Innovation: Are You a Gardener or an Architect?

gardening

George R.R. Martin describes two kinds of writers: architects (who plan) and gardeners (who see what emerges). These ideas apply to innovators too. However, instead of embracing one approach over the other, we need to build the skills require to integrate them.

How I Almost Blew My Big Chance by Forgetting Everything I Know About Innovation

the next google

I just started writing for Harvard Business Review Blogs. Here is the story of how I almost blew that opportunity, and how I finally made it work by doing what I already know works: experimenting.

Seven Steps to Build Your Experimental Capability

Experimenting is a core innovation skill. Scott Berkun’s book The Year Without Pants outlines the approach that Automattic uses to foster experiments at WordPress.com. It’s a great approach, which you can adapt to fit your organisation too.

Innovation Requires a Bias Towards Action

“They made fun of Galileo, and he was right. They make fun of me, therefore I am right.” That’s a logical fallacy. One way to avoid it is to actually test out our ideas – you can prove people wrong by making your ideas work. This is part of why innovation requires a bias towards action.