How many presentations on innovation have there been recently? Thousands? Millions? We are experiencing 'innovation fatigue': we feel cheated by the endless rounds of consultants who come into our organizations, deliver conceptual models that don't stick with the realities of business and then leave again. Companies and teams are left feeling more deflated than before, and with not one idea that's impacted the bottom line. Innovation for the Fatigued argues it is worth fighting for the concept and study of innovation in organizations. Business leaders are always looking over their shoulders for the next Uber moment to overtake them, and they recognize that innovation needs to be a top priority. But how does one innovate? This book is the antidote to the empty promises that pervade the innovation industry. By designing a company culture that nurtures ideas, but also defends against incrementalism and fads, we can rediscover the powerful basics of imagination, empathy, play and courage, which are all instrumental in delivering real impactful innovation. Innovation for the Fatigued will detail where companies have got innovation wrong, whilst celebrating and studying the ones that lead the way. With unique, relatable and varied examples, renowned innovation and creativity professor Alf Rehn provides a practical model for getting innovation back on track, and instilling change at speed with real concern for market demands.

This practical guide reveals the nine major “fatigue factors” that can block the path to innovation success, along with solutions to energize innovation. Original advances in innovation practice and new case studies are applied to guide inventors, entrepreneurs, companies, universities, and even policy makers in conquering innovation fatigue. Cost-effective solutions include guidance on intellectual assets, dealing with disruptive innovation, and driving innovation using the “Horn of Innovation” and “Circuit of Innovation” models. A surprising view of DaVinci as an engine of open innovation is presented. Throughout the book, a unique aspect is exploring the journey of innovators, including corporate employees and entrepreneurs, at the often-overlooked personal level using the metaphor of immigrants in a strange land to identify barriers and solutions.

Discusses how to render everyday moments and challenges into opportunities for spiritual growth, describing how to build a traditional spiritual life on top of a modern routine by engaging in short meditations and mindfulness.

Despite its complexity, innovation is often depicted within academic literature as a phenomenon that is innately good and always necessary. This thought-provoking volume presents a more nuanced view – through a number of paired chapters for and against, as well as more general critiques of innovation and several suggested new lines of inquiry, the book will be of interest to all with a broader interest in innovation.

Achieving faster, better, cheaper, and more creative innovation outcomes with the 5x5 framework: 5 people, 5 days, 5 experiments, $5,000, and 5 weeks What is the best way for a company to innovate? Advice recommending “innovation vacations” and the luxury of failure may be wonderful for organizations with time to spend and money to waste. The Innovator’s Hypothesis addresses the innovation priorities of companies that live in the real world of limits. Michael Schrage advocates a cultural and strategic shift: small teams, collaboratively—and competitively—crafting business experiments that make top management sit up and take notice. He introduces the 5x5 framework: giving diverse teams of five people up to five days to come up with portfolios of five business experiments costing no more than $5,000 each and taking no longer than five weeks to run. Successful 5x5s, Schrage shows, make people more effective innovators, and more effective innovators mean more effective innovations.

The Killer Questions Your Company Should Be Asking Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world. It seems so basic. Why is it so hard to actually get right? According to innovation expert Phil McKinney, the real problem is that we're teaching people to ask the wrong questions about their businesses--or none at all. There has to be a better way. In Beyond the Obvious, McKinney will help you use his proven FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Rank, Execution) Method to dig deeper and get back to asking the right questions--the ones all companies must ask to survive. Full of real-world examples, this book will change the way you operate, innovate, and create, and it all begins with battle-tested questions Phil has gathered on note cards throughout his career. Shared for the first time here, these "Killer Questions" include: What are the rules and assumptions my industry operates under? What if the opposite were true? What will be the buying criteria used by my customer in 5 years? What are my unshakable beliefs about what my customers want? Who uses my product in ways I never anticipated? These questions will reframe the way you see your products, your customers, and the way the two interact. Whether you're a company of thousands or a lean startup, Beyond the Obvious will give you the skills and easy-to-follow plan you need to make both the revolutionary changes and nuanced tweaks required for success. Praise for Beyond the Obvious "Human beings are creatures of habit, so getting ourselves and our teams to think beyond the obvious is a challenge we face all the time. Phil McKinney is an innovation expert, and his killer questions and hit-the-spot anecdotes provide a great way to get out in front of opportunities we otherwise won't see." -- Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Escape Velocity "I've always believed that asking the right questions is the essence of design. Phil McKinney proves that point with this wonderful set of killer questions that will jumpstart-or greatly enhance- your innovation efforts." -- B. Joseph Pine II, co-author, The Experience Economy & Infinite Possibility. "Product Innovation is a prerequisite to building great brands. Phil's questions are a prerequisite to building innovative products." -- Satjiv S. Chahil, former global marketing chief, Apple"

In their first book, Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators, the authors provided a better model for executing disruptive innovation. They laid out a three-part plan for launching high-risk/high-reward innovation efforts: (1) borrow assets from the existing firms, (2) unlearn and unload certain processes and systems that do not serve the new entity, and (3) learn and build all new capabilities and skills. In their study of the Ten Rules in action, Govindarajan and Trimble observed many other kinds of innovation that were less risky but still critical to the company's ongoing success. In case after case, senior executives expected leaders of innovation initiatives to grapple with forces of resistence, namely incentives to keep doing what the company has always done--rather than develop new competence and knowledge. But where to begin? In this book, the authors argue that the most successful everyday innovators break down the process into six manageable steps: 1. Divide the labor 2. Assemble the dedicated team 3. Manage the partnership 4. Formalize the experiment 5. Break down the hypothesis 6. Seek the truth. The Other Side of Innovation codifies this staged approach in a variety of contexts. It delivers a proven step-by-step guide to executing (launching, managing, and measuring) more modest but necessary innovations within large firms without disrupting their bread-and-butter business.