Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stephen C. Lundin is a writer and filmmaker with a background in business, management, and education. His bestselling book FISH! has appeared continuously on the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller lists, and has been published in 34 languages.

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“Learn the art of innovation and reveal your true potential with Steve Lundin’s CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There

What's the solution to “business as usual?” The curiosity of a cat!

Stephen Lundin, the bestselling co-author of FISH!, unveils the next big trend in business--innovation as a tool of personal success.

CATS is full of simple yet profound information and anecdotes that can be used to spark the curiosity and creativity within every employee and, thus, inspire innovative approaches to ordinary situations. You'll learn how to identify the major obstacles to innovative thought and live the nine “lives” of innovation, which include:

• FOCUS--tune out the distracting “noises” of everyday life
• PREPAREDNESS--be ready to spring when you least expect it
• PERSPECTIVE--break from the tired old way of looking at things
• INTELLECTUAL PROVOCATION--everything is fascinating . . . if you know where to look

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CATS

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

Fundamentally, We Are the Source of All Innovation

This is a book about innovation. I'll pause while you cover that yawn. Don't be embarrassed, I understand. Okay? Let me start again. This is a book about innovation, but the perspective of the book is personal, and the potential results are both personal and organizational. Is there a little more energy in that?

This is about you, a you that has the potential to be more productive than the present you. This is about a you that can have more vitality at work and greater satisfaction with life. Do I have your full attention now? You see, personal innovation produces the natural energy of life. And natural energy is what gives life its juice. It makes you want to howl.

If you wish to create a vital life, one that is meaningful and deeply satisfying, innovation can help you to get there. Just think about the parts of your life that give you the greatest sense of satisfaction right now. It is often the everyday tasks that provide opportunities for us to innovate. Think about the parts of your life that have energy for you. Aren't they the places where you are engaged in the act of creation? Use the list below to stimulate your memory.

* Organizing a successful fund-raiser for charity

* Mentoring another person and finding ways to help him or her grow

* Finding a faster way to wash the dishes

* Responding to the uniqueness in another

* Doing something routine in a new way

* Trying a new route to work and discovering a new favorite restaurant

* Establishing a family night in a way that engages all ages

* Writing a book, article, or important e-mail in a way that is authentic and original

* Creating a poem, song, or dynamite ditty in the car

* Building a sand castle with your grandchildren

* Building a sand castle without your grandchildren

* Finding a novel way to say "I love you"

* Starting a business

* Starting another business

* Securing a big order

* Having an idea in the shower that solves a problem

* Rearranging the furniture in the family room

* Reinventing your work life

* Building a second revenue stream

* Developing your own form of retirement

* Building on your key values to create your life

* Interacting with a customer in a novel way

* Finding a calm and effective way to get a teenager to clean his or her room

* Finding a compassionate way to get grandpa to stop driving the car

These are all examples of everyday innovation. Not included on the list are momentous discoveries such as finding the cure for ulcers, identifying a new method for locating black holes in space, or earning a Nobel Prize for the development of a new paradigm in economics. These achievements also would have a rightful place on the list, but their inclusion would detract from the key point. Innovation is at the heart of a life well lived. Massive achievement might detract from the main theme, but it in no way would be outside the scope of the Nine Lives. All innovation, big or small, relies on the same basic set of principles, and those principles are all personal. In this book they are organized as the Nine Lives of Innovation.

Life is a great and exciting adventure. It is the little victories that we experience from these everyday innovations that add up to a fulfilling existence. Innovation reminds us that life, authentically lived, is always a precious and amazing journey. Do you have the courage to claim your happiness? You might start by becoming more innovative.

Did Curiosity Really Kill the Cat?

Curiosity is a trait celebrated in cats. Curiosity is also an ingredient in innovation. Cats seem to be attracted to nooks and crannies, but to attribute curiosity exclusively to them is not fair to their human counterparts. Could you imagine innovation without a human being who said, "I wonder what would happen if ...?"

It is said that curiosity killed the cat. But have you ever seen one die of curiosity? This reminds me of a recent story about a cat that was lodged in the wall of a bar. For two days, men and women worked to release this cat, and ultimately, they were successful. It may have been curiosity that put the cat in this predicament. It may have been hunger or stupidity. One thing is sure: the cat has a real tale to tell his grandchildren when they make their annual trip to the dump. My experience after talking to thousands of potential CATS is that in those few instances when someone thinks he has an example of curiosity killing a cat it turns out to have been a car or a dog, not curiosity.

I believe that old tale about cats and curiosity is designed to keep you in your place, to throttle one of your greatest gifts—your curiosity.

It is also said that a cat has nine lives—a phrase that comes closer to matching my experience with cats. This old saying is the source of the title of this book—The Nine Lives of Innovation. It provides structure to a rather diverse set of ingredients that make up innovation.

By accessing the potential of any one of the Nine Lives, we boost our personal ability to innovate. And once we implement any one of the Lives, we can proudly call our self a CAT.

Chapter Two

The Nine Lives approach to innovation recognizes that there are four basic challenges to innovation and outlines nine ways, called lives, to meet these challenges. The focus is on the individual. Personal innovation can occur in everyday things and in major initiatives that are part of a large-scale corporate innovation strategy. The same principles apply to both at the individual level.

The Four Basic Challenges to Innovation

The four challenges represent universal impediments to innovation, and the Nine Lives represent building blocks from which to fashion strategies to overcome the four challenges. Harnessing any one of the lives will move you in the direction of innovation, and the more you harness, the more potent your move will be. Each of the challenges will be immediately recognizable, and each of the lives can be learned. These ideas are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive. They are simply my personal assessment of what is most important based on my life experience, which includes my reading of the literature. Another way of saying this is that the Nine Lives of Innovation is my theory as to what is most important to innovation at the fundamental human level.

The four challenges to innovation are not negotiable. They are a part of what it means to be human, so ignoring them is not an option. Each requires a powerful antidote once you have developed a clear understanding of its source of power. The four basic challenges that must be overcome in order to enhance your innovation quotient are:

1. Distractions. The doubts and fears accumulated over a lifetime are there, in part, to keep us safe and secure. They are also a major distraction to those who would innovate. They can be a straightjacket preventing innovation. And the "noise" created by the clutter of life can drown out our thoughts and remove all the spaciousness so important to innovation.

2. Normal. In order to survive as human beings, we are endowed with the ability to be normal. This means that we develop standard ways...