Picked up a book a couple weeks back that I just know is really going to have a big impact on my work.  I heard about it on the Accidental Creative podcast (an essential part of my toolkit).  So glad I ordered it!

Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork, Start the Work That Matters is by Michael Bungay Stanier, the founder and senior partner of Box of Crayons, a company that works with organizations and teams around the world to help them do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Do More Great Work is a collection of fifteen key tools–conceptual maps–that Stanier uses to help identify “what matters to you, what drives the choices and the actions you take, and how to get onto a path to more creative, motivated and inspired work that’s good for you and good for those you work for.”

Way more than skim and put away collection, this is a pull it out and look at it daily kind of resource.  I love the way Do More Great Work is designed and have already made great use of many of the maps.  I can definitely see that with a little persistance and the right application this book will make a huge difference in my work.

If you’re interested in upping the ante personally (or if you lead a team that needs motivation and inspiration), don’t miss this resource.  Do More Great Work is now an essential part of my toolkit!  I love it and I bet you will too!

Working my way through The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo.  And “working” is really not the right word.  Much like he did with The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Gallo does a great job of fleshing out each secret with an anecdote or two from Jobs’ amazing story.  The book is full of great stories, both from Jobs’ life and the lives of other notables, that illustrate the principle.

Gallo has identified 7 secrets or principles that are essential to Jobs’ innovative track record.  If you’re at all familiar with Jobs’ career at Apple and Pixar, you’ll recognize many of the secrets right away:

• Do What You Love
• Put a Dent in the Universe
• Kick Start Your Brain
• Sell Dreams, Not Products
• Say No to 1,000 Things
• Create Inanely Great Experiences
• Master the Message

Each of the secrets is illustrated with a one-two punch of chapters; the first, fine tuning the principle, the second, laying out some practical takeaways about how to apply the principle.  For example, principle #3 is Kick Start Your Brain.  The two chapters supporting it are Seek Out New Experiences and Think Differently About How You Think.

Seek New Experiences cites examples of Jobs’ track record of “bombarding the brain with new experiences.”  He studied calligraphy, spent time in a commune, visited India, and hired musicians, artists, poets and historians.  Gallo makes the point that “some of Jobs’ most creative insights are the direct result of seeking out novel experiences either in physical locations or among people with whom he chose to associate (p. 89).”

Think Differently about How You Think points out “five skills that separate true innovators from the rest of us”:

• Associating: Innovators seek out diverse experiences
• Questioning: Innovators get a kick out of questioning the status quo
• Experimenting: Successful innovators engage in “active” experimentation
• Networking: Innovators surround themselves with interesting people who expand their domain of knowledge
• Observing: Innovators watch people carefully, especially the behavior of potential customers

Each of the application chapters conclude with a short list of “iLessons,” practical steps that you can take to implement the principle.

I have to say, although I find the stories fascinating and thoroughly engaging, it’s the practical application that has the greatest potential for me.  I’ve read many books on innovation.  This is one that goes beyond biography, beyond what the innovator did, and identifies a little bit of a path.

If you’re a student of innovation…The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs ought to be on your reading list.

Every once in a while I trip across a book that intrigues me right out of the gate and holds my attention to the very end.  I have to say, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation is one of those books.  The newest by Steven Johnson, this one takes a painstaking look at innovation from the vantage point of evolutionary science.  And let me be quick to add, regardless of your first glance reaction to the notion of evolution…this book is packed with great insight to the way innovation happens.

Where Good Ideas Comes From takes a look at seven concepts that can be demonstrated in natural history and illustrated in contemporary innovation.  For example, the first concept Johnson teases out is the idea of the adjacent possible; essentially the principle that every new development puts you into a next space that often makes ideas implementable that weren’t before.  A phrase coined by scientist Stuart Kauffman, “the adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself (p. 31).”

If you’ve followed along here at StrategyCentral.org (or over on MarkHowellLive.com) you might recognize right away the reason I was intrigued by the concept of the adjacent possible.  I’ve written quite a bit about Glen Hiemstra’s three cone model, in fact, it’s become the basis for my talk on getting to there.  One of the concepts in the talk (and Hiemstra’s diagram) is the idea that in handcrafting a preferred future for your organization (a vision):

• some of what you land on comes from the probable future (where your organization will end up if you just keep doing what you’re doing now)
• some will be the fruit of identifying the best of what’s possible and energetically going after that
• and some will actually come from outside what is currently possible

The concept of the adjacent possible gives me a way to think about how some of the preferred future can develop from outside or beyond what’s currently possible.

Where Good Ideas Come From takes a look at six other concepts in addition to the adjacent possible and each one has a number of insights and if you’re like me, your copy will be underlined, dogeared and starred with quotes and references you want to come back to later.

If you’re looking for a book that will help you think outside the box, or step into the adjacent possible, Where Good Ideas Come From should be on your list.