The Art of Innovation
We called it "the porch" but, in reality, it was just a small, windowless room. It was unheated and had a concrete floor that we sometimes covered with that awful, outdoor astroturf/carpet that was far too prevalent in my childhood. The room's only practical use was to house the dryer (The wash-machine itself was in the kitchen next door). For my three brothers and I, however, it was a starting point. It was an empty box that we eventually filled with childhood memories.
We have 25 copies of The Art of Innovation to give away this week. It was authored by IDEO general manager Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman (who this year released a book entitled I Hate People, which makes one wonder how he pulled off coauthoring this book). IDEO, of course, is the rock-star design firm of Palo Alto, California—"Silicon Valley's design firm of choice" as Todd writes in The 100 Best. IDEO wins so many awards it's hard to keep up with their accolades, but I do know they were just this year ranked #10 on Fast Company's list of The World's Most Innovative Companies. The Art of Innovation begins with the story of this great company, but quickly turns to processes and practices your company can implement. Again, from Todd's review:
The opening pages read more like a company biography than a guide to product transformations, but by chapter three, The Art of Innovation picks up speed and shows why this book is a prime example of what can make a business book so valuable.
This is not the only book surrounding the genius of IDEO, either. On top of the gorgeous EyesOpen books they released last year, their CEO Tim Brown released a book of his own this year, Change by Design, that has been receiving excellent reviews. Yes folks, it seems that in any world that has problems to solve, IDEO will be an unstoppable force—writing books, designing products and releasing ideas into the world in exchange for accolades and awards. They have the imagination of a 500 genius children and energy of 10,000 puppies.
"Publicly acknowledge a risk taker, a rule breaker, even a failure, and explain why every successful organization needs them."
The Art of Innovation Page 294
I think innovation—or at least the ability to creatively solve old problems in new ways—comes more naturally to us as children. Give four young brothers an empty room with no windows and no heat in the Winter, and it becomes a mini basketball court. The lack of heat isn't a problem. There's a clothes dryer in the corner that will heat up a small room, especially if it contains four active children. Incidentally, that clothes dryer also has a timer on it that can act as your game clock—a game clock with a built-in buzzer on it, I might add. You can pretend you're Michael Jordan when you hit a jump shot as the dryer's buzzer sounds. No hoop? No problem there, either. Cut the bottom off of that gallon jug of ice cream in the freezer—a proposition that carries the added benefit of getting to eat the ice cream first (though that may delay the desire to actually play basketball in a clothes dryer-heated room). Has your mini basketball gone flat due to the being left in the Winter-cold room while you ate ice cream with your brothers? Just toss that sucker in the dryer (the room's panacea) for a few minutes and it will be fine.
You know what? IDEO has got nothing on the youth of us Schleicher brothers. Well, except for gobs of money... and great books authored by our chief operators... and books published by and about us. Oh, and they have great insights, methods, processes and practices that you can use in your organization, many of which can be found in The Art of Innovation. We didn't have those. We did win a lot of trophies growing up, though, probably way more than IDEO has won. I guess there is that. And I will also say that if the Tom Kelley quote above about risk takers and rule breakers is true, and I suspect it is, I guess our parents got it right when they, well, recognized us for those things.
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