Creative People Must Be Stopped: 6 Ways We Kill Innovation

236 Pages·2011·3.4 MB·English

by  David A Owens

Contents
Introduction: Creative People Must Be Stopped!
Chapter 1: The Context of Innovation: Why Everyone Wants
Innovation but No One Wants to Change
Why Does Innovation Fail?
How to Use This Book
Summary
Chapter 2: Why Most of Us Are More Creative Than We Think:
Individual Innovation Constraints
Are Innovators Born or Made?
Perception Constraints: Looking Without Seeing
Overcoming Perception Constraints
Intellection Constraints: Old Thought Patterns for New
Problems
Overcoming Intellection Constraints
Expression Constraints: Difficulty Articulating Your
Ideas
Overcoming Expression Constraints
Putting the Framework to Work: Individual Constraints
Summary
Chapter Reflection: Individual Constraints
Chapter 3: Why a Brainstorm Meeting Can Be Worse Than No
Meeting at All: Innovation Constraints in Groups
Two Brains Are Better Than One—Except When They
Aren’t
Emotion Constraints: Ego and Social Status
Overcoming Emotion Constraints
Culture Constraints: Cohesion and Meaning
Overcoming Culture Constraints
Environment Constraints: Comfort Versus
Collaboration
Overcoming Environment Constraints
Process Constraints: Directing Members’ Behavior
Overcoming Process Constraints
Putting the Framework to Work: Group Constraints
Summary
Chapter Reflection: Group Constraints
Chapter 4: Why You’ll Never Be a Prophet in Your Hometown:
Organizational Innovation Constraints
Do “Innovation” and “Organization” Belong in the
Same Sentence?
Strategy Constraints: Knowing the Intent
Overcoming Strategy Constraints
Structural Constraints: Efficiency and Control
Overcoming Structural Constraints
Resource Constraints: Capital and Capabilities
Overcoming Resource Constraints
Putting the Framework to Work: Organizational
Constraints
Summary
Chapter Reflection: Organizational Constraints
Chapter 5: If It’s Such a Great Idea, Why Isn’t Our Competitor
Doing It? Industry Innovation Constraints
Driving Competition with Innovation or Innovation
with Competition?
Competition Constraints: Innovation as a Last Resort
Overcoming Competition Constraints
Supplier Constraints: No Organization Is an Island
Overcoming Supplier Constraints
Market Constraints: Everybody Wants It Cheaper—and
Faster and Better
Overcoming Market Constraints
Putting the Framework to Work: Industry Constraints
Summary
Chapter Reflection: Industry Constraints
Chapter 6: Why My Innovation Means You Have to Change:
Societal Innovation Constraints
Can We Choose to Change Society?
Values and Identity Constraints: I Like Who I Am
Overcoming Values and Identity Constraints
Social Control Constraints: Self-Protection and
Regulating Behavior
Overcoming Social Control Constraints
History Constraints: The Past Isn’t Dead—It Isn’t
Even Past
Overcoming History Constraints
Putting the Framework to Work: Societal Constraints
Summary
Chapter Reflection: Societal Constraints
Chapter 7: How to Take a Really Hard Problem and Make It
Completely Impossible: Technological Innovation Constraints
What’s Hard About Manipulating Matter, Time, and
Space
Physical Constraints: Knowing What You Know (and
What You Don’t)
Overcoming Physical Constraints
Time Constraints: Having Time and Making Time
Overcoming Time Constraints
Natural Environment Constraints: Altering Landscapes
Putting the Framework to Work: Technological
Constraints
Using the Results
Summary
Chapter Reflection: Technological Constraints
Chapter 8: When Failure Is Not an Option: Leading an
Innovation Strategy
Show Me the Money: Constraints on the Adoption of
Innovations
Managing or Leading Innovation?
The Innovative Organization
Creative People Must Be Stopped!
Appendix A: Using the Assessment Results
Appendix B: Innovation Team Contract Guidelines
Appendix C: An Innovation Bookshelf
References
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
Praise for Creative People Must Be Stopped
“Read Creative People Must Be Stopped only if you are serious about
making stuff, and making stuff happen. This is a survival guide for
navigating a world that is dangerous for good ideas. And it is required
reading for the creative people who love them!”
—Peter Durand, founder, The Center for Graphic Facilitation, and creative
director, Alphachimp Studio Inc.
“This is no rarefied academic treatment on innovation as an abstract
ideal, but a nuts-and-bolts handbook to dissecting our thought patterns
about innovation. Owens dispels the myth that innovation is a binary trait
that either exists or does not in a given product, process, or business model.
Creative People Must Be Stopped addresses the myriad ways that novel
ideas can fail in the marketplace. Working through a combination of
thought experiments and real-world examples, the book demonstrates how
failures in understanding the context for innovation can prove every bit as
deadly to progress as failures of imagination.”
—Mark Rowan, president, Griffin Technology Inc., maker of iPod, iPhone, and
iPad accessories
“Creative People Must Be Stopped is among the best books ever written
about human imagination in the workplace. David Owens is a master
innovator, having practiced his craft as a product designer, researcher,
teacher, creativity coach, and executive. The breadth and depth of his
experience fills every page of this little gem, which is chock-full of
hundreds of big and little steps that you can take right now to do more
creative work and to lead more innovative teams and organizations.”
—Robert Sutton, professor, Stanford University, and author of the New York
Times bestseller Good Boss, Bad Boss

Copyright © 2012 by David A. Owens. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Owens, David A.
Creative people must be stopped: six ways we kill innovation (without even
trying) / David A. Owens.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-00290-2 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-12900-5 (ebk); ISBN
978-1-118-12901-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-12902-9 (ebk)
1. Creative ability in business. 2. Organizational change. I. Title.
HD53.O94 2012
658.4’063—dc23 2011032504
This book is dedicated to my lovely ladies, Jennifer, Charlotte, and Adelaide