My father told me a joke the other day that went like this.  “An old man and his wife needed some white bread and milk, so the husband decided to go down to the store to buy some.  His wife said “you’d better write it down or you’ll forget what to get.” He of course said he wouldn’t, and even though she’s pressed him to write it down, off he went without doing so.  About 45 minutes later he arrives back with a tub of Vanilla ice-cream – no bread, no milk.  His wife is now clearly annoyed and says “See I told you you should have written it down, I knew you’d forget –

A good friend asked me a while ago about how he could develop better conceptual thinking skills in some of his staff members.  After happily giving him a bit of advice he turned what I'd given him into a simple general guide which he now shares with leadership groups in WA.  I thought you might like it as well..

Innovation is something that every organisation should be well on top of, and with the current debate on Australia's loss of productivity in recent years it is again time to think about what is actually happening.