things that will help you on your career path, shedding light on your behavior, psychology, satisfaction, intelligence, personality, leadership, group style, social style, or emotional intelligence. Here are some assessments that are respected and widely used that you may have done or may wish to use in the future.

Positive Psychology Questionnaires (Character Strengths, Happiness, Optimism, etc.)
Myers-Briggs (MBTI Personality Assessment)
StrengthsFinder 2.0
Index of Learning Styles
Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)
DISC personality test
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)
Strong Interest Inventory (SII)
Enneagram Personality System
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI)
Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values Assessment (PIAV)

The real opportunity here is to continually get more specific. For instance, “ideation” is one of my StrengthsFinder 2.0 strengths. That is helpful, but not super helpful. I took that strength and listed twenty more specific strengths I have just within ideation, including group brainstorming, listing many ideas quickly, creating metaphors, improvising stories, etc. If you would like to create a focused path, take the results of your inventories, and ask yourself, “more specifically, what about that?”

Discover and Use your Personal Strengths and Valuable Skills to Create your Life

Darin Eich — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:11:40 +0000

How are you using knowledge of your strengths and skills to create your future?

Create your life and career path from your strengths and high level skills. I find a personal strengths or “valuable skills” focus to be particularly valuable in life if we can build upon and use them in conjunction with our passionate interests. You see, you may have passionate interests that you’re not particularly strong or skilled in. For example, I loved basketball for years, but I wasn’t very good at it. Bummer. Making it to the NBA isn’t a path I should create. Luckily there are many intersections Ultimately, you want to identify those areas of interest that align closely with your strengths. Identify at least five of your strengths, without judgement. Come up with them quickly. What are you most valuable skills? Think about those things you’re skilled at doing. Close your eyes, and see what comes to mind. Now go for 10.

For me, those strengths come out when thinking about the experiences we looked at earlier in the Create Your Path program and articles. I remember specifically the strength or skill of group facilitation came to mind. Keep reflecting on and going back to those key life experiences you’ve already had to unearth your strengths from them. In most of your peak life moments you will see you were wielding your strengths and most valuable skills. If you reflect on the big picture of many life moments, maybe you see some strengths you utilized from your own hero’s journey that used again and again.

Just like with the passionate interests activity, it is not enough to create your path just based on what you are good at. You can be skilled at or strong in a particular area, but if you are not passionately interested in it, you will not feel happy or satisfied. For instance, my first job out of college was as an account executive. It was a sales position. I was great at it and getting promoted rapidly and exceeding exceeding expectations. But I was not passionate about it. Nor did I feel that doing what I did was mattering in a meaningful way for society as a whole. So I created my path in a different direction. It is strengths + passionate interests + values! One is not enough! Creating your path is integrating!