Innovation Step-By-Step


Book Description

Innovation Step-By-Step presents a simple system with big results. Through seven easy steps (and accompanying activities), you will learn how to pick the most effective course of action, communicate your ideas, and tackle even the biggest challenges that face you. Innovation Step-By-Step is based on proven research and practical experience, guided by Darin J. Eich, Ph.D. This book was built after designing, launching, and facilitating hundreds of innovation programs, projects, and workshops. Darin has dedicated over a decade to help individuals, groups, and organizations with a variety of challenges. Be guided step-by-step through the innovation system. See real examples at each stage. Follow along, and work on your own innovation project. Develop new products, services, solutions, strategies, marketing, communication, entrepreneurial endeavors, or organizational projects.




Courageous Cultures


Book Description

From executives complaining that their teams don’t contribute ideas to employees giving up because their input isn’t valued--company culture is the culprit. Courageous Cultures provides a road map to build a high-performance, high-engagement culture around sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions from all levels. Many leaders are convinced they have an open environment that encourages employees to speak up and are shocked when they learn that employees are holding back. Employees have ideas and want to be heard. Leadership wants to hear them. Too often, however, employees and leaders both feel that no one cares about making things better. The disconnect typically only widens over time, with both sides becoming more firmly entrenched in their viewpoints. Becoming a courageous culture means building teams of microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates working together. In our world of rapid change, a courageous culture is your competitive advantage. It ensures that your company is “sticky” for both customers and employees. In Courageous Cultures, you’ll learn practical tools that help you: Learn the difference between microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates and how they work together. See how the latest research conducted by the authors confirms why organizations struggle when it comes to creating strong cultures where employees are encouraged to contribute their best thinking. Learn proven models and tools that leaders can apply throughout all levels of the organization, to reengage and motivate employees. Understand best practices from companies around the world and learn how to apply these strategies and techniques in your own organization. This book provides you with the practical tools to uncover, leverage, and scale the best ideas from every level of your organization.




The Innovator's DNA


Book Description

A new classic, cited by leaders and media around the globe as a highly recommended read for anyone interested in innovation. In The Innovator’s DNA, authors Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and bestselling author Clayton Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator’s Solution, How Will You Measure Your Life?) build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact. By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators—from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group—the authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting. Once you master these competencies (the authors provide a self-assessment for rating your own innovator’s DNA), the authors explain how to generate ideas, collaborate to implement them, and build innovation skills throughout the organization to result in a competitive edge. This innovation advantage will translate into a premium in your company’s stock price—an innovation premium—which is possible only by building the code for innovation right into your organization’s people, processes, and guiding philosophies. Practical and provocative, The Innovator’s DNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess.




Radical Product Thinking


Book Description

Iteration rules product development, but it isn't enough to produce dramatic results. This book champions Radical Product Thinking, a systematic methodology for building visionary, game-changing products. In the last decade, we've learned to harness the power of iteration to innovate faster—we've invested in a fast car, but our ability to set a clear destination and navigate to it hasn't kept up. When we iterate without a clear vision or strategy, our products become bloated, fragmented, and driven by irrelevant metrics. They catch “product diseases” that often kill innovation. Radical Product Thinking (RPT) gives organizations a repeatable model for building world-changing products. The key? Being vision-driven instead of iteration-led. R. Dutt guides readers through the five elements of the methodology (vision, strategy, prioritization, execution and measurement, and culture) to develop a clear process for translating vision into reality, and turning RPT skills into muscle memory. This book offers refreshing solutions to the shortcomings of our current model for product development; be prepared to toss out everything you know about a good vision and learn how to measure progress to create revolutionary products. The best part? You don't have to be a natural-born visionary to produce extraordinary results.




Innovation You


Book Description

In today’s frenetic, uncertain world, the “same old, same old” routines are perfect ways to go nowhere fast. What has worked for you before—professionally or personally—no longer gets results. Whether you’ve been downsized, reached the end of a long relationship, or found yourself questioning where you are in life, it’s clear you need to change. To innovate. Make it new. Make yourself new. Now, in this invaluable book, the world-renowned “Dean of Innovation,” Jeff DeGraff, shares his tried-and-true techniques on how to reinvent yourself—creatively and with maximum impact. Innovation You reveals DeGraff’s unique four-step program to bolster your ingenuity and remake your life. From forging ahead in a new career to losing weight to finally pursuing that long-held dream, DeGraff’s strategies are effective and easy to follow. Inside you will learn to • Rethink Innovation: Find ways to think outside the box, seek out diverse opinions, and pay attention to the next great trend. • Rethink Your Approach: Use the Competing Values Framework to identify your natural innovation profile—do you compete, collaborate, create, or control?—and then deliberately draw from the other styles to augment your usual tactics. • Rethink Your Methods: Put your reinvention plan in motion—set specific, realistic, and meaningful targets, cultivate relationships with relevant mentors and experts, and try alternate methods to achieve your goals. • Rethink the Journey: Understand that innovation is a process and that progress comes in cycles rather than a quick straight line. Accept uncertainty, question assumptions, and acknowledge areas where you can improve. Full of invigorating ideas, engaging anecdotes, practical wisdom, and inspiring success stories, Innovation You is your personal road map to reach your highest potential—and experience a bold new way of living.




Root Down and Branch Out


Book Description

Root Down and Branch Out: Best Practices for Leadership Development Programs + Innovation ready: Learn from and root down in the high-impact practices in action at universities - and branch out from them with ideas you can launch in your own program + Research based: Be more scientific and gain insights from a University of Wisconsin study of high quality leadership development programs in US higher education + Grounded in real stories: Understand what works through reading quotes from over sixty students and practitioners from different leadership programs + Ready to apply: Use the charts and tools to apply the model and best practices to your own setting, workshop, course, program, institution, initiative, or organization + Assessment friendly: Use the included assessment sheets for program evaluation, development, reflection, idea generation, and improvement + Current and growing: New resources, activities, tips, guides, videos, networks, and updates are becoming available regularly at DarinEich.com/Book This book brings key findings to practice from a research study conducted to determine the most important characteristics of high quality leadership development programs. The author spoke with program developers, educators and participants from four programs to uncover what mattered most - what made the leadership programs most effective. From the study findings, the Grounded Theory Model of High Quality Leadership Programs was developed to outline the most important characteristics of effective programs that positively contribute to students' learning and leadership development. Charts also lay out the actions you can take and what types of outcomes these actions produce. The pieces of the model can be used as a checklist for things you could be doing in your program -- as catalysts for innovation. This practical knowledge can assist you, whether you are a program developer or teacher, in creating and administering high-quality leadership programs that enhance the learning and leadership development of your program participants.




Learner-Centered Innovation


Book Description

When we tell kids to complete an assignment, we get compliance. When we empower learners to explore and learn how to make an impact on the world, we inspire problem solvers and innovators.




Thoughtless Acts?


Book Description

A look at how people intuitively adapt, exploit and react to things in their environment. Some of these actions are instinctive, others are the product of habit or social learning. 'Thoughtless Acts?' is design firm IDEO's introduction to observation-based practice: the way design can be inspired by such everyday interactions with the world.




Educational Research and Innovation Working Out Change Systemic Innovation in Vocational Education and Training


Book Description

This book analyses systemic innovation in education by looking at the ways in which educational systems encourage innovation, the knowledge base and processes used, and the procedures and criteria used to assess progress and evaluate outcomes.




Coaching for Innovation


Book Description

Making innovation in the workplace highly accessible, Coaching for Innovation presents a step-by-step guide which is full of practical tips, models, exercises and interviews with HR and business professionals. It demonstrates the integral role that coaching plays in idea generation and the innovation process.