BQF Innovation

You are probably aware of Twitter if not using it already.  It is a micro-blogging site where you can broadcast  and read ‘tweets’ – messages of no more than 140 characters.  Much of the traffic is trivial but Twitter can be valuable when used for serious purposes.  Here is how I use it in the field of innovation:

1.  I follow thought leaders and commentators who comment on innovation, creativity or lateral thinking.  You can search on key words and quickly find the most prolific tweeters.

2. I post links to interesting articles on innovation and ‘retweet’ (i.e. copy) other people’s interesting posts to my followers.

3.  I post short quotations or thoughts on the subject.

4.  I ask questions.  E.g. what technology do you use to aid innovation?

You can follow me at

http://twitter.com/PaulSloane

Here are some of my recent tweets to give you a flavour – @name refers to the name of a user who made the original post and RT means retweet.

·  @yatinsactivity RT Green #innovation – an Eco “Bomb” That Plants Trees http://ff.im/-2Qnqp

·  @ArnoldBeekes RT Is Everyone Creative? Lateral Action http://ow.ly/6oW5

·  I am writing about technology that aids innovation. Do you have any suggestions or links please? What technology helps you to innovate?

·  #Innovation through volunteers, http://bit.ly/mTJ1c

·  #Innovation tip. Get a colleague to facilitate a brainstorm meeting in your dept and return the favor. It is easier for an outsider.

·  Innovation tip. Before introducing any change identify the resistance leaders who are likely to oppose it. Plan to handle or bypass them.

If you are not already using Twitter as a communications tool in your interest fields then I would strongly advise that you experiment with it.  You can dip in and out when you want and you can easily ‘unfollow’ the people whose tweets add no value.

Paul Sloane