Innovation Resources to Amp your Ideation
Innovation Resources to Amp your Ideation
Every couple of years someone will email me and say, “hey do you remember doing those side weir calcs from 2014?” I barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. In other words, no I do not.
Six years ago I was simply using better technology to do my job. It was business as usual and engineers are in the business of using the latest technology for the better of our projects. In my case, I put all my iterative calcs into MathCAD (here’s the post I did about it). I wasn’t even using the best technology - which would have been to create some code that did the iterations and pulled the points off the graph for me (that I did have to do manually in my file). I save a bit of money for my client and a little frustration for myself. It was good enough but not perfect (which is sort of my strength in a team).
Some might say that innovation has gotten a little out of hand but, y’all, that is innovation. Continual, gradual growth. We call this small i innovation. It’s the one that’s lost when we start to talk about the big sexy I innovation. Big I Innovation are the disruptors. The sweeping changes. The oohs and ahhs. It’s all innovation and it’s all part of what we do as good stewards to our communities.
My big news, that has fully taken up all my brain real estate, is that I was recently promoted to lead one of our innovation programs!! :D :D :D I immediately dove in to change the structure (big I innovation?), assess what was working and what could be improved (little i innovation in action) and what should be scrapped and redone (a pivot in the work product a la lean methodology). And with that my team and I are now heading into Q1 with a whole new gig. And yes, I am me, so my program this year is themed.
Which, to be fair, I was using white dude football terms and my boss was like, “Did YOU pick those words? This does NOT sound like you.” So you know what? Challenge accepted; I pivoted to an electronica theme. Y’all are just going to have to deal with my corniness and puns now. Let’s TURN UP THE BEAT.
So I wanted to share some of the innovation resources that amp me up. Even the greatest musicians cite their inspiration. Here’s mine.
ways to Innovate
Design thinking is the method of solving by thinking about the user, challenging assumptions, and redefining the problem. It starts with empathy first. Reframing the problem can help contextualize what you’re actually solving, helping to solve the problem itself and not the symptoms. Talking about problems, I will expect to see a lot of innovation come out the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals which I see referenced a lot in the industry.
Biomimicry is using examples found in nature to design manmade solutions. The classic example is designing the bullet train to look like the beak of a kingfisher so that it can speed down the track without a sonic boom. Some biomimicry examples are at the intersection of science & engineering such as manufacturing a material for hospitals that repels bacteria similar to a cicada’s wing. There’s thousands of examples of this which you can browse on Biomimicry and https://asknature.org/.
The Board of Innovation has a ton of guides and some tools. This company does consulting to help others innovate as a business strategy. I’m in an accelerator program with them (super excited for that to start!) and just completed an Innovation facilitation training. They introduced themselves with emojis. Y’all know I love that. No need to be stuffy just because we’re corporate.
LinkedIn Learning has a bunch of innovation courses (and so does many other sites at this point) but I have not done any of them yet. Yet!
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design is a perfect use of my fav innovating — with people first! It helps to inspire, ideate, and implement is an activity format. It’s the most important part of design thinking and this is a resource I see referenced A LOT.
Lean Startup by Eric Reis is probably the most referenced book. In a nutshell, the lean startup is starting with your assumptions and then building a “minimal viable product” to get early customer feedback. For our industry, it doesn’t have to be a tool or app — you can start with a mock webpage and then get some feedback on it. You build a little, measure it in the marketplace, and then learn. From there you pivot or keep going. This avoids large failures by failing early and often in an agile way.
Industry Predictions
This periodic table (also comes in a bubble chart) is a work of art. I have never seen a more beautiful graphic (challenge me on that one!). On the webpage (not here in my blog), hover over the icons to see which markets they predict will be impacted by these technologies.
Infrastructure Gamechangers from ASCE on some cool projects gets an honorable mention.
Better yet, Future World Vision is a collaboration of experts across the industry in how they envision 5 types of cities at 50 years out. The videos are SUPER cool and make me SUPER giddy about the future. Go watch them at https://www.futureworldvision.org/.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about dispersed cities after COVID-19 so make sure you check that out too on Future World Vision. I was in a webinar where Dr. James Moore was talking about his work with and knowledge of cities around the world re-envisioning their infrastructure post-pandemic. I love how he talks about how cities “molt” over our lifetimes. I like to think of cities as the central technology to our economy functioning at scale.
I am often linking to AECOM’s Future of Infrastructure which has technology innovations and also information on why clients would move to more innovative funding structures, like P3.
NewCities has a section on the Big Rethink following COVID-19. Here’s one on transportation.
Newsy Websites & Blogs
Blogs & Sites
Interesting Engineering - Innovation section. I think I also follow them on instagram.
Board of Innovation also has a blog which has lots of gems. Check out this one to start about Unsexy but brilliant examples of innovation.
This site newcities.org is a global nonprofit that has some great information and articles about resilient cities, sustainable, diverse, etc.
The New Civil Engineer - Innovation section and one on The Future of. They have whitepapers which I’ve referenced before on my blog.
Here’s AECOM’s innovation page which has articles and one podcast.
Mel The Engineer put together a helpful list of other industry bloggers and influencers for STEM.
My blog, The Watermark, has an innovation section called Furthering the Industry and often links diversity and inclusivity to innovation.
Less worthy Websites
ENR has some information but it’s sorted by sector and not tagged with innovation. And there’s enough of a paywall that I don’t consider it a great source for me.
The World Economic Forum sometimes has articles like this one but I find they are more technology-focused with a few infrastructure reports.
Architecture - I always end up on AIA.org for some of the articles. Here are their featured projects.
Emails & Podcasts
Email Newsletters
Interesting Engineering has a daily newsletter that is worth it just to read the few TLDRs at the top even if you don’t have time for the full email.
Board of Innovation’s email subscription doesn’t come out too often so it’s a good one.
One of my coworkers loves CB Insights for information on where our world, not just infrastructure, is going in terms of technology and innovation. I find it to be too fintech and other-industry based but you may enjoy it.
I get daily ASCE SmartBrief on policy and other things affecting civil engineering. I know WEF and other organizations have similar newsletters. You don’t have to be a part of the professional society to sign up.
Industry Podcasts
If/When podcast - This generally has an industry expert at Jacobs chat with someone else in academia or another thought leader. There’s also the Inflection Points podcast.
SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) has an innovator’s podcast and I love that some episodes are in Spanish.
99% Invisible - My favorite water episodes are the ones of the failure. That’s an interesting thought. They are the reversal of Chicago river and the making of Dallas into a port city.
How I Built This with Guy Raz - Lots are great for entrepreneurial inspiration but I especially like the Toms shoes episode.
The Engineer’s Collective from Bentley/New Civil Engineer gets an honorable mention. I find all the side tangents annoying and can’t speed it up enough.
ASCE Plot Points also gets a mention. They are short and quick. I tend to feel the same way I do when I’ve just left a networking hall - like I learned something interesting and met someone new but ready to go listen to music by myself for a while.
For a few, innovation is the abstract, futuristic vision that refuses to follow managerial styles or fiscal years. For some, it’s all innovation theater post-it notes but no new changes that permeate what we do. For me, it is deeply rooted in diversity of thought as the root of little and big innovations. My favorite geek outs are about pushing our technological boundaries and implementing the social, human aspect into design. I love it when computers do what they do best (math, data, etc) and humans do what we do best (the human condition). And then together it’s a love story.
Inspiration should come from leaving our echo chambers and bouncing ideas on each other, throwing the crazy and the illogical at the wall and then slimming back into the innovation sweet spot:
consumer desirability
technical feasibility, and
business viability.
Ideation is not innovation all on its own. Innovation takes your ideation and develops it into something tangible. And it is sometimes failure. But it allows our architectural and engineering industry to deliver higher quality work, implement latest technology and be more cost effective to the consumers (you all…the public).
But more personally, it lets us do way more fun work by helping to automate the repetitive, dull, or dangerous. Innovation is not the answer but the opportunity for us intra- and entrepreneurs. Even if it is a bit of a catchword.
Reading: First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins. I am the new program lead for an innovation program and have been trying to figure out what I need to do to set it up!
Listening: Tash Sultana’s Jungle and Notion. And also folklore just like the rest of you are. Don’t deny it. ;)
Watching: There’s a documentary series on Netflix with Zac Efron. The hosts are a little annoying but they basically have my dream job, traveling around and finding geothermal energy & water resources.