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Praveen Gupta

Commentary by Praveen Gupta

Email and RSSSubscribe via Email or RSS   |   Praveen Gupta's Biography Biography
April 6, 2007
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Teaching Innovation

Innovation is not a new phenomenon. People know about how to innovate but to be able to do it meaningfully for society is a different story. Rate of change in our society, business products, services and even consumer demand for personalized solutions has created a need for a lot more innovation. Basically innovation is feeding more innovation. It is like an innovation explosion.

However, businesses have not figured out how to exploit innovation systemically. In order to institutionalize innovation, people must be able to learn, and teach. The challenge I see that there is no formal way of teaching innovation. I investigated university websites including Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, and Kellogg School of Management. I had difficulty finding a course on innovation except that Innovation Design Forum at Berkeley Innovation and Managing Innovation Process course through MIT Open Course Ware. Other universities may have a course, but I am unable to find it. Maybe, they are keeping it a secret.

Berkeley Innovation is a student run Product Design group stimulating innovation through creativity and teamwork. The MIT course on managing innovation is a systemic approach to business innovation. The MIT course addresses issues such as organizational, communication, evolution, leadership, and individual motivation. Berkeley Innovation prescribes a step by step approach.

I would be interested in knowing from readers if they are aware of a course that offers a system of innovation and predictable results. It would be great to learn about differences among various methods of teaching innovation. I can't wait to hear from you.


Comments [42] | Permalink
Categories: Methodology

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posted by  Terry April 7, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I don't know of any courses, but I was wondering if you could share the URL for the Berkeley Innovation websinte. Thanks!
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] April 7, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Terry:

Here is the link to Berkeley's Innovation website:

http://innovation.berkeley.edu/


Thanks,

praveen
 


posted by  Yatin April 10, 2007 at 0:50 am
Praveen,Could you please also share the URL of Managing Innovation Process course of MIT?

What's Open Course Ware?
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] April 10, 2007 at 6:45 am
Yatin:

Here is the link:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-351Managing-the-Innovation-ProcessFall2002/CourseHome/index.htm

Open Course Ware is a set of courses made available to public at no cost!
 


posted by  Prakash April 12, 2007 at 2:26 am
Praveen: I was on the lookout for anything and everything related to innovation for last couple of years, including who is teaching innovation. The very reason because my passion to innovation and ambition to do something on this full time. However, what I learned during this process of searching "who is teaching innovation", I realized that innovation is something I have to teach myself. This posting may sound unrealistic to you, because you are already teaching innovation to high profile students. But I think the word innovation is like galaxy, and business innovation, product innovation etc are just small stars. In my role with the current organization, my job is to teach "matured" engineers "how" to innovate. I feel it is more like I'm asking them how to think. But, they will never think that if they don't want to think. On the "how" to part, I believe in the role of tools and techniques like TRIZ helping me learning innovation better.
Appreciate your comments..
Thanks
Prakash
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] April 12, 2007 at 6:58 am
Hi Prakash:

Thanks for your comments with many good thoughts. Yes, it fist sounds ironic to say teaching innovation. I did a lot of research on the topic of innovation in order to develop a process that can be taught with predictable results. Yes, it involves thinking process using left and right hemisphere. Besides, we also must recognize that innovation process is evolutionary, always builds on something.

My course is based on the book Business Innovation in the 21st Century, which has three parts. Evolution of Innovation, Understanding Innovation, and Institutionalizing Innovation. Evolution of innovatin looks at conventional methods, benchmarks with Einstein's thinking, and Edison's methodology to create innovative solutions on demand. I will be willing to share the syllabus for my course at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Students love it, and yes it teaches them the thinking process. Isn't it what we need to do more, THINK?

As to TRIZ, I recognize TRIZ is an excellent rule based methodology for developing innovative solutions, however, more work is needed in terms of developing basic process of innovation that empowers people and frees up thinking with minimum rules to explore the 'galaxy'' of universe in brain.

I hope I gave some information about innovation. If you need I can provide the syllabus that might help you in teaching innovation at your organization.

Praveen
 


posted by  Prakash April 12, 2007 at 9:39 am
Thanks, Praveen. Appreciate your comments. I would certainly like to see your successful way of teaching people about innovation syllabus. I do believe that we can teach innovation, especially because G. Altshuller made a very interesting statement, "creativity is not a born gift; every engineer can learn to be innovative". However, from my experience with the engineers, I realized that I should try to teach them how they should learn themselves to innovate. I'm experimenting with this by bringing "problem solving" as the key word instead "innovation". (With a hope that solving a tough problem should result in innovation) Techniques like 6 thinking hat, TRIZ and MindMap being used in this context. I'm not sure about the success it may bring. The context here however is different than students you have. For organization the mindset is that the ROI even before implementing the process. I think an organization success is only if they have a mindset of “experiment first" rather than "implement first".

I'm curious to know how you are teaching thinking process, this is where I'm still struggling to find solutions.
The following quote (piece of song) is something that I have in my email signature.. Hope you can get a feel now.. :)

"People will agree with you only if they already agree with you, you do not change people's minds" - Frank Zappa.
Please use the email ID prakasan_k@mindtree.com for sending anything.

Best,

Prakash
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] April 12, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Prakash:

Actually, as I have learned that everyone is born creative. The evidence of being born creative is that we do not do anything twice exactly the same way. The challenge is direct our creativity towards a purpose. Innovation is defined as cretivity applied, and business innovation is defined as innovation to create significant value.

To facilitate innovative thinking, I use a method called GCSF, i.e., Good, Crazy, Stupid and Funny. I described this methodology in the article at http://www.qualitydigest.com/mar07/articles/04_article.shtml

I like the idea of experiment first before implement. One must tryout and adapt any methodology before adopting it.

Syllabus is on its way to your email.

Praveen
 


posted by  Kevin April 13, 2007 at 8:04 am
Praveen,
I am currently writing a draft for a two-day workshop to help teachers employ "innovative teaching strategies" or be "innovative teachers" at the primary and secondary level.

I too would like to see your syllabus if you would share.
EMAIL: dks_dolphin@yahoo.com

I will also look at the article you referenced above.

Thanks for this interesting conversational string.

-Kevin
 


posted by  Nikolai Khomenko April 29, 2007 at 5:23 am

Just information about fundamental educational program Advanced Master of Innovative Design

http://www.insa-strasbourg.fr/triz/amid.php
 


posted by  Parag P Khedkar May 7, 2007 at 6:33 am
I agree with Mr. Praveen's statement, "Everybody is born creative" how ever as we grow up, our educaiton system only stifles our creativity. We are taught more of "what is not possible". When we enter in indusrty this is futher reinforced. Here the method is slightly different, it is like "this is how we have been doing it since last 20 years".
How ever creativity and innovation is essentailly required in business and industry.
In engineering education one method to build innovative skills could be to encourage experimentation. The Laboratories should be left open to students, more and more projects should be encouraged. The students should be encouraged to go beyond the syllabus. Students should design their own experiments. There is a famous quote "Creative person performs best in an exam where the question paper is left blank".
Teaching innovation in industry is relatively difficult. In industry the innovation process is more driven by the culture of the organisation, which is very difficult (if not impossible) to change. It calls for a serious commitment from top management for innovation.

Request Mr. Praveen Gupta to kindly mail the syllabus to me also at parag.khedkar@cgl.co.in.
Regards
Parag P Khedkar
 


posted by  Allison June 9, 2007 at 1:57 am
Praveen,

I too would like to see your syllabus. Please email to milleraa@uci.edu.

Thank you,

Allison
 


posted by  Khairul June 15, 2007 at 7:46 am
have a visit at http://www.systematic-innovation.com
 


posted by  Melissa March 12, 2008 at 3:59 am
Praveen,

Please email me a copy of your your syllabus to melissa dot koch at sri dot com

Thank you,

Melissa
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] March 12, 2008 at 8:14 am
Done! If anyvody else needs the syllabus for innovation course being taught at IIT Chicago (www.iit.edu), just ask here.

It is a free service!

- Praveen
 


posted by  John March 13, 2008 at 11:09 am
Hello Praveen,

I too would like to see your syllabus. Please email to tohfay@yahoo.com.

Thank you,

John
 


posted by  mike Lafond May 7, 2008 at 8:54 am
Hi:

I would like a copy as well please. I am a high school manufacturing technology teacher in southern ontario canada. Like most manufacturing based economies in north america we are sufferling here as well. Low value added jobs are disappearing. I believe our salvation will be to graduate students who can innovate. The problem is how to go about teaching it.

mike
 


posted by  Sandy September 9, 2008 at 9:17 am
Hi,
Plsz give me guidance to design a courseware to follow to teach english conversation. My students r sponsored by an NGO and we r encouraging them to learn english as they have a low level knowledge of the language and very shy to speak the language.

Plsz help me sos-thanks and do appreciate.
Sandy
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] September 16, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Hi Sandy,

You are doing a great community service.

I would include activity based learning, and give students challenge to create or find words rather than telling them. After years of teaching or facilitating, I have learned that making learning a little struggle helps students think more and retain longer.

Best wishes,

Praveen
 


posted by  Alistar Harris October 9, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hi Praveen,

I would like a copy of your syllabus also. I am teaching a short course in innovation at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business, in collaboration with the Raymond Ackerman Academy, to young entrepreneurs.

Im also preparing the students to compete in the Global Entrepreneurship Week, which happens in November this year.

Thanks for your help.

Alistar

alistar.harris@gmail.com
 


posted by  rajaram October 14, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Hi Praveen
I also would like to have a copy of the syllabus.
Thanks a lot
Rajaram
(rajaramv@yahoo.com)
 


posted by  Marie October 30, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Hi Praveen,

I also would like to have a copy of the syllabus.

Thanks,
Marie

rejoicing03@yahoo.com
 


posted by  Ryan November 9, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Inm Australia there is a Bachelor of Entrepreneurship which fosters the teaching of Innovation

It is run by RMIT University in Melbourne.
 


posted by  Albert December 15, 2008 at 9:33 pm
We are "born creative" because we don't know how others think we should do things, or what things were designed to be used. We find a use that meets our desire. Being innovative is a duplication of that process, use/do things in a way that meets our desires and needs, not necessarily how they were designed by others or how others expect them to be used. Just like an enfant, experiment with every idea. "What would I like to do with this?" "What can I use to accomplish my desire?" "What if I used this, to accomplish, that?"
Do you think we can teach innovation by having our students ask and answer these types of questions at every session and let their ideas evolve?
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] December 15, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Hi Albert,

Asking questions is a prerequisite to be creative and innovative. In my Business Innovation class students are required to ask questions.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions.

Praveen
 


posted by  Pere Losantos January 13, 2009 at 7:48 am
Hello Praveen,

Pretty interesting conversation.

From Barcelona, Spain, I'm interested on how can we teach innovationto primary and secondary school.

The two current focus are on the two issues that worries european comission: lack of entrepreneur people and of scientific and engineer interest at secondary school. Several reports on those topics, but not really on innovation for children and teenagers, if it can be taught.

I also would like to have a copy of the syllabus.

Thanks,
Pere
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] January 16, 2009 at 10:45 am
Dear Pere,

I do see Europe pursuing innovation, and EU members asked to have Innovation policy, etc. Most schools/colleges teach entrepreneurship but not innovation. Without innovation entrepreneurship can not go very far. So, we do need to teach innovation.

At to teaching innovation to kids, we need to drive more mental exercises, and avoid technology that retards fundamental development of basic mental skills, i.e., language, math, art, and communication. Then, we simply create environment for creativity through play. As they learn innovation at the early age, then entrepreneurship at later stage would be very helpful.

I have learned the simple creativity technique, that is combining two or more things uniquely. An active mind continually does this, and thus is more likely to be an innovative mind.

Actually, I was in Portugal releasing my book in Portuguese, and very soon it would be available in Spanish language as well. Maybe, see you then, if I get to go to release the book.

Could you provide an email address to send the syllabus?

Thanks,
Praveen
 


posted by  Nelson Pizarro January 19, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hello Praveen:

Is your book in spanish out in the market? Could you please send me your syllabus?

pizarron@everegreen.edu

 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://accelper.com ] January 19, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Hi Nelson,

The Spanish version would be released sometime around June this year. Portuguese version of the Business Innovation book was released in Nov 08.

I tried to send the syllabus at the email that you provided. But it bounced. Do you have another email for sending the syallbus to you.

Best,
Praveen
 


posted by  E. MacRae March 10, 2009 at 9:34 am
Hi Praveen,
I'd like a copy of the syllabus as well. I teach entrepreneurship, but I wouild like to design a new course focused on the the innovation part of the entpreneurship process.

Thanks!
E. MacRae
bs.mba.phd@gmail.com
 


posted by  TChristofero March 10, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Praveen... I, too, am interested in receiving your syllabus. I developed and taught a Management of Technology and Innovation course last fall and would be interested in comparing notes. Thank you...

Tracy Christofero, Ph.D.
christofero@marshall.edu
 


posted by  Erhard Gajewski  [ http://concurrentconcepts.com ] May 13, 2009 at 4:14 pm

Innovation is often triggered by seeing an issue from a different perspective. I have developed a technique that enables voluntarily looking at an issue from multiple perspectives and enables a person to look at an issue from the perspective of a dialog partner. leaders often dewvelop this ability to some extent.
The majority hear a statement and immediately evaluate it in terms of their own position, or in terms of the effects it might have on their interests. When I am facing serious issues, I shift, and view from the speakers perspective. Suddenly the realationship changes and I wind up getting far more usable information that with the standard method of listening. Heart-to heart dialogs are enhanced by this. It can also be very useful in adversarial situations. The adversary will suddenly be seen to be revealing far more of his interests because the shifted perspective enables the picking up of cues that are missed when the head-noise is on. There is a description and references on http://concurerentconcepts.com.
 


posted by  Dwane May 23, 2009 at 2:34 am
Hello Praveen, I'm a learning and development manager in Sydney Australia and would like to design a course on innovation. I came across your discussion here and would be keen to have a look at your syllabus if you could share with me? Thank you so much for your thoughts they have been very stimulating. dwane_hand@hotmail.com
 


posted by  jessica September 4, 2009 at 1:30 am
Hi Praveen,

Could you please also send me a copy of your syllabus?

EMAIL: carloj@mus.edu

Thank you for sharing your insightful comments.

-Jessica
 


posted by  jessica September 4, 2009 at 1:32 am
Hi Praveen,

My email account was spelled wrong.

Could you please send me a copy of your syllabus to:

EMAIL: carloj@msu.edu

Thanks again.

-Jessica
 


posted by  R. Apana September 22, 2009 at 1:34 am
Could you send me a copy of your syllabus please.
Ratee
 


posted by  Sofiane December 18, 2009 at 8:52 am
Hello Praveen,

I too would like to see your syllabus. Please email to soachi@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Sofiane.
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://www.accelper.com ] December 27, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Sofiane,

I have sent you the syllabus.

Thanks,
praveen
 


posted by  Maggie January 6, 2010 at 2:11 am
Praveen,
I have enjoyed this discussion stream. I was wondering if you knew of any references/resources to innovation in healthcare.

Thanks!

Maggie
 


posted by  Praveen Gupta  [ http://www.accelper.com ] January 11, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Hello Maggie,

You ask a good question. Currently every healthcare organization is trying to improve and innovate in order to sustain. However, organizations such as Mayo Clinic, do have their internal innovation initiatives.

As a fact of matter the next issue of the journal I work with is focused on Innovation in Healthcare. Maybe, after that I will have a better answer.

What specific area of healthcare interest you for innovation?

Thanks,
praveen
 


posted by  Gerd Kortuem  [ http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~kortuem/ ] January 19, 2010 at 7:25 am
At Lancaster University in the UK we teach innovation in two programmes:

Our digital Innovation phd programme (http://bit.ly/4tnmNz) goes beyond traditional multi-disciplinary approaches by seeking a creative fusion between three key disciplines, namely computer science, management and design. Our aim is to produce a new breed of innovative people who understand and are able to advance the state of the art in technical, design and business innovation: innovative people prepared to work in challenging roles in organisations and ready to drive radical change in the digital economy.

The second innovation programme is a 1-year MSc programme focused on business and technology innovation (http://bit.ly/5h8CEH). Even though innovation is at the heart at most every module we teach there is also a specific innovation module that focuses on innovation theory, concepts and processes (http://bit.ly/7EZ5PY). Last year I started teaching a new 'Software Innovation' module, a brief and slightly outdated description is available at http://bit.ly/4O62HX. The focus here is on product and process innovation in the software and web space, including current innovation trends, product development in the internet age and commercial exploitation of research.

Both programme are run with heavy industry involvement.
 


posted by  Jeff Sloan March 9, 2010 at 8:49 am
Hello Praveen,

I too would appreciate a copy of e your syllabus. My e-mail is jsprecept@hotmail.com

Thank you,

Jeff
 

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