***BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS - FINALIST 2021***
Be Less Zombie distils 10 years of field research amongst some of the world's leading innovators into a pragmatic, actionable toolkit. Designed for managers who need more remarkable innovation with repeatable, scalable approaches, it shows readers how to:
- De-risk bolder, more profitable innovation
- Make innovation a predictable and measurable capability
- Equip managers with essential tools and skills for leading innovation and transformation
- Help teams find new capacity and energy to deliver today's business whilst discovering tomorrow's
Turner’s research also delves beyond the business world. He brings insights from a wide range of unexpected, expert sources including a guerrilla negotiator, a cage-fighter trainer, an X-Factor coach, a senior emergency room doctor, and a fashion designer.
His 'Turn It On' innovation framework gives leaders and managers tools, processes and pathways to make bolder and more profitable innovation an inevitability, not an anomaly.
This book is for:
- CEOs who need a better, more continuous pipeline of profitable innovation
- Senior leaders who need more ideas, collaboration and energy across their divisions
- Finance executives who want to resource innovation and yet measure it effectively
- Strategy, change and transformation managers charged with delivering greater organisational agility and differentiation
- HR executives who are trying to resource and equip leaders and employees with innovation capabilities
- Organisational development managers tasked with shaping more agile and innovative ways of working
- Team leaders who need to help their people find new capacity and energy to deliver bolder ideas
- Individual employees who want their managers to stop blocking their best ideas
Elvin Turner is an award-winning innovation advisor to global corporations, government bodies, not-for-profit organisations, and start-ups around the world. He is also an associate professor at several business schools. A practical guide to curating a culture of innovation and navigating against the headwinds of organizational status quo."
Simon Collins, Senior Vice President, Mastercard
"Most leaders struggle to get the innovation performance they need. This is the practical playbook they've been waiting for."
Andy Billings, Vice President Profitable Creativity, Electronic Arts
Table of Contents
About the Author xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction: Unicorns vs Zombies xix
Part One Innovation Strategy For Pragmatists 1
Innovation is an argument inside most companies -frail, new ideas versus the overwhelming power of the status quo. An innovation strategy helps create an environment where new ideas can emerge and thrive. It is the single-most important way to build and sustain innovation performance. And it doesn’t have to be difficult.
1 The Power of Strategic Intentionality 3
2 The Do-Or-Die Issue of Innovation Performance 8
3 Money Talks 12
4 The Innovation that Customers Buy 15
5 HowMuch Innovation is Enough? 17
6 The Future is Coming Ready or Not 27
7 DetectingWeak Signals from the Future 29
8 Blurred Vision 38
9 What Does the Future Actually Mean? 41
10 The Future and Its Naysayers 47
11 Leading from the Future 49
12 Innovation Strategy: Turn It On 51
13 Quick-Start Innovation StrategyWorkshop 53
Part Two Turning on a Fast-Track Innovation Process 59
Great innovation rarely happens without a clear and effective process. This section shares the practical tools used by global innovation leaders that your team can begin using today.
14 Why Zombies Hate Innovation Process 61
15 Starting with Insight: The Innovation Particle 65
16 ‘Why’ MattersMoreThan ‘What’ with Customer Insight 72
17 Working with Customer ‘Progress’ Insights 81
18 Framing Great Opportunities 93
19 Catalytic Questions 100
20 Hot Love 109
21 Preparing for Greatness 111
22 Running a Creative Session 122
23 How to Choose the Right Ideas 126
24 The ‘Five-Day Brainstorm’ 134
25 Tracking Idea Progress 137
26 Overcoming the Execution Problem 140
27 Innovation Rocket Fuel 144
28 Innovation Trapdoors 149
29 If You Only Read One Chapter… 166
30 ShowMe theMoney? 191
31 Dead on Arrival 198
32 Your Great Idea Isn’t Enough 224
Part Three Building Your People’s Innovation Capabilities 235
Most organisations want more innovation but few equip their people to actually deliver it. This section provides practical strategies, roadmaps and case studies to help your people out-innovate your competitors.
33 Enabling Ingenuity 237
Part Four Time,Money and Talent: How to Resource Innovation 249
Business-as-usual makes little provision for bolder innovation.This section helps you rethink how resources are managed and allocated so that the future has a greater chance of showing up.
34 Who Does It and Who Pays for It? 251
Part Five Innovation Culture for Realists 267
Culture has been defined as ‘what is ordinary’. Yet most companies demand extraordinary innovation to emerge from their status quo set-ups. This section shows how to move beyond a one-size-fits-all culture to where bigger ideas can emerge and thrive on a repeatable basis.
35 Calibrating Culture to Outcome 269
36 BeMore Human 275
37 If Culture Feels tooWoolly, Switch to ‘Space’ 279
38 Bold Ideas aren’t Born on Stage 283
39 Next-Level Creative Culture 292
40 Innovation Fight Club 309
41 Driving with the Handbrake On 317
Part Six Leading an Innovation Reformation 325
Innovation is regularly cited as a top three priority amongst leaders, yet the vast majority of their training and experience is in business-as-usual management. This section provides practical tools for leaders who need to lead their organisations to a new level of innovation performance.
42 The Innovation LeadershipMandate 327
43 Innovation Never ‘Just Happens’ 329
44 Mapping the Leadership Territory 332
45 To Boldly Grow 339
46 It Takes a Leader 341
47 You are a User Experience 344
48 Confronting Personal Relevance 352
49 Enduring the Bumps 356
Part Seven Turn It On, Turn It Up 359
You’ve read the book and are ready to start. But where do you begin? What does ‘Day One’ look like? This section provides some pragmatic starting points to turn on and turn up your innovation performance.
50 Turning It On 361
Index 369
