Innovation Insights
by Stephen Shapiro
For many years, I was a loyal BlackBerry fan. More accurately I was a CrackBerry addict. A year ago a got a MacBook Pro and six month layer I acquired an iPad. It felt like I should switch to the
For many years now, I have thrown away the concept of the traditional New Year’s Resolution. In its place I have used themes that guide me through the year. These themes are not specific destinations or goals, but are rather
As some of you know, my 2012 business strategy is to license my content in a number of creative ways. We already licensed Personality Poker in a variety of languages and to a number of trainers. The Dutch translation is
I was recently interviewed for an article on Inc.com. Due to length restrictions, only part of my interview was included in the article. Therefore I am giving you the other half here. But be sure to read the their article
There’s an old tale that goes… Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. Inside of organizations, there’s a corollary… Ideas, ideas every where, Nor any one can think. Um, ok, I should stick to my day job. But
Last month (November), Best Practices Are Stupid, was featured in Southwest Airline’s Spirit Magazine. Now that it is no longer on planes and can’t be found on the internet, I figured it was time to share the article with the
One of my favorite topics is to discuss how breakthroughs are generated by looking for someone who has solved a similar problem in a different space. Some examples I talk about in my “Best Practices Are Stupid” books are: A
I’m pleased that the American Express OPEN Forum (via Matthew E. May) selected Best Practices Are Stupid as one of the top 15 books of 2011. Also, Best Practices Are Stupid was selected as one of the “Top-Drawer Business Books
Here is the first new entry under the “Silly Practices” umbrella. The other day I bought a television from Amazon.com. I buy everything from them and am a big fan. The TV was about 40% off the retail price and
You may have noticed that we redid this website. The content from www.stupidpractices.com has been moved here. We now highlight all 5 of my books on the top as well as more prominent links to buy them in the right
Today I want to test your mental muscle with an activity I conduct with my clients. If you are a college sports fan, you will most likely be familiar with the NCAA basketball playoffs. 65 teams in total compete. The
The other day I was asked to speak for a company that had a limited amount of money and could pay me only 15% of my speaking fee. Today I was asked to speak at a company in exchange for
Malcolm Gladwell has an excellent piece on how Apple created its first computer after visiting Xerox parc. In particular, he discusses how the mouse was developed. After Jobs returned from parc, he met with a man named Dean Hovey, who
It seems as though everyone wants to write a book. Unfortunately, most people don’t know where to start and, therefore, become under-motivated or overwhelmed. The result? Good intentions; no book. But what if you could have a bookstore quality paperback
The late Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just having enough dots to connect…connect experiences and synthesize new things. The reason creative people are able to do that is that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their
I recently had the great privilege of interviewing Chris Griffiths, the author of a new book on innovation, “GRASP The Solution.” He provides some very interesting perspectives on innovation. Chris is the CEO of ThinkBuzan, the organization behind Mind Mapping.
Most organizations focus their energies on ideas, suggestions, and opinions. But for innovation to be efficient and focused, you need to ask better questions. What do you do when you don’t even know what questions to ask? Run a challenge
As I write this, I am sitting in a Starbucks in London, England. Cars and taxis are zipping by on the street in front of me as I sip my espresso. Although I lived in London for several years, I
Ten years ago today was my last day with Accenture. The day before I had my book launch party for my first book, 24/7 Innovation. October 11, 2001. I recently found a notebook from about 15 years ago. In it,
My new book, Best Practices Are Stupid, has been all over the news lately. Here’s just a small sample… Interview on ABC News (click video above) Review on Fortune.com – “Why your company (probably) can’t innovate” Best Practices Are Stupid
There is one principle that I wish companies would learn: customer’s don’t care how your business is structured; they just want it to be easy to work with you. Or as the late, great Dr. Michael Hammer would call it,
Chris Martin created this cool graphic that is the mantra for my new book. As you can see, it includes the url for our soon to be launched website.
Dennis McCafferty from Baseline Magazine, created a cool slideshow that features ten of the tips from my upcoming book. Although the names of the tips were changed (maybe to protect the innocent), you will get a good sense of the
In one week (September 29th), my new book will be available in book stores, online, and on the Kindle. It is published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint. For those of you who are new to this blog, here’s a description… Best
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