{On April 5, 2013, we will celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the First Friday Book Synopsis, and begin our 16th year. During March, I will post a blog post per day remembering key insights from some of the books I have presented over the 15 years of the First Friday Book Synopsis. We have met every first Friday of every month since April, 1998 (except for a couple of weather –related cancellations). These posts will focus only on books I have presented. My colleague, Karl Krayer, also presented his synopses of business books at each of these gatherings. I am going in chronological order, from April, 1998, forward. The fastest way to check on these posts will be at https://ffbsccn.wordpress.com/category/randys-blog-entries/ — though there will be some additional blog posts interspersed among these 30.}
Post #7 of 30
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Synopsis presented May, 2001
The Art of Innovation (Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm) by Tom Kelley (Doubleday, 2001).
I think I remember my first realization that IDEO exists. It was the Nightline piece on a new Shopping Cart design, which, according to my Google search, first aired on July, 1999, and I vividly remember watching (Watch it on Youtube here).
But I know I remember my experience of reading The Art of Innovation. I felt like: “this is cool.” And I have wished that I could be genuinely creative ever since.
Tom Kelley, the author, was at the heart of the leadership team of the design firm IDEO, along with its founder, his brother, David Kelley. Their designs make up a pretty long list, which includes the first mouse for Apple.
Here are some highlights/excerpts from the book:
It’s hard not to spot emerging trends unless you are truly asleep at the wheel. The biggest single trend we’ve observed is the growing acknowledgement of innovation as a centerpiece of corporate strategies and initiatives… The more senior the executives, the more likely they are to frame their companies needs in the context of innovation.
To those few companies sitting on the innovation fence, business writer Gary Hamel has a dire prediction: “Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who’s forging a bullet with your company’s name on it. You’ve got one option now – to shoot first. You’ve got to out-innovate the innovators.”
Success depends on both what you do and how you do it… The object is to achieve true excellence in a few areas, and strength in many. If there are ten events in creating and sustaining an innovative culture, what counts is your total score, your ability to regularly best the competition in the full range of daily tests that every company faces.
Of all the insights, this one was especially important: rather than ask people what they “want,” watch people actually do their jobs. Then you will learn, by observing, what they want. From the book:
We’re not big fans of focus groups. We don’t much care for traditional market research either. We go to the source. Not the “experts” inside a company, but the actual people who use the product or something similar to what we’re hoping to create. Customers mean well – and they’re trying to be helpful – but it’s not their job to be visionaries.
and
Finding the right people (to observe) helps. People who follow directions perfectly and can’t imagine a different course aren’t much help. You learn more from the woman who takes a shortcut… You learn from people who break the rules.
Watch how the world works and become hyperaware…
And, it seemed no one at IDEO had a “set job,” but they mixed the groups up, and the leaders of the groups and the assignments in the group, project by project.
You don’t just send your researchers out to do research and your designers to do design. You send your designers with researchers to do design and vice versa.
IDEO captured the power of a good brainstorming culture (the “7 secrets for better brainstorming” in this book are especially valuable), and the absolute need for good teams. Again, from the book:
You can deliver more value, create more energy, and foster more innovation through better brainstorming.
Just as brainstorming doesn’t exist apart from teams, the process of innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Innovation needs teams. And teams need places to thrive and grow.
The book reveals:
The IDEO five step methodology…
1) Understand the market.
2) Observe real people in real life situations to find out what makes them tick…
3) Visualize new to the world concepts and the customers who will use them.
4) Evaluate and refine the prototypes in a series of quick iterations. Plan on a series of improvements.
5) Implement the new product for commercialization.
After fifteen years of business book reading and synopsis sharing, I am ready to state the glaringly obvious – the next new future belongs to the best innovators (along with the people who are really good at executing on that next great innovation). This book is still a terrific and practical book to help you tackle “how do I learn how to tackle this?” challenge to be a continual innovator.
Kelley followed up a few years later with another book, The Ten Faces of Innovation. It too is a good and practical book (I presented synopses of both of these books), definitely worth reading. But, this first one feels like the “wow” memory of the two books.
First Friday Book Synopsis 