A common narrative is the following: before the industrial revolution, farming was pretty idyllic. In your mind, there might be images of green family-owned farmland with a couple of cows and lots of perfectly healthy vegetables and crops (Heidi comes to mind). Then big business came along, introduced industrial farming …
There are so many innovation trainings available, it’s hard to decide which one to choose. This is my take on a short review of the “Insights for Innovation” training by IDEO. I took the “Insights for Innovation” IDEO class in 2016, during my first year at Bayer. At that time, …
In episode 304 of the “Mixed Mental Arts” Podcast, they discuss (among other cool stuff) the Cambrian explosion and how it relates to innovation, and I loved how they framed evolution as a context for innovation and creativity. During the Cambrian explosion, most modern body plans (you know, four legs, …
In this article here (Link to HBR), the author describes how blocking out an “untouchable” day weeks in advance has helped them be more creative and productive. It’s not a novel concept, but I did feel surprised by the effect the author claims: from writing 500 words during a normal …
If you were raised like me, the concept of “gossip” has a pretty negative connotation. However, in a podcast I listened to recently, they mentioned how valuable gossip is within an organization and for the status of leaders within their teams. I’m unfortunately not going to share the podcast, because …
I’m an innovation coach at Bayer and as such, part of the coach network Innovation@E&T (E&T means Engineering and Technology – the department, not the field) as well as the overall Bayer innovation coach network. It means that I’m trained in systematic inventive thinking (SIT). I can coach WeSolve challenges. …
In this article here (Link), the author Kathryn Tecosky titles with “Are you in love with your company?” and their first sentence is “If you’re not, you want to be.” She continues her article with pretty agreeable arguments towards more engagement at work and how hating your job can make …
In this HBR article (Link), the author discusses the question: if we all hate business jargon so much, why do we keep using it? Hidden in the middle of this long-ish article is an absolute gold-nugget of a concept, the “economy of bullshit”. He says that addressing empty business buzzwords …
The most agonizing process of setting up this page was deciding on a name. I’m that person who spends more time on picking out a name during character creation in every video game ever than on the important stuff (like hair color and so on), so this was tough for …
I’m not entirely sure where to begin, so let’s start with: Hi, I’m Christine. I’ve been blogging in Bayer’s internal social network for a while now and just recently decided that I’d like to make my stuff available to a broader audience. That means you, so welcome! Check out my …
