The Innovation Show

Intro It's no secret that continuous innovation is the key to seizing and maintaining the competitive edge in today's increasingly challenging business environment. Unfortunately, the process for achieving this holy grail of business has been a mystery—until now. Todays book delivers a proven system for building relentless innovation into your company's DNA. Our guest, a Professor and former Dean of Executive Education at INSEAD explores the essential practices of many of the world's most innovative organisations and demonstrates how you can leverage them in your own company. You'll learn how to drive innovating in product design and creative use of technology―as well as business activities, such as business model redesign, customer service, distribution, finance, talent development, and sales. The big question on the mind of every business leader today is: What can I do to create extra value for my company and the customers we serve? This book provides everything you need to transform your organization into an innovating engine that continually produces new products and processes to generate enormous new value for you and for the customers you serve. It is a pleasure to welcome back the author of "Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA" Ben Bensaou, welcome to the show In this episode, we explore some case studies in innovation including: Samsung The Pentagon The cement company-turned renewables EcoCem The paint company AkzoNobel and many nuggets of wisdom in between

Intro It's no secret that continuous innovation is the key to seizing and maintaining the competitive edge in today's increasingly challenging business environment. Unfortunately, the process for achieving this holy grail of business has been a mystery—until now. Today's book delivers a proven system for building relentless innovation into your company's DNA. Our guest, a Professor and former Dean of Executive Education at INSEAD explores the essential practices of many of the world's most innovative organisations and demonstrates how you can leverage them in your own company. You'll learn how to drive innovating in product design and creative use of technology―as well as business activities, such as business model redesign, customer service, distribution, finance, talent development, and sales. The big question on the mind of every business leader today is: What can I do to create extra value for my company and the customers we serve? This book provides everything you need to transform your organization into an innovating engine that continually produces new products and processes to generate enormous new value for you and for the customers you serve. It is a pleasure to welcome back the author of "Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA" Ben Bensaou, welcome to the show In this episode we get into the nuts and bolts of bringing innovation to life within an organisation. We talk about BASF and William Gore and Sons and creating the right environment for people to have time to innovate.

In episode 4, we focus on The Mystics in an episode called "The Age of Heretics Part 4: Pierre Wack and the Origins of Scenario Planning" with Art Kleiner This is part of a longer series based on the book The Age of Heretics with Art Kleiner.

Intro It's no secret that continuous innovation is the key to seizing and maintaining the competitive edge in today's increasingly challenging business environment. Unfortunately, the process for achieving this holy grail of business has been a mystery—until now. Today's book delivers a proven system for building relentless innovation into your company's DNA. Our guest, a Professor and former Dean of Executive Education at INSEAD explores the essential practices of many of the world's most innovative organizations and demonstrates how you can leverage them in your own company. You'll learn how to drive innovating in product design and creative use of technology―as well as business activities, such as business model redesign, customer service, distribution, finance, talent development, and sales. The big question on the mind of every business leader today is: What can I do to create extra value for my company and the customers we serve? This book provides everything you need to transform your organization into an innovating engine that continually produces new products and processes to generate enormous new value for you and for the customers you serve. It is a pleasure to welcome the author of "Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA" Ben Bensaou, welcome to the show. Timestamps of content: 3:08 Innovation v Innovating 6:12 Duality of business: Executing v Innovating 9:03 A company's innovating engine is driven by three key processes of innovating: creation, integration, and reframing 13:10 The Buzzing Fridge of Innovation for Leaders 20:33 The Built To Innovate Framework 34:13 The Power of Thank You The Power of Thank You and Building a Culture of Innovating 40:59 Psychological Safe environments to bring your ideas 48:29 The Importance of a Supportive Board 54:05 Where to start in an organisation and filtering ideas

When postwar American business was a vast sea of gray flannel suits and tasteful ties, a few unorthodox individuals were not so quietly shifting the paradigm toward the breezier, Google-ier workplace of today. These change agents include a raft of idealistic social scientists as well as nonacademics. In this episode of the multi-part series, we highlight labor organizer Saul Alinsky, who pioneered the use of shareholder activism to open Kodak's doors to more African Americans. Alinsky was the embodiment of the activist principle that behaving badly is sometimes necessary because, in the words of the civil-rights anthem, "The nice ways always fail." If ever a neighborly company existed, that was Eastman Kodak. to those outside the company, particularly the black people of Rochester, the company was an object of seething resentment. It was the largest employer in Rochester, and it had never let them into the family. In 1964 twenty thousand black residents lived in Rochester, crowded into a few neighborhoods where landlords rented to them. Most of them had come up from the southern states in search of jobs; now they lived in tenements with twenty-four or twenty-eight families squeezed into houses designed for two. Enter Alinsky, whose organization, the Industrial Arts Foundation, had an unparalleled track record for teaching slum dwellers to improve their own neighborhood conditions, often beginning by winning over the neighborhood's delinquent gangs. In principle, Kodak managers agreed that opportunities for blacks should be increased, but they didn't see that this was Kodak's responsibility. Let the blacks pull themselves up, as every other ethnic group in America had done, to the point where Kodak would want to hire them. Anyone who looked at both organizations could see that an impasse was inevitable. We also discuss shareholder activism, CSR, ESG, and corporate activism. We welcome back the author of, "The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management" More about Art: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artkleiner/

Whether you're building your career or a business of your own, you have a big advantage: Nobody ever sees the rebel coming. The established players in any industry are always fat, sluggish, and content. You're defiant, swift, and hungry. Because your ideas are daring (and probably defiant), you'll blindside the competition. By the time they catch on, you've picked their pockets, stolen their best customers, and won the admiring press. As a rebel, you will meet resistance, but you look forward to it. Rebellion is an act of war. The established order always counterpunches and usually wears brass knuckles. Rare Breeds don't get what they want by adapting to the conventional rules: instead, they use the traits often considered shortcomings as tools for creation and growth. Combining examples and practical tools, our guest identifies seven vices-turned-virtues—Rebellious, Audacious, Obsessed, Hot-Blooded, Weird, Hypnotic, Emotional—to help disruptors and trailblazers discover their inner Rare Breed and tap into them to realize their full potential in work and life. We welcome the author of Rare Breed: A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different, Sunny Bonnell More about Sunny: https://rarebreedleaders.com

Part 2 in this wonderful series When postwar American business was a vast sea of gray flannel suits and tasteful ties, a few unorthodox individuals were not so quietly shifting the paradigm toward the breezier, Google-ier work-place of today. These change agents include a raft of idealistic social scientists as well as nonacademics, like labor organizer Saul Alinsky, who pioneered the use of shareholder activism to open Kodak's doors to more African Americans. Alinsky, who was literally willing to smash dishes to get attention, was the embodiment of the activist principle that behaving badly is sometimes necessary because, in the words of the civil-rights anthem, "The nice ways always fail." Today's guest uses religious terms to title each of the chapters of his book— "Monastics," "Pelagians,""Mystics," and so forth. At first that seems an odd choice for a study of modern corporations and other secular institutions. But he is insightful to do so. Like the heretic whose rejection of religious orthodoxy might send him to the pyre, our guest's organizational heretic "is someone who sees a truth that contradicts the conventional wisdom of the institution to which he or she belongs—and who remains loyal to both entities, to the institution and the new truth." The person who is willing to make a great sacrifice to change an institution he or she loves is a hero as well as a heretic because, our guest writes, "the future of industrial society depends on our ability to transcend the destructive management of the past, and build a better kind of business." We welcome the author of "The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management" and the earlier subtitle was Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change, Art Kleiner.

Whether you're leading an organization through new realities, building (or rethinking) your career, forging new relationships, seeking peace, or simply not sure what to do next, you'll gain tools and insights for how to think, learn, work, live, and lead better with a Flux Mindset. Flux shows you how to slow down responsibly, identify what really matters, make wise decisions, and let go of the rest. Flux challenges your assumptions and expectations in ways that enable you to lean into the future with hope rather than fear, and with clarity and confidence anchored in what makes you, you. We welcome the author of Flux, 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change, April Rinne More about April: https://aprilrinne.com

When postwar American business was a vast sea of gray flannel suits and tasteful ties, a few unorthodox individuals were not so quietly shifting the paradigm toward the breezier, Google-ier work-place of today. These change agents include a raft of idealistic social scientists as well as nonacademics, like labor organizer Saul Alinsky, who pioneered the use of shareholder activism to open Kodak's doors to more African Americans. Alinsky, who was literally willing to smash dishes to get attention, was the embodiment of the activist principle that behaving badly is sometimes necessary because, in the words of the civil-rights anthem, "The nice ways always fail." Today's guest uses religious terms to title each of the chapters of his book— "Monastics," "Pelagians," Mystics," and so forth. At first, that seems an odd choice for a study of modern corporations and other secular institutions. But he is insightful to do so. Like the heretic whose rejection of religious orthodoxy might send him to the pyre, our guest's organizational heretic "is someone who sees a truth that contradicts the conventional wisdom of the institution to which he or she belongs—and who remains loyal to both entities, to the institution and the new truth." The person who is willing to make a great sacrifice to change an institution he or she loves is a hero as well as a heretic because, our guest writes, "the future of industrial society depends on our ability to transcend the destructive management of the past, and build a better kind of business." We welcome the author of "The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management" and the earlier subtitle was Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change, Art Kleiner. More about Art here: https://wiseadvoc8.com

Because the fundamental unit of growth in any organization is the individual, our starting point for talking about growth is you. Some of the questions we will answer are: • Why, despite the desire to learn, can it be so difficult to start something new and stick with it? • What does it take to gain and maintain momentum? • Once we've made considerable progress, why do we sometimes tire of what we're doing and even feel we can no longer do it? Why do we outgrow things so quickly? The more you understand about your deep longing to grow and how to grow yourself, the greater your capacity to grow your people, to grow your company. That's smart growth. The S Curve of Learning is a map to look at your life: where you were, where you are, and where you want to go—a continuous pathway to achieving potential. When you can picture yourself moving along this growth curve, you can more easily plan a trajectory and plot your progress. You can get smart about your growth. We welcome the author of "Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company", Whitney Johnson. Timeline: 3.00 To Want to Grow is Human 5.12 S-Curve as a Map, Post-Traumatic Growth 10.15 Speed of Change 13.08 Transforming Leadership, Leaders must lead from the front 15.00 Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally and rituals 16.20 Principles and Values 20.30 Feedback, Collector Phase of S-Curve 29.53 Shadow Values 33.50 Inner Child, Feeling Seen 35.50 New S-Curves don't always work out 39.50 What do you do when you have more than one really great choice? 45.54 Watch your self talk at the launch phase? 48.48 C.A.R. Framework: Origins in Self-Determination Theory Connectedness Autonomy Relatedness 52.15 Myron Scholes, all is explained by the tails 56 When leaders peak 60 An ecosystem of/for growth, keystone species In whose ecosystem are you a keystone species? Whitney is available here: https://whitneyjohnson.com https://smartgrowthbook.com

Structural racism has impacted the lives of African Americans in the United States since before the country's founding. Although the country has made some progress towards a more equal society, political developments in the 21st century have shown that deep divides remain. To bridge our divides, our guest, a renowned political scientist calls for 'radical empathy' – moving beyond an understanding of others' lives and pain to understand the origins of our biases. Deftly weaving together her own experiences with the political, she offers practical steps to call out racism and bring about radical social change. We welcome the author of, "Radical Empathy, Finding A Path to Bridging Racial Divides", Terri Givens. More about Terri: https://www.terrigivens.com

Amazon is the most extraordinary and important business story of our time. Facebook has more members and is our social network. Google sits right at the heart of the information tsunami. Apple has by far the prettiest toys. But starting 25 years ago as a tiny online bookstore, Amazon now stands astride the e-powered river of goods that flows through the many economies. It is a retailer, a marketplace, an electronic infrastructure, a publisher, an advertising channel, a distributor. It is increasingly the arbiter of retail, the pacesetter for employment, and private taxing authority, taking its bite of every transaction on its Marketplace. And Amazon is just getting started. Across all its business, Amazon is automating rapidly and leveraging the power of enormous and growing capabilities in AI and machine learning. The sheer range and pace of change is formidable. It's an extraordinary story, and it raises plenty of questions: Where did Amazon come from? How did it grow so big so fast? What can we learn from history? Can we distil key lessons about objectives, strategy, tactics, and especially corporate culture? Where is Amazon going? What will it look like ten years from now? What should we – the collective we – do about it? Is Amazon a threat? Should we simply applaud? Are there characteristics to worry about? And if so, what should we do? Our guest today addresses these questions and many more. We welcome the author of "Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon", Robin Gaster

Innovation is how businesses stay ahead of the competition and adapt to market conditions that change in unpredictable and uncertain ways. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, high-end cuisine underwent a profound transformation. Once an industry that prioritized consistency and reliability, it turned into one where constant change was a competitive necessity. A top restaurant's reputation and success have become so closely bound up with its ability to innovate that a new organizational form, the culinary research and development team, has emerged. The best of these R&D teams continually expand the frontiers of food—they invent a constant stream of new dishes, new cooking processes and methods, and even new ways of experiencing food. How do they achieve this nonstop novelty? And what can culinary research and development teach us about how organizations innovate? Our guest opens up the black box of elite culinary R&D to provide essential insights. Drawing on years of unprecedented access to the best and most influential culinary R&D teams in the world, he reveals how they exemplify what he calls the uncertainty mindset. Such a mindset intentionally incorporates uncertainty into organization design rather than simply trying to reduce risk. It changes how organizations hire, set goals, and motivate team members and leads organizations to work in highly unconventional ways. A revelatory look at the R&D kitchen, His book upends conventional wisdom about how to organize for innovation and offers practical insights for businesses trying to become innovative and adaptable. We welcome the author of "The Uncertainty Mindset: Innovation Insights from the Frontiers of Food", Vaughn Tan More about Vaughn: https://uncertaintymindset.org www.productivediscomfort.org https://twitter.com/vaughn_tan

Our first face-to-face live episode with Greg Orme. Even before the pandemic, it seemed the world was spinning so fast it's difficult to keep up. Arguably a lot of the technological disruption that was around in 2019 simply got accelerated – remote working, digitization, and AI to name just three. Our guest today notes in his book: Two hundred and fifty years ago the Industrial Revolution replaced our arms and legs at work. The fourth Industrial Revolution is now replacing our brains. He says The Machine Age is engulfing both organizations and people. This shift is challenging the very essence of what it means to be human. His book The Human Edge, how curiosity and creativity are your superpowers in the digital economy won Business Book of the year in 2020. He explores the skills you need to survive and thrive in a world of smartphones and AI. He urges you to stop competing, and instead do things machines can't. To become a more human, human. We welcome the author of "The Human Edge" Greg Orme. https://gregorme.org

Our guest today is an American psychologist who has carried out experiments on the theory of cognitive dissonance and invented the Jigsaw Classroom, a cooperative teaching technique that facilitates learning while reducing interethnic hostility and prejudice. In his 1972 social psychology textbook, The Social Animal, he stated his First Law: "People who do crazy things are not necessarily crazy," thus asserting the importance of situational factors in bizarre behavior. He is the only person in the 120-year history of the American Psychological Association to have won all three of its major awards: for writing, for teaching, and for research. In 2007 he received the William James Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association for Psychological Science, in which he was cited as the scientist who "fundamentally changed the way we look at everyday life." A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked him as one of the most cited psychologists of the 20th century. He officially retired in 1994 but continues to teach and write. It is an immense honour to host him on today's show to share his brilliant work. We welcome the author of The Social Animal, amongst a plethora of others, Elliot Aronson, welcome to the show Jigsaw Classroom: https://www.jigsaw.org

How you see risk and what you do about it depend on your personality and experiences. How you make these cost-benefit calculations depend on your culture, your values, the people in the room, and even unexpected things like what you've eaten recently, the temperature, the music playing, or the fragrance in the air. Being alert to these often-unconscious influences will help you to seize opportunities and avoid danger. Today's book is a clarion call for an entirely new conversation about our relationship with risk and uncertainty. Our guest examines why it's so important to understand your risk fingerprint and how to make your risk relationship work better in business, life, and the world. She shares insights, practical tools, and proven strategies that will help you to understand what makes you who you are –and, in turn, to make better choices, both big and small. We welcome a friend of the Innovation Show and the author of "You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World", Michele Wucker, welcome back. More about Michele: https://www.wucker.com

To compete with today's increasing globalisation and rapidly evolving technologies, individuals and organisations must take their ability to learn to a much higher level. Today's guest combines recent advances in neuroscience, psychology, behavioural economics, and education with key research on high-performance businesses to create an actionable blueprint for becoming a leading-edge learning organisation. Today's book examines the process of learning from an individual and an organisational standpoint. From an individual perspective, the book discusses the cognitive, emotional, motivational, attitudinal, and behavioural factors that promote better learning. Organisationally, it focuses on the kinds of structures, culture, leadership, employee learning behaviours, and human resource policies that are necessary to create an environment that enables critical and innovative thinking, learning conversations, and collaboration. His work also provides strategies to mitigate the reality that humans can be reflexive, lazy thinkers who seek confirmation of what they believe to be true and affirmation of their self-image. Humility is the New Smart is his emotions book. Hyper-Learning is his behavioural and philosophy book. Learn or Die is his science book. It is always a pleasure to welcome a great friend of the Innovation show , Ed Hess. More about Ed: www.edhess.org

We have the real pleasure of exploring what it was like trying to innovate from within Kodak with none other than the Inventor of the Digital Camera - Steve Sasson. We discuss so many aspects of Innovation and the struggle to let go of a successful business model. In 1880, George Eastman invented and patented a dry-plate formula and a machine for preparing large numbers of plates. He also founded the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. In 1884, he replaced glass photographic plates with a roll of film, believing in "the future of the film business." Like many startups, Kodak faced severe challenges but soon became a household name. When selling cameras, Kodak used a razor-blade strategy: selling the cameras for a low cost, fuelling growth and profits from the film. With success came blind spots and little by little Kodak leadership paid less and less attention to hardware. This was the case despite Eastman's original guiding principles: mass production at low-cost International distribution extensive advertising customer focus and growth through continuous research. Kodak did spend a lot on R&D but lacked an appetite to bring the findings of their R&D outputs to life and this would contribute to the downfall of an iconic brand. Don't forget Kodak had remarkable engineers, amazing innovators, and even invented the digital camera. It is hard to imagine it today, a world without the smartphone, Instagram, a world where only one company dominated an industry, a world where it was a chore to capture a moment. This was the world in 1975, when a young 24-year-old engineer invented digital photography and built the first digital camera.

Part 2 leans more on the theories of disruptive innovation: What is Cramming? The Nypro case study The case study of RCA versus Sony Long-life learning The death of "4 in 40" and the growth of adult learning. We welcome back the author of "Disrupting Class, How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns: Michael B Horn. More about Michael: https://michaelbhorn.com

Part 2 coming week of 25th Oct 2021 A groundbreaking and timely prescription for education reform―from a leading expert in innovation and growth Recent studies in neuroscience reveal that the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. To stay competitive―academically, economically, and technologically―we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence and reevaluate our educational system. Disrupting Class offers a groundbreaking and timely prescription for education reform that incorporates customized learning, student-centric classrooms, and new technology. Featuring fascinating case studies, scientific findings, and unprecedented insights on how innovation must be managed, this book will open your eyes to new possibilities, unlock hidden potential, and get you to think differently about learning and education. We welcome the author of "Disrupting Class, How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns: Michael B Horn. More about Michael here: https://michaelbhorn.com

Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus, we don't like to talk, or even think, about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain". Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behaviour. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain. We welcome the author of a multitude of titles including the focus for today's episode: "The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life" Robin Hanson.

The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, our guest explains, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide an understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"—metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. It is an immense honour and real treat to welcome the author of a plethora of titles including the focus of today's show: Metaphors we Live By", George Lakoff.

Today's book is a provocation. Its goal is to help you to increase your CQ and your organization's CQ. It encourages you to integrate both wonder and rigour into your daily life in order to produce new and novel products, services, and experiences that deliver greater value to your community and your organization. To this end, you'll gain three major tools from this book: Catalyzing inquiry Integrating improvisation, and elevating intuition. When you build these three practices into your work on a daily basis, you will discover true creativity— and its output, innovation— beginning to take place. We welcome the author of "The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work", Natalie Nixon More about Natalie https://www.figure8thinking.com

Our guest today is a learner who courageously took on challenging turnaround roles in industries where he had no prior experience. He used his rigorous French education and elite training as a McKinsey consultant to lead five companies as CEO, culminating in the transformation of Best Buy. During these years, he went through a personal transformation, from seeking to be the smartest person at the table to becoming a passionate and compassionate leader of people. By the time he became CEO of Best Buy in 2012, he had led turnarounds as head of EDS France, Vivendi's video game division, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and Carlson Companies. Despite his achievements by his early forties he was feeling disillusioned from chasing success. This is what inspired him to take "a step back and spend time looking into his soul to find a better direction for his life." In his study with Catholic monks and a number of CEOs in France, he realized that work is a noble calling to serve others and an expression of love. He believes work must be guided by the pursuit of a purpose with people at its center. This conviction has shaped his life and his career. It is a great pleasure to welcome: Senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, and author of, "The Heart of Business - Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism", Hubert Joly Find Hubert here: https://www.hubertjoly.org

Today's book is an almost anthropological examination of the nature of corporate scandal: Why do values go awry? What happens when the wrong person gets a big job? Why is it so tempting to post false profits instead of telling the truth? How distorting is the prospect of stock market riches? In retrospect, Enron did not conceal their dubious transactions from the investing public, but Enron's brass didn't go out of their way to point them out, but for anyone willing to wade through the company's financial documents, the numbers were clear. We are joined today by a brilliant journalist who did that work, who asked the questions others did not, and whose work would expose one of the biggest scams of all time. We welcome the author of "The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron", Bethany McLean

Today's book presents a different approach to enterprise strategy and leadership. A complementary approach the author calls: pioneering leadership. Rather than simply work within existing parameters of operational excellence pioneering leadership sees you embarking upon quests. Such quests allow us to systematically explore complex and uncertain futures. We don't set goals in the hopes that a particular future will manifest — rather, we explore multiple possible futures, and prepare proactive stratagems to capitalize on each. The result of this continuous and dynamic approach is that enterprise strategy and leadership is enriched with viable, alternative options to pursue. Such options allow enterprise leaders to mitigate risk, obtain strategic advantage and ensure meaningful progress as the world changes. Pioneering leadership is challenging to initiate and maintain — especially when compared to the established approach that favours fast results with a bias toward prudence and predictability. But! If we can crack through our default thinking, pioneering leadership offers enterprise leaders the chance to obtain the most important thing of all — enduring relevance. It's a pleasure to welcome the author of How to Lead a Quest A handbook for pioneering executives, the Arch-Wizard of Ambiguity, Dr Jason Fox Find Jason here: https://www.drjasonfox.com https://www.cleverness.com/word

Incremental improvement is no longer sufficient in helping organizations navigate the complexity, uncertainty, and volatility of today's world. Our guest today explores how to create non-linear, dramatic change in organizations. He explores the emerging science of change that teaches us about how to build organizations – from businesses to governments – that change and adapt rapidly. It is great pleasure to welcome the author of "Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times", John Kotter. More about John: https://www.kotterinc.com

Today's guest is widely recognized as the world's leading expert on personal and organizational productivity. Time Magazine called today's book, "the definitive business self-help book of the decade." We welcome the international best-selling author of "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity", David Allen

Digital Goddess is a book for entrepreneurial women at any stage of life who want to know what it actually takes to build a business, in a world that's not always fair, predictable, or politically correct. It is one woman's story—by no means universal, but common enough to be instructive. It's about how our guest has dealt with the way things are, not the way I hoped things would be or the way I think they should be. It's about sucking it up, making the hard choices, and dealing with the consequences. We welcome author Digital Goddess: The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur, Victoria Montgomery Brown

We are living through a crisis of distraction. Plans get sidetracked, friends are ignored, work never seems to get done. Why does it feel like we're distracting our lives away? In "Indistractable", behavioural designer Nir Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving you to distraction. Empowering and optimistic, this is the book that will help you design your time, realise your ambitions, and live the life you really want. He is a friend of the show, where we previously featured his book "Hooked" and he is with us to share insights from his brilliant best-seller "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life", Nir Eyal. More about Nir: https://www.nirandfar.com

What makes your favourite nonfiction books so compelling, understandable, or enjoyable to read? Those works connect with you, as a reader. When you recognize what's happening, you can apply those same methods to your own writing. Whether you're an expert trying to communicate with a mainstream audience or a nonfiction writer hoping to reach more people, our guest offers us the insight we need to reach more people with your words. It's a pleasure to welcome the author of "Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why", Anne Janzer More about Anne: https://annejanzer.com

You've got one shot to sell your ideas...but you're busy. So you leverage what's available: slides, data, charts, facts… and you end up with scrambled messages and no clear call to action—this is what our guest calls the Frankendeck. Today's book teaches us to organize our ideas, data, and insights to help our audience quickly understand what they need to know and do with the information. It arms us with a framework for crafting influential narratives that up-level the conversation and drive business results. Everyday Business Storytelling with Janine Kurnoff We welcome the author of Everyday Business Storytelling: Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience, Janine Kurnoff More about Janine: https://www.presentation-company.com/team_member/janine-kurnoff

In the past few decades, strategy has become increasingly sophisticated. If you work for a sizeable organisation, chances are your company has: a marketing strategy a corporate strategy a global strategy an innovation strategy an intellectual property strategy a digital strategy a social strategy and a talent strategy And in each of these domains, talented people work on long lists of urgent initiatives. Our guest today shows how the best companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference. We welcome the author of "Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance", Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Corporations have changed the world radically in so many areas: medicine, consumer goods, transport, finance, agriculture, entertainment, communications. And they've done so by combining organizational abilities with the unique human capacity to imagine: the ability to see and create things that had never existed. Imagination is needed now more than ever. Since competitive advantage is increasingly short-lived, driven by rapid evolution of the technological and business environment, companies constantly risk stagnation. Since the 1960s, the average number of companies exiting the Fortune 500 has increased by 36% annually, and the proportion of industries in which the top player has led for more than five years has nearly halved. Outperformance more quickly fades to the mean. We welcome the author of The Imagination Machine: How to Spark New Ideas and Create Your Company's Future, Martin Reeves More about Martin and the book: https://theimaginationmachine.org

Artificial intelligence, big data, modern science, and the internet are all revealing a fundamental truth: The world is vastly more complex and unpredictable than we've allowed ourselves to see. Now that technology is enabling us to take advantage of all the chaos it's revealing, our understanding of how things happen is changing--and with it our deepest strategies for predicting, preparing for, and managing our world. This affects everything, from how we approach our everyday lives to how we make moral decisions and how we run our businesses. The result: is a world no longer focused on limitations but optimised for possibilities. We welcome the author of the brilliant book: "Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We're Thriving in a New World of Possibility" David Weinberger

In the previous book in this series, our guest observed the experiences of leaders on a rollercoaster ride through their professional and personal lives. Now, he follows them down the rabbit hole into the unknown, where, like Lewis Carroll's Alice, they find a dystopian Wonderland in which everyone seems to have gone mad and life functions according to its own crazy logic, throwing up all kinds of obstacles in the search for truth. The first part of this book looks at the psychodynamics of leadership in both a business and a political context. The second focuses on the psychopathology of everyday life in organizations and the seemingly endless ways people can make a mess of things – including mega pay packages, acting out, digital addiction and other dysfunctional behaviour patterns. Each chapter ends with a brief anecdote to illustrate the dilemma it presents. In short, sharp nuggets, our guest helps make sense of how the madness of the present has affected leadership in organizations and the workplace. It's a great honour to welcome one of the world's renowned authorities on leadership and a prolific author, we welcome the author of Down the Rabbit Hole of Leadership: Leadership Pathology in Everyday Life Manfred Kets de Vries welcome.

Today's book brings to bear on some of the most powerful and helpful macrotrends rippling through society today. The book teaches readers how to harness their outrage and capitalize on global trends to instigate and encourage change across the world. The author identifies five global undercurrents with outsized importance that are shaping our world. The book's lessons are supported throughout by stories, experiences, data and observations from across the globe. It is perfect for activists and leaders of all kinds who aim to increase their impact on their organisations and the world at large, as well as the intellectually curious who hope to increase their understanding of the changing world around them. More about Steve: https://www.undercurrentsbook.com

59% of U.S. workers say that communication is their team's biggest obstacle to success, followed by accountability at 29% Today's book explains a simple, powerful tool that helps team leaders and members align and get clarity on exactly who is responsible for each part of the team's most important activities and projects. With the guidance of today's book, you can be better prepared as a team leader or team member to plan effectively, reduce risks, and collaborate with others. Your team will be accountable and ready to deliver results! We welcome the author of "High-Impact Tools for Teams" Stefano Mastrogiacomo More about Stefano: https://www.teamalignment.co

Today's guest offers us a fascinating glimpse into a near-future where careers last 100 years, and education lasts a lifetime. Our guest makes the case that learners of the future are going to repeatedly seek out educational opportunities throughout the course of their working lives — which will no longer have a beginning, middle, and end. Her book focuses on the disruptive and burgeoning innovations that are laying the foundation for a new learning model that includes clear navigation, wraparound and funding supports, targeted education, and clear connections to more transparent hiring processes. The book examines: How will a dramatically extended lifespan affect our careers? How will more time in the workforce shape our educational demands? Will a four-year degree earned at the start of a 100-year career adequately prepare us for the challenges ahead? We welcome the author of Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don't Even Exist Yet, Michelle Weise, welcome to the show.

This is a book about why people want what they want. It's based on the notion that, in the end, we will either be masters or slaves of our desires and that we can choose the outcome. True freedom, our guest argues, is the freedom to want what is best for ourselves and for others—and that those need not be different things. The ability to desire in a healthy way is not something we're born with, but a freedom we must earn. And due to one powerful and hidden feature of human desire, that freedom is hard won. More about Luke here: https://lukeburgis.com

Creating true change is never easy. Most startups don't survive. Most community groups never get beyond small local actions. Even when a spark catches fire and protesters swarm the streets, it often seems to fizzle out almost as fast as it started. The status quo is, almost by definition, well-entrenched and never gives up without a fight. To truly change the world or even just your little corner of it, you don't need a charismatic leader or a catchy slogan. What you need is a cascade: small groups that are loosely connected but united by a common purpose. We welcome back for the 3rd time, Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker and Innovation Advisor and author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change, Greg Satell. Links mentioned in the show: https://digitaltonto.com/2020/10-principles-for-transformational-change/ https://www.joinclubhouse.com/join/the-innovation-show/3ovqI5FP/xq5YRvjd

Marshalling unique insights from archaeogenetics, an emerging new discipline that allows us to read our ancestors' DNA like journals chronicling personal stories of migration, our guest charts two millennia of adaption, movement and survival, culminating in the triumph of Homo Sapiens as we swept through Europe and beyond in successive waves of migration - developing everything from language, the patriarchy, disease, art and a love of pets as we did so. As well as being a radical new telling of our shared story, today's book is a reminder that the global problems that keep us awake at night - climate catastrophe; the sudden emergence of deadly epidemics; refugee crises; ethnic conflict; over-population - are all things we've faced in the past and overcome. Our guest is one of the most established international experts in the field of archaeogenetics, he is director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Germany and he is the author of "A Short History of Humanity: How Migration Made Us Who We Are", Johannes Krause welcome to the show.

In our world of incessant change, we are all threatened by VUCA volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—at the individual and organizational levels. Today's book offers you a new lens through which to consider change as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. You'll be inspired to consider the big questions of today: What does the future hold? What does the exponential growth of technology mean for the world of work? What does a changing job market mean for future generations? What do waves of disruption mean for business leaders? S ociety is evolving at breakneck speed. What does this mean for all of us? While we cannot see into the future, there are repeatable patterns that we can understand. The first step to becoming Undisruptable is to realize that evolution is a natural part of life, and nature provides many examples. If you haven't guessed already that is the blurb for my own book and because of so many requests from former guests and listeners. I will be interviewed today by guest host, a friend of the innovation and professional friend, Whitney Johnson.

Have you ever wanted to disagree with your boss? Speak up about your company's lack of diversity or unequal pay practices? Make a tough decision you knew would be unpopular? We all have opportunities to be courageous at work. But since courage requires risk—to our reputations, our social standing, and, in some cases, our jobs—we often fail to act, which leaves us feeling powerless and regretful for not doing what we know is right. There's a better way to handle these crucial moments—and today's book provides the moral imperative and research-based tactics to help you become more competently courageous at work. Our guest is the world's foremost expert on workplace courage, He explains that courage isn't a character trait that only a few possess; it's a virtue developed through practice. And with the right attitude and approach, you can learn to hone it like any other skill and incorporate it into your everyday life. We welcome a friend of the Innovation Show and one of our very early guests, author of Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work Jim Detert More about Jim here: https://jimdetert.com

If you're a shaper, you put your stamp on your work. You earn your stripes. You sync with a rhythm of life that lights you up. At times, work may be a frightening obstacle (and obsession), but shapers move through adversity with temperament and tenacity. A determination to continually improve and evolve. A willingness to experiment and learn from mistakes. To create on the fly. To work fluidly. To persevere and be patient in equal measure. To nourish the soul. A shaper is someone who becomes energised by work. The way they work provides for the highest expression of self. They lead deeper and more fulfilling lives because what they do every day serves them and the greater good. We welcome the author of Shapers, Jonas Altman More about Jonas www.shapers.life

Flex is a manifesto for living and working on your terms. It means looking at the established, rigid ways of doing things and asking: 'Is this really working for me?' If the answer to that question is 'No' then read on because this book is for you. When we learn how to flex we gain a superpower that allows us to challenge what is holding us back and reinvent the rules for a smarter, happier life. Because things are changing for women across the globe. We are getting married and having children later, if at all. Dual-income families have replaced the traditional template of man as breadwinner and woman as homemaker. Technology allows us to work differently and understand ourselves better. But the old systems still persist. We're continually bashing up against inflexible structures that were built by, and for, men. We are trying to do everything, but following a rulebook, we didn't write. We welcome the author of Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier Life, Annie Auerbach More about Annie: https://starlingstrategy.co.uk

It's no coincidence that most of the top 100 most valuable global brands invest heavily in technology to drive innovation into every aspect of their business: product development, operations, marketing, and customer service. In the next decade, a suite of six strategic technologies—artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, autonomous machines, and 5G networks—will drive unprecedented innovation into products and services, creating entirely new business models along the way. Investment in information technology (IT) will be a strategic imperative for every company. Every company will become a technology company, and every company will become a data company. Business operations will be retooled using both process automation and worker augmentation. Today's book is both a call to innovate for survival in a rapidly evolving competitive environment, and a moral imperative to use these six technologies to serve people, elevate work, and make a lasting, positive impact on the world. We welcome the author of "The Innovation Ultimatum How six strategic technologies will reshape every business in the 2020s" Steve Brown More about Steve: https://www.baldfuturist.com

Do you spend too much time learning with disappointing results? Do you find it difficult to remember what you read? Do you put off studying because it's boring and you're easily distracted? Today's book is for you. Our guest struggled in the past with our learning. But has found techniques to help us master material—any material. Building on insights from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, she gives us a crash course to improve your ability to learn, whether you're studying maths, language, coding, karate, cooking, or anything else. You'll see why the strategies work because you'll see what's happening in the brain when you use them. No, this isn't a little book of miracles. But you will find that reducing frustration and improving your study success may sometimes feel miraculous. We welcome author of "Learn Like a Pro", Barbara Oakley

Innovators. Changemakers. Entrepreneurs. Intrapreneurs. Catalysts. One of these things is not like the other. That is to say, each of these types of people can make a whole lot of change happen in the world, but within any group of innovators, changemakers, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs, are those people called Catalysts, Those of us who have a deep-rooted need to create positive change. Among Catalysts, there is an unmet need to be seen and valued for who we are and how we show up in the world. We move so fast that we lose people. We can break shit without intentionality. And all of that can lead to burnout—frequently. Catalysts feel a deep sense of drive toward a better future state. We can't help but see potential change and set it in motion, wherever we are. We're energized and we're driven by it. We welcome the author of Move Fast. Break Stuff. Burn Out.: The Catalyst's Guide to Working Well, Shannon Lucas, welcome to the show.

Even before the pandemic, it seemed the world was spinning so fast it's difficult to keep up. Arguably a lot of the technological disruption that was around in 2019 simply got accelerated – remote working, digitisation and AI to name just three. Our guest today notes in his new book: Two hundred and fifty years ago the Industrial Revolution replaced our arms and legs at work. The fourth Industrial Revolution is now replacing our brains. He says The Machine Age is engulfing both organisations and people. This shift is challenging the very essence of what it means to be human. His book won Business Book of the year in 2020. We welcome the author of The Human Edge: How curiosity and creativity are your superpowers in the digital economy, Greg Orme.