A review on ‘Weird Ideas that Spark Innovation ’

By Marie

The Coré Notes

• “You just need to be skilled and motivated at gathering knowledge from diverse sources, and then at figuring out how it might be put to new uses.”

• “…all great technologies are blends of other technologies” 

Insanely Great Language

“Ins

anel

y

Great

.”

—Steve

Jobs

Insanely Great Language

Invent. Reinvent. Repeat.

Source: HP banner ad

RS’s logic about this article

You need to have variation & ideas that are floating around the group or the company—wide variations—and you need to have people who have what RS call “vu jadé” which is the opposite of “déja vu”. It's this ability to keep seeing the same old thing as brand new.

Weird Ideas that Work

Whole trick is to get somebody who sees the product differently, to have as many different design solutions around the same old problem, or to a new problem, as possible.

Sutton – Weird Ideas that Work1. Hire “Slow Learners” (of the organizational code). 1-1/2 Hire People Who Make

You Uncomfortable, Even Those You Dislike.2. Hire People You (Probably) Don’t Need3. Use Job Interviews to Get Ideas, Not to Screen Candidates4. Encourage People to Ignore and Defy Superiors and Peers5. Find Some Happy People and Get them to Fight6. Reward Success and Failure, Punish Inaction7. Decide to Do Something That Will Probably Fail, Then Convince Yourself and

Everybody Else That Success is Certain8. Think of Some Ridiculous or Impractical Things to Do, Then Plan to Do Them.9. Avoid, Distract, and Bore Customers, Critics, and Anyone Who Just Wants to Talk

About Money10. Don’t Try to Learn Anything from People Who Seem to Have Solved the

Problems You Face.11. Forget the Past, Especially Your Company’s Successes.

• Sutton, Robert I. 2002. Weird Ideas that Work: 11-1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation. New York: Free Press.

RS’s favorite quote…

Do something that will probably fail, and then convince everybody around you that success is certain.This is how the best venture capitalists and the best product development managers work, because it's such a paradox, but it's how Silicon Valley works.

The View

• increase variance in available knowledge

• see old things in new ways

• break from the past

The Review

• Professor Sutton’s ideas can be viewed as a “menu” for innovation. As with any good menu, time will introduce variations, additions, and adjustments, but the foundation is a solid base with which to start.

The Connections

1. Get the right people (Ideas 1, 1.5, 2, & 3)

2. Build the right environment (Ideas 4, 5, & 6)

3. Work on the right projects (Ideas 7 & 8)

4. Filter out the noise (Ideas 9, 10, & 11)

What “We” Know “For Sure” About Innovation

Big mergers [by & large] don’t workScale is over-rated

Strategic planning is the last refuge of scoundrelsFocus groups are counter-productive

“Built to last” is a chimera (stupid)Success kills

“Forgetting” is impossibleRe-imagine is a charming idea

“Orderly innovation process” is an oxymoronic phrase (= Believed only by morons with ox-like brains)

“Tipping points” are easy to identify … long after they will do you any good

“Facts” aren’tAll information making it to the top is filtered

to the point of danger and hilarity“Success stories” are the illusions of egomaniacs (and “gurus”)

If you believe the “cause & effect” memoirs of CEOs you should be institutionalized

“Herd behavior” (XYZ is “hot”) is ubiquitous … and amusing“Top teams” are “Ditto heads”

Statistically, CEOs have little effect on performance“Expert” prediction is rarely better than rolling the dice

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

Summary

• Finally, if you look at these, a reasonable conclusion is that, although creative places can be a lot of fun at times and being happy is linked to creativity.