Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization

by Scott D. Anthony, Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud

From the author of The Little Black Book of Innovation , a new guide for using the power of habit to build a culture of innovation Leaders have experimented with open innovation programs, corporate accelerators, venture capital arms, skunkworks, and innovation contests. They've trekked to Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, and Tel Aviv to learn from today's hottest, most successful tech companies. Yet most would admit they've failed to create truly innovative cultures. There's a better way. And it all starts with the power of habit. In Eat, Sleep, Innovate , innovation expert Scott Anthony and his impressive team of coauthors use groundbreaking research in behavioral science to provide a first-of-its-kind playbook for empowering individuals and teams to be their most curious and creative—every single day. Throughout the book, the authors reveal a collection of BEANs—behavior enablers, artifacts, and nudges—they've collected from workplaces across the globe that will unleash the natural innovator inside everyone. In addition to case studies of "normal organizations doing extraordinary things," they provide readers with the tools to create their own hacks and habits, which they can then use to build and sustain their own models of a culture of innovation. Fun, lively, and utterly unique, Eat, Sleep, Innovate is the book you need to make innovation a natural and habitual act within your team or organization.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Entrepreneurship

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2020

About the author

Scott D. Anthony is the managing partner of the innovation and growth consulting firm Innosight. Based in Innosight's Singapore office, he also leads its venture capital investment arm (Innosight Ventures). His most recent books are The Little Black Book of Innovation and the new HBR Single, Building a Growth Factory. Follow him on Twitter at @ScottDAnthony.

Reviews

[Jon Daiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great case study of several innovative companies and how they work. The authors have synthesized key findings in principles and practices that you can begin putting into place in your organization to lead towards innovation. I was thankful that they took a behavior change approach to change organizations rather than slapping universal processes and proceedures that promise to be the silver bullet. You can learn from this book and begin applying what you learn into your own unique context in ways that fit your situation.

[Ghost14 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are the top work-related takeaways from Eat Sleep Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization by Scott D. Anthony, Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud, and Andy Parker — tailored to apply directly in your workplace:

🔁 1. Innovation = Habit, Not Just Inspiration

Takeaway: Innovation thrives when it becomes part of daily routines—not just during off-sites or special projects.

Work Application: Embed creative thinking into regular team meetings. Start with a “What If?” moment or rotate an "Idea of the Week" slot.

🧠 2. Kill Anti-Behaviors

Takeaway: Every workplace has invisible habits that block innovation—like fear of failure, rigid hierarchy, or excessive perfectionism.

Work Application: Identify and challenge unhelpful behaviors. For example, encourage “safe-to-fail” pilot projects or ask leaders to model vulnerability by sharing their own failed experiments.

🧪 3. BEANs (Behavior Enablers, Artifacts, and Nudges)

Takeaway: Use small, consistent behavioral reinforcements—called BEANs—to build innovative culture.

Work Application:

Enabler: Add “experiment” as a KPI.

Artifact: Display a “Wall of Failures” that led to growth.

Nudge: Auto-reminders in project trackers to ask “Have we tested this with a real user?”

🔍 4. Focus on the Problem, Not the Solution

Takeaway: Teams often jump to solutions too quickly. True innovation starts by deeply understanding the problem.

Work Application: Before project kickoff, host a "Problem Reframe" session where you only ask questions, not suggest solutions.

👥 5. Psychological Safety Is Non-Negotiable

Takeaway: People won’t take creative risks if they fear being judged or punished.

Work Application: Recognize bold efforts—even when they don’t succeed. Make curiosity and experimentation part of performance reviews.

⚡ 6. Micro-Experiments > Big Bets

Takeaway: Test small, fail fast, and learn.

Work Application: Encourage teams to run “two-week sprints” where they prototype a new idea with minimal resources and gather user feedback.

📊 7. Measure Innovation Progress

Takeaway: What gets measured gets done. You need innovation metrics beyond revenue.

Work Application: Track learning velocity (e.g., number of experiments run/month) and idea diversity (where ideas come from, who contributes).

🧩 8. Cross-Functional Collaboration Isn’t Optional

Takeaway: Silos kill innovation. Collaboration breeds perspective.

Work Application: Build temporary “sprint squads” that mix functions, e.g., marketing, ops, and tech, to solve key problems.

[Srinivasan Tatachari · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book majorly highlights behaviour changes needed to become an innovative organization in a very practical way with book basis from research in organizations. Lots of practical inputs abound in the book: Hacking habits with BEANs is a good tip. Fear and inertia as the major blocks to innovation in organizations resonates very well with what one sees in the field. The organization is itself a big obstacle in the way to innovation. Shadow strategy - keep doing what we have been doing all this time!

The book Lists 5 behaviours that drive innovation.. however one of them seemed problematic to my view. Customer obsession? Is that a necessary dimension? This narrows down to a product/service piece only? Apart from this I did not have any disagreements.

DBS and Singtel examples are very nice and detailed case studies of actually running the ideas presented in the book

The style of the book is very appealing. Chapter summaries at the end of the chapter are useful to remind the reader of the learnings and key takeaways. I loved the style of writing with very informal and cheeky footnotes at most places. Also loved the doodles in each chapter. I think the use of Bean shape in the images reinforced subtly the BEAN model for change. BEAN SPROUT - now that was another super way to actually practice the idea on the reader Of the book itself. A rich appendix with all categorical theme-based sources of the references made in the book makes it a well designed handbook.


Final word: I think this is a great book on practicing innovation in organization - both identifying and generating innovation!

[Sharon Summerfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. The authors define Innovation as Something different that adds value. And you create value if you solve a problem that matters.

Throughout this book was strong connections to Psychological Safety. One of the topics spoken about is meetings and the importance of creating inclusive meetings. A term of MOJO was shared.

MO - meeting owner - who is responsible for a clear agenda to begin the meetings on time, where everyone has a say. JO - The Joyful Observer - To help the meeting run well and encourage participation by everyone in the room.

A thought from the book Having an equal shared voice and psychological safety was critical to high performing highly innovative teams.

A theme throughout the book is learning by doing as it helps everyone. As well as the role of the manager. It is NOT the managers job to prevent risks, it is the managers role to make it safe to do so.

The authors spoke to the importance of leaders moving away from their desks and experience the raw data of the business by getting involved in experiments and forming group problem solving sessions. When leader are hands on this helps them observe things they may be hidden.

If you find the work around Psychological Safety by Amy Edmondson and Timothy Clark interesting this is a must read. Highly recommend this book.

[Pooja Banga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout the book, the authors reveal dozens of hacks and habits they've collected from workplaces across the globe that will unleash the natural innovator inside everyone. In addition to case studies of "normal organizations doing extraordinary things," they provide readers with the tools to create their own hacks and habits, which they can then use to build and sustain their own models of a culture of innovation.

Thankyou Netgalley and publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

[Alicia Robben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read for those needing motivation to innovate, especially during Covid-19. The book addresses Covid-19 and gives helpful tips to innovate within the workplace throughout the book. Anyone can apply the tips and I am excited to start thinking more with an innovative mindset.

Thanks to Harvard Business Review Press and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read from Harvard Business Press as always! Innovation is the key to progress in my opinion. This book provides helpful tips on how you can lead your team to innovate within the workplace. Anyone can apply the tips and I am excited to start thinking more with an innovative mindset. Driving bysiness, innovation and collaborative spirit forward will support businesses and economy.

[Alyssa Foll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful book on how to create a truly innovative culture (rather than having an innovation department or team). I especially appreciated the framework around BEAN's (Behavior Enablers, Artifacts, and Nudges). Very useful for reference and also includes a helpful bibliography.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delivers what the subtitle promises: a very practical plan, with ideas and case studies, that can be used to create a culture of innovation in an organization. There are many valuable takeaways that allowed this old dog to learn new tricks.

[Richard Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be an easy read with a lot of great examples and information.

[Jennifer Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of information and ideas on bringing innovation into the workplace.

[Cherish Linse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring but full of great information.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoy the tons of innovative ideas the authors shared in this book. Innovation is truly the name of the game these days and this book does a lot to help organizations whether in business or non-profit sector unleash the creative juices of their people.

I learned a lot about BEANs (behavior enablers, artifacts, and nudges). These are the items organizations need. It helps me to have a framework on how to start cultivating an innovative culture in a company.

And also I enjoyed the writing style as well. This is not a boring book. I often found myself amused with the witty footnotes sprinkled all over the pages.

Innovation should be fun and this book walk (well not literally) the talk.