The Innovation Book: How to Manage Ideas and Execution for Outstanding Results

Tools are cross-referenced and, in the e-book, they're intelligently linked to other models or concepts that might be useful. The text is chunky and organized well, so it's really simple to skim chapters and quickly learn a new concept.
If you're interested in creativity and innovation, you'll find a lot to learn in this book. It's also going to be really useful for people in a leadership role. There's a lot of valuable advice in here about encouraging more innovation in a team setting.

Max McKeown is the author of a best-seller called "The Strategy Book." He's also a consultant and public speaker, with a PhD and MBA specializing in strategic change. His past clients include Virgin, GE, Microsoft, Sony, and Toyota.

So, keep listening to find out how you can become more innovative, how to get your team to think more creatively, and how to use rebellion to drive more innovation in your organization.

"The Innovation Book" is divided into six parts. The first four look at the challenges you're likely to face as an innovator, whether you're coming up with creative ideas on your own or working within a larger team. Part five looks at case studies that highlight the steps others have taken on their own journey to innovation.

Part six is worth the price of the book alone. Here, McKeown presents a toolkit, by pulling together all of the techniques and models he outlines throughout the book. You can use this section as a learning tool, or as a refresher when you're pressed for time.

Let's start by looking at what innovation really means. McKeown defines it as "practical creativity." Essentially, innovation means using creativity to solve problems.

No matter what you do, you need to be innovative. Innovation will help you solve complex problems in a new way, stand out at work, and work more productively. But how do you learn how to be more innovative?

McKeown says that individual creativity is made up of three things. First, creativity is about thinking differently. It's also about feeling differently. And it's about focusing, or committing, differently.

So, you need to be willing to come up with new ideas, even if those ideas are unusual. You need to care about solving problems that other people might think are impossible or unimportant. And, you need the willpower to take action on your ideas, and see them through.

The good news is that the power to be innovative is already inside you. Human beings are inherently creative creatures. Some people are more creative than others, and we're all creative in different ways. But this means that you can learn to be more creative and innovative.

One way to do this is to start collecting ideas. Get outside your comfort zone and try to find ideas that are unproven and new. Don't turn to the books, magazines, and websites you always rely on. Use new sources and collect ideas you might normally dismiss.

You can then take those ideas and transform them in a lot of different ways. McKeown says you can reverse the assumption of an idea, or reverse its implementation. You can make it prettier, uglier, longer, thinner, higher, or lower. Those are just a few ideas, but you get the picture. Be willing to take an idea and change it to make it yours, or to fit your purpose.

Next, think about the difference this new idea could make. If you replaced an existing idea with this one, what might happen?

Last, take time to nurture these ideas. Write down the mechanics of an idea on a piece of paper, or talk to your friends or colleagues about it.

The goal here isn't to turn every new idea into reality. The goal is for you to start looking differently at your ideas, and developing new ones, so that you have a stockpile of concepts at the ready when you need them.

This practice of looking for new ideas and transforming them will strengthen your creative thinking process over time. You'll start to feel more creative. You'll get better at making unexpected connections, and looking at situations in a different way, once you get into the habit of exploring new ideas.

There are a lot of great suggestions in part one to help you start thinking more creatively. Another one we like is to look out for dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction encourages innovation, so think about where you're dissatisfied at work or in your personal life.

Even if you don't know a lot about something that's dissatisfying you, don't let that slow you down. Sometimes, a lack of knowledge can be a strength because you're not held back by traditional constraints.

If you're in a management role, you won't want to miss part two. Here, McKeown shows you how to manage a team of innovators, or encourage your existing team to be more innovative.

One of the first things you need to do is build a bigger, better brain. You already know that your team is far more powerful together than they are individually. So, you need to help your people work and think more creatively, together.

Start by looking at the ideas that have contributed the most to your team or organization. Who came up with these ideas? Could you get them on your team, if they aren't already?

Next, think about your beliefs around creativity. For instance, do you believe in the power of unusual intellects? If so, you should try to add more diversity to your team. Do you believe that creativity comes from having more people involved in the process? If so, then you should try to harness more people's talent.

Your team members also need time to explore new ideas, and they need to feel safe sharing those ideas with you and the rest of the group. Reward new ideas by encouraging people to make them work. Talk about innovation on a regular basis so your people know that it's important to you.

You can also bring your people to new ideas. Create opportunities to have a show-and-tell style meeting where you all discuss new information, products, books, or principles.

We really like this idea because it's a great way to encourage continuous learning within your own team, and help everyone stay up to date with changes in your industry.

You can also stress the importance of innovation in your training and coaching programs.

Keep in mind that encouraging innovation is only part of the solution. You also need to take an organized approach to your team's ideas. McKeown goes over four different ways you can organize a team to take action on promising ideas.

For example, you can create a functional team. This type of team stays within the functional power of existing processes your organization has already set up.
You can create a lightweight team. Lightweights are more of a coordination committee with light project management authority.

Heavyweight teams, on the other hand, have a senior full-time project manager who organizes the project and guides the work. That's another option.

Last, you can create an autonomous team. Members of this team are transferred outside their functions, and have their own project management and processes.

There's a lot of really useful information in this chapter, and we've only been able to cover a fraction of what's there. If you're in a management role you'll find plenty of actionable suggestions you can use with your people, starting today.

Another chapter we really like is chapter three, which focuses on creating innovation. Here, you learn how to use the power of creative rebels to make your ideas a reality, how to make those new ideas useful, and how to measure innovation.

Many organizations frown on rebellions, or the rebels within a group. But innovation needs rebels because they're willing to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term benefits. They're not held back by tradition or the status quo. They want to take action and shake things up.

Before you go searching for mavericks and rebels, it's helpful to get a sense of how your organization approaches new ideas, and the people who have them.

Does your company try to increase consistency or alignment? McKeown says that many organizations can unintentionally reduce innovation when they increase consistency. This is true with job descriptions, performance reviews, and hierarchy.

A side effect of this sameness is that people can start to attack new ideas just because they're new. Groups tend to gravitate towards stability, and they may start to suppress different views and reject the people who share them. As you can imagine, this can further limit new ideas and innovation.

To use the power of mavericks in your organization, you first need to figure out who these people are. Start by identifying the sources of dissent. Who is actively disagreeing with decision makers? Who's traveling in a different direction? Who has different opinions from the group?

Next, compare the levels of creative diversity in your organization with those that are more innovative. Look at organizations that used to be innovative, but now aren't. Chances are they became over-standardized. If you're facing this in your own team or organization, you might need to respond with some rebellion to shake things up.

Another way you can use the power of rebels is to deliberately use constructive conflict with your team. With this technique, you deliberately set out to create conflict. It can help you and your team test and expand specific ideas. It will also develop your ability to think more analytically.

The goal here isn't just to argue sides, or start a fight. You want your team to be logical and creative. And, you want them to poke holes in ideas, and then build them back up.

To use constructive conflict, introduce an idea and encourage your team to research it on their own. They need to learn all they can about it, and then draw their own conclusions.

Next, your people need to find views that oppose their own conclusions. These might be different views that exist outside the group, or new differences that your group comes up with.

As your team talks about the idea, tension will naturally spring up, because people have drawn different conclusions from the same evidence. Each person should try to convince others to love their perspective. Encourage everyone to be open to better versions of their original idea as they talk things out.

The goal is that people should seek a better understanding so they can improve or discard their existing idea.

Although the entire book is valuable, the most useful section is part six. Here, McKeown has pulled together all the tools and models he mentioned earlier, and lays them out step-by-step, so you can use them easily.

So, what's our last word on "The Innovation Book"?

We think this book is a helpful resource for anyone who wants to learn how to be a more innovative thinker. It's especially useful for those in a leadership role, who want to encourage more creative thinking in their team.

The writing is clear and accessible, and McKeown doesn't waste your time including stories or sections that don't need to be there.

One feature we really like within each chapter is called "The Innovator's Measure of Success." Here, you get a checklist of points that let you know when you've mastered a certain skill or concept.

We think this is a really clever way to cement the core ideas in each chapter. These points are like signposts you can use to build on what you've learned.

McKeown also includes sections in each chapter called "Do This Now!" And, it's just what it sounds like. You get a short, 10-minute assignment to try out what you've just learned.

Even the chapter full of case studies is set up with learning in mind. Here, McKeown tells story after story of well-known, and little-known, innovators. After each story, he includes a box titled "Innovation Turning Points," filled with questions that force you to reconsider what you just read, and explore your conclusions from it.

He doesn't tell you what you should be learning. Each question pushes you to figure it out for yourself.

As you heard earlier, the way this book is organized is just smart. It's very easy to read, and McKeown makes it really simple to put these ideas into practice.

"The Innovation Book," by Max McKeown, is published by Financial Times Publishing.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.