Picturing 'The Beginner's Guide to Innovation'

Picturing 'The Beginner's Guide to Innovation'

Happy anniversary, Creativity Un-Limited! It's been 10 years since this column first appeared in the Bangkok Post. Over the last decade, I've produced 257 articles on business creativity and innovation, totalling 240,000 words or enough for six books. So when my US business partner asked me if I could write an "airport" business book that provides an overview of core innovation concepts in an easy-to-read style, I thought: "That's easy. I already have all the content."

However, so far I've struggled to find the best structure for The Beginner's Guide to Innovation. One evening last week, I listed the possible topics. As I drifted off to sleep, the contents shifted around in my mind until suddenly the full picture of a beautiful primer emerged. I jumped out of bed at 4am to jot down everything. Here's what I came up with.

Background: Big picture vs small picture. My inability to spot a structure for packaging core articles from this column was a classic case of "Can't see the forest for the trees". And here, the saying also provided the solution.

In our X-IDEA thinking toolbox, one Xploration tool is "Big Picture vs Small Picture", which features three different scales: first you appreciate the small pictures (the parts); then, step back to look at the big picture (the whole); finally, move back even further to take in the grand big picture (the environment).

I decided to start with the grand big picture: the modern business environment that constitutes the stage on which the innovation play takes place. For the novice reader, this would answer the core question: What factors drive and influence innovation and change? So in the first chapter, you'd learn about the innovation economy, the drivers and cycles of change, and why the world hates change. These environmental factors set the scene before we scale one level down.

Big pictures and key concepts: Now the reader is ready for a big-picture view. In Chapter 2 we define creativity and innovation in simple terms. We also discuss the importance of creating meaning to move from invention to innovation, look at the wide spectrum of innovation types, and the financial premium that innovation leaders enjoy.

At this point you would be asking why only a few companies succeed in the innovation game. In Chapter 3, I explain how to use the full spectrum of innovation types. You also learn how to distinguish innovations based on impact, and gain an understanding of the dilemma of innovation management and the paradoxes in innovation.

Appreciating the big picture first gives you a fundamental knowledge platform that allows you to scale down to the lowest level of abstraction.

Small pictures and applications: There are four broader application areas you need to understand when you want to do innovation as an individual or leader, as a team and as a company. It all comes down to mastering four areas of innovation -- process, people, culture and leadership:

The first small-picture application that every novice should know more about is how to better undertake an innovation project alone or with a team. Chapter 4 deals with innovation processes and tools: How do they work? And why can a well-structured innovation method like X-IDEA reliably help would-be innovators produce standout ideas and outputs?

The second picture captures another critical dimension: people. In Chapter 5 we look at who can best contribute to innovation and how. Everyone can play a role, but depending on your cognitive style, you might be better suited to create or lead from the front, or to work on or manage innovation from the back end. Profiling tools such as TIPS (Theories, Ideas, People and Systems) can help you use your innovation troops according to their talents.

Next comes the people-related element that can make or break innovation: your organisational culture. Chapter 6 outlines how to evolve your organisation's culture to support innovation and change, touching on issues such as how organisations respond to failure or motivate their staff.

Finally, leadership is something I'd want every innovation novice to understand. Just talking the innovation talk doesn't suffice. As Steve Jobs noted: "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

Companies that lead innovation not only have a creative leader at the top, but also creative people who lead their teams on lower levels. Chapter 7 shows how to develop authentic creative leaders with the help of effective development methods such as Genius Journey.

Let's end by scaling back up to the grand big picture: the future of innovation. In the eighth and final chapter, we'll return to the environmental level. In what directions might the discipline of innovation evolve in future? What might -- and might not -- change in the ways we practise innovation, and why? These are informed guesses only, but I expect certain trends such as the shift to an entrepreneurial society, digitisation and the work-life philosophy of Generation Y to influence the direction of innovation. At the same time, I predict the importance of other practices such as open innovation to decline over time.

Conclusion: Believe it or not, since I had my idea in the wee hours of Thursday last week, I have already created the first prototype of the book to share with a number of possible publishers. Maybe even the Bangkok Post would be interested in celebrating the 10th anniversary of Creativity Un-Limited by publishing The Beginner's Guide to Innovation.


Dr Detlef Reis is the founding director and chief ideator of Thinkergy Limited (www.Thinkergy.com), the Innovation Company in Asia. He is also an assistant professor at the Institute for Knowledge & Innovation-Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA), Bangkok University, and an adjunct associate professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, email dr.d@thinkergy.com

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