Customer Reviews

Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Weird Ideas that Work takes an unusual perspective. Professor Sutton is focusing on how companies can be more creative for tomorrow, while still being effective at delivering today's products and services. Think of this book as what to read after finishing The Innovator's Dilemma.

His perspective combines the concepts of evolutionary biology with behavioral psychology to provide key principles, 11 1/2 ideas for implementing those principles, and 9 guidelines for day-to-day management practices. The key points are supported by examples drawn from organizations that have experienced at least some periods of unusual effectiveness in creating new products and services. He chooses to call these ideas "weird" to get your attention, and to acknowledge that the ideas may not send too obviously correct to you the first few times you hear them.

The three key principles are:

"(1) increase variance in available knowledge,

(2) see old things in new ways, and

(3) break from the past."

The 11 1/2 "weird" ideas for implementing those principles are paraphrased below:

(1) Hire smart people who will avoid doing things the same way your company has always done things.

(1 1/2) Diversify your talent and knowledge base, especially with people who get under your skin.

(2) Hire people with skills you don't need yet, and put them in untraditional assignments.

(3) Use job interviews as a source of new ideas more than as a way to hire.

(4) Give room for people to focus on what interests them, and to develop their ideas in their own way.

(5) Help people learn how to be tougher in testing ideas, while being considerate of the people involved.

(6) Focus attention on new and smarter attempts whether they succeed or not.

(7) Use the power of self-confidence to encourage unconventional trials.

(8) Use "bad" ideas to help reveal good ones.

(9) Keep a balance between having too much and too little outside contact in your creative activities.

(10) Have people with little experience and new perspectives tackle key issues.

(11) Escape from the mental shackles of your organization's past successes.

Where most books on creativity focus on how the reader can make her- or himself more productive, this ones takes on what leaders and managers can do to establish an environment where more ideas will be generated and tested. There's no assumption that you can find ways to make few mistakes. In fact, you are encouraged to simply make more and different mistakes, and quit spending behind the ones that aren't working sooner.

Professor Sutton leaves you with a challenging thought. "What if these are ideas are true?" The only way you can find out is to try them.

I thought that the book's best advice was to fill the organization with "people who are passionate about solving problems." In my experience, it is hard to find people who are filled with "playfulness and curiosity" about the focus of a particular company. Once you have that situation, you need to "switch emotional gears between cynicism and belief." In reading this material, I was reminded of the section in Built to Last that encourages people to turn "or" choices into "and" situations.

Although this book will not be enough to guide your company into being more creatively productive, I think it is an important addition to the literature on corporate creativity. I thought that the book's main weakness is that it made little attempt to differentiate among the techniques that might be used to solve different classes of problems. For example, creating the concept for a new service is fundamentally different from finding a better way to provide an existing one. From my own research, I am also convinced that creating a new business model is a different type of task from any other that companies do. I also think that acquisitions and mergers can either help or hurt corporate creativity. This book did not do enough to address that special circumstance. Perhaps Professor Sutton will follow up this interesting book with a series that looks more narrowly at different classes of problems that respond well to more creativity.

How can your organization vastly increase its flow of new ideas, test them more rapidly and less expensively, and more certainly pick out the best ideas to implement? How much time are you spending on thinking about these important questions?

Be open for and prepared to search far and wide for new variations to test!

Even if you've already read Bob Sutton's "The Weird Rules of Creativity" in Harvard Business Review, don't deprive yourself of the pleasure and benefit of reading his book. While you may not find Sutton's ideas especially weird (more like unorthodox and perhaps contentious), when considered together they definitely push the reader to challenge their assumptions about the corporate conditions conducive to creativity and innovation. Filled with gripping stories from far-flung contexts, Sutton conveys his ideas with verve and passion. These are also some of the qualities that support creativity. As Sutton notes, playfulness, curiosity, and zeal are hallmarks of the innovative company culture. Some books are stuffed with stimulating stories but leave the brain empty. Weird Ideas that Work weaves its tales into a rich fabric of ideas. For instance, Sutton makes the vital distinction between routine work and innovative work. Applying the methods of one to the other can only be disastrous. Related to this, Sutton looks at the issue of whether and when to separate innovation efforts from the mainstream organization. He also makes the distinction (which seems to be catching on more widely) between invention and innovation. Whereas invention is rather like science in that it involves creating something truly new, innovation is more like engineering in that it finds new applications for existing inventions. Grab a copy of this book, kick back for a couple of hours, and see if you can come up with another three and a half weird ideas of your own. One of them might just unlock latent value in your company.

I had read Sutton's earlier book on the "Knowing-Doing Gap," and I was looking forward to this latest book. I am happy to say that "Weird Ideas that Work" is a terrific complement to this earlier work (and to any management bookshelf in general, I would say), as it presents a compelling case for several innovative management practices. Sutton challenges the reader to take some risks, and looking back at my last challenging management position, I wish I had had this text on-hand to help me take a leap in trying some of these counterintuitive practices (for example, I should have stuck to applying Weird Idea #1, keeping a "slow learner of the organizational code" longer in my group). I also appreciated the mix of management (and psychological) theory with examples that are easy to understand and recall, such as how the practice seeing something old as something new, at times a disadvantage, can in fact lead to innovative products, from round tea bags to new designs for palm computers. In summary, an inspiring book that will be referenced often.

There are dozens of excellent books on the subject of innovation and this is one of the best. Frankly, I found none of Sutton's ideas "weird." Unorthodox, thought-provoking, and perhaps even somewhat controversial but certainly not weird. (Perhaps the title was devised to accommodate marketing needs.) He makes two important distinctions: between routine work (essentially defending and sustaining the status quo) and innovative work (challenging and disrupting, perhaps even transforming the status quo), and, between invention (creating something entirely new) and innovation (discovering new applications for what has already been invented). He also correctly acknowledges the advantages and disadvantages of separating innovation initiatives from the traditional organization structure. In Organizing Genius, Patricia Ward Biederman and Warren Bennis explain why it was so important to establish Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, far removed from corporate headquarters in Connecticut. Sutton suggests that such separation may not always be possible or at least prudent. In general, though, innovation is most productive when not constrained by limits of any kind. Indeed, innovation worthy of the name is by nature anathema to order and structure. For me, the greatest value of this book lies not in any one or even in all of the "Weird Ideas" which Sutton proposes; rather, in what could be the "world view" and mindsets which those ideas suggest. "Feelings -- not cold cognitions -- drive people to turn good ideas into reality....Every innovative company I know is passionate about solving problems....Playfulness and curiosity are related attitudes of innovation [in combination with] the ability to switch emotional gears between cynicism and belief, or between deep doubt and unshakable confidence." If you take Sutton's admonitions to heart, challenge all of his ideas as well as everyone else's ideas and come up with more innovative ones of your own. Throughout the 15 chapters which comprise this book, he carefully prepares his reader to do just that.

This book is a very user friendly read, unlike many management books that are dense and require a second or third reading to get the point. Sutton draws the reader in from page one. His list of "weird ideas that work" will stimulate your imagination. Agree or disagree, you will want to read on. This very well-researched book challenges people to drop their preconceived notions of management in order to strive for real innovation. In plain English,the author articulates the three basic principles for innovative work, and explains how, without meaning to, many managers get in their own way. His real world examples are lively and relatable. The structure of the chapters makes it a breezy, enjoyable way to pick up new ideas immediately. My personal favorite is weird idea #5--"FIND SOME HAPPY PEOPLE AND GET THEM TO FIGHT." The idea that conflict is essential to innovation and growth may appear counterproductive, but Sutton makes a compelling case for why it could be the difference between success and failure for a company. I highly recommend this book for anyone in any field who wants to inspire breakthrough creativity and real innovation.

Weird Ideas That Work is a "must read" for anyone interested in developing creativity and innovation in an organization. Bob Sutton presents several successful techniques for "thinking outside the box" that can be applied everywhere from problem-solving to corporate culture. He shows numerous examples of how and where these ideas have been applied as well as potential pitfalls. While many enlightened managers may already embrace some of these counterintuitive ideas, Prof. Sutton presents a complete philosophy for developing and managing the talents of intelligent people in order to be more effective and, in turn, more successful. This book will help you to examine your management practices, build a dynamic and fun environment, and inspire the maximum innovation from your organization.

But Sutton's approaches to innovation are as wise as they are weird -- and eminently doable. Filled with wonderfully compelling stories in contexts as varied as high tech start-ups to large established companies to rock and roll bands, the book will force any reader who cares about fostering creativity to rethink many of their assumptions about how they manage. But he doesn't stop at good stories. Sutton seamlessly weaves in a wide range of management theories to elaborate his accounts of innovation successes and failures.

This will undoubtedly become a classic among management texts on innovation. But it should also be read by anyone who wants some wonderful ideas for managing and people who simply want a great read!

I was a big fan of Sutton's Knowing-Doing gap that offered a real solution to a real problem. This book had an unreal feel to it for me though.

He offers 12 practices for fostering innovation. The first four of these have to do with Human Resources. Hire slow learners. Hire people that make you feel uncomfortable. Hire people you probably don't need. Now forgive me if I am wrong, but as imperfect as Human Resources is anyway, don't we already do some of that? Also recommended is to interview job applicants to get new ideas. What about the people?

The next two have to do with office manners. Encourage people to ignore and defy superiors. Isn't ignore a little strong? Find some happy people and get them to fight. No comment.

The next is to reward success and failure, but punish inaction. OK, we already fire non-producers, but is it really so that success and failure deserve the same billing?

The next two are on the edge of silliness. Decide to do something that will probably fail and be 100% certain of its success. Think of some ridiculous or impractical things to do.

The next is avoid, distract and bore customers and critics.

Then, don't try to learn anything from people who say they have solved the problems you face.

Finally, forget the past success of the company.

This book says some pretty wild things that will get you thinking. Although these counterintuitive ideas are offered as 'proven', you won't find the proof in this book. By the normal lottery of hiring, you will certainly get a mix of the above. There are many better books on the philosophy and practical application of innovation available.

Sorry to disappoint some with this review, but don't let this stop you from reading Sutton's Knowing-Doing Gap which I found excellent and have also reviewed it here on Amazon.

3 Stars

A good read that is filled with interesting stories and examples.
Basically it deals with the 11 and a half principles on Corporate
Creativity -- Sutton's so called Weird Ideas in the Age of New Economy. One merit of this book is that, at least, it challenges
the conventional wisdom concerning Corporate Creativity. It
encourages readers to instill positive conflicts in Brainstorming
Sessions. It encourages readers to play around with stupid ideas
before coming up with something useful.

Most of Sutton's ideas are well packaged and delivered, but they
cannot be easily applied in the Age of Corporate Downsizing and
Job Insecurity. In addition, not only most Old Economy Companies ( rather than New Economy Companies) will find the recommended ideas hard to be applied in the real world settings, most non-Western companies in the East will also find those ideas not easy to be applied in a relatively more conservative and less free flow
work setting in the oriental countries.

For reality check reasons, readers can try out Sutton's ideas
within a week at work, and see what will happen. Guess they will
find his ideas cute but weak in real world applications. Basically Sutton wrote too much about principles on Corporate Creativity, rather than about skills and detailed case studies on
how to make Coporate Craetivity really work.

The mark of a great book, I believe, is a challenge to think differently after you've completed it. Great works necessarily cause reflection-and often lead to action-- because they present ideas worthy of thoughtful contemplation. Sutton's work does just that. I've read many a book that tries to put innovation in a stepped framework, but Sutton astutely points out that innovation has many different drivers, some of which are the most unexpected, or "weird." Sutton does a masterful job of taking your mind on a journey of questioning in a practical and very applicable manner. He presents ideas and thoughts without being preachy in a "how-to" manner. I particularly enjoyed Sutton's challenge to the reader "keep asking yourself: What if these ideas are true?" It's a valuable lesson in all aspects of life, particularly when one encounters things that seem "weird." We can learn a lot from deviations and the unexpected. Overall, I found the book to be a very real, thought-provoking and well-written work. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for new ways of thinking, whether it be about work, management, or any other life skill.