Innovation Network

Joyce Wycoff
Co-founder, InnovationNetwork

Fast Company magazine profile

New Book
Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Joyce Wycoff's Poetry

Back to previous page

Joyce Wycoff is the president of ThinkSmart Learning Systems and founder of the Innovation Network, an organization focused on helping organizations develop a core competency of innovation.

Wycoff has a broad background in management and marketing and a deep understanding of organizational innovation. She is the author of several books on innovation and creativity, including Mindmapping, Transformation Thinking, To Do … Doing … Done! and Innovation Training. She has worked with organizations from top Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial ventures and non-profit organizations. Wycoff holds a bachelors in economics from Oklahoma State University, an MBA with a finance emphasis from National University and, in a prior existence, was a Certified Management Accountant.

Joyce is available for keynote speeches and conversations about creating an environment that stimulates and supports organizational innovation. Here's one example of a keynote:

Innovation Comes Alive! – If you want your organization to be more innovative, people need to knowthree things :

“Why should we be more innovative?”

“What is innovation?” and

“How do we do it?”

This “action learning” keynote engages the audience in answering those three questions through a fun and stimulating series of activities and “best-practice” stories. Participants develop a deep understanding of the importance of innovation and what they can do to create more innovation in their organizations. This presentation works best in situations where the audience is seated at round tables although it can be tailored to larger groups in an auditorium setting. 1 hour.

Great Option #1: Survey of People-Practices in Innovation™ -- to help you know where to start
Once a group has a better understanding of innovation and its importance, they are often ready to take action. Then the important questions are “What action?” and “What should we do first?” The Survey of People-Practices in Innovation™ is a simple way to know where to start. This web-based survey provides a snapshot of your organization’s readiness to do innovation. Prior to the keynote, your organization can take the audit and then the results can be integrated into the presentation so that you can focus on next steps based on solid, broad-based feedback from your group. This option adds an 30 minutes to the basic keynote presentation.

Great Option #2: Innovation Workshop – tools and techniques workshop
While you’ve got your group together, why not add to their innovation toolkit or do an ideation session to generate ideas about one or two of your specific challenges? While we tailor every session to your specific needs, a typical workshop might teach people 3-4 practical techniques that they can use in meetings or on projects to help them be more effective innovators. Ideation sessions quickly take participants through idea generation, criteria setting and sorting. At the end of the session, you will wind up with 10-20 high payoff, doable ideas out of the several hundred that will be generated in a typical session. This option requires 2 to 2 and a half hours.