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The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking
Ever wonder where big, breakthrough ideas come from? How do innovators manage to spot the opportunities for industry revolution that everyone else seems to miss?
Contrary to popular belief, innovation is not some mystical art that’s forbidden to mere mortals. The Four Lenses of Innovation thoroughly debunks this pervasive myth by delivering what we’ve long been hoping the news that innovation is systematic, it’s methodical, and we can all achieve it.
By asking how the world’s top innovators—Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and many others—came up with their game-changing ideas, bestselling author Rowan Gibson identifies four key business perspectives that will enable you to discover groundbreaking opportunities for innovation and
Challenging Orthodoxies—What if the dominant conventions in your field, market, or industry are outdated, unnecessary, or just plain wrong? Harnessing Trends—Where are the shifts and discontinuities that will, now and in the future, provide the energy you need for a major leap forward? Leveraging Resources—How can you arrange existing skills and assets into new combinations that add up to more than the sum of their parts? Understanding Needs—What are the unmet needs and frustrations that everyone else is simply ignoring? Other books promise the keys to innovation—this one delivers them. With a unique full-color design, thought-provoking examples, and features like the 8-Step Model for Building a Breakthrough, The Four Lenses of Innovation will teach you how to reverse-engineer creative genius and make radical business innovation an everyday reality inside your organization.
“Rowan Gibson has done a superb job of ‘unpacking’ what it takes to innovate.”—Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
“Can you develop an innovative mind? Yes, you can. And this book is the manual.”—John and Doris Naisbitt, authors of China’s Megatrends and The Global Game Change
“An excellent piece of work for practitioners and organizations who seek to have innovation as part of their DNA.”—Camille Mirshokrai, Managing Director of Leadership Development, and Partner at Accenture
“Rowan Gibson’s The Four Lenses of Innovation will inspire you to think big, look afresh at the challenges you face, and take bold action to change the world.”—Robert B. Tucker, author of Driving Growth Through Innovation
Contrary to popular belief, innovation is not some mystical art that’s forbidden to mere mortals. The Four Lenses of Innovation thoroughly debunks this pervasive myth by delivering what we’ve long been hoping the news that innovation is systematic, it’s methodical, and we can all achieve it.
By asking how the world’s top innovators—Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and many others—came up with their game-changing ideas, bestselling author Rowan Gibson identifies four key business perspectives that will enable you to discover groundbreaking opportunities for innovation and
Challenging Orthodoxies—What if the dominant conventions in your field, market, or industry are outdated, unnecessary, or just plain wrong? Harnessing Trends—Where are the shifts and discontinuities that will, now and in the future, provide the energy you need for a major leap forward? Leveraging Resources—How can you arrange existing skills and assets into new combinations that add up to more than the sum of their parts? Understanding Needs—What are the unmet needs and frustrations that everyone else is simply ignoring? Other books promise the keys to innovation—this one delivers them. With a unique full-color design, thought-provoking examples, and features like the 8-Step Model for Building a Breakthrough, The Four Lenses of Innovation will teach you how to reverse-engineer creative genius and make radical business innovation an everyday reality inside your organization.
“Rowan Gibson has done a superb job of ‘unpacking’ what it takes to innovate.”—Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
“Can you develop an innovative mind? Yes, you can. And this book is the manual.”—John and Doris Naisbitt, authors of China’s Megatrends and The Global Game Change
“An excellent piece of work for practitioners and organizations who seek to have innovation as part of their DNA.”—Camille Mirshokrai, Managing Director of Leadership Development, and Partner at Accenture
“Rowan Gibson’s The Four Lenses of Innovation will inspire you to think big, look afresh at the challenges you face, and take bold action to change the world.”—Robert B. Tucker, author of Driving Growth Through Innovation
- GenresBusiness
550 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2014
24 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 13, 2016
The 4 lenses of Innovation by Rowan Gibson is a 3,5 out of 5 stars for me.
In short, the four lenses are
• Challenging orthodoxies
• Harnessing trends
• Leveraging resources
• Understanding needs
In addition, Gibson proposes what he feels is the typical process for innovation breakthroughs, in eight steps
• Frame a specific challenge and focus on solving it.
• Research the subject. Learn from the work of others.
• Immerse yourself in the problem. Explore possible solutions.
• Reach a roadblock. Feel the creative frustration.
• Relax. Detach from the problem. Let it incubate in the unconscious mind.
• Come to an illuminating insight that fundamentally shifts your perspective.
• Build the insight (or insights) into a big idea - a new combination of thoughts.
• Test and validate the new idea - try to make it work.
Pros:
• Loved the design and layout. Easy to read, and lots to rest your eyes on here.
• Does a nice job of connecting the four lenses of innovation from the renaissance to companies and people we are familiar with today (Amazon, Google, Apple, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, etc.)
• Does a decent job of pulling lessons from the four lenses (what is taken for granted that shouldn’t be? What is the difference between what people say they want, and what they actually need?)
Cons
• Way too much focus on people and companies and what they do, did, or have done, than actual tools, and a clear how-to-approach to using each of the lenses.
• The case studies are all looking back in time, meaning it’s easy to say they’re following the four lenses, or the 8 steps to innovation breakthroughs. But can you really know that’s the case?
• The same old cases you’ll find in every book. Google, Amazon, Virgin, Apple, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Einstein, Edison… I’ll give Gibson props for actually pointing out that it always seems to be the same companies. Still, I would much rather have heard from results from organizations that have used the four lenses approach to gain breakthroughs. The author states that he’s done lots of workshops and have facilitated many processes, so there should be some examples available.
I would choose the paperback version over the kindle, as the book has a very nice design. Think Business Model Generation or Ten Types of Innovation.
As an overview of innovation and a specific framework, I have no problem recomending The 4 Lenses of Innovation, though I feel the subtitle, “a power tool for creative thinking” is a bit misleading. I need more actual cases using the four lenses directly for that to be a fitting subtitle.
If you like the design format of the book, but you’re pressed for time, I would rather go Ten Types of Innovation by Keeley, Pikkel, Quinn and Walters. That is a great and very practical read
In short, the four lenses are
• Challenging orthodoxies
• Harnessing trends
• Leveraging resources
• Understanding needs
In addition, Gibson proposes what he feels is the typical process for innovation breakthroughs, in eight steps
• Frame a specific challenge and focus on solving it.
• Research the subject. Learn from the work of others.
• Immerse yourself in the problem. Explore possible solutions.
• Reach a roadblock. Feel the creative frustration.
• Relax. Detach from the problem. Let it incubate in the unconscious mind.
• Come to an illuminating insight that fundamentally shifts your perspective.
• Build the insight (or insights) into a big idea - a new combination of thoughts.
• Test and validate the new idea - try to make it work.
Pros:
• Loved the design and layout. Easy to read, and lots to rest your eyes on here.
• Does a nice job of connecting the four lenses of innovation from the renaissance to companies and people we are familiar with today (Amazon, Google, Apple, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, etc.)
• Does a decent job of pulling lessons from the four lenses (what is taken for granted that shouldn’t be? What is the difference between what people say they want, and what they actually need?)
Cons
• Way too much focus on people and companies and what they do, did, or have done, than actual tools, and a clear how-to-approach to using each of the lenses.
• The case studies are all looking back in time, meaning it’s easy to say they’re following the four lenses, or the 8 steps to innovation breakthroughs. But can you really know that’s the case?
• The same old cases you’ll find in every book. Google, Amazon, Virgin, Apple, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Einstein, Edison… I’ll give Gibson props for actually pointing out that it always seems to be the same companies. Still, I would much rather have heard from results from organizations that have used the four lenses approach to gain breakthroughs. The author states that he’s done lots of workshops and have facilitated many processes, so there should be some examples available.
I would choose the paperback version over the kindle, as the book has a very nice design. Think Business Model Generation or Ten Types of Innovation.
As an overview of innovation and a specific framework, I have no problem recomending The 4 Lenses of Innovation, though I feel the subtitle, “a power tool for creative thinking” is a bit misleading. I need more actual cases using the four lenses directly for that to be a fitting subtitle.
If you like the design format of the book, but you’re pressed for time, I would rather go Ten Types of Innovation by Keeley, Pikkel, Quinn and Walters. That is a great and very practical read
January 25, 2016
It's really a good book for people who are looking for a roadmap to innovate. Here're some takeaways:
• Before the Renaissance, people attributed creative genius to divine forces outside the
human domain. The Renaissance embraced the power of the individual mind.
• Patterns organize your understanding of the world. They can also limit your thinking.
• Anyone can produce new ideas by using the “four lenses of innovation.”
• Generate innovation using the lens of “challenging orthodoxies” to overturn old beliefs.
• Seek fresh strategies by “harnessing trends” as signals of upcoming change.
• The lens of “leveraging resources” helps you innovate with the knowledge and
materials you already have.
• Look through the lens of “understanding needs” to see what your customers want and
to provide it, even if they don’t know what they want until you offer it.
• To innovate, first define your problem, research and work on it until you hit a wall, take
a break, generate an insight, develop that into a big idea and test your new concept.
• To innovate more effectively, apply the four lenses on a large, extended scale.
• Assign multiple development teams to use each lens to generate meaningful, fresh
ideas, and create a “portfolio of strategic insights.”
• Before the Renaissance, people attributed creative genius to divine forces outside the
human domain. The Renaissance embraced the power of the individual mind.
• Patterns organize your understanding of the world. They can also limit your thinking.
• Anyone can produce new ideas by using the “four lenses of innovation.”
• Generate innovation using the lens of “challenging orthodoxies” to overturn old beliefs.
• Seek fresh strategies by “harnessing trends” as signals of upcoming change.
• The lens of “leveraging resources” helps you innovate with the knowledge and
materials you already have.
• Look through the lens of “understanding needs” to see what your customers want and
to provide it, even if they don’t know what they want until you offer it.
• To innovate, first define your problem, research and work on it until you hit a wall, take
a break, generate an insight, develop that into a big idea and test your new concept.
• To innovate more effectively, apply the four lenses on a large, extended scale.
• Assign multiple development teams to use each lens to generate meaningful, fresh
ideas, and create a “portfolio of strategic insights.”
May 11, 2017
Rowan Gibson provides a good foundation to start thinking about innovation. No power tools, though.
The four lenses he mentions are:
1. Challenging orthodoxies - Obviously, no innovation ever arrives if you keep believing in status quo. Someone, somewhere has to challenge traditional models of doing things.
2. Harnessing trends - Social proof is one way that you can leverage some outside-in thinking and use that knowledge to bring about change.
3. Leveraging resources - What are the tools/techniques/skills/technologies that you own and how can you use them to build something innovative?
4. Understanding needs - What do your customers want? Innovation must be outcome-focused and not merely done for the sake of it.
These make a lot of sense, and do prompt you to think of innovation in a new light. However, there isn't much in terms of actual tools or templates. Nevertheless, this book is good if you would like to get an introduction to how can one start with innovation.
The four lenses he mentions are:
1. Challenging orthodoxies - Obviously, no innovation ever arrives if you keep believing in status quo. Someone, somewhere has to challenge traditional models of doing things.
2. Harnessing trends - Social proof is one way that you can leverage some outside-in thinking and use that knowledge to bring about change.
3. Leveraging resources - What are the tools/techniques/skills/technologies that you own and how can you use them to build something innovative?
4. Understanding needs - What do your customers want? Innovation must be outcome-focused and not merely done for the sake of it.
These make a lot of sense, and do prompt you to think of innovation in a new light. However, there isn't much in terms of actual tools or templates. Nevertheless, this book is good if you would like to get an introduction to how can one start with innovation.
October 10, 2018
At the beginning of this book, he mentions that this content is a part of his other books, but that he's finally making an entire book out of it. Unfortunately, I think he would have done better keeping it shorter. There are way too many examples that are just another restatement of the same point. And it just takes too long to get to the point--which turns out to be pretty basic anyway. Not wrong, just nothing new to add.
June 20, 2020
O carte interesanat dacă ți-ai pus întrebarea vreo dată cum gindeste uninovator sau cu apar inovatiile in diferite domenii. Sfaturile și ideile culese in carte pot fi utule nu nu mai inginerilor și oamenilor de știință, ci și unei rutine de zi cu zi. De o pildă sfatul de a ramine curios ca un copil și altele.
January 12, 2020
The book has some really interesting and useful things to say, but it could be done in 10 pages instead of nearly 300. I like the main ideas and think they are pretty useful, but the streached out content really makes the book look really bad
January 31, 2017
A reasonably decent book that provides a framework for how innovation occurs. Given that the title has "power tool" in it, I expected more in terms of practice exercises / practical tips on what one could do daily in personal & professional life to improve one's creative thinking and ability to innovate.
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July 25, 2015Intersante ...
Es un buen libro, con conceptos interesantes pero nada del otro mundo. Podría ser recomendado pero le falta profundidad, bastante profundidad.
Es un buen libro, con conceptos interesantes pero nada del otro mundo. Podría ser recomendado pero le falta profundidad, bastante profundidad.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews