The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization - Hardcover

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TOM KELLEY is a partner at IDEO, and the author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation and Creative Confidence.

JONATHAN LITTMAN is the author of several books on business, crime, and sport. He is the founder of Snowball Narrative and SmartUp.life, and was previously a contributing editor at Playboy.

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"We've all been there. The pivotal meeting where you push forward a new idea or proposal you're passionate about. A fast-paced discussion leads to an upwelling of support that seems about to reach critical mass. And then, in one disastrous moment, your hopes are dashed when someone weighs in with those fateful words: '"Let me just play Devil's Advocate for a minute . . .'
"What's truly astonishing is how much punch is packed into that simple nine-word phrase. In fact, the Devil's Advocate may be the biggest innovation killer in America today . . .
"Why should you care? And why do we at IDEO believe this problem is so important? Because innovation is the lifeblood of all organizations . . . Today, companies are viewed less for their current offerings than for their ability to change and adapt and dream up something new. Whether you sell consumer electronics or financial services, the frequency with which you must innovate and replenish your offerings is rapidly increasing.
""The Ten Faces of Innovation is a book about innovation with a human face. It's about the individuals and teams that fuel innovation inside great organizations. Because all great movements are ultimately human-powered, the innovation personas described in this book each bring its own lever, its own tools, its own skills, its own point of view. And when someone combines energy and intelligence with the right lever, they can generate a remarkably powerful force. Together you can do extraordinary things"
-from "The Ten Faces of Innovation

The author of the bestselling "The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout anorganization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity.
The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation, Kelley claims.
Over the years, IDEO has developed ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the A"nthropologist--the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the" Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the" Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.
Filled with engaging stories of how Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Safeway and the Mayo Clinic have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

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We’ve all been there. The pivotal meeting where you push forward a new idea or proposal you’re passionate about. A fast-paced discussion leads to an upwelling of support that seems about to reach critical mass. And then, in one disastrous moment, your hopes are dashed when someone weighs in with those fateful words: “Let me just play Devil’s Advocate for a minute . . .”

Having invoked the awesome protective power of that seemingly innocuous phrase, the speaker now feels entirely free to take potshots at your idea, and does so with complete impunity. Because they’re not really your harshest critic. They are essentially saying, “The Devil made me do it.” They’re removing themselves from the equation and side­stepping individual responsibility for the verbal attack. But before they’re done, they’ve torched your fledgling concept.

The Devil’s Advocate gambit is extraordinary but certainly not uncommon, since it strikes so regularly in the project rooms and board­rooms of corporate America. What’s truly astonishing is how much punch is packed into that simple phrase. In fact, the Devil’s Advocate may be the biggest innovation killer in America today. What makes this negative persona so dangerous is that it is such a subtle threat. Every day, thousands of great new ideas, concepts, and plans are nipped in the bud by Devil’s Advocates.

Why is this persona so damning? Because the Devil’s Advocate encourages idea-wreckers to assume the most negative possible per­spective, one that sees only the downside, the problems, the disasters-­in-waiting. Once those floodgates open, they can drown a new initia­tive in negativity.

Why should you care? And why do I believe this problem is so important? Because innovation is the lifeblood of all organizations, and the Devil’s Advocate is toxic to your cause. This is no trivial matter. There is no longer any serious debate about the primacy of innovation to the health and future strength of a corporation. Even the staid British publication The Economist recently claimed, “Innovation is now recognized as the single most important ingredient in any modern economy.”

And what The Economist said about nations is equally true about organizations. In the four years since The Art of Innovation, my first book about our practices at IDEO, I have worked with clients from Singapore to San Francisco to São Paulo. At the same time, the scope of our work has expanded to include industries as far-flung as health care services, retailing, transportation, financial services, con­sumer packaged goods, and food and beverage. I have witnessed first­hand how innovation has become recognized as a pivotal management tool across virtually all industries and market segments. And while we at IDEO used to spend the majority of our time in the world of product-based innovation, we have more recently come around to seeing innovation as a tool for transforming the entire culture of organizations. Sure, a great product can be one important element in the formula for business success, but companies that want to succeed in today’s competitive environment need ­much more. They need innovation at every point of the compass, in all aspects of the business and among every team member. Building an environment fully engaged in positive change, and a culture rich in creativity and renewal, means creating a company with 360 degrees of innovation. And companies that want to succeed at innovation will need new insights. New viewpoints. And new roles.

There is growing recognition that fostering a culture of innovation is critical to success, as important as mapping out competitive strate­gies or maintaining good margins. A recent Boston Consulting Group survey covering nearly fifty countries and all sorts of businesses reported that nine out of ten senior executives believe generating growth through innovation is essential for success in their industry. Where business magazines once ranked companies primarily by sales, growth, and profit, publications are now ranking corporations on their innovation track record. And while acquisitions can yield synergy, and reengineering can streamline operations, a culture of innovation may be the ultimate fuel for long-term growth and brand development. Having optimized operations and finances, many companies are now recognizing that growth through innovation is their best strategy to compete in a world marketplace in which some of the players may have lower-cost resources. As my friend Tom Peters would say, you can’t shrink your way to greatness. One way to look at the current pressure-cooker of international business is as a fierce competition, where you win through innovation or lose the game. Today, com­panies are valued less for their current offerings than for their ability to change and adapt and dream up something new. Whether you sell consumer electronics or financial services, the frequency with which you must innovate and replenish your offerings is rapidly increasing.

Serial Innovation Success
As I was completing this book, Google, already the world’s leading search engine, was innovating at a breakneck pace, rolling out a new service capability or acquisition practically every month–everything from searching rare books in the world’s greatest libraries to viewing aerial photographs of any location or skimming through transcripts of last night’s TV shows. Until Google introduced Desktop Search, I had thought of it only as a firm to help me search the Web. Now they’ve convinced me I’ll soon be using a search engine to wade through all my own data as well.

Google, of course, is not alone in such rapid-fire innovation. Plenty
of companies in widely divergent industries have distinguished them­
selves as serial innovators. Here are a few favorites that come to mind:

·W. L. Gore & Associates, most famous for its breathable Gore-Tex fabrics, not only manufactures a tremendous breadth of prod-ucts–everything from guitar strings to artificial blood vessels– it also distinguishes itself through its egalitarian, team-based organization. Eschewing bosses and job descriptions, Gore cre­ates idea-friendly environments that work to generate a contin­ual stream of clever innovations. Gore was recently cited as “the most innovative company in America,” and is ranked among the best places to work in Germany, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

·The Gillette Company grabbed enormous market share over the years with a series of newer-and-better shaving systems like the Sensor and Mach III razors. Far from resting on its laurels, the firm recently poured its considerable resources into an even more ambitious project, the motorized M3Power razor. Along the way, Gillette has developed a culture of continuous innova­tion to stay a step ahead of its competitors.

·The unique German retailer Tchibo started in the 1950s as a sim­ple coffee shop, but has transcended its roots to become an inter­national merchandizing sensation. Tchibo is like Starbucks meets Brookstone, combining a stand-up café with an eclectic collec­tion of ever-changing products. Part of its success formula is “A new experience every week,” with a completely new line of inventory (everything from bicycles to lingerie) arriving and selling in huge quantities for just seven days. Tchibo reports, for example, that the week their stores featured telescopes they sold more telescopes in seven days than had been sold the pre­vious year in all of Germany. The company continues to intro­duce a completely new merchandizing theme...