Genius at Scale by Hill, Tedards, and Wild

GENIUS AT SCALE by Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards, and Jason Wild is an in-depth, thoughtful look at “How Great Leaders Drive Innovation.” The authors’ credentials are impressive: Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS); Tedards is a graduate researcher in organizational behavior at HBS; and Wild is he former Global Vice President of CEO Co-Innovation and Customer Engagement at Microsoft. Together, they essentially use case studies and real-world examples to talk about Architects, Bridgers, and Catalysts effecting change in their organizations. Some of the companies and groups mentioned are P&G, Pfizer, Mastercard, Delta Airlines, as well as food organizations in Africa and Italy and the Sampark Foundation which promoted educational advancements in India.  

GENIUS AT SCALE is very accessible, with differently sized helpful headers, a conversational tone, and a focus on individuals and their stories. Much of this necessitates a new way of thinking, like Mastercard’s emphasis on a Framework to Grow, Diversify and Build in the “World Beyond Cash” or P&G’s increasing recognition that “the product economy was shifting to an experience economy.” The authors note that “as much as leaders would like to plan their way to innovation, their job as architects is to help their teams and organizations act their way instead,” referencing a vivid descriptor from previous research: “it's like shifting from leading an orchestra to a jazz ensemble: while their sheet music provides some guardrails, the musicians have to improvise, listen, and adapt to each other as they perform.” Another chapter looks at the establishment of the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi, stressing the importance of continuous learning and adapting to local practices, needing “to create an environment where all caregivers could be ‘contemplative and creative rather than reactive problem solvers’.” While reading, I found many insightful comments like when the Sampark leadership opined “If you launch a decision as an initiative, people wait for it to fail. If you launch it as an experiment -- indicating that you will reverse it if it doesn't go right -- people participate in shaping it. They own it.” The authors and those they studied repeatedly point out how critical it is to have a “foundation of shared purposes and values -- a sense of community." GENIUS AT SCALE is clearly extensively researched with notes comprising at least ten percent of the book; there's also a helpful index and the online bibliography contains a list of over 700 books and articles.  Highly recommended.

Epic Disruptions by Scott D. Anthony

EPIC DISRUPTIONS by Scott D. Anthony (Eat, Sleep, Innovate) highlights “11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World” and I think it would have been fascinating to be in the discussions of which 11 to choose. Anthony, a Clinical Professor of Strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, studies the adaptive challenges of disruptive change while clearly recognizing the contributions of his mentor, Clay Christensen. In his latest book, Anthony looks at technologies like the printing press, the Model T, and Apple iPhone. He argues that “Disruption is an engine of progress. By making the complicated simple and the expensive affordable, it transforms how we work, play, live, and communicate.” A few examples he chose may not come readily to mind: Julia Child, disposable diapers, steel minimills; but he uses his case studies to answer basic questions (Who does it? Is it random? Is it accelerating? Is it a universal good?).  I liked his graphs and many corporate examples (e.g., Eastman Kodak, Sears, and McDonald’s) to further support his points (e.g., “innovation magic happens at intersections”). The conclusion section is especially thought-provoking as he looks briefly at newer technologies (additive technology, artificial intelligence, robotics) whose story is not yet complete. There, Anthony again weaves facts and examples while asking probing questions. Approximately fifteen percent of the text is devoted to Notes and a detailed Index. For stories of some innovations particular to Texas, see the recent Texas Monthly feature that appeared on PBS.

Humphrey and Me plus The Woman at the Wheel

Back to historical fiction with reviews of two recent works: 

HUMPHREY AND ME by Stuart H. Brody is a work of historical fiction that covers almost two decades beginning in the early 1960s. There are two narrators: Ray Elias, initially a bit of a nerdy a high school student who gets involved in politics, and Hubert Humphrey – first as Senator, then as VP and presidential candidate and finally as a Senator again.  As any student of American history knows this was an exciting, turbulent time in American history and Humphrey was a key character involved with civil rights and progressive politics. What troubled me was the book’s depiction of him as talking about war protestors as “Hitler-loving youth” – I could not find that quote in any of the databases or online sources I checked. Yes, this is a work of fiction, but it is important to accurately portray a person of Humphrey’s stature. Brody, who is a professional speaker on ethics, did not cite his sources in the preview that I saw, leading to further questions about his descriptions of Humphrey’s musings and state of mind. Important events, like Kent State, were not even mentioned (although Humphrey had spoken on campus). And, while the story may be semi-autobiographical, Ray was very self-centered and not that well developed. The work that Humphrey did to improve quality of life for Minnesotans and Americans is inspiring (and we could all do with some inspirational leadership from politicians these days); reading a biography (even one intended for young people) would be my recommendation instead of this novel.

THE WOMAN AT THE WHEEL by Penny Haw (The Invincible Miss Cust) offers insight on a fascinating, but little-known historical figure: Bertha Benz, business partner and wife of automobile inventor Carl Benz. Haw describes Bertha’s childhood, courtship with Benz, and her subsequent contributions to his work. Unfortunately, the text seems rather repetitive. In part, that is justified because the pair were met by substantial skepticism and business set backs as they strove to develop their “motorwagen.” It must have required great faith and fortitude to persist in developing that first automobile and Haw stresses that. As she explains, “Bertha wanted to live a life of innovation and purpose in an era when women were expected to be grateful to do nothing more than keep house and raise children.” Together, Bertha and Carl eventually launched a company which employed hundreds of people and was the world’s leading automotive manufacturer. He praised her in his autobiography: “brave and courageous, she hoisted new sails of hope and support at a time when no one else believed in the dream.” Haw includes a Bibliography, Reading Group Guide, and a Conversation with the Author which centers on this extraordinary woman.  

The Parrot and the Igloo by Lipsky

THE PARROT AND THE IGLOO by David Lipsky received the rare distinction of being recommended by LibraryReads even though it is a work of non-fiction. Lipsky, a professor of writing and literature at NYU and a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, adopts a narrative approach which will succeed in engaging readers as they learn more about the history of climate change and its denial. For example, Lipsky outlines the impact of events like the harnessing of electricity, increased use of fossil fuels, 1970's environmental movement, and the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The text is divided into sections on inventors (primarily Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse), scientists (e.g., Jim Hansen, Roger Revelle, Svante Arrhenius) and deniers (and their links to the tobacco industry strategy). Some rather startling observations (e.g., discovery of greenhouse effect in 1824; a 1956 Time Magazine article warning that “in fifty years or so this process … may have a violent effect on the Earth’s climate”) contrasts with the better-known (and, sadly) ongoing political lobbying and inaction. At 496 pages, this is already a lengthy text so the endnotes are published online. THE PARROT AND THE IGLOO received starred reviews from Kirkus (“simultaneously captivating and disturbing”) and Publishers Weekly (“a first-rate entry in the field of climate denial studies”). Interested readers should definitely check out related titles like Greta Thunberg’s compilation The Climate Book.

Mother of Invention by Katrine Marçal

MOTHER OF INVENTION by Katrine Marçal is a thought-provoking look at “How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men.” Marçal, an award-winning writer and journalist, begins her text in 1970 with the adoption of wheels on suitcases, noting “the ‘blindingly obvious’ can stare us expectantly in the face for an eternity before it occurs to us to make something of it.” She further argues that the “we don’t imagine the ‘soft’ (notions of femininity and masculinity) as being capable of holding back the ‘hard’ (constant technological advance),” observing that it was not until the 1970s when more women began travelling alone that suitcases with wheels were more widely used. Marçal shares other stories:  a woman (Bertha Benz) was the first to make a long-distance car trip and the surprising origin of NASA’s spacesuits. There is discussion of disparity in pay (in the 1950s, IBM in the UK calculated salary costs based on “girl hours” due to the abundance of female programmers) and witchhunts due to bad weather hundreds of years earlier. Marçal’s work is entertaining and informative; she includes roughly forty pages of notes and bibliography. She convincingly points out that “when we consider a factor like gender, it becomes clear how technology is constantly being shaped within our preconceived ideas of the world, the economy and ourselves.” MOTHER OF INVENTION received a starred review from Library Journal. And, for an interesting aside to stretch your brain further, consider a question that’s been popular lately on the internet: Are there more wheels or doors in the world? 

How Innovation Works and Eat, Sleep, Innovate

HOW INNOVATION WORKS is written by Matt Ridley, a member of the House of Lords and an award-winning author (The Evolution of Everything). His new text actually speaks to the flywheel concept that Dumaine raised in Bezonomics when Ridley points out that “innovation is potentially infinite because even if it runs out of new things to do, it can always find ways to do the same things more quickly or for less energy.” Ridley provides an engaging read by illustrating innovation (“turning ideas into practical, reliable and affordable reality”) across history and a range of fields (Energy, Public Health, Transport, Food, and so forth).  He then explores patterns in those stories and argues that innovation “Flourishes in Freedom” while devoting a chapter each to innovation’s Essentials, Economics, and Failures, and finally concluding with sections on Resistance to Innovation and Innovation Famine. This is a very readable text and is full of facts, often amusing stories, and relatable explanations, such as “the genius of the Wright brothers was precisely that they realized they were in an incremental, iterative process and did not expect to build a flying machine at the first attempt.” Teachers will appreciate that Ridley emphasizes the value of traits like trial and error and collaboration. Students with interest in the STEM fields will especially enjoy HOW INNOVATION WORKS which received a starred review from Kirkus.

 

EAT, SLEEP, INNOVATE, by Scott D. Anthony, Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud and Andy Parker, is forthcoming this Fall from Harvard Business Review Press. Cobban is based in Singapore working for DBS Bank and the other three authors are executives with the growth-strategy consulting firm Innosight. They collaborated to explore “How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization” and the text has a slightly playful, irreverent tone, perhaps meant to reinforce the idea of creative freedom, which is fun at first.  I loved the footnote that includes: “And hello, footnote reader. We are glad to have you with us.” It does wear after a bit, though, as they actually recognize when another footnote says, “we’re going to stop doing this soon.” Overall, there are plenty of serious suggestions to help businesses. In Part I (over four chapters with three companion case studies), they lay out a series of definitions, discuss why organizations struggle with innovation, and then introduce and explain the idea of BEANS (behavior enablers, artifacts, and nudges).  Part II, filled with “tips, tricks and tools” focuses on the more practical application. In an appendix, they also provide a “Culture of Innovation Bookshelf” with titles they consider most influential. While a bit jargon-y, it is a luxury to stretch one’s brain and spend time with this text. It is certainly relevant; as the authors point out, “uncertainly increases the need for innovation.” Visit their website plus pick up EAT, SLEEP, INNOVATE if you are looking for ideas about how to make innovation more of a “habit of mind” and daily focus.