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Innovation as Usual: How to Help Your People Bring Great Ideas to Life
Turn team members into innovators
Most organizations approach innovation as if it were a sideline activity. Every so often employees are sent to “Brainstorm Island”: an off-site replete with trendy lectures, creative workshops, and overenthusiastic facilitators. But once they return, it’s back to business as usual.
Innovation experts Paddy Miller and Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg suggest a better approach. They recommend that leaders at all levels become “innovation architects,” creating an ecosystem in which people engage in key innovation behaviors as part of their daily work.
In short, this book is about getting to a state of “innovation as usual,” where regular employees—in jobs like finance, marketing, sales, or operations—make innovation happen in a way that’s both systemic and sustainable.
Instead of organizing brainstorming sessions, idea jams, and off-sites that rarely result in success, leaders should guide their people in what the authors call the “5 + 1 keystone behaviors” of focus, connect, tweak, select, stealthstorm, (and the + 1)
• Focus beats freedom : Direct people to look only for ideas that matter to the business
• Insight comes from the outside : Urge people to connect to new worlds
• First ideas are flawed : Challenge people to tweak and reframe their initial ideas
• Most ideas are bad ideas : Guide people to select the best ideas and discard the rest
• Stealthstorming rules : Help people navigate the politics of innovation
• Creativity is a choice : Motivate everyone to persist in the five keystone behaviors
Using examples from a wide range of companies such as Pfizer, Index Ventures, Lonza, Go Travel, Prehype, DSM, and others, Innovation as Usual lights the way toward embedding creativity in the DNA of the workplace.
So cancel that off-site. Instead, read Innovation as Usual —and put innovation at the core of your business.
Most organizations approach innovation as if it were a sideline activity. Every so often employees are sent to “Brainstorm Island”: an off-site replete with trendy lectures, creative workshops, and overenthusiastic facilitators. But once they return, it’s back to business as usual.
Innovation experts Paddy Miller and Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg suggest a better approach. They recommend that leaders at all levels become “innovation architects,” creating an ecosystem in which people engage in key innovation behaviors as part of their daily work.
In short, this book is about getting to a state of “innovation as usual,” where regular employees—in jobs like finance, marketing, sales, or operations—make innovation happen in a way that’s both systemic and sustainable.
Instead of organizing brainstorming sessions, idea jams, and off-sites that rarely result in success, leaders should guide their people in what the authors call the “5 + 1 keystone behaviors” of focus, connect, tweak, select, stealthstorm, (and the + 1)
• Focus beats freedom : Direct people to look only for ideas that matter to the business
• Insight comes from the outside : Urge people to connect to new worlds
• First ideas are flawed : Challenge people to tweak and reframe their initial ideas
• Most ideas are bad ideas : Guide people to select the best ideas and discard the rest
• Stealthstorming rules : Help people navigate the politics of innovation
• Creativity is a choice : Motivate everyone to persist in the five keystone behaviors
Using examples from a wide range of companies such as Pfizer, Index Ventures, Lonza, Go Travel, Prehype, DSM, and others, Innovation as Usual lights the way toward embedding creativity in the DNA of the workplace.
So cancel that off-site. Instead, read Innovation as Usual —and put innovation at the core of your business.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 24, 2013
No doubt the best management book I've ever read. Although some of the examples, like Pfizer, are out of my league, the authors manage to draw out the essence which makes it both easier to understand and to implement.
This book doesn't try to sell you some new, wonderful magic drug - it's a compilation of what smart people have written, done and learned, served on a paper platter for you to read, before you - hopefully - change your organisation for the better.
Stop reading silly management literature telling you things like 'creating a workaholic atmosphere is bad' and other 'no shit, Sherlock'-lessons. Instead, dig into this hands on, hands down book.
This book doesn't try to sell you some new, wonderful magic drug - it's a compilation of what smart people have written, done and learned, served on a paper platter for you to read, before you - hopefully - change your organisation for the better.
Stop reading silly management literature telling you things like 'creating a workaholic atmosphere is bad' and other 'no shit, Sherlock'-lessons. Instead, dig into this hands on, hands down book.
September 4, 2017
"Real innovation doesn’t happen on the two-day retreat. It happens on the remaining 363 days." That's what this book is all about. Making innovate as daily routine. Monday Morning Problem is what also an intresting concept this books shares! Must read for all, as innovation is what make business survive. #BookRead
March 6, 2018
A la lecture des livres de management, j'ai souvent l'impression de lire Captain Obvious. Ce n'est pas le cas ici. En décrivant le rôle de "l'Innovation Architect", le livre présente des méthodes simples à mettre en place pour faire de l'innovation une constante de l'activité. Avec des exemple bien choisis et plusieurs liens au delà du livre, Innovation as Usual nous arme contre le "syndrome du lundi". Ne reste "plus" qu"à tester l'application en live. Je vais m'y atteler !
November 11, 2013
Creating a Sustainable Innovative Culture at Work
COMPANIES are always harping about the need to be innovative and how their teams need to be creative at all times. Many send their employees for training courses whereby some work while most others do not. Sustaining this innovative culture is another story altogether.
The authors attempt to provide companies with a better approach to innovation. What results is a book that does not merely focus on the importance of innovation but suggests that it is more important to achieve a sustainable state of innovation. This means that employees create a systematic and sustainable way of being innovative.
There are minimal graphs and images used throughout the book. Do not be afraid of the amount of text as the book is fairly easy to read. The way leaders use this book and implement the examples may not be as easy; but it is not that difficult either.
Take for example, within the chapter titled Tweak, the authors provided a list of questions for leaders to help their people reframe a problem. There are further tips provided on how to maximise using this list. Not so difficult after all, right? Each chapter has interesting ways to maximise the potential of innovation in the company, ultimately helping organisations create a sustainable innovative culture at the office. Maximising the case studies helps too.
Regardless of the size of the organisation, if your priority is to get your people to think or act more innovatively, consider picking up a copy of this book. Try your hand at using the techniques suggested. The authors are known for being innovation experts. With this book, they may have just taken it to the next level.
COMPANIES are always harping about the need to be innovative and how their teams need to be creative at all times. Many send their employees for training courses whereby some work while most others do not. Sustaining this innovative culture is another story altogether.
The authors attempt to provide companies with a better approach to innovation. What results is a book that does not merely focus on the importance of innovation but suggests that it is more important to achieve a sustainable state of innovation. This means that employees create a systematic and sustainable way of being innovative.
There are minimal graphs and images used throughout the book. Do not be afraid of the amount of text as the book is fairly easy to read. The way leaders use this book and implement the examples may not be as easy; but it is not that difficult either.
Take for example, within the chapter titled Tweak, the authors provided a list of questions for leaders to help their people reframe a problem. There are further tips provided on how to maximise using this list. Not so difficult after all, right? Each chapter has interesting ways to maximise the potential of innovation in the company, ultimately helping organisations create a sustainable innovative culture at the office. Maximising the case studies helps too.
Regardless of the size of the organisation, if your priority is to get your people to think or act more innovatively, consider picking up a copy of this book. Try your hand at using the techniques suggested. The authors are known for being innovation experts. With this book, they may have just taken it to the next level.
May 8, 2014
Great book about how incorporate innovation into you day by day work and also how to stimulate innovation as an "architect of innovation". With a 5+1 model, Paddy Miller explains that innovation is allowed by keeping focus, connect ideas, Tweak and challenging of initial ideas, select the best ideas, steal storm past the politics of innovation and persist! Very simple and direct ready. Excellent book.
Grande livro sobre como incorporar inovação dentro do seu trabalho no dia a dia e como estimular a inovação sendo um "arquiteto da inovação". Com uma abordagem 5+1, Paddy MIller explica que a inovação é obtida quando se mantém o foco, conecta idéias, altera e desafia as idéias iniciais, seleciona as melhores idéias e desconstríi os modelos tradicionais de inovação e persista! Livro simples e direto. Excelente.
Grande livro sobre como incorporar inovação dentro do seu trabalho no dia a dia e como estimular a inovação sendo um "arquiteto da inovação". Com uma abordagem 5+1, Paddy MIller explica que a inovação é obtida quando se mantém o foco, conecta idéias, altera e desafia as idéias iniciais, seleciona as melhores idéias e desconstríi os modelos tradicionais de inovação e persista! Livro simples e direto. Excelente.
May 17, 2014
No doubt the best management book I've ever read. Although some of the examples, like Pfizer, are out of my league, the authors manage to draw out the essence which makes it both easier to understand and to implement.
This book doesn't try to sell you some new, wonderful magic drug - it's a compilation of what smart people have written, done and learned, served on a paper platter for you to read, before you - hopefully - change your organisation for the better.
Stop reading silly management literature telling you things like 'creating a workaholic atmosphere is bad' and other 'no shit, Sherlock'-lessons. Instead, dig into this hands on, hands down book.
This book doesn't try to sell you some new, wonderful magic drug - it's a compilation of what smart people have written, done and learned, served on a paper platter for you to read, before you - hopefully - change your organisation for the better.
Stop reading silly management literature telling you things like 'creating a workaholic atmosphere is bad' and other 'no shit, Sherlock'-lessons. Instead, dig into this hands on, hands down book.
June 24, 2016
n-ésimo libro que trata de descubrir el hilo negro para convertir en innovadora una organización... y no me convence. Contiene un puñado de consejos útiles, pero la implementación del modelo de innovación que proponen me suena insuficiente y muy dependiente de los buenos deseos de los integrantes de la empresa que quiere innovar.
February 13, 2026
Great nitty gritty review of innovation for getting it done. Many innovation books are at the 30000 foot view, but not this one. Innovation as Usual is specifically written to the lower level managers who want to set meaningful change happen on their teams.
December 22, 2015
Innovation = Creating results by doing new things
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews