Foghound and Corante's Lois Kelly posted a terrific set of quick observations inspired by the BIF2 Collaborative Innovation Summit held October 4-5 in Rhode Island. Here are the highlights:

Innovation is not a process. It’s creating an environment that helps teams of people quickly build trust and relationships. Then people have the right framework to create.
Ivy Ross, executive vice president, product design and development, Old Navy on the secret of quickly getting new ideas from teams

Innovation is often just looking at what you have and taking it somewhere new.
Diane Hessan, CEO, Communispace on the value of really knowing your customers

Whatever Budweiser does, we do the opposite.
Mark Hellendrung, CEO, Narragansett Beer, on the wisdom of NOT copying the market leader

Nothing happens without an innovation intent or point of view.
Larry Keeley, Doblin Group, on the most common obstacle to innovation

Just by making half a turn the whole world can change.
Liz Lerman, founder of the Dance Exchange on how taking a slightly different view can help us see new things

Sometimes doing research is an excuse for not doing anything else.
Jane Fulton Suri, chief creative officer, IDEO, on the need to rediscover the value of research – observing patterns and themes in new ways for inspiration, imagination, empathy

But I couldn’t let that stop me.
Josh Koppel on what he did when Apple iTunes 7.0 in effect killed his innovative TuneBooks products two weeks ago

There too much design research and process around creative beautiful objects and not enough on the customer experience.
Jeneanne Rae, president of Peer Insight, on the huge lack of understanding around services innovation and understanding a customer’s entire journey

A good marriage is about a conversation, not sex.
Day One moderator Richard Saul Wurman on how conversations connect people and ideas in meaningul ways

Execution is successful only if the author of the idea passionately embraces the execution team.
Mary Pat Ryan, executive vice president, Sirius Satellite Radio, on the critical need for passion to transcend the big idea and seep into everyone making the idea real

There’s more history under the sea than on the earth
Oceanographer Bob Ballard on the value of creating new technologies that can help children explore what’s under the ocean, from ocean exploring vessels right to the classroom

“They are us.”
Inventor Dean Kamen on the need for people to get more involved in helping kids realize what a blast science, engineering and technology can be, urging tech types to volunteer in the FIRST program

All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas.
Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, on the tremendous value of combining ideas from different fields and looking at the connections and intersections of those ideas

It was difficult to reconcile my desire to be an artist with the reality that I was an administrator.
Roger Mandle on how he came to see his role as president of RISD as one of an artist, creating an environment for creativity and innovation, like onoing performance art among talented people

If you suppress one factor too much it can lead to other problems.
Bill Tsiaris, surgeon-in-chief of Ophthalmology, Rhode Island Hospital, on the complexity of angionesis

Don’t be a star, be a galaxy.
Peter Gloor, MIT professor and author of Swarm Creativity, on the value of connecting talented people to achieve innovation

Social networks like MySpace have nothing to do with core relationships. They are impermanent really just advertising vehicles.
Wall St. Journal columnist and conference Day 2 moderator Walt Mossberg on the value of going to conferences like BIF2 and meeting people face to face

Theater is where civilizations throughout history have shaped their democracies. But make no mistake firends, Broadway is not a democratic place.
Trinity Rep artistic director Curt Columbus, on the value of regional theater as the vital public square for people to talk about ideas shaping their communities and lives.

What’s the next great idea for you? What is the next big chapter in your life?
Randy Antik, founder of Swat Team Partners, on the questions worth asking ourselves to stay passionate, engaged and innovative

The other day I was thinking that the brain is the most important organ in the body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
Several speakers paraphrasing comedian Emo Phillips, pointing to the need to consider the source and its intent when assessing information, and criticism.

And lastly, straight from the Corante Innovation Hub, Lois' observation on the need for recruiters to create or incorporate innovator-finding tools in their searches:

After digesting all the stories from BIF-2, there seems that innovators have one trait in common: they look at gnawing problems -- whether it's how to get more kids invovled in science and engineering like Dean Kamen's First program or how to get more innovative ideas from teams really fast like Ivy Ross at Old Navy -- and then figure out the problem. With two parts logic and analytical thinking and eight parts passion, determination and relenetlessness.

If organizations want to be more innovative maybe it's time to hardwire these qualities into more hiring practices, and performance and reward systems. Just because someone has experience in a field or industry with a a name organization doesn't mean that that person is a good hire -- or its the least bit creative, passionate or, well, innovative. Most hiring requirements are Neanderthal, and seem to be designed to eliminate risk-taking, problem solving types who could make a difference. Executive recruiters exacerbate the problem.

Case in point: Alph Bingham of InnoCentive remarked at the conference that many of the brilliant "solvers" in his network would never be hired by companies whose most difficult problems they just solved.

Not all recruiters fall into this category (I was recently contacted by two of them who were very much on top of their game,) but for the most part, yes: Far too many recruiters and HR departments still completely miss the mark when it comes to not hiring average people with safe but good resumes.

At the end of the day, the responsibility falls on both the leadership of a company AND the recruiters they employ to emphasize the fact that they are not just looking for someone with the right kind of experience, but rather... someone with the right kind of talents. Not everyone is good at math. Not everyone is good at writing copy. Not everyone is good at taking photos. Likewise, not everyone is good at helping companies innovate or challenge the status-quo, or bringing the next trillion dollar idea to fruition. Finding people who are takes more than letting software skim through piles of resumes, or using irrelevant keyword searches to sort through potential hire profiles.

If you're a recruiter, start attending innovation conferences. Start attending major trade shows and talk to product managers and designers. Start spending time on the blogosphere. Extend your network beyond the realm of HR. And lastly, stay in touch with people you've helped recruit in the past. Chances are, they know a handful of spectacular people who could be your next client's dream. If you're any good, your address book should have hundreds of names in it. Each one of these names could generate decades-worth of contracts for you, and billions of dollars in profits for your clients. Don't just cast a net. Seek to meet these people. Find out where they congregate, and meet them there. Face to face. Find out who they are and what they're all about. 500+ to a room. How much better does it get? Football scouts don't just look at resumes and game stats. They go watch the players they're intrested in. They go watch them work. And it works.

Until recruiters start doing more than casting nets, until they start actually seeking to meet the kinds of talent they should be meeting with, companies will continue to struggle in their crawling search for their next batch of innovation commandos... And there is just no reason for that. Not anymore.

There's a problem that needs fixing here... and recruiters with the most innovative approaches to doing their jobs certainly stand to benefit the most - aside from their clients, of course.

Innovation is a choice. Either innovate or die. Like it or not, that is the reality of the world we live in.

BrandXPress recently published a piece that addressed the issue of employee engagement's role in the success of businesses. I could paraphrase, but the post is sort and well-written as it is, so here it is in its full glory:

A recent study by Standard Life shows that the employees the felt part of the business and understood its goals were willing and able to contribute their best to achieving those goals. Your internal communications plan and branding is a huge step toward employee engagement and here is a list of eight things to do about it:

1.Cultivate a culture that reinforces your Brand Contract and encourage employees to “live the brand”
2. Measure the effectiveness of your internal branding strategy to maximize the ROI on your internal branding initiatives
3.Insist that senior management models brand-focused behavior and cultural values
4. Set communication alignment goals (are you even measuring the effectiveness of your internal communications?)
5. Make positive examples of employee behavior that represents your values, mission, brand and business strategy
6. Reward employees for demonstrating their commitment to your brand contract and values
6. Show daily how commitment to mission and values is the touchstone that drives your decisions
7. Harness the entire creativity of every employee in bringing the brand to life
8. Involve all departments in branding, not just marketing – HR, operations, customer support, development, finance, and more.

I have no idea what #2 is about, but the other seven make a whole lot of sense.

(Okay... that's not true. I know what #2 is about... but I can't stand business-speak so I completely tuned it out.)

I particularly love #7 and #8:

"Harness the entire creativity of every employee in bringing the brand to life, and involve all departments in branding, not just marketing – HR, operations, customer support, development, finance, and more."

Wow. And yes. I've seen this in action, and it is absolutely magical. This isn't to say that every employee is creative or has something revolutionary to offer, but... well... wait a minute... Why not?

I guess it all depends on whom you are hiring, why you are hiring them, and how you are recruiting them to begin with.

Some of the questions you have to ask yourself is this: Are you hiring people who really click with you and your staff? Are you hiring people who were born to work for you? (Really.) Are you hiring people who embody your brand (or who at can at least rock it for you every day)? Are you hiring enthusiastic people? Brand embassadors? Creative problem-solvers? Project commandos?

If not, why not? I mean... really. Why not?

Is it that you can't find peoplelike this? (If so, you aren't looking very hard, because I run into two or three of them every week.) Is it that your HR/Recruiters can't find them? (Are they throwing safe choices at you instead of finding edgier candidates?) Or is it that you just choose to hire conservatively?

It's a question you really need to ask yourself... and answer truthfully.

Employee engagement is at the core of your business' success, and it starts with HR. It really does. Marketing and Sales might seem more important, but trust meon this: Get more involved with recruiting. At every level. Your employees are your most valuable investment. Don't lose sight of that.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone. :)