Product Description

When it comes to work, could you be an experience architect? Or a storyteller, caregiver or a cross-pollinator? These are just four of the characters developed by IDEO and presented in "The Ten Faces of Innovation" that any individual can adopt to innovate in their business lives. Individuals can use these different characters in different situations to create a broader range of solutions to business problems: at the start of the creative process you might be the "anthropologist", going into the field to see how customers use and respond to products; later, if there are obstacles, you might be the hurdler, who overcomes obstacles in the way to the finished product. The book explains with examples from business how adopting these characters can beat naysayers who stifle innovation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252284 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
"Tom Kelley offers a thoroughly original and thoroughly tested approach to creating a culture of innovation" Tom Peters "Essential reading for every single person in your organisation" Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow"

BusinessWeek
Funny, insightful, and chock-full of surprising examples.

Creative Match.com - Book of the Week
If the future is innovation, Kelley’s new publication is the roadmap.

Customer Reviews

Easy suggestions for increasing innovation
Welcome to an enjoyable, easy read - which is not to dismiss Tom Kelley's fine ideas. With the aid of Jonathan Littman, Kelley works throughout this book to show how innovation can be much more painless than most people think, and more fun. Kelley makes thinking collaboratively sound like a blast. In the process, he convinces you that your organization should nurture and cherish playing with ideas. Although he admits that his consulting company, IDEO, found itself grinding along on tedious projects at times, and that he has watched people shoot down perfectly good suggestions, his underlying message is one of open possibility. He presents 10 roles you can play during meetings, any one of which would be enough to add considerable value. By showing that these roles are temporary, he sends the message that if you want to stay competitive, you can change, and even must. As he examines everything from product names to rules governing how workers decorate their cubicles, Kelley demonstrates the many opportunities you have to create something new. The cost is often little or nothing; sometimes innovation simply means getting out of your employees' way. We recommend this book to managers who wish to break old patterns and encourage creative thought companywide.

"We at IDEO"
The idea in the book is a nice one, saying that different skills are needed in a team, if one aims for innovation. Plus, the company's attitude and culture needs to embrace a positive view towards being creative, experimenting, supporting new ideas.
However, the book is written in a repetitive tone of "this is the idea; we at IDEO have known it all this time already; and here are some examples on how companies applied this idea, mostly with IDEO's help".
It is a pity such an interesting topic, with much potential to make the reader be inspired and start thinking about ways to implement the book's topics is disguised in too long, repetitive text.