Title:
Weird ideas that work : 11 1/2 practices for promoting, managing, and sustaining innovation
Author:
Sutton, Robert I.
ISBN:
9780743212120
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
New York : Free Press, ©2002.
Physical Description:
viii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Contents:
Why the Weird Ideas Work -- Why These Ideas Work, but Seem Weird -- What Is Creativity, Anyway? -- The Weird Ideas -- Hire "Slow Learners" (of the Organizational Code) (Weird Idea #1) -- Hire People Who Make You Uncomfortable, Even Those You Dislike (Weird Idea #1 1/2) -- Hire People You (Probably) Don't Need (Weird Idea #2) -- Use Job Interviews to Get Ideas, Not to Screen Candidates (Weird Idea #3) -- Encourage People to Ignore and Defy Superiors and Peers (Weird Idea #4) -- Find Some Happy People and Get Them to Fight (Weird Idea #5) -- Reward Success and Failure, Punish Inaction (Weird Idea #6) -- Decide to Do Something That Will Probably Fail, Then Convince Yourself and Everyone Else That Success Is Certain (Weird Idea #7) -- Think of Some Ridiculous or Impractical Things to Do, Then Plan to Do Them (Weird Idea #8) -- Avoid, Distract, and Bore Customers, Critics, and Anyone Who Just Wants to Talk About Money (Weird Idea #9) -- Don't Try to Learn Anything from People Who Seem to Have Solved the Problems You Face (Weird Idea #10) -- Forget the Past, Especially Your Company's Successes (Weird Idea #11) -- Putting the Weird Ideas to Work -- Building Companies Where Innovation Is a Way of Life.
Abstract:
Introduces the proven rules that a company can use to promote innovation, arguing that the corporate world should hire misfits and encourage them to defy the existing culture and actively consider ideas that appear ridiculous or impractical.
Creativity, new ideas, innovation -- in any age they are keys to success, but in today's whirlwind economy they are essential for survival itself. Yet, as Robert Sutton explains, the standard rules of business behavior and management are precisely the opposite of what it takes to build an innovative company. We are told to hire people who will fit in to train them extensively and to work to instill a corporate culture in every employee. In fact, in order to foster creativity, we should hire misfits, goad them to fight, and pay them to defy convention and undermine the prevailing culture. Weird Ideas That Work codifies these and other proven counterintuitive ideas to help you turn your workplace from staid and safe to wild and woolly -- and creative. -- Publisher description.
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