Photo by Transformer18 [CC]
Here’re some tips that caught my attention while reading The Ten Faces of Innovation – Strategies for heightening creativity by Tom Ford with Jonathan Littman, ISBN978-1-84668-031-1.
- When fact finding, don’t ask people to generalise or stereotype a situation. They will idealise the situation or behaviour rather than tell you what really happens. There is no such thing as “typical”.
- To improve something, watch people struggle and stumble with it.
- Talk to young people. Teenagers today = mainstream market tomorrow. Get reverse mentoring.
- Service is about people and teams … you have to “earn the respect and allegiance of the people who make or break a service.”
- Make it easy for clients to envisage using your product. Give away a full-size paper dummy of your big screen TV so customers can see what it looks like on their walls.
- Provide multiple options for clients. Providing a single option can focus the client’s decision on whether they like you or not.
- T-shaped people – lots of breadth (of knowledge and interests), and one depth (of expertise). “The future belongs to T-shaped people.”
- Practice scarcity – “scarcity and tough constraints force you to break new ground because the ‘business as usual’ approach is simply not available.”
- “To create something new you have to take something old away.”
- Cultivate an attitude for wisdom – the knowledge to know when you are on course, and the humility to ask for directions.
- When things go wrong, approach it with humour and uncover the silver lining.
- “[Relay races] are won or lost in the hand offs [of the baton].” How effective are the hand offs between the nodes of your processes?
- Silo walls are stiff barriers against change (ideas), flexibility and agility. This made me think of the corrugation in cardboard.
- “Coach more, direct less.” Don’t second guess your people lest this undermines their confidence and builds dependence on you.
- Opportunities could be found in what has not changed for a long time.
- Mapping customer journeys – “the journey nearly always has more steps than … first imagined.”
- “Real has genuine appeal.”
- When people have enough stuff, they want experiences. “Many Gen Xers and Millennials are less interested in accumulating material possessions than their parents were.”
- “The first step in becoming extraordinary is simple to stop being ordinary.”
- Make it safe for your customers to try something new. Try our Peking duck pizza, if you don’t like it, we’ll give you your usual one free.
- “True stories can have a lot of spin to them. Authentic stories have deep integrity.” And people can tell the difference.
- The “bottom line” mindset stops us hearing stories. Instead of asking “do you like or dislike” ask “tell me when it worked and when it did not.”
- “Asking for a story celebrates and authenticates the experience.”
- “Flexibility is more important for your organization than size of even power.”
- “Innovation is … a way of life.”
- ”Don’t let a title or job description hold you back.”
The book is filled with key learnings from IDEO as well as many illuminating and fun anecdotes. Whether you are charged with making innovation happen at your workplace, or are simply interested in bettering your business practice, this book is well worth reading.
