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Innovation You: Four Steps to Becoming New and Improved

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Professor Jeff DeGraff thinks of himself as a football coach. He wants to help you understand the game of life so you can call the right play at the right time.

As a student in his class at the University of Michigan, I learned how to use the Competing Values Framework to develop innovative solutions to business problems. In Innovation You, Jeff takes those same frameworks and makes them personal. The book really helped me think more holistically and more clearly about my life.

For instance, I now understand why I went to business school. I may not have been aware of it or able to articulate it at the time, but what I was doing was innovating in the "Collaborate" quadrant. Going to business school helped me increase my capabilities and develop a community (read: the Ross School of Business network and the U of M network more generally) that will be an important part of my life from now on.

During grad school I spent a lot of time working in the "Create" quadrant. I did a lot of self-discovery. Through my classes, group projects, and career-related self-assessment exercises, I learned about my strengths and my weaknesses. (It wasn't always pretty or easy, but like most things that don't kill you, it made me stronger.) I also worked on creating a positive vision of the future -- a kind of north star to help me way-find.

Now that I've graduated, I need to focus more on the "Compete" and "Control" quadrants. I need to develop a plan for creating prosperity in my life while maintaining my physical health and mental focus. And I need to develop consistent systems that will enable me to sustain my career success. If I do those things right, I should find the financial security I need.

There are no guarantees. As Jeff says, nothing is certain. But with the right way of thinking about the game of life and the right coach guiding you in your play calling, you dramatically increase your chances of becoming the new and improved person you want to be.

As you can tell, Innovation You has been very helpful to me. I hope it's just as helpful to you. Good luck!

Jeff DeGraff's Innovation You is an uncommonly useful book; rather than presenting a "prescription for success" based on a universal process or system, Innovation You teaches you how to innovate.

It encourages you to focus on the process of innovation, rather than blindly following a particular approach to health, wealth, and happiness.

Innovation You teaches you how to identify your underlying behaviors and habits, so you are more sensitive to the "hard wired" approaches to change and threats. It encourages you to recognize your default reactions, and explore different approaches.

I particularly liked the way Innovation You encourages you to explore individuals, situations, and behaviors that you might find uncomfortable: often, "where the sparks fly," is where your great opportunities for change are to be found.

A small point, but--unlike many other change-based books--there are just a handful of characters, (i.e., illustrative stories), yet they reappear throughout the book, illustrating different stages of the "learning how to innovate" process. An excellent value.

Innovation You is what you need to think more realistically about personal change. We think we know everything and perceive that we know what we want and how to get there, but have trouble looking deeper when our approach fails. Our actions indicate how common this is. Why is that?

Unlike most business books--there is actually a wealth of ideas to choose from--you can skim or read carefully to see the depth involved, it has depth. The stories are brief and the concepts are lucid. Most importantly, the foundational ideas are based on published academic research. An author with high fidelity to this standard is rare. While I am no professor, I found the book very consistent with academic theory, yet accessible and relevant in many ways.

Personal change is not a new topic, by any means. I am familiar with most of the standard popular books. And there is nothing wrong with reading them too. But if you are serious about improvement you should at least consider formulating a comprehensive approach--and this book is the only tool to give you that. Change efforts fail most of the time, on the individual level and within organizations, because we don't apply the right mindset.

It was a pleasure to read, but more importantly, it confirmed to me that there is a tangible process for personal change. A rigorous one at that.

Thanks Jeff!

Dan

University of Michigan, Class of 2012

I anxiously awaited the release of Jeff DeGraff's latest book - Innovation You. His book was a welcome inspiration and a pleasure to read as I recently flew across the country for a work engagement. Jeff's insight and ideas greatly influenced me while I was a doctoral student at the University of Michigan. As a student of the Competing Values school of thought, I can say that Jeff is gifted at taking a well established academic theory and personalizing it through life stories that will resonate with any reader. These are stories of real people who face everyday decisions and must reconcile among a variety of (possibly) universal tensions. Some people face decisions about choosing between a fast moving career or a slower paced family life. Some people choose to explore, take risks, and grow in great stride; while some people prudently choose to exploit known certainties and grow with steady ease. In other situations we have the option to take our time and make long-term plans; while other situations compel us to act now and make short-term decisions. Of course, our choices change throughout life. This necessitates a level of personal adaptability, which Jeff explores as a theme throughout this book.

Competing Values research has evolved over decades of studies about organizations and has evolved to understand the relationship among people, the organizations in which they work, and the bigger world that impacts what they do. Or to use Jeff's metaphor - our relationship with others and the world around us is like a set of Russian nesting dolls. This book reminds me that every person is oriented toward a specific path toward personal growth, but that path often diverts us in different directions as we continue to interact with others throughout life. Jeff argues that as we connect with others whose paths differ from our own, we become more ambidextrous and capable of higher levels of growth. These are important lessons to remember as my own life and career is transitioning, which is why I recommend this book to others who seek to understand the changing world around them and how to grow with it.

It is entirely fitting that a book called 'Innovation You' from Jeff DeGraff should be highly original, innovative, thought-provoking, challenging and personal. In my experience it can be tough finding genuinely new, valuable ideas about either innovation or personal development, yet DeGraff does this with ease. He also manages to present his ideas in a way that is engaging, energetic and direct. This book is for anyone who values innovation and original thinking and is also keen to build their personal skills and effectiveness. Jeff De Graff reveals a new path to greater success, not in some flaky 'self-help' way or using tired cliches, but using the power of fresh, innovative thinking. It helps that Jeff DeGraff is himself hugely successful, both as an entrepreneur and academic, and at a time when executives' energies may be at a low ebb this book provides exactly the right impetus and boost. I would definitely recommend.

I picked up this book after watching Jeff DeGraff's PBS program. Innovation You is truly something special

DeGraff has translated some of the most powerful ideas of business innovation strategy and practice into a breezy read. The book is a collage of useful ideas, funny sayings, and memorable characters that illuminate how we can successfully reinvent ourselves.

DeGraff is a highly regarded business school professor but this book reads more like a travelogue with a road map so that we can come along on the journey. Innovation You interweaves a series of recognizable situations, touching stories and innovation practices together so it's easy to understand how they really work. It's also filled with offbeat and funny maxims that make this book fun to read - "We Grow When Our Life Sucks," "Best to Hide Inside Trojan Horses," "Use the Mongolian Barbeque Effect," "Master the Art of SODOTO."

Are you interested in personal growth and development ... and want to find something new, exciting, and that really works? Then this is the book is for you.

If you are at a turning point in your life and not sure where you want to go next or if you have a personal or business challenge that could use an innovative spark, then this is the guidebook you have been waiting for! Jeff DeGraff takes his proven innovation model - called the Competing Values Framework - and shares it with his readers in a user-friendly, compelling, and actionable way.

He has broken it down into these four steps that he has used so successfully with his corporate clients:
1. Rethink Innovation shows you the opportunities to inject creativity into every aspect of your life.
2. Revise Your Approach with Prismatic Thinking explains the four most common approaches to innovation, you see which ones you typically use, and what better results you could be getting if you understood the full range of your possibilities.
3. Run Your Experiments will give you a step-by-step road map for implementing your new approach to innovation.
4. See the Whole Journey will help you discover how to ensure your ongoing innovation success over the long-term.

And as you would expect with a book about innovation, Jeff DeGraff shares many unique and creative observations and concepts. A few that really stood out to me (and you will discover many more for yourself) are:
* The 20/80 Rule - "It is easier to change 20% of a company or a life by 80% than it is to change 80% of that company or that life by even 20%."
* Prismatic Thinking - "We break the light of innovation into its component colors. Each of these is a way to make your situation new and improved, yet each one gets different results."
* How you innovate is what you innovate - "The approach is not just a matter of style. The approach is everything...Many people get it backward. They decide how they feel like innovating and then hope it gets them to their goal."

Believe me, this book is well-worth your time if you are committed to getting more out of your life than you are right now. Through interesting stories and practical take-aways, you will learn how to apply this powerful innovation model to your own situation - and ideate and execute innovation in a way you may never have thought possible before.

Practical and engaging, Innovation You has given me a new set of lenses to see myself and the world around me. I find myself using the four color framework all the time. "She's a blue, so what is she going to expect?" "How would a green approach this situation?"

I am in the process of applying the Innovation You framework to my job search post grad school. The Many Shots on Goal principle, in particular, has resonated loudly with me. It had not occurred to me to approach a job search like a venture capitalist would approach a business investment - simultaneously diversifying risk and accelerating the failure cycle. The framework has proven sound and the opportunities that are opening up for me are more exciting than anything I could have found in a traditional job search.

Jeff De Graff is a business school professor with real world experience: part of the team that grew Domino's Pizza from a small regional operation to the global powerhouse it now is, he now combines the ivory towers of business school teaching with a successful consulting practice that works with some major global brands.

And "Innovation You" is a great example of the kind of book every consultant should be writing to showcase their expertise and position themselves as the Natural Expert in their field. It's what I call in my programs an "Expert Manifesto", setting out clearly De Graff's system and the results it can generate.

The book is about, believe it or not, innovation. More specifically the fact that different people different in different ways, and trying to fit into the "standard" definition and approach can leave many people feeling stuck and frustrated, and believing that they're just not one of life's innovators.

Now, innovation is critical in marketing yourself as an expert, selling your coaching, consulting or training, creatig your intellectual capital, and every other aspect of becoming the expert of choice for your market.

So this book was bound to appeal to me!

The system Jeff proposes is pleasingly simple: a four step process for innovation and a short assessment that places the reader somewhere on a two-by-two grid giving four color-coded key styles or behavioural preferences. I've been using a similar 2x2 system in management training programmes for a couple of years now--the Behavioral Styles Profile from The Effectiveness Institute--but De Graff wisely avoids entering the already over-burdened world of management psychometrics (think MBTI, SDI, DISC, Kiersey, and a myriad others) and instead applies his model to innovation, a field with surprisingly little reflection of this sort.

There's also a more in-depth (and still free) version of the test online at the book's website, which gives the user a downloadable report (another great tool for owning a niche as the natural expert), and a paid version.

Underpinning the assessment is the reasonable assumption that there are more ways to innovate than the obvious "creative way". In fact, many people who think of themselves as less-than-creative will be delighted to discover that there is a way they can leverage their natural way of thinking and behaving to generate ideas.

De Graff brings in examples from every industry: from car plant workers to realtors, from disillusioned corporate lawyers turning their back on the blue-chip straightjacket to pursue their passions in their own practice to dissolute drifters turning their life around to become lynchpins in the family business, from struggling would-be slimmers to C-suite directors in multinational corporations. The examples are clear and engaging, and unlike many business authors, he doesn't fall into the trap of always giving us a happy ending: sometimes the world doesn't bow down to the innovator's whim, and De Graff shows examples of people dealing with real-life setbacks.

Along the way he pokes gentle fun at some of the nonsense we see in too many personal development books and sets out clear guidelines for keeping our finger on the pulse and thinking outside our own box as well as the ones companies and society put us into.

And there is one of the key things I like about this book: De Graff recognises that innovation doesn't happen in a vacuum; we need to take into account the environment in which we are innovating, and think on (and adapt to) multiple levels, while staying true to ourselves. It's why someone can wither as a corporate drone in one environment but flourish in another. It has nothing to do with the person, or their boss or team, or the company, or society at large, and everything to do with how the four interact and run interference on each other.

At one point De Graff tells us that he originally called his system the "competing values framework", and therein lies the great conundrum of innovation. The more "gung ho" business writers view change as an all or nothing affair. You either get your people on board and everything goes swimmingly as if by magic, or you don't and the whole change process stumbles to a halt. De Graff's system recognises the compromise inherent in change, not just in terms of different people giving way on different priorities, but sometimes at a personal level, when we have to let go of one idea in order to implement another.

And so here's another thing to like. De Graff shows how innovation isn't just the preserve of the "creative" types. He shows how everyone, regardless of personality (or preference or style or values--whatever terminology you want to use), can draw on their natural tendencies to create innovation. Indeed he goes further, by encouraging us to approach innovation from the view of all four styles (which of course are within us all, even if we've done a good job of subjugating one or more of them!).

So who is the book for? Well, innovation is something that everyone can use. It's needed on a personal level; it's needed within teams and organisation, and it's needed by society at large.

And therein lies the books strength and at the same time its greatest weakness. At heart it is a book on personal transformation.

But the examples come from across the board of how innovation can be applied. When I started reading the book, it felt solidly like a book about reinventing your professional life. Then half way through it started to feel more like a guide to strategic innovation. And later yet it became very much a self-help book. The examples take it back and forth between personal innovation and business innovation, and may leave the reader a little perplexed. But bear with it.

In the process of reading the bookI filled several large pages, not with notes but with ideas for innovating in my own business. Ideas I would probably never have thought of because they aren't in my natural innovation style.

So I'll be making the book obligatory reading for my coaching and mentoring clients, as well as the students on the business school entrepreneurship programmes I teach. De Graafs ideas on handling change will also probably make it into the management courses I teach for blue chip organisations.

Having set out the Innovation colors model, the book is crying out for a whole series of highly targeted sequels, with examples and stories to match: Innovation Career, anyone? Or how about Innovation Retirement? Innovation Start Up, Innovation Consulting, Innovation Strategy, the possibilities are endless. What about Innovation Accounting (as an antidote to the slightly suspect sounding creative accounting)? Even--who knows--Innovation Romance!

And Jeff, if you're reading this, I'd love to collaborate on Innovation Marketing and Innovation Manager.

So that's it.

Go buy this book.

Buy it for yourself then buy it for your clients and finally buy it for your significant other.

Jeff DeGraff (a.k.a. The Dean of Innovation) demonstrates his communications brilliance with his book as he introduces readers to sophisticated ideas in easy to read language so that everyone can easily absorb his invaluable message.

The Dean of Innovation's method is based on the belief that life moves in cycles and experimentation is necessary to find the correct blend to move to the desired stage. As such, his book does not provide a one-size-fit all prescribed course of action or a one-time fix. Instead, Jeff gives readers the foundation for life skills to identify how to approach innovation as needed, as well as to identify what makes us fall back into reaction mode. He does this by using a balanced blend of many relevant, relatable, and inspiring examples gained from both his professional and personal life. The Dean's approach makes this book very easy to read.

The `portfolio of life' exercise and `capacity review' included in the book are great ways to implement the newly acquired knowledge and develop it into a life skills set that can be applied each time a reinvention plan is needed. Whether it is time for you to make a minor improvement that has significant impact or a multi-faceted, or it is time for you to create a long-range plan that is executed in phases to reach your desired goal, "Innovation You" is a must read .