Dr Leandro Herrero to speak at Imaginatik's Global Forum, February 2010

Dr Leandro Herrero has been invited to provide a keynote speech at Imaginatik's Global Forum in London in 2010.

Entitled "Innovactions Cultures. Viral Innovation and Organisational Transformation: Talk Less, Do More".

Further information will be made available soon.

Dr Leandro Herrero to provide Keynote Speech at Eyeforpharma's 8th Annual SFE Conference in Barcelona, April 2010

Dr Leandro Herrero has once again been invited to provide a keynote speech at eyeforpharma's annual SFE Conference at Hotel Rey Juan Carlos, Barcelona, Spain on 27-29th April 2010. Specifically tailored for the Pharmaceutical Industry, Dr Herrero will provide his presentation entitled: "Viral ChangeTM Inside as overriding core competence: Why speed of business transformation in the era of permanent instability is not negotiable."

If you would like to attend this event, or for further information please go to the following link to view the full brochure http://www.eyeforpharma.com/sales/the-brochure.php

Innovation is a perfect focus for Viral Change- Innovation behaviours Lesson 1

Innovation is a perfect focus for Viral ChangeTM. Defining a relatively small set of ‘innovation behaviours’ that can be copied and spread via a champions community is the fastest way to create a true culture of innovation.

Example: imagine 1000 people systematically asking the question ‘Can it (could it) be done differently? Faster? Cheaper? Better?’ at the end of meetings, at the creation of business plans, at the post-mortem review of projects... Systematically, virally embedded, tipping points created = ‘it is the norm’. A true internal epidemic of curiosity and inquiry. That is an innovation culture.

To look at Google (which I like big time anyway) or 3M as a ‘model of innovation culture’ is plain distraction, very well spread by people who don’t have much to say about innovation...

[Ages ago in my previous life I attended several Business School Executive courses. It was customary at that time to show videos of Saint Jack Welch, then CEO of GE, and hundreds of slides about how clever ABB was . I promised that if I found myself in another forum where Jack Welch was mentioned I would walk out. So I did several times. It seemed to me that the invocation to the Saint was ALL people had to say about managing things properly (and I had lots of question marks on this by the way). Today, many years later, I am about to make the same promise to myself of walking out of innovation conferences/meetings/presentations where 3M-cum-post-Its is brought in. I could be more tolerant with Google since there is a lot to learn and the presenter may, after all, surprise me but please, please, could presenters/speakers/so-called-gurus get at least a bit deeper in the famous example of the 15% or 20% time that those employees enjoy, to ‘their own projects’?? Most people still think that this is ‘the answer to innovation’, without realising how ‘strict’ this rule is to companies that use it... OK, digression as usual, I am coming back.]

A typical ‘lesson 1’ I use in workshops/preparations/uncovering non negotiable behaviours work in the innovation/viral change area is the discussion around the saying ‘When the only thing you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. Seth’s blog post expands it in an interesting angle looking at publishing. As usual, it is difficult to put it better than Seth.
Seth's Blog: Hammer time


PS. My new book ‘Innovactions: escaping the me-too company’ – where I address innovation from the behavioural+viral side - wont be ready until February, sorry!

Almost hilarious comments to the article' Let’s Kill “Viral”: It’s Time For a New Word

Tech Crunch has published an article entitled: Lets kill viral, it is time for a new word

Written by guest post author Adam L. Penenberg, who is the author of the book Viral Loop. Mr Penenbergs complains that his publisher wants to change the title to ‘Share’ because they are worried about the negative connotations of Viral in the context of H1N1 flue or swine flu as we call it ‘over here’.

Probably with good intentions, if naïve, he declares that it is time to kill ‘Viral’ and asks the audience/readership for alternative terms. The comments, long list, are mostly hilarious. Only one or two out of dozens and dozens take him seriously. Most think it is a stupid idea. One comment insinuates how cynical it is to try to kill viral and start a sort of viral campaign to look for an alternative name!

Most of the comments are of the sort ‘mock, tease, ridicule or scoff’ which is what Wikipedia tells me I should write down in politically correct style instead of what I wanted to write down. Here is a very short list of alternatives: fungal, orgasmeme, tidal, spamsplosive, avalanche, H1M1, social loops, wildfire marketing, contagious, sticky, parasitic, or herpetic. And this is a small sample.

I have left a humble comment (un-moderated yet) feeling sorry for him and for the publishers decision which I said it has the solidity of a cream cake. Hey, there is nothing better than ‘viral’ and we at Viral Change (TM) practitioners feel very strongly about or brand! Mmmmm, I think we will stick to Viral .... for a few years. The fact that ‘everybody is using viral’, far from a problem, is... good! But there is only one Viral Change (TM)

A long and winding road to successful change? I think not.

Mahatma Gandhi:

"Your beliefs become your thoughts
Your thoughts become your words
Your words become your actions
Your actions become your habits
Your habits become your values
Your values become your destiny."

Let me begin by saying I am no behavioural expert; I am also considerably better at asking questions than providing answers. This said, based on a quick Google search on the subject, it apparently takes an individual 21- to 30-days to successfully entrench a new habit. It all depends on whether the underlying belief can be successfully changed, as illustrated by the words of Gandhi above. My question is this: how long will it take one Change Champion to successfully influence people, and thereby sustainably entrench change in an organisation?

In theory, if one Champion influences 7/10 connections, and those seven influence 3/5, and those three influence 1/3, then "the total impact is 50 well connected-and-infected people" in a mere 63-days (21+21+21)! And if those 50 have the power to infect 2500 people in 21-days - that's 84-days to successful change for 2500 people! Okay, perhaps a bit of a stretch. However, it is definitely feasible that this many people can successfully change their behaviour in six-months.

Are we being served?

We recently had an accident with our car. It wasn't our fault and the other (somewhat tearful) person accepted liability. It all seemed very straightforward... Until the other driver put in her claim form to her insurers blaming us! Since then we have had tens of phonecalls and emails. To her, her insurers, our insurers, our insurance brokers, the repair garage etc. Two weeks after the accident there is no end in sight.
So why am I telling you this sad and often (I am told) repeated saga?
The communication between all the interested parties has been diabolical. I have received three letters from the insurers and two phone calls. All from different people, in different departments with totally contradictory messages. The insurance broker doesn't fill me with confidence when she says 'don't worry they always do that they are just keeping their options open.' I am particularly annoyed as the broker is supposed to deal with the insurer on my behalf and isn't doing!
It's time for a change. In this situation (fortunately for us no-one was injured) someone needs to take control and handle the transactions. If it has to be me, the customer, then so be it. But let me know and I'll stop paying the broker's commission.
We need to move into a world where teams co-operate across disciplines and companies and where there is a sense of responsibility and care. Top down hierarchical companies are doomed to failure. They do not motivate and energise the people within them and they foster labyrinthine reporting structures.