As we continue to review Robert Sutton’s weird ideas, we need to consider what to do after you get the right people and build the right environment to encourage innovation. How do you know which ideas will lead to successful new products? You don’t. But, weird ideas seven and eight will give you… Read More
Offensive: causing resentful displeasure; highly irritating, angering or annoying. Change is offensive. It challenges the status quo. Learning is offensive. It forces us to grow. Decision making is offensive. It’s discriminating. Leadership is offensive. We don’t always get our way. Innovators are offensive. They challenge us. Thinkers are offensive. They ask a lot of annoying questions. Honesty is offensive. Sometimes the… Read More
Today is “environment day” in our continuing overview of Robert Sutton’s Weird Ideas That Work. Once you have hired the right people, how should you manage them? Weird Idea 4: Encourage People to Ignore and Defy Superiors and Peers (PS – That’s even if you’re their “superior”!!!!) “Jeffrey Pfeffer likes to say that managers should… Read More
In continuing our overview of Robert Sutton’s Weird Ideas That Work, let’s talk about people. “Driving out variation makes sense when organizations do proven things in proven ways that still work…When innovation is the goal, however, organizations need variations in what people do, think about, and produce.” We also need variation in who we hire! … Read More
In 2002, Robert Sutton published the book Weird Ideas That Work: 11 ½ Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation. His ideas, perspective and style immediately got my attention. It was the first time I read anything that described creativity and innovation with phrases like: “You just need to be skilled and motivated at gathering… Read More
I was sitting in Starbucks telling my husband about how picky I have become with coffee. Now, Starbucks wanted me to be picky. They wanted me to prefer their roasts to (God forbid) Maxwell House or Folgers (remember that stuff that came in the cans?). And I do. But, when my Starbucks barista pulls my… Read More
Who am I and what am I selling? What specific benefits do I offer my clients? What makes my offering unique and valuable to my clients? Some people can walk out of the corporate lobby into their own business and know exactly who they are and what they’re selling. I was not one of those… Read More
Today on Boing Boing: Google “…distributed legal missives to various media organizations, demanding that they cease using the word "Google" as a verb.” Apparently Google feels that being recognized as a household name is not a good thing. They may be directing their cease and desist orders at media outlets, but media outlets didn’t transform… Read More