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We’ve been asked by many of our customers for periodic, no-nonsense emails with just-in-time information for managers and knowledge workers on how organizations work. This is our 20th edition and we hope you enjoy it. Past editions are available on our website.

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What We're Reading

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization by Tom Kelley, Currency/Doubleday, 2005.
(click for purchase information)

Tom Kelley is a leader at IDEO, one of those 'best practice' companies often mentioned in the business press. I agree with his assumption that innovation is the key to future success for any company in our knowledge based economy. His first chapter addresses the 'Devil's Advocate' role in a very different way than I view it. He describes the role as overused and an excuse for what Pfeffer and Sutton call "Smart-Talk" or criticism to tear down someone else's idea with no positive alternative offered. I've been telling my clients that the one thing they should make sure they have is a Devil's Advocate or Contrarian to keep a team from groupthink. It's often the first step they can take to open up the conversation. The premise of this book is that this role is widely and wrongly used. I take his point and agree that the role can be abused. I also agree with his point that innovation will arise only when there is trust within a group to try out different ideas and not be afraid to experiment.

The ten faces of innovation are similar to DeBono's Six Thinking Hats and Six Action Shoes. Both say that innovation 'pair ideas with action.' Kelley adds in the people part of the equation; that ultimately you can have ideas, action etc but it's people who do all that so you have to create an environment to help them perform. And as we all know, people are the most volatile ingredient; you never know what someone will do or not do. That is what makes organizations so interesting. What is it about one organization that people behave in constructive ways while in another they are competing with each other? What I like about the book is all the in-depth and up to date examples of best practices of the factors that create the 'innovative' environment.

I like to 'boil' things down to find the essence of the thousands of words written about these topics. I think the key ingredients for the sauce of innovation come from the top in that there is an exciting, opportunity focused atmosphere vs. one of fear. I wish I could say that most organizations are opportunity focused, but they are not if you believe the research, academic and anecdotal. That is one of the reasons we keep seeing similar topics refreshed by new authors. Anyone can be a mean spirited Devil's Advocate if their intent is to knock down others so they are one-up. And anyone can be a constructive Devil's Advocate to keep the group from letting momentum lead their decisions because it's easier than pushing back. This book will deliver a fresh look at to move ideas into action through the roles Kelley proposes.

A Tribute

This month, I have to end with a tribute to Tim Russert. Some years ago, I picked up his newly published book (Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life) in the Buffalo airport on my way home from visiting my family. It was riveting because he captured what it was like to grow up in South Buffalo at that time. Although I'm a few years younger, I lived a parallel life to Tim (i.e., those growing up years). He was a male Irish Catholic, and I was a female Scottish Protestant. Those ethnic and religious differences were historically a very big deal and the Catholic Church was a huge presence in South Buffalo and in my life. For example, because Catholics didn't eat meat on Fridays, there were fish fry dinners every Friday night at most of the pubs. It was a very inexpensive way for middle class families to eat out once a week.

We lived over the border in West Seneca, but the rest of the family was still in South Buffalo. In fact, one set of grandparents lived on the same street as Tim's family. My mother was the school nurse 2 days a week at Tim's elementary school. I went to church in South Buffalo and spent many Saturday nights at the South Buffalo "Y" watching the church league basketball games and going for pizza later. My dad attends the "Boys of South Buffalo" picnic every summer, seeing many of his friends from school and work days. After reading Tim's book I sat down and wrote him a letter. I had never written to an author before, but his book really touched me. Obviously so did many others as he wrote his next book about those letters.

Hopefully, you take the best of your roots with you as you go on in your life. What you take with you from Buffalo is being humble and never taking success for granted. Once I had actually started working, I realized that I liked what I did and where I worked. I could not believe I was getting paid to do what I did. Like Tim, I still can't believe I get paid to do what I love. When I listened to the conversations in Buffalo, I heard something very different. Our parents worked to give us opportunities and they stayed with those jobs whether they liked them or not. Hearing those differences caused me to wonder if there was a way to make the workplace better for everyone and that led me into the field of organizational behavior.

What was apparent was that Tim Russert loved what he did and always showed appreciation for that. This is my hope for the results of the work I and so many others in this field do; that we help organizations become places people enjoy and have a chance to do work they love. And that they have an opportunity to make a difference as one senior leader once said to me. The unexpected and wonderful outpouring of emotion to Tim's life and death showed he did make a positive difference to many people and did so while he lived out his authentic values.

May you find some of the great satisfaction and joy in your work that Tim demonstrated to us every Sunday morning.

Everything DiSC® Management Profile on Sale in July

The sale item this month will be Inscape Publishing's new Everything DiSC® Management Profile. Since leadership is how you create the work environment, this is a terrific new product that will give you practical tips for directing, delegating, motivating, developing others and working with your manager. I took it and found it spot-on.

It is another example of an innovative product from Inscape; a company I am finding to be a best practice example of all that Tom Kelley talks about in his book. More

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Thanks for your interest and support.

Sue Annis Hammond
email: news@thinbook.com
phone: 888.316.9544
web: http://www.thinbook.com