Bea's first house

Weird ideas that work - Robert I Sutton

I saw this on amazon...

Weird Ideas that Work takes an unusual perspective. Professor Sutton is focusing on how companies can be more creative for tomorrow, while still being effective at delivering today's products and services. He chooses to call these ideas "weird" to get your attention, and to acknowledge that the ideas may not send too obviously correct to you the first few times you hear them.

The three key principles are:

1. increase variance in available knowledge
2. see old things in new ways
3. break from the past

The 11 1/2 "weird" ideas for implementing those principles are paraphrased below:

1. Hire smart people who will avoid doing things the same way your company has always done things. ( Diversify your talent and knowledge base, especially with people who get under your skin. )
2. Hire people with skills you don't need yet, and put them in untraditional assignments.
3. Use job interviews as a source of new ideas more than as a way to hire.
4. Give room for people to focus on what interests them, and to develop their ideas in their own way.
5. Help people learn how to be tougher in testing ideas, while being considerate of the people involved.
6. Focus attention on new and smarter attempts whether they succeed or not.
7. Use the power of self-confidence to encourage unconventional trials.
8. Use "bad" ideas to help reveal good ones.
9. Keep a balance between having too much and too little outside contact in your creative activities.
10. Have people with little experience and new perspectives tackle key issues.
11. Escape from the mental shackles of your organization's past successes.