Innovation at Work - by Richard Brynteson (Paperback)

About the Book

Designed for managers, team leaders, and trainers looking to promote innovation, this inspiring guide explains how to foster creativity--in any industry.

Book Synopsis

Innovation--developing new and better products and services--is the key to surviving in today's competitive business landscape. Author Richard Brynteson teaches business leaders to encourage their teams toward regular innovative thinking and creative collaboration that results in not only reaching goals--but exceeding expectations. Innovation at Work describes how to cultivate a sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness, utilize methods of deep observation, build networks for open source innovation, use images to spark ideas and connections, develop out-of-the-box techniques for problem solving, deal with failure productively, and spot industry trends. Plus, it teaches you to get innovative yourself--employing unique processes like "visioning" and "brainwriting" to achieve breakthroughs. The important work of innovating should not be left only to scientists and technologists. Packed with fifty-five activities, plus worksheets, questions, case studies to inspire discussion, and assessments for determining your openness to innovation, Innovation at Work will inspire you toward more creative and efficient processes and help you determine the next right step for your team.

From the Back Cover

An organization doesn't have to be tech driven, run by the next Steve Jobs, or filled with budding Thomas Edisons and Leonardo da Vincis to benefit from a healthy dose of innovation. Developing new and better products and services, and creating efficient processes for delivering them, is what stands between any organization and its competition. In today's ultra-competitive landscape, fostering a companywide spirit of creative thinking can make the difference between survival and failure. But you've got to train for it.

Packed with 55 fun, enlightening, and ready-to-go activities perfect for any office environment, Innovation at Work gives you the tools you need to promote outside-the-box thinking within any group of people. Useful for informal "lunch and learn" sessions, organization-wide training events, and everything in between, the enlightening, easily adaptable exercises collected here enable you to help participants:

- Cultivate a sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness

- Use images to spark ideas and connections

- Utilize methods of deep observation on an everyday basis

- Employ special "visioning" and "brainwriting" processes to achieve break-throughs

- Build networks for open source innovation and creative collaboration

- Develop effective and surprising techniques for problem-solving

- Spot coming trends and determine "the next step" for the organization

- Deal with failure successfully and productively l and much more!

It's one thing to develop a lucrative, one-shot innovation. It's another to build a culture that produces eye-popping ideas on a regular basis. Companies are past the point where they can rely on brilliant or creative individuals. A spirit of fluid, inventive thinking has to be organization-wide. But how do you coach for innovation? What can you do to encourage the kind of visionary leaps that will take a company to the next level?

Containing worksheets, questions, and case studies to inspire discussion, as well as assessments for determining managers' openness to originality, Innovation at Work shows you how to build the creative muscle of individuals, groups, and organizations, and stimulate them to produce startlingly original ideas time and time again.

RICHARD BRYNTESON, PH.D., is an international innovation consultant and executive coach who helps his students and clients examine their own thinking, challenge their own assumptions, make changes in order to improve their productivity and quality of life, and innovate work processes and products to improve effectiveness and efficiency. His clients include Dell Computers, McCann Erickson, the Department of Defense, and various other government agen-cies in the U.S. and abroad. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

About the Author

RICHARD BRYNTESON, PH.D., is an international innovation consultant and executive coach whose clients include the Department of Defense, Dell Computers, and McCann Erickson.