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Original ideas start in a person´s mind, but the environment where they operate is crucial for the capture and development of these ideas. Equally important is the interaction with others in developing and evaluating ideas, as a brilliant idea only influences the world if it is put into use.This book hopes to inspire the team leader, innovation manager or research group leader. It deals with the delicate balance of managing and controlling intellectual property in a collaborative environment. Insights on how new inventions can be evaluated are offered. Following the whole cycle of innovation from a creative idea to where a product or service can be put on the market, examples illustrate how an innovative environment can be created and maintained. Strategies and solutions based on the science of team development are presented and leadership models for the different phases of group development are provided.The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, product developers, entrepreneurs, and advanced students in the fields of technology and innovation management and entrepreneurship and small business management but also for leadership.

Discover how you and your company can work less, be more productive, and make time for what's really important with the support of this life-changing book.​ The idea of success embraced by the global economy means being always-on, never missing an opportunity, and outworking your peers. But working ever-longer hours is't sustainable for companies or individuals. Fatigue-induced mistakes, whether in the operating room or factory line, cost companies billions, and overwork alienates and burns out valuable employees. But what if there is another way? Shorter tells the story of entrepreneurs and leaders all over the world who have discovered how to shrink the workweek without cutting salaries or sacrificing productivity or revenues. They show that by reducing distractions, eliminating inefficiencies, and creating time for high-quality focus and collaboration, 4-day workweeks can boost recruitment and retention, make leaders more thoughtful and companies more sustainable, and improve work-life balance. Using design thinking, a business and product development process pioneered in Silicon Valley, futurist and consultant Alex Pang creates a step-by-step guide for readers to redesign their workdays.

This book describes the conversational competencies that enable innovative entrepreneurial teams to create new products and ventures, and it presents several exercises and games to help readers master these conversational moves.Based on 6 years of detailed empirical analysis of teams at the forefront of technological breakthroughs and new venture creation, this book shows you how high-performance teams verbally accomplish their work. Through engaging examples, exercises, and descriptions, it enables entrepreneurs to develop the conversational competencies that can help them create new products and ventures. The book includes a technique for making interpretation visible that enables teams to navigate pivots in the innovation process. It also includes the materials and instructions for the Toasted Marshmallow game designed to help entrepreneurial teams fail forward. The Innovator's Discussion enables readers and their team mates to build a conversational advantage. The reader will gain both a practical and theoretical understanding of the role of conversation in the context of entrepreneurial work. It is invaluable for aspiring and established entrepreneurs as well as for educators and those wanting to learn more about entrepreneurship, innovation, and high-performance teams.

'How to Do Great Work Without Being an Asshole, a new book by designer Paul Woods, is a practical, illustrated guide that does exactly what the title suggests: It shows you how to be both creative and act like a grown-up at work.'- Fast CompanyIt's long been an accepted, almost celebrated, fact of the creative industries that long hours, chaotic workflows and egotistical colleagues are just the price you pay to produce great work. In fact, this toxic culture is the enemy of creativity, and with greater accountability and transparency in the industry - and more choice for young talent - than ever before, this unsustainable way of doing business is a ticking time bomb.This is a straight-talking, fun read for all creatives: Director or junior, at an agency or client-side, working in design, advertising, publishing, fashion or film.Packed with anecdotes, self-analysis flowcharts (are YOU the asshole?!), humorous graphics, and helpful exercises and action plans for better working practices.Simple strategies can easily be implemented to create a happier, more productive team and - importantly - BETTER WORK!Read this guide to develop the ultimate creative process and bring your productivity and teamwork to a new level.How to Do Great Work Without Being an Asshole addresses hot topics like:Building a better office cultureDealing with egosMeeting etiquetteBest practices for pitching and scopingMaking the most of creative briefingsHow to give constructive, clear feedbackGiving better presentations How to approach workloads and long hoursGuidelines for good client relationshipsHiring and being hiredFiring and being firedAnd much more!

Amidst the deluge of advice for businesspeople, there lies an overlooked tool, a key to thriving in today's fast-paced, unpredictable environment: improvisation. In Getting to'Yes And'veteran improv performer, university professor, CEO, and consultant Bob Kulhan unpacks a form of mental agility with powers far beyond the entertainment value of comedy troupes. Drawing on principles from cognitive and social psychology, behavioral economics, and communication, Kulhan teaches readers to think on their feet and approach the most typical business challenges with fresh eyes and openness. He shows how improv techniques such as the'Yes, and'approach, divergent and convergent thinking, and focusing on being present can translate into more productive meetings, swifter decisions, stronger collaboration, positive conflict resolution, mindfulness, and more. Moving from the individual to the organizational level, Kulhan compiles time-tested teaching methods and training exercises into an instrumental guide that readers can readily implement as a party of one or a company of thousands.

The action-based guide to powerful, influential organizational storytelling Circle of the 9 Muses captures the best practices of the world's most influential story consultants and knowledge workers to help you find, tell, and draw value from your organizational stories as impetus for action. This rich toolbox is loaded with fun, graphical instructions and dozens of unique, replicable, and facilitated processes that require no special training or expertise. You'll discover your organization's hidden narrative assets, use different templates and frameworks to tell the stories of your past, present, and future and then draw team members into rich meaning-making dialogue that translates into action. These activities can be exercised in endless permutations, and expert advice steers you toward the right activity for a specific purpose, including managing change, setting strategy, onboarding, defining the brand, engaging supporters or customers, merging cultures, building trust, and much more. Organizational storytelling is a powerful managerial tool and an essential change management technique. This is about your influence as a leader. Knowing the right story to tell and how to deliver it effectively gives you and your organization enormous influence, and helps connect employees to strategy by providing understanding, belief, and motivation in their personal contribution. This book is the ultimate field guide to becoming an influential storyteller, with concrete, actionable guidance toward all the storytelling fundamentals. Identify your organization's'narrative assets'Craft an elegant, well-constructed organizational story Capture, bank, and share stories with extraordinary engagement Facilitate a dialogue to draw out meaning and induce change The growing interest surrounding organizational storytelling has many change agents focused on'trying to tell better stories,'but goals are useless without a plan of action. Circle of the 9 Muses helps you weave narrative wisdom into organizational development activities, engaging employees and driving change.

When The Knowledge-Creating Company (OUP; nearly 40,000 copies sold) appeared, it was hailed as a landmark work in the field of knowledge management. Now, Enabling Knowledge Creation ventures even further into this all-important territory, showing how firms can generate and nurture ideas by using the concepts introduced in the first book. Weaving together lessons from such international leaders as Siemens, Unilever, Skandia, and Sony, along with their own first-hand consulting experiences, the authors introduce knowledge enabling--the overall set of organizational activities that promote knowledge creation--and demonstrate its power to transform an organization's knowledge into value-creating actions. They describe the five key'knowledge enablers'and outline what it takes to instill a knowledge vision, manage conversations, mobilize knowledge activists, create the right context for knowledge creation, and globalize local knowledge. The authors stress that knowledge creation must be more than the exclusive purview of one individual--or designated'knowledge'officer. Indeed, it demands new roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization--from the elite in the executive suite to the frontline workers on the shop floor. Whether an activist, a caring expert, or a corporate epistemologist who focuses on the theory of knowledge itself, everyone in an organization has a vital role to play in making'care'an integral part of the everyday experience; in supporting, nurturing, and encouraging microcommunities of innovation and fun; and in creating a shared space where knowledge is created, exchanged, and used for sustained, competitive advantage. This much-anticipated sequel puts practical tools into the hands of managers and executives who are struggling to unleash the power of knowledge in their organization.

Creativity and Marketing: The Fuel for Success presents a diverse collection of theoretical analysis, real world evidence, and case study applications to synthesize emerging studies on how creativity is important for marketing success. Exploring themes in strategic marketing, creativity in management and communication as well as creativity in new product development, Creativity and Marketing examines a wide range of cutting-edge developments at the intersection of marketing and creative practice, including brand management, social media management, consumer behaviour, and value creation. This collection will bridge theory and practice in a fast moving and exciting field and will provide scholars of marketing, branding and consumer behaviour with lessons and strategies to implement in their own fields.

Reignite your creative-thinking skills to produce innovative solutions Organizational Creativity: A Practical Guide for Innovators and Entrepreneurs by Gerard J. Puccio, John F. Cabra, and Nathan Schwagler, is a compelling new text designed to transform the reader into a creative thinker and leader. Arguing that creativity is an essential skill that must be developed, the authors take a highly practical approach, providing strategies, tools, and cases to help readers hone their creative abilities. Whether students are preparing to become entrepreneurs or to work in an established firm, this text will help them survive and thrive in an era of innovation and change.

People with ideas are dreamers. People who get things done are doers. One doer is worth eight dreamers. There are three kinds of people who make up an innovator. There are inventors (people who have new and unique ideas), problem solvers (people who have ideas about how to correct a previous error) and entrepreneurs (people who transform ideas into realities). Put them altogether they spell'innovator.'Most innovative books today focus on ways to create new and unique ideas; some of them also address problem-solving, but this is less than 10% of the methodologies that the innovator needs to master. The approaches used in this book transform an idea into reality, or to put it another way, deliver innovative products to make a profit for the organization and instill pride in its employees. This means that every step in the process needs to have innovation applied to it in order to meet the expectations and demands of today's sophisticated customer. This book is designed to help the reader and their organization complete the complex process of bringing a new product to market by presenting what is expected at each step in the cycle and providing step-by-step instructions on what to do at each specific step.In large to mid-sized organizations this book is designed to help each individual understand how they fit into the innovative cycle and explains why they should be more creative related to the work they do and more conscious of the contributions they can make. It emphasizes the importance of every individual contributing to the organization's innovative process. The book is designed to help the organization understand its Innovation Systems Cycle. In the early part of the cycle it focuses on weeding out projects that do not have the potential to produce value-added results to the stakeholders. By using the guidelines outlined in this book, an organization can reduce its new project failure rate by as much as 50% which should result in almost doubling the organization's new product output thereby increasing profits by as much as 15%.

This title was first published in 2000. Economic competitiveness depends on having the smartest workforce possible. Organizations who want to survive and grow need to be open to new ways of uncovering and developing their people's abilities. Profiting from Multiple Intelligences in the Workplace turns Howard Gardner's revolutionary theory of multiple intelligences into user-friendly tools for understanding and assessing success in everyone from CEOs to cleaners. It provides a complete system for: the examination of staff needs matching applicants and job specifications successful interviewing and induction effective supervision focused training and development. The results not only allow the identification of individual skills but also uncover the mosaic of skills needed for multiskilling, multitasking and efficient teamwork. No other book provides a method of translating the theory of multiple intelligences into workplace practice and, unlike other books which centre on only one intelligence (for example emotional intelligence), the inventories presented here work towards a balance between traditional skills, general competencies and social skills.

For the past two decades, creativity and innovation have been viewed by researchers as critical to organizational success and survival. Understanding the factors that facilitate or inhibit creativity and innovation at the individual level has been the focus of much of the research in this area. However, while earlier work on teams considered the working dynamics of the group as a context variable with individual creativity the outcome, research now emphasizes group creativity as the intended, desired outcome. This shift in thought has occurred because many of the problems routinely facing organizations are complex and cannot be solved by a single individual at the helm. Edited by Roni Reiter-Palmon, Team Creativity and Innovation provides readers with a state-of-the-art review of the major concepts and current research related to the demonstrable benefits of team creativity and innovation. In this volume, Reiter-Palmon and contributors explore such topics as team collaboration and communication, trust and psychological safety, team diversity, social networks, conflict, organizational learning, and more as a way to introduce readers to the issues that matter most in today's modern, forward-thinking workplace.

Making Innovation Last considers the long term success of a firm. Authored by a trio of top international scholars who present pioneering new work on what it takes to create long term growth, the book examines the internal conditions that are likely to encourage sustainable innovation, as well as what a culture of innovation should look like.

This helpful book explains how anyone can develop in themselves a visionary leadership. Most leaders today have not developed the visionary capacity necessary to look ahead and explore strategic futures. Or at least their so-called vision is not one that compels, inspires, and energizes their people. Vision may sound like a rare quality, attainable by only a select few--but nothing could be further from the truth.Strategy and leadership expert Rob-Jan de Jong describes how it simply boils down to sharpening two key skills: 1) the ability to see things early, and 2) the power to connect the dots. Using the author's trademarked FuturePriming process, which helps distinguish signal from noise, readers geared toward fine-tuning these two essential skills will discover how to:Tap into their imagination and open themselves up to the unconventionalBecome better at seeing things earlyFrame the big-picture view that provides direction for the futureCommunicate your vision in a way that engages others and provokes actionWhen you can anticipate change before your competitors, you create enormous strategic advantage. That's what visionaries do, and now so can you.

Creativity, innovation and change are vital to the development and sustainability of all organizations. Yet, questions remain about exactly how novelty comes about, and what dynamic processes are involved in its emergence? Ideas of emergence and process, drawn from a variety of different philosophic traditions, have been the focus of increasing attention in management and organization studies. These issues are brought to bear on novelty and innovation in this volume by examining new organizational and product development processes, whether planned or unplanned. The contributions in this volume offer both theoretical insights and empirical studies on, inter alia, innovation, music technology, haute cuisine, pharmaceuticals and theatre improvisation. In doing so, they throw light on the importance of emergence, improvisation and learning in organizations, and how both practitioners and scholars alike can best understand their own assumptions about process. In addition, the volume includes general essays on process perspectives in organization studies.

Under the guidance of Moeran and Christensen, the authors in this volume examine evaluative practices in the creative industries by exploring the processes surrounding the conception, design, manufacture, appraisal and use of creative goods. They describe the editorial choices made by different participants in a'creative world', as they go about conceiving, composing or designing, performing or making, selling and assessing a range of cultural products. The study draws upon ethnographically rich case studies from companies as varied as Bang and Olufsen, Hugo Boss and Lonely Planet, in order to reveal the broad range of factors guiding and inhibiting creative processes. Some of these constraints are material and technical; others are social or defined by aesthetic norms. The authors explore how these various constraints affect creative work, and how ultimately they contribute to the development of creativity.

From authors used to operating between the commercial, public and independent sectors of the mixed cultural economy, Understanding Creative Business bridges the gap between creative practice and mainstream business organisation, entrepreneurship and management. Using stories, case studies and exercises it discusses the positioning of creative practice within professional and business development, cultural policy-making and the wider cultural economy, and suggests what the broader field of business and management studies can learn from the informal structure and working practices of creative industries networks. Consideration is given to how ethical and moral value orientations animate creative practice and how they play into the wider debate about social responsibilities within business and public policy. The authors also explore the way creative business practices often coalesce around emergent and self-organized networks and how this signals alternative approaches to management, entrepreneurship, business organisation and collaboration. Above all else this book is about relationships; the practical examples expose the ways creative business can professionalise research, develop and sustain routes to growth through'open'collaborative innovation and the lessons this holds for more general business innovation and policy engagements with the public domain. Written in accessible language, this book will be useful to researchers, students, educators and practitioners within the creative industries; to those working within cultural policy, arts and cultural management; and to all with an interest in management and leadership.

Handbook of Organizational Creativity is designed to explain creativity and innovation in organizations. This handbook contains 28 chapters dedicated to particularly complex phenomena, all written by leading experts in the field of organizational creativity. The format of the book follows the multi-level structure of creativity in organizations where creativity takes place at the individual level, the group level, and the organizational level. Beyond just theoretical frameworks, applications and interventions are also emphasized. This topic will be of particular interest to managers of creative personnel, and managers that see the potential benefit of creativity to their organizations. Information is presented in a manner such that students, researchers, and managers alike should have much to gain from the present handbook Variables such as idea generation, affect, personality, expertise, teams, leadership, and planning, among many others, are discussed Specific practical interventions are discussed that involve training, development, rewards, and organizational development Provides a summary of the field's history, the current state of the field, as well as viable directions for future research

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO FINDING, DEVELOPING, AND KEEPING THE BEST TALENT The most comprehensive book of its kind, The Talent Management Handbook has become the go-to resource for HR professionals, CEOs, and business leaders who want to take the lead in building a diverse, talented, and motivated workforce. Each section of this book offers state-of-the-art processes, step-by-step practical management tools and techniques, and up-to-the-minute resources that will equip you to: Discover and develop new talent Inspire, coach, and train future leaders Reward and retain the best people Plan and realize a culture of organizational excellence Featuring breakthroughs and'best practices'from more than 30 leading global talent management firms--Accenture, Center for Creative Leadership, Hay Group, Heidrick and Struggles, Human Capital Institute,Korn/Ferry International, Mercer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Right Management, Sibson Consulting, TowersWatson, and others--The Talent Management Handbook is a complete, all-in-one program designed to help youplace the best people in the most critical jobs to assemble the building blocks of organizational excellence and create value--one person at a time. Based on years of research, hundreds of global consultations, and the stellar contributions of top industry leaders, The Talent Management Handbook is the most authoritative guide on the market for findingand utilizing the best people. Now in its second edition, this book includes the most innovative ideas and the latest tools, processes, and technologies available to help you launch a complete, fully functioning talent management program that will drive you and your workforce to the top. Filled with key insights from renowned HR thought leaders and CEOs, The Talent Management Handbook shows you how to: Attract new talent and keep the'Superkeepers'Design career plans that boost employee morale and support organization needs Improve performance through a personal value exchange Coach, develop, and inspire raw talent and prepare the CEOs of the future See positive results with smarter performance reviews Create a culture of innovation and sustainability In these pages there is a wealth of information on a wide range of subjects, including employee compensation, onboarding, leadership competencies, and engagement programs. Discover firsthand how top HR thought leaderslike Dave Ulrich, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Boyatzis, Marc Effron, Beverly Kaye, Andy Pellant, William Rothwell, William Schiemann, Doris Sims, Allan Schweyer, Kay Thorne, and Kevin Wilde have achieved amazing results. And learn how expanding global markets are affecting the developmentof talent and teams all across the world. It takes a top-notch workforce to make a company succeed. This definitive guide gives you all you need to enable your organization's people to do their best.

'This book provides empirical research findings and best practices on creativity and innovation in business, organizational, and social environments'--Provided by publisher.

Today's society is making great leaps in its effort to obtain ever more and ever more specific know-how in various specialties, with the consequence that the structures of today's companies are become increasingly complex. This in turn leads to problems at the points of interface, which calls for a comprehensive approach to solutions.Creating Desired Futures defines design a creative, analytical method to develop and explore alternative solutions to complex problems, and it shows that design is particularly well suited to the business world's current need for innovative strategies.In twenty-four essays by designers, architects, and representatives of large companies such as Nike and Shell, the book shows how such a design-based approach can help define, assess, and solve problems for companies. It presents not only specific strategies from actual practice but also innovative approaches from the world of corporate consulting. Essays by researchers and teachers discuss theoretical aspects of the subject'Design Thinking.'Michael Shamiyeh is a practicing architect with his own firm (Shamiyeh Associates) and also founder and direction of the DOM (Design—Organisation—Media) Research Laboratory at the Kunstuniversität Linz. He works on the relevance of creative, analytical approaches in architectural thinking to solve complex problems in the area of Strategic Business Thinking and Innovation. Shamiyeh has received numerous awards, including the Innovation Prize (2008) of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research and well as the Future Award (ZuP, 2003) and the Award for Entrepreneurship (2000), both awarded by the Austrian government.

The must-read summary of Gary Hamel's book:'Leading the Revolution'.This complete summary of the ideas from Gary Hamel's book'Leading the Revolution'shows how, in today's economy, sustainable competitive advantage is derived from just one source - the ability to develop innovative and radical new business concepts. In his book, Gary Hamel explains how successful companies reinvent themselves, attracting new customers as well as retaining the old ones. According to the author, flexibility should be at the heart of every organisation, and you should always have a portfolio of ideas. This summary provides the reader with a blueprint for how to integrate this strategic vision.Added-value of this summary:• Save time• Understand key concepts• Expand your business knowledgeTo learn more, read'Leading the Revolution'and be inspired by this practical and strategic guide on becoming the best organisation you can be.

A radical new management model for twenty-first century leaders Organizations today face a crisis. The crisis is of long standing and its signs are widespread. Most proposals for improving management address one element of the crisis at the expense of the others. The principles described by award-winning author Stephen Denning simultaneously inspire high productivity, continuous innovation, deep job satisfaction and client delight. Denning puts forward a fundamentally different approach to management, with seven inter-locking principles of continuous innovation: focusing the entire organization on delighting clients; working in self-organizing teams; operating in client-driven iterations; delivering value to clients with each iteration; fostering radical transparency; nurturing continuous self-improvement and communicating interactively. In sum, the principles comprise a new mental model of management. Author outlines the basic seven principles of continuous innovation The book describes more than seventy supporting practices Denning offers a rethinking of management from first principles This book is written by the author of The Secret Language of Leadership—a Financial Times Selection in Best Books of 2007.

As an acknowledged guru in the field of creativity and innovation, Arthur VanGundy has inspired businesses in a variety of industries to generate more original, cutting-edge ideas. Getting to Innovation is a detailed guide to achieving the critical first step in formulating creative and useful ideas-i.e., asking the right questions that define the challenges facing any organization. Readers will discover: • how to write positioning and rationale statements for each challenge • how to link together multiple objectives in priority frameworks • the top 10 techniques for generating creative ideas • tips for designing and running brainstorming retreats • advice on how to select the best ideas from the many that have been generated When it comes to true innovation, it's not formulating the great ideas, but asking the right questions that will ultimately lead to results. Getting to Innovation offers the tools to help every company tap into its most inspired thinking.

This book is about how organizations can best develop and manage a creative environment and creative potential. The authors argue that organizations consist of people who have creative potential to think in new ways and yet are often denied the opportunity to do so. The goal of the organization should be to create a structure and culture that encourages the conditions in which creativity can flourish. This will generate significant competitive advantages for the organization by offering clear differentiation, by communicating postive brand attributes to stakeholders that will strengthen the organization's intangible assets and by providing a creative and challenging environment that will attract and retain the best staff.

Creativity in Virtual Teams offers a well-researched and practical resource that outlines a new model for attaining high levels of creativity in virtual working arrangements to anyone who designs, manages, or participates in virtual teams. Written by Jill E. Nemiro—an expert in building organizations and virtual teams—Creativity in Virtual Teams provides a valuable tool that takes you beyond mere theory. Within these pages, the author leads you through a series of diagnostic tools, questions for reflection, checklists, and exercises that will help you assess and develop the five key components—design, climate, resources, norms and protocols, and continual assessment and learning—that will foster creativity in your virtual teams. In addition, Creativity in Virtual Teams is filled with illustrative lessons learned from nine highly successful and innovative virtual teams.

Provides a balance of conceptual and practical aspects of Knowledge Management, offering the opportunity for students and practitioners to understand and effectively consider knowledge management approaches in their organizations. Everyday examples are used to lead the reader into the development of Knowledge Management, then further into a conceptual perspective, and finally to the practical application of Knowledge Management in organizations.