I keep thinking about innovation. We all have to. Fareed Zakaria has one of his provocative articles up… THE FUTURE OF INNOVATION: CAN AMERICA KEEP PACE? And here is how he begins the article (read more from his website, here): “The first step to winning the future is encouraging American innovation.” That was Barack Obama… Read More An Innovation Deficit – And It Might Keep Getting Worse
Our mattresses were made of corn shucks and soft gray Spanish moss that hung from the trees…. From the swamps we got soup turtles and baby alligators And from the woods we got raccoon, rabbit and possum. • Mahalia Jackson, Movin’ On Up Richard Wright, the bard of the Great Migration, defected to the receiving station… Read More The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson – A Big Book
Even the staid British publication The Economist recently claimed, “Innovation is now recognized as the single most important ingredient in any modern economy.” (Tom Kelley: The Ten Faces of Innovation) —— For the SMU Cox School of Business – Business Leadership Center, I recently presented my new session on innovation: Adaptation, Exaptation, Innovation: Processes and… Read More 8 Assumptions and 8 Questions about Innovation
The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish and fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight. There is nothing yet to research. For me, these moments are not pretty. I look like a desperate woman, tortured by the simple message… Read More Before Creativity, Before Innovation, You Need An Idea
Let me help you plan your reading for 2011. The issue is… Leadership Development. Look at those words. Think about them. They say a lot. Mainly they say this – leaders have to be developed, and leaders have to focus on, and work on, continual development. This does not happen by accident. Some leaders may… Read More Here’s a Suggested Reading List for Leadership Development (for 2011) – Now, with Update
So, what do we do when the wisdom sounds so right, so obvious – but may be wrong? I am a big fan of Jason Fried. I have presented a synopsis of his book (co-authored with David Heinemeier Hansson), Rework. I have blogged about his ideas, quoting him, reflecting on his ideas a number of… Read More The Office – Interruption Factory, Or Idea Factory? (Is Jason Fried Right, Or Wrong?)
Last Friday, we ended 2010 at the First Friday Book Synopsis with synopses of Doing Both by Inder Sidhu and Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson. Attendance was terrific. And special thanks to Cathy Groos for filling in for Karl Krayer. (Cathy presented the synopsis of Doing Both). As we near the completion… Read More Kotter’s buy*in & Pfeffer’s Power – Coming next month (January 2011) for the First Friday Fook Synopsis
It’s that time of year, when people/magazines/other entities turn out their “best books of the year” lists. Here are some from The Economist (I first read about this at 800ceoread, here). Books of the Year Page turners Economics and business The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. By Michael Lewis. Norton; 266 pages; $27.95. Allen… Read More Best Business Books for 2010 – The Lists Begin
Our monthly event, the First Friday Book Synopsis, is this Friday. We meet at the Park City Club at 7:00 am, close to the intersection of Northwest Highway and the Tollway. Great networking, great food – and both books are definitely worth your time. Both Bob Morris and I have multiple blog posts prompted by… Read More There’s Still Time To Register For This Friday’s First Friday Book Synopsis – Where Good Ideas Come From & Doing Both
I read this near the end of Steven Johnson’s book, Where Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. You can read the entire letter by Thomas Jefferson here. It was written to a Mr. Isaac McPherson, a Boston mill owner, in a patent dispute. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over… Read More A Quote for the Day from Thomas Jefferson – “Ideas should spread freely”
First Friday Book Synopsis 