Theory and Practice of Innovation

 

Are there required readings?

Yes. Each week I recommend readings and viewings. These are presented later on this page.

 

In addition, two books are particularly important and will become key in our discussions later on in the course:

 

The Innovator's DNA - Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators (2011) by Dyer, Gregersen, Christensen. Please read this by week 7.

 

The Art of Innovation (2001) by Kelley. Please read this by week 9.

 

What I read/watched/scanned

In addition, I consulted the following in developing this course (in addition to the books above and weekly materials):

 

Books

Bueno de Mesquita, B. (2010). The Predictioneer's Game. New York: Random House.

 

Carlson, C., Wilmot, W. (2006). Innovation - The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want. New York: Crown Business.

 

Christensen, C. (2011). Disrupting Class - How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. New York: McGraw Hill.

 

Christensen, C. (2011). The Innovator's Dilemma. New York: Harper.

 

De Bono, E. (1999). Six Thinking Hats. New York: Little, Brown.

 

De Bono, E. (1973). Lateral Thinking - Creativity Steo by Step. New York: Harper & Row.

 

De Bono, E. (1993). Teach Your Child How to Think. New York: Penguin.

 

Dyer, J., Gregersen, H., Christensen, C. (2011). The Innovator's DNA - Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

 

Fenn, J., Raskino, M. Mastering the Hype Cycle. (2008). Boston: Harvard Business Press.

 

Florida, R. The Rise of the Creative Class. And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life, 2002. Basic Books.

 

Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster. Retrieved from iBook store.

 

Kelley, T. (2005). Ten Faces of Innovation. New York: Doubleday.

 

Kelley, T. (2001). The Art of Innoation - Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, American's Leading Design Firm. Retrieved from iBook Store.

 

Martinez, S., Stager, G. (2013). Invent to Learn. Torrance, CA: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press.

 

Michalko, M. (2006). Thinkertoys, 2nd ed. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

 

Robinson, K. (2011). Out of Our Minds. West Sussex, UK: Capstone Publishing.

 

Rushkoff, D. (2013). Present Shock - When Everything Happens Now. New York: Penguin.

 

Sloane, P. (2011). Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking. London: KoganPage.

 

Sloane, P., MacHale, D. Cunning Lateral Thinking Puzzles. New York: PuzzleWright.

 

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Video presentations

Nate Silver on the Art and Science of Prediction, May 17, 2013 by posted by Intelligence Squared. Silver hosts the FiveThirtyEight blog, which is hosted by the New York Times. He is well known for his ability to call the outcome of elections to a great degree of accuracy. He accurately predicted the outcome in every state in the 2008 Presidential Election except one, which was one by one-percent. He called every state in the 2012 election.

 

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Predicts the Future of Iran, a TED talk given Feb 2009, and posted Apr 2009. In this TED talk, he explains the basics of the Predictioneer's Game, and how he mathematically predicts a number of events, including political events.

 

Readings, viewing on a week by week basis

 

Class Two

Read

• Topic 1: McLuhan - McLuhan's Tetrad discussion on the 724e website.

• Topic 2: Technology innovation game - just review the technology innovation game discussion on the 724 website.

• Topic 3: Connect/Disconnect

• Topic 4: Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations

         Read:

- Wikipedia's entry on Diffusion of Innovations

  and/or

- Les Robinson's "A summary of Diffusion of Innovations" (2009)

and

- Jack Lule's Mass Media, New Technology and the Public. This applies the diffusion of innovations to the iPad.

 

Watch

- Dr. Tom Valente's Diffusion of Innovations. Just watch the first 10 minutes or so.

and/or

- John Hooker's overview of the Diffusion of Innovations.

and

- Simon Sinek's Diffusion of Innovations. This is a very unique approach to this topic; he doesn't actually get to Roger's work until the end, but leading up to it posits the following theory: we buy from companies who share our belief systems, often without knowing it.

 

Class Three

Read

• Mining Movies

• We're Living in a Sci-Fi World (USA Today, August 9-11, 2013, pgs 1-2)

Watch

• 5 Trends that Bend (aka MegaMakeovers) 

•  

 

Class Four

Watch 

• Overview of Thiel Foundation

• Example of an awarded Thiel Fellow

 

Class Five

Read

• The Uncommon Core: Essential creativity skills and the grammer of new media are missing from the Common Core English Language Arts Standards

• Creative Entrepreneurial, and Global: 21st Century Education, by Y. Zhao. (September 30, 2012). Retrieved from http://zhaolearning.com/2012/08/16/doublethink-the-creativity-testing-conflict/

• Why Creativity Now? A Conversation with Sir Ken Robinoson, by Amy Azzam, September 2009 | Volume 67 | Number 1 Teaching for the 21st Century. Pages 22-26

http://blogs.sch.gr/mariamoschou/files/2012/02/Sir-Ken-Robinson-Why-Creativity-Now.pdf

 

View

• How Schools Kill Creativity? A TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson.

 

Additional suggested readings

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row.

 

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

 

Pfeiffer, S. (2013). Serving the Gifted- Evidence-Based Clinical and Psychoeducational Practice. New York: Routledge.

 

Robinson, K. (2011). Out of Our Minds- Learning to be creative. UK: Capstone Publishing.

Starko, A. (2010). Creativity in the Classroom (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.

 

Zhao, Y. (2012). World Class Learners- Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

 

Class Six

Read

• The Discipline of Innovation, by Paul Drucker, Harvard Business Review, August 2002, R0208F

• Gartner's Hype Cycle, from Wikipedia

• Gartner Group overview video - straightforward, low production, but it provides a good overview

• Visit the section on the Gartner Group website pertaining to the Hype Cycle

 

Class Seven

Read

• The Innovator’s DNA by Christensen, et al

 

View

• Clayton Christensen (Innovators Dilemma) at Startup Grind 2    

• Christen's Clarendon Lecture 

 

Class Eight

• The Innovator’s DNA by Christensen, et al, continued.

 

Week Nine

Read

• The Art of Innovation, by Kelley.

• The Ten Faces of Innovation, by Kelley (optional)

• Download and scan Design Thinking for Educators, by Kelley  

 

• IDEO process for Business. Download and read (or read on screen) IDEO - A Review of the process by Ron Moen, 10/25/2001. In 10 very clearly written pages, Moen describes the step-by-step innovation process that has made IDEO famous. You might also find this helpful: Listening Lessons- Make Consumers Part of the Design Process by Tuning In, by Paul Bennet (2006). It is a short article from Advertising Age, which emphasizes the role of listening to customers in being responsive to their needs.

 

• IDEO for Education. Download (or scan on screen) and scan Design Thinking for Educators.  This is a handbook that provides, in detail, IDEO's design thinking process. It is adapted for educators, and is somewhat different than the process he uses for business customers. Yet, it is still a great, free resource. The handbook uses large lettering, a great deal of white space, lists, etc. It is very easy to scan. I leaf through it now and then just to pick up a new detail to inspire me.

 

• Human Centered Design (HCD) - IDEO for Community Projects, Developing Countries. "It contains the elements to human-Centered Design, a process used for decades to create new solutions for multi-national corporations. This process has created ideas such as the heartStart defibrillator, CleanWell natural antibacterial products, and the Blood Donor System for the Red Cross—innovations that have enhanced the lives of millions of people. Now Human-Centered Design can help you enhance the lives of people living on less than $2/day. This process has been specially-adapted for organizations like yours that work with communities in need in Africa, Asia, and Latin America." Download the HCD ToolKit.

 

View

• The Deep Dive. NBC news program on IDEO's redesign of the shopping car (July 13, 1991).

• How to Design Breakthrough Innovations   A Charlie Rose interview with David Kelley, president to IDEO.