Jeff DeGraff

The power of diversity and teams

“One size never fits all, so throw out your checklist.”— Jeff degraff

Innovation is a form of positive deviance. It’s the opposite of standard operating procedures, which align your organization, creating efficiency and quality. But if you want something new, you need to tap the creative power of constructive conflict. You need to have people in your organization with diverse views, skills, and experiences, who can take different approaches to creating value. This session will introduce you to a new way of thinking about diversity and how to make it work for you: how to identify the strategic situation, its appropriate culture and competencies, and specific leadership practices necessary to produce growth.

Connecting the dots of innovation: making collaborative innovation work where you work

“Innovation seldom fails in a function or region. It fails in the handoffs between them.”— Jeff degraff

Innovation used to be confined to the realm of tech. Now vertical approaches to innovation—such as tech centers, stage-gate systems, and product portfolios—are expected to operate in sync with horizontal federations like idea markets, creativity clusters, and collaborative open-innovation networks. The key to successfully leading innovation is to develop a new mindset and shared language to connect the dots. This way marketing knows what manufacturing is doing, and dallas knows what shanghai is doing, all without the extensive data inputs and outputs. In this dynamic and compelling session, jeff will show how to sync up your innovation strategies and practices to achieve your goals and create value.

Doing the creative work the company can’t

“The most creative work your people do is in the coffee shop across the street.” — Jeff degraff

Are your people doing their most creative work at work? While the motion picture industry was developing ever more sophisticated innovation methods, pixar was meeting in a local cafe. If you’re focusing on complex development processes, micromanaging new product portfolios or tormenting designers with a dizzying array of metrics, your most creative people walk out of your door every day—unnoticed, uninspired, and untapped. So how can an organization make innovation happen? In this lively and compelling session, jeff focuses on the creative development of the person: how they feel, how they think and how you should act to encourage individuals to design and follow their own creative path.

Innovation you: four steps to becoming new and improved

“The greatest innovation you create is yourself.” Jeff degraff

One day it hits you: the game has changed. You no longer feel like you are growing. What if you were a product or a service? How do you make yourself better or new? You would do an inventory of what gives you energy and what takes it. You would assess your real strengths and weaknesses. You would, in short, innovate. In this lively and inspirational session, jeff shows the best practices from the most innovative organizations in the world. Their strategies and tactics will be explained, and more importantly, how they can be applied to make yourself new and improved, and help others do the same.