Untold Stories of Innovation

We speak with Laura Marino, Chief Product Officer at TrueAccord and former Senior Vice President of Product at Lever. She shares with us the power of diversity and inclusion within innovation, such as the variety of different perspectives, better decision making, and increased creativity. She shares stories of her previous work in advocating for more women in a male-dominated room, and her current work with a non-profit called Leading Women in Technology, which is dedicated to promoting woman-led leadership. Laura dives into the importance of storytelling inside of the technology industry, discussing how she got where she is today and how driven she is to get other women a “seat at the table.”For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

How does the largest branding company on the planet create innovative products that billions of customers love? We talk with Matt Doyle of Procter and Gamble about how innovation storytelling has played a key role in his successful product innovations, including Crest Whitening Strips. Matt shares how P&G has collaborated with their customers over the years for the betterment of their company. How? Customer feedback has led to new product iterations and ideas that resonate and change the end-user life for the better. Get a closer look at how connecting with your customer’s emotions through storytelling can accelerate your innovation process.For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

We speak with Siva Muthukrishnan, Associate Vice President of Advanced Research for L’Oreal.  Siva talks about the importance of innovation, what he looks for when looking for new team members, the essential role of storytelling to our best guesses for the future and research, and how diversified thinking is essential to proper innovation.  Diversified thinking not only allows for varied perspectives in the workplace, but allows for creative solutions to be put forth and utilized in the workplace.  Diversified thinking, in teams and in individuals, goes a long way in advancing research and technology.  Interested in how Process-centric and jugaad-centric are his two ways of innovating?  Siva Muthukrishnan explains his two main ways of innovation and elaborates on how to develop and incorporate both to maximize innovation potential. For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

Every year, public health is threatened by unknown mosquito-borne diseases that tend to be transmitted in the warmest areas of the U.S., including states such as California, Florida, and Texas. Certain mosquito-borne diseases, like Zika, can easily be transmitted via blood transfusion, which is why Dr. Benjamin, chief medical officer of Cerus, has worked with hospital systems and blood centers around the world to reduce the risk of transmission through pathogen reduction, which ensures that hospital patients are receiving clean, disease and virus-free blood. Not all blood in the U.S. is pathogen reduced, but the FDA has recommended this method as a safety measure. The safety of the blood supply can make or break our healthcare system as we prepare for the next outbreak. Dr. Fauci published a paper recently outlining the importance of understanding and anticipating devastating disease emergencies caused by animal hosts. Today, we talk with the CEO and CMO of Cerus Corporation to understand new technologies for blood sterilization and pathogen-reduction—and the powerful ways they can help prevent or lessen the negative impacts of pandemics. For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

We speak with Dan Ward, Principal Systems Engineer at MITRE Corporation, author, and Air Force veteran. His experience leading research and development teams within the US Air Force taught him that speed, thrift, and simplicity are the key elements in any technology developer program. Dan believes that playfulness in storytelling makes the stories more memorable and clear. A touch of whimsy with any subject matter, even engineering, helps the story land better. His professional takeaways and personal passions inspired his first three books, including LIFT, and he continues to advocate for storytelling in all areas of business, learning, and life.

Say it first, say it loud, say it often, and say it with others. This is key advice Doowan Lee shares with psychological operations professionals, and it's applicable to any innovator trying to gain traction in our digital age. “Short and distort” is a dangerous but effective strategy in digital communication. To combat this, Doowan and the intelligence team at Zignal Labs must both deliberate and try to answer the misinformation efficiently and succinctly. Timing is of the essence, and while Doowan acknowledges the importance of storytelling, framing, and motivation within innovation, there is the key factor of timing. Even among a plethora of disinformation and sprawling media coverage, Doowan Lee believes that truth and innovation will prevail among open societies.Listen in and share with us your own questions and advice on how you and your innovation teams are tackling disinformation in this fast-paced era. Interested in the articles and information discussed in this episode? Check them out: Freedom House, “Democracy Under Lockdown:” https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2020/democracy-under-lockdown

Michael Kanaan, author of T-Minus AI, blends data with storytelling, old techniques with new ideas, and intended consequences with unintended consequences. He shares how a truly compelling narrative is rooted in and inspired by real facts and experiences. Therefore, especially when telling an innovative or brand story, numbers and language go hand in hand. They both inform and shape the story, to the point where they ought to come together. This way, the narrative has the ability to expose people to new information that is both interesting and applicable to their lives. Tune in to hear how AI, ethics, and human experience all inform each other and what the future of all may be, like how AI can actually improve instead of replace people’s jobs and connect rather than detract from social interaction, as well as moving politics forward instead of making it easy to disrupt agendas. Interested in his new book, T-Minus AI? Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/T-Minus-Humanitys-Countdown-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1948836947For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

Innovation is almost always looked upon as a positive thing. However, what happens when a brand-new innovative idea has unforeseen implications? What happens when innovations are not necessarily created to have a positive impact in the first place? Today, Zach Davis, Senior Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, delves into understanding the potential threats and risks of innovation. Zach specializes in analysis of weapons of mass destruction and emerging technologies. He shares how the business world communicates with the government and vice versa, as well as the complexities of innovative technologies. While necessity is the mother of invention, what is necessary might not strictly be what is beneficial and inspirational. Instead of strictly necessity, let curiosity, passion, and interest spark innovative ideas. And with the global community brought on by technological innovation, storytelling and who gets to craft the narratives are essential questions to explore when considering “strategic latencies,” aka the ways innovation can be utilized and explored. Make sure to check out https://cgsr.llnl.gov/ for more on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the complexities of innovative technologies. Interested in looking further? Take a look at an example of the opportunities and pitfalls of global dissemination of information in the article Stealth Research: Lack of Peer-Reviewed Evidence from Healthcare Unicorns, as well as the interesting predictions made by Samuel Huntington in his intriguing innovative prediction regarding conflicts and information in the Post-Cold War landscape: “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.” For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

In our conversation with Maria McLane, the innovation project manager at the United States Playing Card Company, we discuss interdisciplinary collaboration as a key driver for innovation. The US Playing Card Company has a long history of  uniting people through conversation, laughter, and healthy competition. Maria details how the company continues to develop games that foster nostalgia and connection for a wide audience and speaks to the importance of pitches powered by empathy and story. You don’t have to take our word for it—check out their new game, It’s Blunderful. For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent

Why do stories matter to the innovation process? What values can be instilled in innovators who share stories? How do innovation leaders inspire creators to tell and share their success and failure stories? Hearing is one of the senses that we cannot choose to easily ignore or “turn off.” Therefore, it is important to consider how sound should be utilized when curating a contemporary, multifaceted brand story. The Grammy-nominated brand Gwynne Sound has created many unique and innovative sounds through sonic brand storytelling. Today, we speak with Gwynne Sound’s Dan Carruthers and Adam Pleiman about considering sound, user experience, and pathos in branding. Human beings respond emotionally to sound and will remember the feeling evoked, linking it with the innovative product and brand. Knowing this, Gwynne Sound creates a personalized sound brand to elevate your innovative products by utilizing emotion and statistics to narrow down a brand’s message and aesthetic.For more information, visit our website: https://untoldcontent.com/You can also find us on Instagram: @untoldcontent