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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A really smart book about moving beyond the less intelligent ordinary idea, September 29, 2011
This review is from: Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition (Hardcover)
Best Practices are Stupid is the subject of one of Steve Shapiro's innovation tips and the title for this book. Rather than ridicule current approaches to innovation, Shapiro takes a comprehensive and compelling look at the next set of things companies need to do to innovate. Shapiro points out that innovation is a well-worn subject and that in many cases those tried and true beliefs about innovation are neither innovative nor effective. In response Shapiro offers 40 tips some of which confirm but many of which breath new life into innovation thinking and practice. The book is recommended to individuals and teams who are looking to initiative innovation programs, particularly for the first time, as it gives fresh thinking to the field. Experienced innovators or students of innovation will find much of the first part of the book familiar and may tend to discount is value. That would be a mistake as Shapiro effectively bridges the best parts of current innovation practices with new ideas to create new results. The book presents each of the 40 tips in short and focused descriptions, many with examples that make them easier to understand and deploy. In addition, Shapiro makes use of illustrations when it matters to help people see the ideas clearly. This gives the book both an intellectual feel as its stimulates your thinking as well as an actionable and practical side needed to create value from innovation. Among the better tips I found in the book include: * Don't think outside the box; find a better box
* The performance paradox
* Hire people you do not like
* Why pyramids are one of the seven wonders Other tips are more familiar but provide a comprehensive view of the issues and practices associated with innovation. The combination creates a new set of `proven' practices that give people a leg up on getting new results from their innovation projects. Read the whole book, which may sound silly but the information in the introduction, overview and appendices is valuable not filler. The book is recommended for teams starting innovation projects where these new ideas can have the greatest impact. Experienced teams will tend to view many of these tips as `old ground' and need to be encouraged to think differently about innovation and how to employ it in your organization.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Innovation Mastermind Knows How to Out-Innovate Your Competition, October 3, 2011
This review is from: Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition (Hardcover)
Length:: 3:07 Mins
Obviously, proven practices are not dumb. But sometimes we lock ourselves into this cage of thinking, "This is the way it must be done." And that just kills innovation. Stephen Shapiro's Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition takes a look at some of the best practices formed over many years. And yet, we are America. We are innovators. And we cannot be tied down by things like this. So, Shapiro introduces us to: OVERVIEW: Innovate the Way You Innovate Tip 1: Not Survival of the Fittest--Survival of the Adaptable
Tip 2: How Can You Avoid Becoming a One-Hit Wonder?
Tip 3: Asking for Ideas Is a Bad Idea
Tip 4: Don't Think Outside the Box; Find a Better Box
Tip 5: Expertise Is the Enemy of Innovation PROCESS: Challenge-Driven Innovation Tip 6: The Difference Between a Pipeline and a Sewer Is What Flows Through It
Tip 7: The Goldilocks Principal
Tip 8: There is No Such Thing as a "Know-It-All"
Tip 9: What Did Edison Get Wrong About Innovation?
Tip 10: What Do Cisco, LG Electronics, and GE Have in Common with American Idol?
Tip 11: To Compete or Not to Compete: That is the Question
Tip 12: Crowds Are Better at Eliminating Duds Than at Picking Winners STRATEGY: Innovation Strategy and Customers Tip 13: Lessons From Indiana Jones
Tip 14: Your Market Research Sucks
Tip 15: Be the Aspirin for Your Customers' Pains
Tip 16: Innovate Where You Differentiate
Tip 17: Ever Notice How "One Size Fits All" Never Really Fits All?
Tip 18: Best Practices Are (Sometimes) Stupid
Tip 19: Simplification Is the Best Innovation MEASURES: Innovation Measures and Motivation Tip 20: Motivate Like Maslow
Tip 21: You Get What You Measure, but Will You Get What You Want?
Tip 22: The Performance Paradox
Tip 23: Time Pressure Kills Creativity
Tip 24: Failure Is Always an Option
TIp 25: View the World Through a Different Lens PEOPLE: Organization, Leadership, and Culture TIp 26: Hire People You Don't Like
TIp 27: Why the Pyramids Are One of the Seven Wonders
Tip 28: The "Top-Down" Philosophy Should Be Left to Convertibles
TIp 29: Use the Reality TV Show Model
Tip 30: Get Your Knowledge Workers Doing Knowledge Work CREATIVITY: Techniques for Stimulating Creative Thinking Tip 31: Encourage Employees to Get on Their Soapbox
Tip 32: The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is a Straight Line
Tip 33: Someone Else Has Already Solved Your Problem
Tip 34: Adapt Your Product to a Different Environment
Tip 35: Don't Put the "No" in InNOvation
Tip 36: How Can You Make the Impossible Possible?
Tip 37: Stand in Someone Else's Shoes
Tip 38: Innovation is Child's Play
Tip 39: Sometimes It's Logical to Be Illogical
Tip 40: Predict What the Competition Will Do Next Appendix A: Technologies That Enable Innovation
Appendix B: Discover Your Innovation Style Shapiro shows us how to get to those parts of our minds where we're just locked in convention. He takes us there and shows us several different ways to flip it on its head and make it make total sense. He gets you to be more productive and has a knack of evoking this thought from his readers: "How in the world have I missed this all along?" You will do things differently, and you will be so much better for it with this book. One of my favorite examples in Best Practices Are Stupid shows how to innovate your own products by looking at other products. Shapiro tells a story of walking around his house trying to see other products and how they could be used to make toothpaste more innovative. So he walks into his bathroom and looks at, of all things, shampoo and conditioner. He asks himself, "What if there was a conditioner of toothpaste? Something that enriches the teeth after you've finished cleansing?" He just unlocks your mind to things like this. (If you've read Personality Poker: The Playing Card Tool for Driving High-Performance Teamwork and Innovation or Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW! then you already know that Shapiro has a way of doing this in ALL his works.) Everyone, thank you so much for watching and reading my review. Now create and INNOVATE! (In your innovation quest, I'd also highly recommend Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates and Brainstorming and Creativity Software - Thoughtoffice Innovation Suite - Mac OSX - Windows XP-7.)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Practices Aren't - Stephen Shapiro Slays Old Ideas, Spins Them Into Innovation Gold, September 29, 2011
This review is from: Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition (Hardcover)
Remember that kid in school.
The one who kept asking "why"? And even after the 40th "why", he still had an unlimited number of questions. You were bored. He was fascinated. Engaged. Passionate. Stephen Shapiro is that kid (still). And Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition is a most insightful work on challenging the status quo. This book provides page after page of "a-HA!" moments. Not satisfied with "because that's how we do it around here", Shapiro digs deep into established practices - then turns them on their head and proves why Best Practices could benefit from a fresh injection of "why?". Addressing everything from Formula One racing team performance to Why the Pyramids are one of the Seven Wonders. Here's how he begins the book:
INNOVATE THE WAY YOU INNOVATE
1. Not Survival of the Fittest - Survival of the Adaptable
2. How Can You Avoid Becoming a One-Hit Wonder?
3. Asking for Ideas Is a Bad Idea
4. Don't Think Outside the Box; Find a Better Box
5. Expertise Is the Enemy of Innovation Each chapter is concise, engaging, and most important: actionable. This is beyond theory. This is practical application of NEW ideas - while challenging the foundation of existing, established Best Practices. All throughout the book, Stephen peppers his ideas with case references and studies. Ones that open your eyes to what CAN be, if we rethink how we do things. The book is nearly complete when you arrive here:
CREATIVITY: TECHNIQUES FOR STIMULATING CREATIVE THINKING
31. Encourage Employees to Get On Their Soapbox
32. The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is a Straight Line
33. Someone Else Has Already Solved Your Problem
34. Adapt Your Product to a Different Environment
35. Don't put the "No" in InNOvation
36. How Can You Make the Impossible, Possible?
37. Stand in Someone Else's Shoes
38. Innovation is Child's Play
39. Sometimes It's Logical to be Illogical
40. Be Proactive: Predict What the Competition Will Do Next Then he wraps up this quick read with a host of links and references to help you expand on your new thinking. Regardless of the size of your business or educational institution (Rotman, are you listening?), this is a must-read. The new reference work for individuals, teams and corporations who want to blow through their performance issues and innovate their way to success. Last thing: One of the recurring themes within the book is a reflection on how effective teams operate. He's not preachy about it. It's just an obvious insight that comes from high-performance groups. I discovered this book and card set earlier this year Personality Poker: The Playing Card Tool for Driving High-Performance Teamwork and Innovation. It's a keystone element that, if employed, can rapidly improve the coordination between people within your business - and help you build better, faster, more engaged and productive teams. A perfect pair.
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