Innovation at Work

Innovation at Work

by RICHARD BRYNTESON
Released September 2012
Publisher(s): AMACOM
ISBN: 9780814432365

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Book description

More and more organizations are realizing that the only hope for survival in an ultracompetitive landscape is through innovation: developing new and better products and services—and creating efficient processes for delivering them. Designed for managers, team leaders, and trainers looking to promote innovation at work, the book is packed with 55 activities to help participants:

• Employ “visioning” and “brainwriting” processes to achieve breakthroughs
• Cultivate a sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness
• Utilize methods of deep observation
• Build networks for open source innovation and creative collaboration
• Use images to spark ideas and connections
• Develop out-of-the-box techniques for problemsolving
• Deal with failure successfully and productively
• Spot trends and determine “the next step”

Innovation at Work contains worksheets, questions, and case studies to inspire discussion as well as assessments for determining managers’ openness to innovation. Innovation isn’t just about the next iPod, and it’s not just for scientists. This handy book provides readers with a roadmap for fostering creativity and innovation in any team in any industry.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of Worksheets
  6. Preface
  7. Introduction: What Is Innovation?
  8. The Structure of This Book
  9. Workshop Activities
  10. Part 1: The Practice of Innovation
    1. Forget, Unlearn, Dismantle
    2. What if?
    3. Innovative Connections
    4. Levels of Innovation
    5. Alternative Uses
    6. Jobs that Need to be Done
    7. A New TV Program
    8. Storytelling
    9. Love of Failure
    10. Visioning
    11. Green Innovation
    12. Practical Individual Creative Skills
  11. Part 2: The Innovative Personality and Skill Sets
    1. Inquisitiveness
    2. Building Networks
    3. The Rebel
    4. Personality Trait: The Next Box #1
    5. Personality Trait: The Next Box #2
    6. Personality Trait: The Next Box #3
    7. Design an Experiment
    8. Building Innovation DNA into Your Life
    9. Creative Problem Solving
    10. Brainwriting
    11. The Problem-Solving Games
    12. Analytical Thinking Test
    13. Test of Creativity
    14. Leadership and Teambuilding
    15. Building a Winning Team
    16. Teams and Traditional Work Units: Some Differences
  12. Part 3: The Culture of Innovation
    1. Determine Your Current Culture
    2. Open Source Innovation
    3. Killing the Naysayer
    4. Where do babies (innovative ideas) come from?
    5. Failure Notebook
    6. Faces of Innovation
    7. Event/Pattern/Structure
    8. Trend Spotting
    9. Creative Collaboration
    10. Building an Innovative Culture I
    11. Building an Innovative Culture II
    12. Scaffolding: Toward a Culture of Innovation
  13. Part 4: The Innovative Process
    1. Open Source Innovation
    2. Deep Inquiry
    3. Creative Collage Making
    4. Disassembling
    5. Question Circle
    6. Deep Empathy
    7. Photo Wall
    8. Can You Hear Me Now?
    9. Redesign Rooms
    10. Two Circle Critique
    11. Force Field Analysis
    12. Litmus Test
    13. Attribute Listing
    14. Blue Ocean Technique
    15. Club Med Exercise
    16. Designing an Innovation Room
    17. Scamper
  14. Posters and Quotes
    1. 50 Innovation Techniques: Addendums
    2. Step #1: Probe the Constituency: Questions to Consider
    3. Step #2: Observe the Real Situation: Questions to Consider
    4. Step #3: Develop New Concepts: Questions to Consider
    5. Step #4: Converge and Build Prototypes: Questions to Consider
    6. Step #5: Implementation Process: Questions to Consider
    7. Categories of Innovation
    8. Accident as Innovation
    9. Quotes
  15. Innovation Cases
  16. References
  17. Index
  18. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Innovation at Work
  • Author(s): RICHARD BRYNTESON
  • Release date: September 2012
  • Publisher(s): AMACOM
  • ISBN: 9780814432365