Work Babble

Book Review - Robert's Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival

By Robert Brands with Martin J. Kleinman

ISBN-13: 978-0470596999

Retail: $34.95

By Tony Deblauwe

Innovation lies at the forefront of company credibility and competitive advantage. Companies that can transform concepts into new ideas quickly and bring them to market effectively will win customers and sustain profitability. Just look at Apple. The road to building brand and market position through innovation is no easy task. Fortunately, Robert’s Rules of Innovation provides an in depth plan that describes how companies can be more innovative both in design mindset, as well as organization structure and talent management.

The best part of this book is the arrangement. Each chapter provides a concept overview which spells out the simple pneumonic around innovation as:

Inspire
No risk, o innovation
New product development process
Ownership

Value creation
Accountability
Training and coaching

Idea management

Observe and measure

Net result and reward

This mental checklist (Brands describes as the “Innovators Manifesto”) forms the foundation of how teams and individuals can approach both new product or service development as well as overhauling legacy processes. Accompanying each chapter are summary points, questions to think about, and a generous amount of graphs and images that tie each process together.

The hardest part of creating change in organizations is to align people to new thinking. That’s why I particularly enjoyed chapter 4 (Innovation Emancipation) and how Brands addresses Devil’s Advocates and Champions for Change.  Accountability means not only should people follow-through on commitments, but it also means creating an environment that involves diversity of thought, trust, and collaboration so that the innovative mindset can take root. Brands offers tools to build the accountable culture so that change agents can promote their passion and bring others on board.

The latter chapters offer invaluable process checklists and talking points for each stage of getting innovation to stick for both immediate goals and as a sustainable part of organizational ways of working. The book is a concise reference manual. When I was originally given the book for review a few months ago I found I had to stop, absorb, then read on. So much is packaged inside you’ll find yourself re-reading chapters especially if you are trying to foster innovation in your work environment.

Brands has clearly experienced the ups and downs of how companies and cultures react to innovating innovative practices and I’m amazed he was able to break it down into such simple to follow parts. I feel this is required reading for both large and small companies. You will take away plenty of tips and techniques that will impact your business and work environment.

For more information on Robert Brands, visit his website at www.innovationcoach.com. Below is a video of Brands talking about innovation.

Book Review – Make Work Great

Make Work Great: Supercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence – One Person at a Time

By Ed Muzio

ISBN: 0071622098

Retail: $24.95

Muzio dives headfirst in describing how anybody can influence change inside an organization. He outlines the thinking and the processes that build from person to mini-culture to consistency in establishing a new work environment. These days, workplaces need help coming to grips with new technologies and global demands that reek havoc on relationships and how leaders and managers interact with their people.

 

Muzio refers to his change concept as “Crystal Building” which is the idea that growth, a bit at a time, over time, can give you sustainable results that breaks through legacy, politics, and dysfunction. Muzio offers numerous tools and exercises to help you start the change journey regardless of your level in the organization. Muzio outlines the overtness of actions and clarity in relationships to form a single directive that drives agreements with others. Muzio also understands how certain environments are daunting and is practical about how one navigates the obstacles by role-modeling the desired behaviors and positively reinforcing new behaviors from others.

 

The book serves as a guide - a foundation - to practice and he supports the reading with videos at www.makeworkgreat.com that condense common challenges in digestible chunks. The beauty of Make Work Great is in its completeness. Muzio offers so many insights along the way you feel like you have him coaching you through every professional landmine that could harm your progress. Point is, put to practice, his models and approach work no matter who you are or the type or size of organization.

 

For more information about Ed Muzio and his book, Make Work Great, visit www.groupharmonics.com. Also read my Q&A with Ed about the book.

Book Review - Design of Business

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage

By Roger L. Martin

ISBN-13: 978-1422177808

Retail: $26.95

By Tony Deblauwe

The great divide between the practical operational demands of business and the more “loose” work of creativity and innovation comes together in the well structured, and logical flow of thought in Design of Business. The book builds it’s premise on the idea of thought stages that businesses go through – a knowledge funnel – that seeks to move the questions of what a business is trying to do down to an algorithm that has repeatable results. The challenge surrounds how individuals move back and forth in the funnel and keeping pace with a predictable structure, but always leaving room for the what could be.

The “camps” of thought are well defined by those who cling to the comfort zones of proven algorithms and process (reliability) and those who focus on visualizing what could be and are less worried about the trifles it takes to get there (validity). Martin outlines the cultural norms within organizations and the constraints they apply to bridge the Yin and Yang of design thinking whether its financial structures (what do we track and why), reward systems (can failure be the intent and therefore the reward?) and other day-to-day key operations that focus purely on rational elements and squeeze out any variance.

The overlap between analytical and intuitive thinking is where design thinking lives. Martin proves the existence of such a “happy medium” with Proctor and Gamble’s R&D approach which was an initiative that did things differently by using outside innovators to integrate in with existing design teams. It helped to shake things up, build a network of knowledge, and catapult earnings and new product designs.

Martin offers several methods to bring design thinking into organizations. Practically speaking, the techniques focus heavily on negotiation and clarifying potential outcomes that satisfy some of the reliability needs without crushing the validity orientation. As a guide to help cultures in organizations, Martin’s guidance emphasizes the need for proof in endeavors – both from the perspective of taking a risk on something uncomfortable, but also the room to make calculated failures that don’t completely disrupt the business. It’s the classic tolerance scheme for trial and error and Martin’s proposal helps this conversation.

While the battle of thinking and approach in the Design of Business may not be a new one, Martin weaves a well crafted narrative to how companies need to rethink their thinking and jumpstart legacies of the past so that organizations can ultimately leapfrog the competition. He backs his assertions with well researched interviews where the change has taken place. It’s worth distributing this book to a mix of analytics and visionaries and having a dialogue – it will be worth the debate that ensues.

Book Review - Anywhere

Anywhere: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business

By Emily Nagle Green

ISBN-13: 978-0071635141
Retail: $27.95

By Tony Deblauwe

Imagine a pill bottle that can track when medicine has been taken, or a vending machine that automatically sends a message to corporate only when it needs replenishing. These are just some examples that exist today in the evolving global technology world that connects us. Anywhere provides a glimpse into the near future where people and technology converge on a scale we’ve not seen before.

In fact, Nagle refers to it more as a revolution. Based on her years of research on several technologies including broadband and internet as CEO of the Yankee Group, she is an authority on the changing connectivity landscape and what it means to individuals and businesses. In fact, Nagle estimates the “Anywhere Network Economy” will generate $1 trillion in global revenues by 2012. This is the heart of what Nagle refers to as “ubiquitous connectivity” that connects us and the things we care about.

Nagle separates these changes into the key components of a common digital network, broadband demand, and wireless ubiquity. Each of these areas represent key puzzle pieces that allow the sharing of intelligent content instantly and rapid response as the norm. Her analysis and examples of how the process is already changing every facet of our lives is amazing. Every second breakthroughs propel people and systems forward in the evolving digital era. If you’re looking for a unique overview of how the technology you use today will impact you’re your everyday life, Always is a must read.

Check out the Yankee Group website for more information on Anywhere and join the discussion.

Book Review - Social Media at Work

Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance

By Arthur L. Jue, Jackie Alcalde Marr, and Mary Ellen Kassotakis

Retail: $29.95 USD
ISBN: 978-0470405437

Review by Tony Deblauwe

Many organizations are struggling to comprehend how to deal with the many changes impacting their workforce whether it is shifts in age demographics, talent building and retention, or leveraging Web 2.0 technologies amongst employees. Social Media at Work offers a comprehensive approach that shows business leaders and human resources professionals had to leverage the power of social media tools to build a truly connected global workforce.

The book offers several examples of companies on the cutting edge of social media technology and the impact it has on employee engagement and productivity. Companies such as Humana, who engineered a way to connect employee talent profiles through several online knowledge hubs. Or Nokia and the NewsHub program which helps connect employees at a personal and professional level with updates from their organizations and photo and video uploads using Nokia phones.

In chapter six, the authors offer a step-by-step guide of how companies can build rapid communication networks through social media in order to advance innovation, agile development, talent management, and ultimately, connection and collaboration. The examples are rich and represent ideal springboards of learning for anyone looking to move beyond the doubt or hype of social media tools and actually get them to work effectively as a regular part of any work environment.

Having real-time experience at Nokia when NewsHub and the various other hubs were formed, it was great to see how perfectly the authors captured the spirit of the project and what it meant in terms of employee engagement and morale. The Nokia network crossed all bounds and all jobs and brought together employees who would have never communicated otherwise.

I have had the pleasure of working closely with the authors to discuss in depth the power of well placed, well planned, and well guided, social media tools. They understand from their experience at Oracle that its not enough to simply encourage the use of blogs, wikis, Facebook, or other Web 2.0 tools, but to integrate these communication vehicles as part of a corporate culture built on relationships. Such a culture innovates, shares, and distributes information more rapidly and with a great sense of trust. If you’re looking for the means to decipher social media and make it work for your people and your organization, buy this book!

 

Join the conversation:

Website: www.socialmediaatwork-connection.com

 Twitter: www.twitter.com/socmedatwork