The Innovation Show

Leaders have experimented with open innovation programs, corporate accelerators, venture capital arms, skunkworks, and innovation contests. They've travelled the world to learn from today's hottest, most successful tech companies. Yet most would admit they've failed to create truly innovative cultures. There's a better way. And it all starts with the power of habit. The central argument in today's book is that the world's biggest untapped source of energy isn't the wind, water, or sun. It is inside existing organisations, which are brimming with innovation energy. Today that energy is largely constrained and contained. You need to release, harness, and amplify it. Today's book will show you how. We welcome a friend of the innovation show, 3-time guest and author of a plethora of titles author of Eat, Sleep, Innovate Scott D. Anthony welcome back to the show. More about Scott: https://www.innosight.com/insight/eat-sleep-innovate/

Faced with the choice of starting a company or joining a large corporation, Steve Jobs believed that it was 'more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy'. But for innovators inside established companies, making a distinction between being a pirate and joining the navy is a fallacy. We have to figure out a way to become pirates in the navy! There is nothing harder in business than trying to innovate within large corporations. Innovators in big companies often face internal opposition as well as their external competitors. It is the management of the core business that tends to get in the way of innovation. If you work in corporate innovation, if you run an innovation lab or work in one, if you are a pirate I'm the navy, there is so much in this episode, there are some hard truths to face, some butter pills to swallow, I certainly know I've made some of the mistakes our guest identifies. More about Tendayi here: https://tendayiviki.com

Today's book was born out of a desire to show how and why ritual is critical in our everyday lives, using examples from across the animal world, including elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans, wolves, dogs, lions, zebras, whales, flamingos, fish, and even insects. Although social animals exhibit many rituals, this book focuses on ten important rituals that are essential to our well-being: greeting rituals, group rituals, courtship, gifting, spoken rituals, unspoken rituals, play, grieving and healing, renewal, and travel and migration. Ritualized greetings, such as mouth-licking in wolves or a handshake in humans, are a form of information gathering, and they have evolved among social animals to strengthen bonds and build trust. Let's take play For example, play affords individuals the opportunity to experiment with their surroundings and come up with creative solutions critical to a species' survival. Examples include a lion cub practicing hunting skills by pretending a littermate is prey or a toddler building a fantastical world in a sandbox, which fosters coping skills for later life challenges. Reincorporating the lost art of ritual will better equip us to discover new ways to reconnect to others, to ourselves, and to the natural world. More about Caitlin: https://www.caitlineoconnell.com

Paradigmatic shifts in the business landscape, known as inflection points, can either create new, entrepreneurial opportunities (see Amazon and Netflix) or they can lead to devastating consequences (e.g., Blockbuster and Toys R Us). Only those leaders who can "see around corners" - that is, spot the disruptive inflection points developing before they hit - are poised to succeed in this market. Columbia Business School Professor and corporate consultant Rita McGrath contends that inflection points, though they may seem sudden, are not random. Every seemingly overnight shift is the final stage of a process that has been subtly building for some time. Armed with the right strategies and tools, smart businesses can see these inflection points coming and use them to gain a competitive advantage. Seeing Around Corners is the first hands-on guide to anticipating, understanding, and capitalising on the inflection points shaping the marketplace. We welcome author of Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen, Rita McGrath https://www.ritamcgrath.com https://www.valize.com

Barry O'Reilly shares how the Cycle of Unlearning is a new way of thinking and a new way of leading organisations in every industry. It's not difficult to learn more. What is difficult is to know what to unlearn, what to stop, and what to throw away. This is the paradox of success. While thinking and doing certain methods may have brought you success in the past, it's almost certain they won't continue to bring you success in the future. We discuss the importance of unlearning How Serena Williams unlearned her way to success The Origins of Disney's Magic Band And much more. More about Barry here: https://barryoreilly.com

This mind-opening episode summarises some of the groundbreaking analysis of the business, economic, and technological trends of today to predict what the world will look like in 2030 – and how the Coronavirus pandemic will accelerate each of these major trends. Our guest is author of "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything", Mauro Guillén Some stats from the book: Birthplace of the next industrial revolution: sub-Saharan Africa The reason: 500 million acres of fertile yet undeveloped agricultural land The size of Mexico: 500 million acres Percentage of the world's wealth owned by women in 2000: 15 Percentage of the world's wealth owned by women in 2030: 55 If Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters: global financial crisis averted Worldwide, the number of people who went hungry in 2017: 821 million Worldwide, the number of people who will go hungry in 2030: 200 million Worldwide, the number of people who were obese in 2017: 650 million Worldwide, the number of people who will be obese in 2030: 1.1 billion Percentage of Americans projected to be obese in 2030: 50 Percentage of the world's land occupied by cities in 2030: 1.1 Percentage of the world's population living in cities in 2030: 60 Percentage of worldwide carbon emissions produced by cities in 2030: 87 Percentage of world's urban population exposed to rising sea levels in 2030: 80 The largest middle-class consumer market today: United States and Western Europe The largest middle-class consumer market in 2030: China By 2030, the number of people entering the middle class in emerging markets: 1 billion The number of people currently in the middle class in the United States: 223 million The number of people in the middle class in the United States in 2030: 209 million More about Mauro: http://www.mauroguillen.com

Today's focus is a Playbook that helps innovators and entrepreneurs to harness new, extreme ideas despite complex business barriers. This visual guide provides insight, practical solutions and reusable canvasses to help innovation managers, CEOs, Chief Innovators and directors of innovation labs to develop breakthrough ideas. We welcome, authors of, "The Radical Innovation Playbook: a practical guide for harnessing new, novel or game-changing breakthroughs" Olga Kokshagina and Allen Alexander

This episode is about getting to grips with how to actually change your behaviour so you stay curious a little bit longer. It sounds like it should be easy, but it's not. You have to tame your Advice Monster, that part of you that jumps in to offer up ideas, opinions, suggestions and advice. And it's taming your Advice Monster that's at the heart of this book. But there are also some specific coaching strategies, particularly on how to focus on what matters most. We welcome author of The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever Michael Bungay Stanier More about Michael here: https://www.mbs.works

Our guest was used to giving orders. In the high-stress environment of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, it was crucial his men did their job well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet. One day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. He realised he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things. He took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Before long, his crew became fully engaged and the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet. No matter your business or your position, you can apply his approach to create a workplace where everyone takes responsibility for their actions, people are healthier and happier - and everyone is a leader. We welcome the author of Turn the Ship Around! and his latest book Leadership is Language, Captain David Marquet. More about David here: https://davidmarquet.com

For millennia, dominant groups have had the habit of framing themselves to be the best, deep down: the more powerful they become, the more power begins to be framed as natural. When you see how power has shaped the idea of race, then you can start to understand its meaning. In Superior, celebrated author Angela Saini explores the concepts of race and caste, from their origins to the present day. Engaging with geneticists, anthropologists, historians and social scientists from across the globe, Superior is a rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious and destructive belief that race is biologically real. More about Angela here: https://www.angelasaini.co.uk

Ozan Varol reveals simple strategies from rocket science that you can use to make your own giant leaps in work and life -- whether it's landing your dream job, accelerating your business, learning a new skill, or creating the next breakthrough product. Today, thinking like a rocket scientist is a necessity. We all encounter complex and unfamiliar problems in our lives. Those who can tackle these problems -- without clear guidelines and with the clock ticking -- enjoy an extraordinary advantage. Think Like a Rocket Scientist will inspire you to take your own moonshot and enable you to achieve lift-off. More about Ozan here: https://ozanvarol.com

Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment. Our guest offers us a playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. We welcome Author of Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life Ashley Whillans. More about Ashley here: https://www.awhillans.com

There is a painful gap between what people want and what they actually do. The disconnect between want and do has been blamed on a lot of things — but we blame it on ourselves for the most part. We internalize the cultural message of "It's your fault! Our guest is here to say: It isn't your fault. creating positive change isn't as hard as you think and when it comes to change tiny is mighty. We welcome, founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University and author Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg. Sign up for BJ's free course here: https://www.tinyhabits.com/join

In business, government, and every area of contemporary life, leaders today are struggling to find workable solutions to greater and more complex challenges. As a former senior Pentagon official and CEO of a billion-dollar company, our guest has seen firsthand that the current model for solving diverse problem sets no longer works. Organizations and individuals need to adopt an entirely different approach to the biggest challenges they face and embrace a new model to ensure they emerge triumphant. That model is The Renaissance Campaign. We welcome author of The Renaissance Campaign: A Problem-Solving Formula for Your Biggest Challenges More about John here: https://www.johnrogers360.com

Our guest today brings us a powerful blend of cross-disciplinary research and battle-tested tools to help you diagnose, design, and implement a reinvention system that allows your company to stop combatting or resisting change – and instead helps you turn every disruption into your greatest opportunity. We welcome author of "The Chief Reinvention Officer Handbook: How to Thrive in Chaos" Nadya Zhexembayeva More about https://www.learn2reinvent.com

The future will get even more perplexing over the next decade, and we are not ready. The dilemma is that we're restricted by rigid categorical thinking that freezes people and organizations in neatly defined boxes that often are inaccurate or obsolete. Categories lead us toward certainty but away from clarity, and categorical thinking moves us away from understanding the bigger picture. Sticking with this old way of thinking and seeing isn't just foolish, it's dangerous. Our guest is a Leading futurist and shows how a new way of thinking, enhanced by new technologies, will help leaders break free of limiting labels and see new gradients of possibility in a chaotic world. We welcome the author of Full-Spectrum Thinking: How to Escape Boxes in a Post-Categorical Future, Bob Johansen More about Bob here: https://www.iftf.org/bobjohansen/

"The relationship between the organism and the environment is transactional—the environment grows the organism, and the organism creates the environment." ― Alan Watts Creativity isn't all in your head. Sometimes it's in what's around you--especially when you're at home. For over twenty years, scientists have been discovering connections between our physical surroundings and the creative mind. Today's book is the first to turn this rich trove of psychological research into practical techniques for shaping a home that will boost your creativity. We welcome Donald Rattner, the author of My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation. More about Donald https://donaldrattner.com

"If you could learn to squeeze the vibrancy and beauty out of each moment of your life, would you say yes to a practice that could get you there?", that is the question our guest asks of us. She then takes us through her technique to do just that. A technique she teaches to first responders, veterans and those who have suffered trauma. It is a please to welcome, author of Neurosculpting: A Whole-Brain Approach to Heal Trauma, Rewrite Limiting Beliefs, and Find Wholeness", Lisa Wimberger More about Lisa here: https://neurosculptinginstitute.com/about-lisa-wimberger-founder-of-the-neurosculpting-institute/

Friends matter to us, and they matter more than we think. The single most surprising fact to emerge out of the medical literature over the last decade or so has been that the number and quality of the friendships we have has a bigger influence on our happiness, health and even mortality risk than anything else except giving up smoking. Our guest is the world-renowned psychologist and author who famously discovered Dunbar's number: how our capacity for friendship is limited to around 150 people. In today's book,he explores the way different types of friendship and family relationships intersect, and the complex of psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin friendships and make them possible - and just how complicated the business of making and keeping friends actually is. Working at the coalface of the subject at both research and personal levels, he has written the definitive book on how and why we are friends. We welcome evolutionary psychologist and former director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology and the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University. His acclaimed books include How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language and so many more.

This episode is an intimate and inspirational exploration of Stephen Hawking— the man and the physicist. It is also a story of friendship, written by his friend also a physicist and renowned author of multiple titles including: Subliminal Elastic Euclid's Window Feynman's Rainbow The Upright Thinkers War of the Worldviews with Deepak Chopra and 2 books coauthored with Stephen Hawking. It is a pleasure to welcome author of Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics, Leonard Mlodinow. We discuss Stephen, the human behind the legend, his challenges and his strength. We discuss elements of Elastic thinking and the benefits of Neurodiversity. More on Leonard on twitter: @lmlodinow

Our guests are Silicon Valley design veterans: One created the first Apple mouse The other designed the award-winning Apple PowerBook and the original Hasbro Star Wars action figures! 13 years ago they founded the STANFORD LIFE DESIGN LAB The course - the most popular at Stanford - has led to a global franchise and a New York Times and worldwide bestselling book: Designing Your Life, published in 2016. Today they are here to discuss their follow-up book : Designing Your Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work We welcome Bill Burnett and Dave Evans More about the guys here: https://designingyour.life/

GRAMMY-recognized #1 hit songwriter, Cliff Goldmacher shares how to explore, shape and sell our ideas by teaching us how to write songs. Doing so helps develop the essential skills of: lateral thinking, creativity, communication, empathy, collaboration, risk-taking and the diffusion of ideas for better innovators. It is a pleasure to welcome the author of: "The Reason For The Rhymes: Mastering the Seven Essential Skills of Innovation by Learning to Write Songs", Cliff Goldmacher. More about Cliff and his workshops: https://www.thereasonfortherhymes.com/workshops/

One of my favourite episodes of all time. This genre-shattering attempt to answer the question of human behaviour by looking at it from every angle. Our guest starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its genetic inheritance. And so the first category of explanation is the neurobiological one. What goes on in a person's brain a second before the behavior happens? Then he pulls out to a slightly larger field of vision, a little earlier in time: What sight, sound, or smell triggers the nervous system to produce that behavior? And then, what hormones act hours to days earlier to change how responsive that individual is to the stimuli which trigger the nervous system? By now, our guest has increased our field of vision so that we are thinking about neurobiology and the sensory world of our environment and endocrinology in trying to explain what happened. But he keeps going—next to what features of the environment affected that person's brain, and then back to the childhood of the individual, and then to their genetic makeup. Finally, he expands the view to encompass factors larger than that one individual. How culture has shaped that individual's group, what ecological factors helped shape that culture, and on and on, back to evolutionary factors thousands and even millions of years old. The result is one of the most dazzling tours de horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted, a majestic synthesis that harvests cutting-edge research across a range of disciplines to provide a subtle and nuanced perspective on why we ultimately do the things we do...for good and for ill. Wise, humane, often hilarious, Behave is a towering achievement, powerfully humanising, and downright heroic in its own right. What a pleasure to welcome author of "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" Robert M. Sapolsky

One of my favourite episodes of all time. This genre-shattering attempt to answer the question of human behaviour by looking at it from every angle. Our guest starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its genetic inheritance. And so the first category of explanation is the neurobiological one. What goes on in a person's brain a second before the behavior happens? Then he pulls out to a slightly larger field of vision, a little earlier in time: What sight, sound, or smell triggers the nervous system to produce that behavior? And then, what hormones act hours to days earlier to change how responsive that individual is to the stimuli which trigger the nervous system? By now, our guest has increased our field of vision so that we are thinking about neurobiology and the sensory world of our environment and endocrinology in trying to explain what happened. But he keeps going—next to what features of the environment affected that person's brain, and then back to the childhood of the individual, and then to their genetic makeup. Finally, he expands the view to encompass factors larger than that one individual. How culture has shaped that individual's group, what ecological factors helped shape that culture, and on and on, back to evolutionary factors thousands and even millions of years old. The result is one of the most dazzling tours de horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted, a majestic synthesis that harvests cutting-edge research across a range of disciplines to provide a subtle and nuanced perspective on why we ultimately do the things we do...for good and for ill. Wise, humane, often hilarious, Behave is a towering achievement, powerfully humanising, and downright heroic in its own right. What a pleasure to welcome author of "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" Robert M. Sapolsky

Your business's success depends on how you prepare for the future. While business leaders of the past looked in the rear-view mirror to predict the road ahead, we must look at the greater forces affecting the social, business and economic world today—megatrends. Our guest today is here to share a fresh, holistic way to think about tomorrow by preparing for it today: He calls it DRIVE. The DRIVE framework examines five interrelated megatrends: • Demographic and social changes • Resource scarcity • Inequalities • Volatility, complexity, and scale • Enterprising dynamics It is a great pleasure to welcome Mark Esposito, the author of "Understanding How the Future Unfolds: Using Drive to Harness the Power of Today's Megatrends". Some great news as ever, Mark has kindly offered a copy of the book for the innovation show community, just sign up to our newsletter on www.theinnovationshow.io

When facing a rhino that's about to charge, doing nothing is seldom the best option. Yet all too often that's exactly what happens. Danger rarely comes as a complete surprise; instead, it follows many missed opportunities for taking precautions, reading and responding to warning signals. The impulse to freeze is hard to overcome. Sometimes the grip of denial is so strong that we do nothing at all; or, even worse, as in many market booms leading to bust, we do more of what was dangerous in the first place. We welcome the author of "The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore", Michele Wucker. More about Michele:https://thegrayrhino.com

The Nocturnal Brain: Tales of Nightmares and Neuroscience with Guy Leschziner You can survive longer without food than without sleep. The fact that sleep is fundamental to life is unarguable, but in modern society, at least until recently, we have taken for granted that sleep simply happens, and is a necessary evil to allow us to live our waking lives. Recently, however, there has been a shift in how we view sleep. Rather than being a hindrance to our working and social lives, a biological process that keeps us from being productive, the concept of the importance of sleep is percolating through. Its role in the maintenance of our physical and mental health, our sporting prowess, our cognitive abilities, even in our happiness, is slowly being appreciated. And rightly so. People are taking sleep seriously The normal expectation of waking up feeling ready for the day ahead is rarely found among our guests patients. Their nights are tormented by a range of conditions, such as terrifying nocturnal hallucinations, sleep paralysis, acting out their dreams or debilitating insomnia. The array of activities in sleep reflects the spectrum of human behaviour in our waking lives. Sometimes these medical problems have a biological explanation, at other times a psychological one, and the focus of the clinical work that He and his colleagues do is to unravel the causes for their sleep disorders and attempt to find a treatment or cure. More about Guy here: https://guyleschziner.com/

The Digital Age will raise the question of how humans will stay relevant in the workplace. To stay relevant, we have to be able to excel cognitively, behaviourally, and emotionally in ways that technology can't. Our guest believes, this requires us to become Hyper-Learners: continuously learning, unlearning, and relearning at the speed of change. To do that, we have to overcome our reflexive ways of being: seeking confirmation of what we believe, emotionally defending our beliefs and our ego, and seeking cohesiveness of our mental models. Hyper-Learning requires a new way of being… and a radical new way of working. We welcome a great friend of the innovation show, hyper learner and author of "Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change", Ed Hess. More about Ed: https://www.edhess.org/

Startups have changed the world. In the United States, many startups, such as Tesla, Apple, and Amazon, have become household names. The economic value of startups has doubled since 1992 and is projected to double again in the next fifteen years. For decades, the hot centre of this phenomenon has been Silicon Valley. This is changing fast. Thanks to technology, startups are now taking root everywhere, from Delhi to Detroit to Nairobi to Sao Paulo. Yet despite this globalisation of startup activity, our knowledge of how to build successful startups is still drawn primarily from Silicon Valley. As venture capitalist Alex Lazarow shows in this insightful and instructive book, this Silicon Valley "gospel" is due for a refresh--and it comes from what he calls the "frontier," the growing constellation of startup ecosystems, outside of the Valley and other major economic centres, that now stretches across the globe. The frontier is a truly different world where startups often must cope with political or economic instability and lack of infrastructure, and where there might be little or no access to angel investors, venture capitalists, or experienced employee pools. Under such conditions, entrepreneurs must be creators who build industries rather than disruptors who change them because there are few existing businesses to disrupt. The companies they create must be global from birth because local markets are too small. They focus on resiliency and sustainability rather than unicorn-style growth at any cost. With rich and wide-ranging stories of frontier innovators from around the world, Out-Innovate is the new playbook for innovation-wherever it has the potential to happen. More about Alex: https://www.alexlazarow.com

There are two stories you hear about making a living as an artist in the digital age, and they are diametrically opposed. One comes from Silicon Valley and its boosters in the media. There's never been a better time to be an artist, it goes. If you've got a laptop, you've got a recording studio. If you've got an iPhone, you've got a movie camera. GarageBand, Final Cut Pro: all the tools are at your fingertips. And if production is cheap, distribution is free. It's called the Internet: YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Kindle Direct Publishing. Everyone's an artist; just tap your creativity and put your stuff out there. Soon, you too can make a living doing what you love, just like all those viral stars you read about. The other story comes from artists themselves, especially musicians but also writers, filmmakers, people who do comedy. Sure, it goes, you can put your stuff out there, but who is going to pay you for it? Digital content has been demonetised: music is free, writing is free, video is free, even images you put up on Facebook or Instagram are free, because people can (and do) just take them. Everyone is not an artist. Making art takes years of dedication, and that requires a means of support. If things don't change, a lot of art will cease to be sustainable. We welcome back Bill Deresiewicz, friend of the Innovation Show and author of "The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech" https://billderesiewicz.com/ Previous episode "Excellent Sheep": https://bit.ly/2ZlQ6OI Bill is here: https://billderesiewicz.com/

The context of business has changed so rapidly over the past few decades that it may be time for a new lexicon. At the very least, it's time to challenge some of the established thinking about strategy and competition that used to drive business advantage - but no longer does. In this episode, strategy expert and Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath takes on one of most fundamental and recognised notions in strategy: that of sustainable competitive advantage. She argues this can no longer be the Holy Grail for companies because in a constantly changing environment, deeply ingrained structures and systems designed to extract value actually become a liability. The new path to winning includes taking advantage of shorter term opportunities, as well as relying on new organisational talents like speed and decisiveness. Our guest defines the new transient life cycle of competitive advantage and shows how successful firms manage through it by using an updated philosophy. She offers a bold new set of principles for competing in what we now understand is a continuously volatile and uncertain environment. Consider this your fresh strategy playbook for competing in an accelerating world.

Despite decades of research illustrating the benefits of enlightened leadership, the high-performance workplace is still not the norm. Our guest has spent 20 years investigating this paradox, and in this book she forms a penetrating critique of why such strong evidence has had limited impact, and provides an alternative practical approach that any employer can implement to overcome these challenges. She shows that there is a clear correlation between those companies that are good companies and those that do well, with 'good meaning an organization that works with stakeholders, employees, society and customers. While a 'bad' company can do well, its success isn t sustainable - her book explores the steps needed to be taken to become a good organization with long-term, sustainable results. She brings together management wisdom and shows how successful leaders have moved their organizations from controlled and orderly, to enthusiastic and collaborative. Supported by insights from 59 of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field, the book will guide readers through the arguments for a radical reassessment of current business models, and the successful stories of employers from the private and public sectors who have made the transition. We welcome Vlatka Hlupic , the author of Humane Capital: How to Create a Management Shift to Transform Performance and Profit

Building a business requires more than just a good product and talented people; it requires you to take a hard look at how you show up as a leader. Open, Honest, and Direct helps you dive into the heart of your business and your people, identifying changes you can make to transform the way you and your managers lead. Part business book, part personal-development guide, this is a how-to full of practical ways to not only build and lead a high-performance team but also bring out the best in your people. Being a successful manager is less about staying constantly on top of your team and more about providing clarity and context for people. Levy's method for creating open, honest, and direct leaders within an organization provides you with tactical tools you can put to use right away. This is a toolkit for designing a culture that supports employee performance and future-proofs your business. Many managers are promoted because they are great at what they do, but that doesn't necessarily translate into their ability to manage a team and get the most out of their people. In today's business environment where the competition for top talent is intense, it's integral to not only keep your top talent but also be able to coach all of your people and unlock their full potential. Open, Honest, and Direct is a field guide and powerful movement for leading that will give your organization the competitive edge it needs.

Great ideas don't just happen. Innovation springs from creative thinking—a method of the human mind that we can study and learn. In The Art of Ideas, our guest brings together business concepts with stories of creativity in art, politics, and history to provide a visual and accessible guide to the art and science of new and useful ideas. He details how to spark your own ideas and what to do while waiting for inspiration to strike. He shows that regardless of the field, innovations happen in the same way: examples from history, presence of mind, creative combination, and resolution to action. The Art of Ideas features case studies and exercises that explain how to break down problems, search for precedents, and creatively combine past models to form new ideas. It showcases how Picasso developed his painting style, how Gandhi became the man we know today, and how Netflix came to disrupt the movie-rental business.

What separates your mind from the mind of an animal? Maybe you think it's your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future - all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the pre-eminent species on Earth. But in recent decades, claims of human superiority have been eroded by a revolution in the study of animal cognition. Take the way octopuses use coconut shells as tools, or how elephants can classify humans by age, gender, and language. Take Ayumu, the young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University who demonstrates his species' exceptional photographic memory. Based on research on a range of animals, including crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, whales, and, of course, chimpanzees and bonobos, our guest today explores the scope and depth of animal intelligence, revealing how we have grossly underestimated non-human brains. He overturns the view of animals as stimulus-response beings and opens our eyes to their complex and intricate minds. With astonishing stories of animal cognition, his work challenges everything you thought you knew about animal - and human - intelligence. We welcome author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, Frans de Waal. More about Frans: https://www.facebook.com/franspublic/

Our guest today argues that everything is changing fast, apart from how we behave. Our ways of thinking and making decisions have changed little, with the traditional wisdom being that improvements are best done incrementally, just as big, established corporations will increase profits incrementally and governments will change laws incrementally. But the problems we now need to solve require a revolution in thinking and behavior in order to avoid disaster. He lays out the reality of the dangerous situation we find ourselves in and suggests solutions that empower everyone, including business people, politicians, diplomats, and teachers, to repair the damage we have already done, and prepare for the dramatic changes to come. Over a 30-year period our guest founded and bought 20 companies in nine countries. He is an Emmy Award winner and author of the WSJ best-selling book: "Total Rethink: Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries" we welcome David McCourt to the show

Rob Fitzpatrick is author of "The Mom Test, How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you" His book shows us how customer conversations go wrong and how we can do better. They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little. As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. Win one of 2 copies by signing up to the show here: www.theinnovationshow.io and find Rob on ww.robfitz.com

The world around us is changing rapidly. There is now more pressure on established companies to innovate. The challenge most companies face is how to develop new products for new markets, while managing their core business at the same time. The principles and practices outlined in this book provide companies with a blueprint of how to manage innovation while they execute on their core business. The Corporate Startup provides frameworks, visualisations, templates, tools and methods that can be easily applied to develop new products and business models. We welcome author of The Corporate Startup: How established companies can create successful innovation ecosystems, Dan Toma

More agility. More energy. More genius. Why do some companies always seem to have the best ideas, the most engaged people and the most profitable growth? Based on 10 years of research, today's book goes behind the scenes of some of the world's most innovative companies and decodes the tools, hacks and approaches that help their managers systematically spark ingenuity, agility, and profitable creativity at scale. It presents a pragmatic 'how-to' guide for any team or organisation that needs to adapt its culture, processes, leadership and decision-making for an age of increasingly unpredictable and rapid change. We welcome author of "Be Less Zombie How great companies create dynamic innovation, fearless leadership and passionate people" Elvin Turner www.elvinturner.com

We've reached a point in time when everyone wants innovation, but most people don't know how to actually attain it. It's not easy, which is why there are so many failed brands and companies. In our era of AI, rapid change, disruption, and possibility, there are so many great opportunities within our grasp. However, smart, successful people consistently miss out. Their capabilities are limited by seven traps, and they rely on and repeat past decisions. They miss out on the potential of what could have been. If we could remove these traps, what could we accomplish? How much more successful could we be? Today's book teaches us how to think disruptively, providing specific steps to create real innovation and change. It combines our guests high energy provocative thinking with tactics that have been battle tested through projects with leading innovators like Disney, Starbucks, Amex, IBM, Adidas, Google, and NASA. We welcome CEO of Trendhunter and author Create the Future and the Innovation Handbook: Tactics for Disruptive Thinking, Jeremy Gutsche

Being awarded a leadership role within an organization may feel like an amazing accomplishment, but that is only half the battle. The second, and arguably most important half, lies in building and maintaining a highly effective team. However, according to a recent survey conducted on UK workers, managers are failing miserably at this task, and are instead fostering feelings of hate and resentment among their workers. The survey states that while 22% of the UK public say they hate their boss, a staggering 52% identify their boss as their primary source of job dissatisfaction. So, where is it that managers are going wrong, and what can they do to improve their employees' perception of them? Interesting research during the 1970s–found that managerial failure had little to do with IQ or personal attractiveness. Rather, it was linked directly to interpersonal competence. And, since personality is at the core of interpersonal competence, our guest today developed one of the globe's leading personality assessments to identify the 11 personality scales that cause leaders to fail time and time again. We welcome creator of The Hogan Assessments, Dr Robert Hogan

As a business leader, you need to make decisions that set your company up for success, now and in the future. The challenge is In this fast-changing world, the rules of strategy are being rewritten and the go-to solutions you once relied on are no longer enough. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here. As emerging technologies like AI and blockchain become ubiquitous, they will unleash unprecedented levels of disruption. Drawing on his broad global experience, our guest delivers the essential guide to strategy for this new era. His CLEVER Framework will help you understand the deep strategic drivers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, reflect on how they affect you and your business, and respond effectively. If you're ready to fulfil your potential as a leader and create a future-ready business, it's time to get Clever. We welcome Alessandro Lanteri, the author of CLEVER: The Six Strategic Drivers for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Innovators need to communicate their concepts. Organisations have 5 generations working together in the workplace. We must be able to respectfully challenge ideas. This is why I asked our guest Gill Hasson to join us. Every day, you have the opportunity to interact with people in different areas of your life; in public, at work and at home, with colleagues and clients, with friends and family. Your ability to exchange ideas and opinions with other people, understand their thoughts and feelings, their point of view and solve problems between you depends on how effectively you're able to communicate. But being understood, and understanding others is not always easy! Communication is a dynamic, complex process, influenced by all the complexities and differences in human motivation and behaviour. Communication: How to Connect with Anyone will help you connect with others, build friendships and develop better relationships with colleagues and clients, friends and family. Todays episode shares what we need to know to develop empathy and rapport with others, and feel confident about communicating with a diverse range of people.

Our guest's Business Model Canvas changed the way the world creates and plans new business models. It has been used by corporations and startups and consultants around the world and is taught in hundreds of universities. After years of researching how the world's best companies develop, test, and scale new business models, he has produced his definitive work. Todays book explains what every organization can learn from the business models of the world's most exciting companies. The book explains how companies such as Amazon, IKEA, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Logitech, have been able to create immensely successful businesses and disrupt entire industries. At the core of these successes are not just great products and services, but profitable, innovative business models--and the ability to improve existing business models while consistently launching new ones. "The Invincible Company" presents practical new tools for measuring, managing, and accelerating innovation, and strategies for reducing risk when launching new business models. Serving as a blueprint for your growth strategy, The Invincible Company explains how to constantly stay ahead of your competition. We welcome friend of the Innovation Show and author of The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your Organization with Inspiration From the World's Best Business Models, Alex Osterwalder

Review us on iTunes, it helps grow the show. Today's guest teaches business leaders about the importance of relationship building in the digital age. He argues that in spite of (and because of) the advances in tech, we've become a less connected society. We have dramatically evolved away from face-to-face communication, and the skill of building rapport is evaporating. This means that customer personalisation and relationships are more important now than ever--and they will be the key to success for businesses moving forward. As he aptly states, "Being able to build true sustainable relationships is the biggest competitive advantage in a world where automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are eliminating the human experience, which is what creates the emotional connections that build true customer loyalty." This book reminds readers of the importance of personal connections and shows them how to attain meaningful, lasting relationships with their customers. We welcome John R. DiJulius, the author of The Relationship Economy: Building Stronger Customer Connections in the Digital Age More about John here: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/bio-john-dijulius/

Give Us A Review On iTunes Companies spend millions on legal compliance training and initiatives to eliminate workplace drama and the resulting low morale and lawsuits, but don't always get the results they want. Most organisations understand that simply checking legal compliance boxes around sexual harassment, bias, etc. isn't enough, but are at a loss on how to implement solutions, especially in today's post-#MeToo world. Our guest today is an attorney, HR expert, trainer, and former state regulator, who has conducted over 1,200 workplace investigations. In her book, she explains the secret to avoiding all forms of drama, legal exposure, and low morale: A healthy workplace culture. She combines the lessons learned from 25 years of professional experience with robust data from behavioural science research to debunk common myths, including the belief that a focus on legal compliance leads to a healthy workplace culture. (In fact, it increases the likelihood of getting sued). More about Patti here: https://persuasionpoint.com/the-drama-free-work/

Complex problem solving is the core skill for 21st Century Teams Complex problem solving is at the very top of the list of essential skills for career progression in the modern world. But how problem solving is taught in our schools, universities, businesses and organisations comes up short. Our guest today shares the seven-step systematic approach to creative problem solving developed in top consulting firms that will work in any field or industry, turning you into a highly sought-after bulletproof problem solver who can tackle challenges that others balk at. If you want to become a better problem solver, you can do so with only a modest amount of structure and numeric ability. Individuals make decisions that have lifetime consequences—such as career choice, where to live, their savings plan, or elective surgery—often without due consideration. These are among the examples you walk us through in the book to illustrate the value of a structured process to improve your prospects of better outcomes in your own life. More about Charles here: https://bulletproofproblemsolving.com/

This episode is about the creation of a new global currency. Unlike traditional currencies, such as the dollar, yen, or euro, this currency strives to be a risk-free store of value. And unlike bitcoin, which tethers to a finite number of units, this store of value tethers to zero risk. As a result, it is constrained not by an arbitrary number of units, but by market forces of supply and demand. The foundational ideas are not new and not unique. A privately controlled, market-based currency striving for zero risk is arguably the holy grail of multiple influential thinkers and Nobel laureates and the basis for many monetary and investment theories. What is new is that advancements in capital markets, when combined with new technologies, make it possible for society to facilitate old ideas in new ways. Money Without Boundaries is about bringing some of the greatest economic theories to reality. More about Tom here: https://moneywithoutboundaries.com/

Your job is at risk-if not now, then soon. We are on the leading edge of a Smart Machine Age led by artificial intelligence that will be as transformative for us as the Industrial Revolution was for our ancestors. Smart machines will take over millions of jobs in manufacturing, office work, the service sector, the professions, you name it. Not only can they know more data and analyse it faster than any mere human, but smart machines are free of the emotional, psychological, and cultural baggage that so often mars human thinking. So we can't beat 'em and we can't join 'em. To stay relevant, we have to play a different game. Our guest offers us that game plan. We need to excel at critical, creative, and innovative thinking and at genuinely engaging with others--things machines can't do well. The key is to change our definition of what it means to be smart. Our guest calls it being NewSmart. The crucial mindset underlying NewSmart is humility -not self-effacement but an accurate self-appraisal: acknowledging you can't have all the answers, remaining open to new ideas, and committing yourself to lifelong learning. The key to success in this new era is not to be more like the machines but to excel at the best of what makes us human. We welcome the author of Humility Is the New Smart, Rethinking Human Excellence In the Smart Machine Age, Ed Hess

Most of us do not see ourselves as biased towards people of different races or genders. And yet in virtually every area of modern life disparities remain. Even in organisations, which have, for the most part, embraced the idea of diversity as a mainstream idea, but patterns of disparity remain rampant. Why is this? Breakthroughs in the cognitive and neurosciences give some idea why our results seem inconsistent with our intentions. Bias is natural to the human mind, a survival mechanism that is fundamental to our identity. And overwhelmingly it is unconscious. Incorporating anecdotes from today's headlines alongside case studies from over 30 years as a nationally prominent diversity consultant, our guest today helps us understand how unconscious bias impacts our day-to-day lives and particularly our daily work lives. And he answers the question: "Is there anything we can do about it?" For those of us seeking to understand and confront their own biases to human resource professionals and business leaders determined to create more bias-conscious organisations in the belief that productivity, personal happiness, and social growth are possible if we first understand the widespread and powerful nature of the biases we don't realise we have. The Clark Doll Experiments: https://youtu.be/PZryE2bqwdk More about Howard here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardjross/