Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition

by Stephen M. Shapiro

What if almost everything you know about creating a culture of innovation is wrong? What if the way you are measuring innovation is choking it? What if your market research is asking all of the wrong questions?

It's time to innovate the way you innovate.

Stephen Shapiro is one of America's foremost innovation advisrrs, whose methods have helped organizations like Staples, GE, Telefónica, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and USAA. He teaches his clients that innovation isn't just about generating occasional new ideas; it's about staying consistently one step ahead of the competition.

Hire people you don't like. Bring in the right mix of people to unleash your team's full potential. Asking for ideas is a bad idea. Define challenges more clearly. If you ask better questions, you will get better answers. Don't think outside the box; find a better box. Instead of giving your employees a blank slate, provide them with well-defined parameters that will increase their creative output. Failure is always an option. Looking at innovation as a series of experiments allows you to redefine failure and learn from your results.Shapiro shows that nonstop innovation is attainable and vital to building a high-performing team, improving the bottom line, and staying ahead of the pack.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 2011

Reviews

[Paul Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this during the 10 minutes each morning as my computer booted up. There were many good ideas in this book, as well as some boring process type stuff, but you probably need some of that process to make innovation happen in large organizations. I will hold on to this book as a reference.

[Kevin Eikenberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about creativity and innovation. And this is a book about organizational change. It is mostly about examining sacred cows (i.e. best practices) and recognizing that perhaps (in some cases) the best practice made sense in the past or on the surface.

But on the way to best practice status, people forgot or didn’t notice the unintended consequences.

- See more at: http://blog.kevineikenberry.com/leade...

[Joana Botelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

No livro As melhores ideias são estúpidas o autor defende que é necessário inovar de forma diferente, com maior eficácia. Só através da inovação permanente é possível sobreviver num mercado tão competitivo e em constante mutação, tendo que desempenhar um papel fundamental tanto no marketing, como nas vendas, como na gestão.
Leia tudo em http://blogbuythebook.wordpress.com/2...

[Mark Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written book explaining different methods and insights how you - and your organization - can become better at innovation. I'll be buying more copies to share with leaders I know.

[Bruno Rio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very easy read with some sharp and useful ideas on innovation processes.

[Tacoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plenty of good ideas in here that can help someone compete in any business, as long as you're ready to think about how to improve. I liked the bite-sized tip "chapters". It was enough of any introduction to the idea that it got the creative juices flowing.

[Angela Champ · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are working at being more innovation in our organization, and this book gives lots of great ideas on how to become more so. An easy and practical read.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Amazon lovefest reviews for this book (which I did not check until adter I read it) would have been misleading if one bought into them, but they were too over the top to be taken seriously. I wanted to read this because I am not too fond of the buzz phrase "best practices", but the title was deceptive.

Shapiro offers up 40 "tips" (note, not "practices") for corporate innovation. He should have stopped at 20...and even that would have been half again too many...for the last 20 were mostly gimmicks. "Amazing Race"? "American Idol"? "The Apprentice"? Please. Skip the pop "culture" and condense the book into something of more value.

Two stars for an okay effort - though to be fair, I did mark a few phrases in the book. Nothing new, but good reminders of things already known.

[Silas White · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wouldn't have bought this book individually, but it came as part of a package so I thought I may as well read it. It's mostly about packaging: a provocative title, and chapters as short accessible "tips" with gimmicky titles. A couple concepts sparked some further thinking, but were still reminders more than anything new. For such a short book, lots of repetition, just repackaged under a different tip/gimmick each time -- and because of this repackaging strategy, all the ideas also seemed rather compartmentalized and disparate rather than cohesively supporting an ongoing theme.

[Megan]

I chose this book mostly because it had the word "stupid" in the title.
Also because I didn't understand the premise behind it - why would a best practice not actually be the best way to do something?
As it turns out, business is different from education. In education, best practices obviate the constant reinvention of the wheel; instead, getting ahead in business depends on NOT doing what everyone else does. By the time a tactic becomes an industry best practice, it is too late for you to employ that tactic.

[Angie Dianetti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good stuff, but a lot of things seemed a stretch. Really it's about innovating in a large organization not best practices.

[Janani · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first: 799 for this book? Seriously? Overpriced.
Secondly, a lot of this stuff was based on basic management textbooks.

[Brenten Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

RATING 3.5 STARS

[NJ Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains useful advice on running a company.