All posts by Steven Bell

Design Thinking, Uncategorized

Add This Design Journal To Your Reading List

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Given how the interest in design thinking and design is spreading across disciplines (and a few design and UX bloggers noted their surprise at finding an article about design thinking in a library journal), being efficient and effective at capturing all this potentially valuable literature is a significant challenge. Subcribing to the feeds of the better design and UX blogs (see our blogroll) is one way to spot those occasional articles. But to be more systematic a well-designed journal alert approach may work best. So if you wanted to set up a journal (ToC) alert to capture the latest articles on design thinking, UX and related topics, how would you go about it? On what disciplines should you focus your efforts? 

Having access to one or more academic aggregator databases from companies such as ProQuest and EBSCO can certainly help. Not only do they cover hundreds of potential journals in which this literature might appear, but these databases offer two useful alerting systems. First, it’s easy to set up alerts to capture the table of contents (ToC) of those journals with a reputation for publishing articles in the design fields. You might know a few, but how do you discover others? That’s where the second method comes in. The databases also allow the creation of search alerts. I have constructed several search alerts for terms such as “design thinking”, “user experience” and “design strategy”. Whenver articles with these phrases are added to these databases I receive an alert in my e-mail inbox. Once I begin to see a journal that frequently publishes articles about these topics, I create a ToC alert for that specific title. What about Google alerts or RSS feeds for searches created in Yahoo and other engines? They might work also, but it’s likely that the number of irrelevant web sites retrieved from the alerts may make it a less than effective strategy.

As a result of months of screening the major library databases with these search phrases it’s becoming more apparent that one might see an article about design thinking in almost any discipline. However, I’ve noticed one journal in particular that has established itself as one of my must reads. If your library subscribes to the ProQuest ABI/Inform database, you can set up a ToC alert for it there. Design Management Review stands out as a journal that regularly provides insightful and thought-provoking readings about all the topics we cover here at DBL. The most recent issue, fall 2007, features several articles on design as a source of innovation and strategy. One of them, “Innovation in Organizations in Crisis” (Cherkasky and Slobin) has an excellent definition of innovation: finding new ways of creating value and bringing them to life. Simple and elegant. What if you don’t have access to ABI/Inform? The publishers of DMR do provide a listing of the articles in the latest issue on their web site. If you want to be alerted to the latest articles in each new issue, try using a web page change detection service (some are free) to monitor the page. Whenever the DMR article listing page is updated you’ll be notified by e-mail.

I will continue to highlight any publications I come across that are particularly valuable for keeping up with the latest literature and ideas in the fields of design thinking, UX and others of interest to DBL readers. If you have a particular favorite, please share it by way of leaving a comment.

Creativity & Innovation, Design Thinking, Uncategorized

Innovation, Not Information Overload, May Be What 2008 Is All About

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Information overload isn’t just for librarians anymore. As long as I’ve been in this profession, and especially in the past few years, having more information than I can possibly cope with is name of the game. Now everyone else is catching onto the challenges of capturing the most important information, applying it for decision making, and then storing it for future use. While some may think that the new year will be all about dealing with information overload, I think we’ll be focusing more of our attention and energy on stimulating our own innovation. Here are some signs.

First, even the New York Times is providing insight into if not outright advice on how to improve individual and organizational innovation. In a recent article the Times observed that “As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.” This exact point was made in my post about Thinkertoys – that our expertise can blind us to possible solutions and innovative ideas because we are unable to see things from different perspectives.

Second, I recently discovered two excellent pieces about innovation. If you are looking for ideas on how to create an innovation culture in your organization, begin your reading with an Innovation Labs white paper titled “Creating the Innovation Culture: Geniuses, Champions, and Leaders.” According to author Langdon Morris an innvoation culture is one in which innovation happens, and does so consistently over time. He says organizations with innovation cultures have individuals who fill three essential roles:

1) The creative genius whose insights develop into ideas and then into value-adding innovations.
2) The innovation champion who supports innovation by helping creative people to overcome the obstacles that otherwise hamper innovation.
3) The innovation leader who define’s the organization’s expectations and policies so they favor innovation.

After discussing each of these three roles in greater depth, and supporting it with examples from the world of busines, Morris concludes by explaining (via his Innovation Culture Table) that most business practices exist to maintain stability and standardization while extending the status quo. Does that sound like a library for which you’ve worked? If an organization is able to start its innovation culture by bringing together these three roles, then it should begin to remove the obstacles that inhibit the growth of the innovation culture.

Though its scholarly approach (and length) makes for more challenging reading, the article “Innovation as a Learning Process: Embedding Design Thinking” is worthwhile for its attempt to better understand the innovation process by blending ideas about design and learning – two skills set that are of increasing importance to the work of librarians. The article was published in the fall 2007 issue of California Management Review (available on Ebsco). This blending results in a model that explains the innovation process as a set of four stages: 1) observation (contexts); (2) frameworks (insights); (3) imperatives (ideas) and (4) solutions (experiences). The authors, Sara Beckman and Michael Barry, focus more on the work of teams in this article. The learning styles intersect with design within the innovation team itself. The most effective teams include a leader with a concrete experience style, an artist with reflective observation style, a writer with abstract conceptualization style, and a speaker with active experimentation style. These are somewhat foreign sounding learning styles and the authors don’t do much to explain them, but there are a few good case studies which help to clarify things a bit. This is the sort of article that will demand a few more readings.

Perhaps what one can take away from all these articles on innovation is that good innovators are good information managers. They have methods that make the best of information received, and they are good at identifying worthwhile resources, applying appropriate filters to channel the most appropriate information to themselves, then screening the incoming news to identify the most salient information, and ultimately disseminating that information to their colleagues or team members. So for all the talk about 2008 being the year of information overload, I’m going with 2008 as the year of innovation. 

Articles, Creativity & Innovation, Uncategorized

Calling All Creative Librarians

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To make my life even more exciting I’ve signed on to guest edit an issue of Urban Library Journal. But I’m especially excited about this issue because the theme is “The Creative Library.” So I encourage you to consider submitting a proposal or share this with a colleague who you think brings a creative approach to their library work. Here are some suggested themes for articles, but use your creativity in developing an article proposal.

  • Leading creative organizations
  • Fostering creativity in the library
  • Using creativity to resolve complex challenges
  • Creative ways to build great user experiences
  • Developing processes that encourage innovation
  • Creative patron programming for orientations, cultural events, etc.
  • Creative methods to get the library community engaged or passionate about the library
  • Creative techniques for leveraging Web 2.0 technology for connecting with library users

    •  

    If you need more information about the issue or how to submit your proposal, take a look at the full call for proposals.

     

    Design Thinking, Uncategorized

    How A Design Thinking Approach Can Help Librarians

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    That’s what I originally titled a new article I authored for American Libraries. The editors at American Libraries renamed the article “Design Thinking” and published it in the January-February 2008 issue. Some of you may get AL, others can pick up a copy at the American Libraries Association Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia (they give out copies of the latest AL issue there), but if neither of those options works for you I have received permission from the folks at American Libraries (much appreciated!) to make a copy available on my website. I hope you enjoy the article, and look forward to any feedback or comments. I’m always open to your ideas for what I can do better to more effectively communicate about design thinking and its applications for the library profession.

    Articles, Creativity & Innovation, Uncategorized

    Design – It’s About Creating The Options That Do Not Exist

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    Since this is the break week for lots of us I thought I’d keep it light with a few quotes that I came across recently that got me thinking. I could have chosen a line from any of these quotes for the title of this post, but the one I did choose, from Roger Martin, I think speaks best to this blog’s first year of existence. In the past, as a librarian, when it came to the word “design” the only option was a discussion of building interiors or exteriors. DBL has created a new option that, for many, did not previously exist. Now design can enter our vocabulary as a way to discuss a process for thinking about ways to improve our workflow, our services, the way we innovate and the overall user experience we deliver. We hope that reading DBL has changed how you think about the word design, and has provided some new ideas for thinking about how you approach problems and develop the solutions. Thanks for your readership.

    “It does not take vast resources to create buzzworthy experiences. And the events themselves, like the campus visit experience I described, can be commonplace. All it takes is a willingness to identify and enrich key touchpoints, to equip and engage faculty and staff, to train well, and to continually improve. But first, there must be a willingness to change positions with your students, donors, and other audience groups, and to work at seeing those experiences from their perspective.”

    Robert A. Sevier from “Delivering on Your Brand Experience” an article about experience marketing and how it can be used to turn routine experiences into memorable ones.

    “I’ve become conviced that many innovative ideas fail to be commercially successful beacuse we haven’t understood the role of design. Design isn’t decor. At Stanford, we teach ‘design thinking’- that is, we put together small, interdisciplinary groups to figure out what the true needs are and then apply the art of engineering to serve them. Only by combining design and technology will we create innovative products and services that can suceed.”

    Hasso Plattner, cofounder of SAP, from an article titled “Launching the Next Generation”

    “And the Big Idea for 2008? Stop competing against your competitors. Your traditional rivals aren’t your biggest worry. Disruptive innovation is hitting corporations from outside their business. Verizon (VZ) was forced to open its cell-phone service because Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) smacked it hard. Verizon’s new business model will probably generate 10 times the demand for service. You just never know. That’s life, in beta.”

    Bruce Nussbaum in an article “Innovation Predictions 2008”

    “I see creativity as central to design strategy. For me, design is centrally about creating options or possibilities that do not currently exist, not choosing between or among options that currently do. So at its heart, it is about the creation of something new. This highlights the difference between business administration and business design. Business administration entails the intelligent selection from among existing known options and the taking of action on the selection in question. Business design entails the creative production of a new option that is superior to the existing options.”

    – Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (From a presentation at the ID Strategy Conference 2007)

    Creativity & Innovation, Uncategorized

    Find Your Inner Creativity With Thinkertoys

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    It’s not too difficult to come across posts or comments to posts at other librarian blogs where there is a good deal of whining about the inadequacies of an LIS education. The number one complaint is something along the lines of “I didn’t learn anything.” Well, that’s unfortunate, but my reaction is “Were you listening or thinking while you were doing all that reading, writing and fieldwork?” None of us recalls everything that happened in LIS school, or from our undergraduate days for that matter, but I have several memorable experiences that were indeed excellent learning events.

    One came in my now ancient PL1 programming course. The instructor was awful, but trying my hand at computer programming languages taught me a great life lesson: to solve problems you must look at them from a completely different perspective and the more complex the problem the more perspectives one must think through. When my programs failed to run, and how I dreaded re-doing those punch cards, I realized the only way to attack my failure was to stop my linear thinking and turn the problem completely upside down. I had no idea then, but I was using a Thinkertoy technique to release my inner creativity

    I had never heard of Thinkertoys until I came across an interview at IdeaConnection with the author of the book. Michael Michalko has put together an interesting collection of techniques for creative thinking, and collectively he refers to them as Thinkertoys, which is also the title of his book on creative thinking. While some of the suggestions will come off as platitudes (e.g., creative thinkers are positive thinkers), others are rather thought provoking. For example, one of our greatest barriers to creativity is our own expertise. It leads us to use the same experiences and resources to approach problems in the same ways we have always used them. Sometimes that approach works fine, but mostly for simple decision-making scenarios. In other words it is critical to understand the context of the problem. If you attempt to resolve a problem with a complex context with your techniques that work well in the simple context, you will likely fail (for more on this see an excellent article titled “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making” in the November 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review). Michalko says “Learning how to look at problems in different ways with different perspectives, and learning how to generate a multiplicity of ideas is the key to solving any problem.”

    What I found really interesting was the link between one of Michalko’s techniques for improving creativity to solve problems and Roger Martin’s new book on the opposable mind. Both propose that in order to release creativity in problem solving one must be able to resolve “two opposite or contradictory ideas, concepts or images that exist simultaneously and that may even be beyond logic” (Michalko). This approach is what moves creative thinkers into the realm of seeing totally new perspectives on their existing problems in ways that free them from the biases of their routine approaches. We think there can’t possibly be another solution, that we’ve thought it all the way through. But when we explore options that are in complete opposition to our existing solutions, and then make the effort to resolve the two opposites a new solution is able to emerge. [NOTE – in the HBR article the authors pose that some decision-making situations are so utterly complex that one can only create an environment that allows solutions to emerge from the people affected by the problem; master problem solvers and highly creative individuals have the knowledge and experience to both establish the right environment and avoid the urge to impose their own solution].

    I believe this is what I experienced in my PL1 course when I learned that in order to get a non-thinking, highly logical computer to do what I wanted I needed to stop reading the code commands in the book and instead attack my challenge from a completely different angle that had never before occured to me. Unfortunately, that would usually happen only after many hours of frustration. But like Edison I suppose I was only exploring all the ideas that didn’t work before I found the one that did. Michalko has other good examples of this that are based on the methods of creative thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein.

    But is what Michalko has to offer anything more than what I might summarize as “think outside the box” which is simply a platitude that suggests we need to move beyond our inner biases and mental limitations? He even gives such basic advice as reading beyond the boundaries of one’s own profession (that’s a key element of the keeping up philosophy that I’ve been imparting for years) or seeking out experts from other fields for advice in solving problems. In seeking the answers to these questions I will need to read the book, and explore more of his creative thinking techniques. When I get to the end of it I will hope to be the monkey, not the kitten, when it comes to creative problem solving. Monkeys? Kittens? Go read the interview.

     

    User Experiences

    Designing Better Libraries For The Dream Economy

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    A new economic era is on the rise. Call it the Dream Economy. Will libraries be ready for it?

    Actually, I have no idea if the Dream Economy is upon us, but it does offer some interesting perspectives about changing consumer expectations, and how a service organization like a library could use this knowledge to design better user experiences. Pat Jordan explains what the Dream Economy is by explaining that:

    Consumers are increasingly looking for products and services which will meet their higher needs, enhance their self-image, and perhaps even help them move towards self-actualisation. People want great experiences and an enhanced self-image, they want to express their values and convictions through their purchase choices. The key to success is in understanding people. The better our understanding of consumers, the greater our ability to create products and services that they will find compelling. To connect with people we need to know what is important to them – their hopes, their fears, their dreams, their lifestyle, their aspirations.

    Self actualization? Enhancing the self-image? Libraries are fundamentally good places. They make a positive contribution to the quality of life. But to say they can help people to achieve the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy – well, that might be stretching things a bit. At a basic level libraries are about connecting people with information so that they can get their work done. Excluding the most passionate of library users, the vast majority of people will only visit the library when they have to, and how do we expect to be a part of the Dream Economy if that’s the nature of our service? Can we aspire to meeting the end user’s higher level needs?

    The answer to that question may become more clear with a look at the “Four Pleasures” which Jordan says provide a framework for understand the good experiences that people can have. As you read them ask yourself if libraries could deliver these experiences:

    Physio-Pleasure. This is to do with the body and the senses. It includes pleasures associated with touch, taste and smell, as well as feelings of sensual pleasure. It also includes pleasures associated with physical enablement, such as being able to perform physical tasks.

    Psycho-Pleasure. Pleasures associated with the mind such as being able to understand things and positive emotional states. Mental challenges come into this category as do things that people find interesting.

    Socio-Pleasure. This is to do with relationships, both in the concrete and abstract sense. Concrete relationships are those with specific people, such as friends, family, co-workers, neighbours and loved ones. Abstract ones are concerned with our relationship with society as a whole, such as our social status, image and memberships of social groups.

    Ideo-Pleasure. These include our tastes, values and aspirations. Tastes are to do with our preferences – what colours we like best, what kinds of music and art we like for example. Values are to do with our moral belief system and our sense of right and wrong. Meanwhile, our aspirations are to do with our sense of who we want to be and the self-image of ourselves that we want to have.

    Let’s take a closer look at each. Physio-Pleasure? Well, no one will mistake the library for a fine restaurant or spa, but even a good physical environment – comfortable furniture; a cafe brewing aromatic beverages; attractive displays – is within the reach of many libraries. Psycho-Pleasure? This seems to play to our strong hand. Few societal structures are so closely associated with pleasures of the mind and mental challenges as are libraries. What can we do to better promote reading as a path to Physio-Pleasure? Socio-Pleasure? Libraries have always had a role in the social life of the community. One challenge is making the library a destination for community members. The library should be the place you WANT to visit, not the place you HAVE to visit. We can capitalize on Socio-Pleasure by facilitating the community member’s ability to establish relationships with others. Ideo-Pleasure? Somewhat more challenging to grasp, but are their ways the library can connect with human desires for good taste, strong values and developing a good self-image? People certainly value success, and want to see themselves as being successful. Libraries can help people achieve success, both academically and in careers. How do we transition our brand from books to life success?

    It can be difficult to design a better library user experience when there is difficulty in grasping what users would define as a great experience. You can’t deliver an experience without a thorough understanding of the user and their desires, and then shaping an experience that not only meets those desires but makes a lasting impression (the WoW factor). I think this is where thinking through the Dream Economy may be of help. It can provide better insight into what our users’ desires are – or at least four categories of desires that can be used as foundations for well designed user experiences. Jordan provides a few case studies. One of them is about the L’Oreal cosmetic company. He writes that “L’Oreal has understood contemporary femininity better than any of their competitors, have built a brand to reflect this, and then, through their initiatives, built a community around the brand. Their in-depth understanding of their customers has been rewarded with a huge success”. Now, imagine that statement with “your library” there instead of L’Oreal and “their community’s information needs” instead of femininity. It sounds pretty good. Now we need to make it happen.

    Creativity & Innovation, Events

    Guerilla Innovations – Lessons Learned from NEASIS&T

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    After a necessary break from blogging, I’m back and I’d like to share with you the experience I had as a presenter at NEASIS&T’s exciting program, From Guerilla Innovation to Institutional Transformation: Information Professionals as Change Agents. The talk featured John Blyberg, Jessamyn West, and myself. Though my summary is a bit overdue (the program took place on November 15th), the themes we explored are ones I hope we’ll continue to think about for the foreseeable future.

    Not to judge a program by its title, but I was thrilled to see this request come my way. We information professionals are all too familiar with change. We see almost daily changes in technology, our patrons’ expectations, our budgets, and so on. What’s more difficult to recognize is that as our environments change, so too must our approaches to how we do our work. Design thinking plays a role here. We need to be innovative in how we craft user experiences so that they resonate with today’s patrons.

    My presentation opened the program with a discussion of creativity – what it is and how to ‘get’ it. Creativity is a fascinating topic for me because it’s something that we all have but rarely use to its full potential. There are many reasons for this, including that creativity might appear too elusive for those of us who don’t think we fit a creative-type mold (the good news is that there isn’t one. Everyone is creative). Also, by its nature, creativity is both a creative and a destructive force. Creative ideas demand change; they entail risk; the creative process is both disciplined and chaotic. All of these qualities can make even the most innovative among us a little squeamish. While my talk was about an hour long, the following is quick summary of what I consider to be the most important points:

    • Creativity is a professional competency. It’s incumbent upon us to nurture our own creativity as well as the creativity within our organizations.
    • Nurturing creativity means:
      • Giving ideas time to percolate before dismissing them (your ideas and those of others).
      • Stepping out of comfort zones. It’s important to actively seek out new experiences and perspectives to generate new ideas.
      • Having fun.
      • Working in groups
      • Flattening hierarchies.
    • The qualities that make creativity scary (risk, change, uncertainty), are the very qualities we need to embrace if we are to remain relevant.
    • Creativity should be held accountable. It may sound ethereal, but creativity is a means of solving real problems.
      • Problems are great sources of ideas. Seek out white spaces, or unmet needs, just as you would seek out solutions.
    • Creativity is NOT a waste of time. It’s the raw material of innovation. Innovation is necessary for libraries’ survival.

    (In my next DBL post, I’ll describe some creativity-friendly techniques you can use to awaken your creative talents).

    Next up was John who discussed how creative ideas can become realities in the workplace. His talk was fantastic, as evidenced by my many pages of notes. From my experience and point-of-view, all of his suggestions are absolutely true. Here are the some of his key tips:

    • Refrain from being reactionary. It’s crucial to get the basics down pat before moving onto the next big thing.
    • People are your greatest asset. (That’s worth repeating). People are your greatest asset. John recommends using the 51% rule: Look for people who bring that extra level of commitment to their jobs. They can learn the rest.
    • Hierarchies can quash innovation. Often, it’s best to talk directly to colleagues in different departments, rather than through the chain.
    • Embed innovative people throughout every unit of your organization.
    • Understand your culture and be true to who you are.
    • Be flexible. John’s pledge to staff members is that if they really want to do something, he won’t say no as long as they are in it for the long-term.
    • Inculcate a continuous innovation state of mind and don’t dwell on one project or component of a project for too long.
    • Use flexible data structures. Data should be modular so as you collect data from anywhere, consider how it could be used in the future for multiple uses.

    Some of my favorite points of John’s had to do with navigating the political structure to get things done. I wholeheartedly agree with his suggestion of offering a counter-vision. If you have an idea/passion/interest, be prepared to defend it against criticisms and other ideas. To do so, John recommended developing a personal and collaborative ideology and to draft a personal mission statement so that you’re ready to win people over on your vision under any circumstance. Also, when working on projects, invite the people you’re serving in on the planning stages. Doing so helps to gain buy-in and commitment to the initiative’s long-term success.

    Jessamyn closed the session with a captivating talk on Agitprop (a combination of the words propaganda and agitation). I have far fewer notes on her talk because I got completely wrapped up in her story-telling abilities, which are phenomenal. Suffice it to say, Jessamyn favors an activist approach to change, calling on librarians to remain “truly, defiantly, radically public.” The new word I adopted from her talk was ‘suboptimal.’ Jessamyn argued that one should be able to identify a practice as ‘suboptimal’ without putting colleagues on the defensive. Agreed. As I mentioned earlier, creativity and innovation require that old or traditional ways of doing things should, at the very least, be open for discussion. Dismissing ideas too soon is a sure way to kill innovations ideas before they have a chance to prove their value.

    Design Thinking

    Here’s Another Design Thinking Video For You

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    A few weeks ago I was a guest of the Soaring to Excellence program. For those of you unfamiliar with Soaring to Excellence, it is a national library teleconference program to which many state library systems subscribe. Many thousands of librarians tune into the three programs that are held each year. This year the program theme is “Mapping the Library Landscape: Every library worker a trendspotter“. I am pleased to have had a role in developing the content for this season’s series of programs. I also had the opportunity to be a featured guest on the first program of 2007-2008 which was about “Finding the Trends That Matter: Get Your Environmental Scan On“.

    One of the trends I discussed on the program, from the world of business, was design thinking. The folks at Soaring to Excellence were generous in providing me with the nine-minute video segment (you’ll see the link to the video on my design web page) from the program that covers design thinking. It includes the showing of a “vignette”, a short tele-scenario related to the topic, in which two librarians discover design thinking. Then I have the opportunity to share some more insights into design thinking, doing my best to help the viewer to grasp the basic concepts. I am not quite sure how effective this presentation was – developing sticky messages about design thinking is a work in progress. But you can decide for yourself. Please take a look at the video, and share your thoughts as a comment to DBL. Oh, and by the way, keep in mind this was live television – there are no “do overs” in that situation. So it is what it is.

    Articles, Uncategorized

    The Latest “IN” Is Now Out

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    IN, otherwise known as Inside Innovation, is a regular supplement included with BusinessWeek. It is a good source for keeping up with recent trends in design and companies that use design thinking for competitive advantage. The November 2007 edition of IN is included in the November 26, 2007 issue of Businessweek, but it is also available online. If you happen to skip this particular IN you won’t miss much. This one is a bit short on articles about design; the focus this time around is on innovation. Two companies, HP and Yahoo, are profiled about the development of an innovation culture within their organizations. You may want to find out more about how companies are using software mapping to organize their intellectual property and information content. While it’s not a “must read” issue, if you have a chance take a look – some of the charts may catch your eye.