Seeds Of Innovation

Consultant Dundon describes the three components of innovation as creative thinking, strategic thinking, and transformational thinking. She argues that innovation is not restricted to right brainers or to new products and technologies, and that small steps of evolution can be as valuable as great leaps of revolution. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children is the fruit of decades of development and innovation in the Plum Village community's collective practice with children. Based on Thich Nhat Hanh's thirty years of teaching mindfulness and compassion to parents, teachers, and children, the book and enclosed CD cover a wide range of contemplative and fun activities parents and educators can do with their children or students. The activities are designed to help relieve stress, increase concentration, nourish gratitude and confidence, deal with difficult emotions, touch our interconnection with nature, and improve communication. Planting Seeds offers insight, concrete activities, and curricula that parents and educators can apply in school settings, in their local communities or at home, in a way that is meaningful and inviting to children. The key practices presented include mindful breathing and walking, inviting the bell, pebble meditation, the Two Promises or ethical guidelines for children, children's versions of Touching the Earth and Deep Relaxation, eating meditation and dealing with conflict and strong emotions. Also included, are the lyrics to the songs on the enclosed CD that summarize and highlight the key teachings, as well as a chapter on dealing effectively with conflict in the classroom or difficult group dynamics, based on a conference with Thich Nhat Hanh, teachers and students. The accompanying CD has inspiring recordings of all the songs in the book as well as a guided pebble meditation, total relaxation, and children's touching the earth. Beautiful, color illustrations by Wietske Vriezen Illustrator of Mindful Movements (ISBN-13: 978-1-888375-79-4) accompany the various practices. Any adult wishing to plant seeds of peace, relaxation, and awareness in children will find this book and CD helpful. It is full of wisdom on how to simply be with children and nourish their compassion for themselves and others. Illustrated by Wietske Vriezen Illustrator of Mindful Movements (Mindful Movements – Ten Exercise for Well Being, ISBN-13: 978-1-888375-79-4). Includes 1 audio CD.

This open access book shares the experiences of Tropical Legumes III (TLIII) project in facilitating access to seed of improved legume varieties to smallholder farmers through innovation platforms. It highlights practices and guiding principles implemented in eight developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This book details key processes that respective teams employed to create an innovation space that delivers seed, other inputs, knowledge and financial services to agricultural communities and most importantly, the underserved farmers in remote areas of the drylands. It offers valuable insights into the pathway to establishing, promoting and operating innovation platforms to enhance the performance and competitiveness of legume crops' value chains, and addresses critical issues that must be considered to make innovation platforms more sustainable and attractive to beneficiaries. The book offers a wealth of practical insights for development workers, technical staff, and project managers. This publication is all about TLIII community of practice. It will definitely inspire other development workers and scientists to share their own experiences for others to learn from.

The corporate innovation guru shares a ten-step program for keeping your company competitive in today’s fast-changing marketplace. Let’s face it, whether you manage a multinational company or an entrepreneurial start-up—and whether you’re a manufacturer, distributor, service provider, supplier, retailer, or a not-for-profit—today’s pressure to excel is unprecedented. Robert’s Rules of Innovation introduces easy-to-implement, world-class guidance for starting, nurturing, and profiting from a culture of sustained innovation in the work environment. Robert’s Rules of Innovation chronicles decades of collective, invaluable experience contributed by Innovation guru Robert Brands and his international network of Innovate-For-Success experts. Much like Robert’s Rules of Order, which created order from chaos in meetings around the world, Robert’s Rules of Innovation sets a new standard for “doing” Innovation, equipping you with the principles needed to: Inspire, lead, and drive the process Build value for your Innovation Manage risk, without letting fear of failure kill innovation Create a formalized New Product Development (NPD) process—an absolute must Observe, measure, and track NPD results—essential to optimal ROI Convince others to work outside their comfort zone Properly hire and train staff in ways that support your company’s mindset Stay open to new ideas Grow profitably And more Get passionate about creativity. Prepare to unleash your team’s abilities. Create the next home-run new product. Do it all with the high-performance ideas found in Robert’s Rules of Innovation.