Join the Innovation University 2001 Fellowship Group

First meeting in Palo Alto, CA: Visit One Workplace, where purposeful office design leads to greater collaboration and innovation. January 23-26, 2001. For more information, email: staff@thinksmart.com

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IU's 12 to 18-month, intensive study program combines site visits to extraordinary organizations with experiential learning activities and a mentored project of individual interest. If you want to lead innovation in your organization, the following information will be of interest to you:

• Purposes of Innovation University
• Objectives of the 2000-2001 Fellowship
• Meetings
• Meeting Schedule for 2000-2001
• Online Community
• Fellowship Projects
• Ways to Participate
• What IU Fellows Say About the Program
• Tuition

• To provide an advanced, collaborative learning environment that focuses on innovation in one's own organization and outside organizations.
• To support the exploration of the principles, practices, and measurements of innovation.
• To create a learning environment that encourages independent thinking and stimulates personal and professional growth.
• To foster innovation leadership.

• To study organizations whose innovative values, thinking and practices have created sustained success.
• To capture and share a rich variety of innovation stories.
• To create comprehensive thinking models that communicate the principles of innovation.
• To identify and examine the leadership issues around building an innovative, learning organization.

The Fellows meet four times over a 12-18 month period, and each meeting includes:

• "Site visits" to innovative organizations; fellows tour facilities, receive formal presentations and talk with managers.
• Seminars or workshops by experts in organizational innovation.
• Experiential activities demonstrating principles of innovation or tools and techniques for stimulating creative thinking.
• Panel discussions involving local business people to discuss topics in management and innovation.
• Mentoring of project work by leaders in the field of innovation.

• Jan. 23-26 in Palo Alto, CA, where we will visit One Workplace, designers of work space to achieve business results. We will also visit one of One Workplace's clients to see how the principles of design are implemented for a more traditional corporate client. A third site visit is planned to the Small Business Administration offices in the Silicon Valley where they've created an unusual public/private partnership to foster high tech start-ups.
• April 16 - 19 in Houston, TX where we will visit Enron, consistently rated one of the top innovative organizations in the world. Two graduates of the IU Fellowship program will help us understand how innovation is stimulated and sustained at Enron.
• July 16 - 19 -- site to be announced
• October 8 - 11 -- Toronto, Canada, site visits to be announced.

For more about past site visits, click here.

IU Fellows and Sponsors are automatically enrolled in the Innovation Leaders Community, an online, "virtual" community that offers them a place to continue their learning and networking in between meetings. This space gives members the opportunity to get to know each other in greater depth, do online brainstorming regardless of location or time zones, share documents and information, have in-depth, threaded discussions and do quick pollings.

Being a part of this larger virtual community of innovation leaders from companies around the world will offer IU Fellows and Sponsors the opportunity to network and gather information from a broad base of innovation experts. However, IU will also have a smaller "teamspace" that will allow them to have private conversations and discussions about projects which might be more confidential or sensitive.

Fellows can choose to complete one major project or a series of minor projects. They can also participate in a group projects. Projects focus on producing theoretical and practical information that can be used to enhance the innovation leadership and/or the environment for innovation of the Fellow's organization. It is IU's goal that a number of projects will involve the development and implementation of new practices or measurements of innovation in the fellow's own organization. Numerous opportunities for multiple, smaller projects exist. These might include data compilations, case studies or the development of new creativity tools or techniques.

There are four ways to participate in the IU program and be part of the online Innovation University community:

1. IU Fellow -- attend four meetings and complete a project
2. IU Sponsor -- attend one meeting and receive all reports of site visits and projects
3. IU Host Sponsor -- host a meeting and receive five guest slots for the meeting plus receive all reports of site visits and projects
4. IU Single Meeting Attendee -- attend one meeting (does not include online community membership)

Laurie Dunnavant
Product Analyst Manager
3M Health Systems

"An excellent program! Doing a project made the Fellowship a very valuable experience. And, I have benefited over and over again from the contacts I made!"

Jack Johnson
Quality Coordinator
The Smithsonian Institution

"My experience with IU helped me grow both professionally and personally. The exposure to innovation and creativity experts moved me light years ahead in my professional endeavor toward developing expertise. The knowledge I gained in tools, techniques, and theories proved to be invaluable in moving our organization forward."

Larry Mucha
Manager Future Technologies Engineering
The Coca Cola Co.

"I have gained a lot from the site visits and talking with companies that I had never thought of contacting, like Cirque du Soleil. It's a terrific advantage to be in close contact with other companies studying innovation, and the diversity of companies represented in the Fellowship group offers great opportunities for comparison."

Greg Furrow
Manager, Quality Assurance
Eli Lilly and Company

"The project I've worked on has been a journey of discovery, both about myself and about innovation. The experience has stretched my expectations of the possiblities for research in this area. The work we've done has been truly exciting and thought provoking."

IU Fellow -- $6,000
Four meetings and one year membership in the Innovation Leaders Community
To register, click here.

IU Sponsor -- $2,500
Attend any one meeting and one year membership in the Innovation Leaders Community
To register, click here.

IU Host Sponsor -- $2,500
Host a meeting at your site and receive five guest slots at the meeting, plus one year membership in the Innovation Leaders Community
To register, please contact Ruth Ann Hattori (below)

IU Single Meeting Attendee -- $1,500
Attend one meeting (does not include online community membership)
To register, please contact Andrea Woodward (below)

If you have questions, please call or email:
Alain Rostain, 415-457-1956, staff@thinksmart.com
Ruth Ann Hattori, 303-604-1981, staff@thinksmart.com
Andrea Woodward, 805-967-4893, staff@thinksmart.com