A RADICAL NEW FORMULA FOR UNLOCKING THE ABILITY TO INNOVATE
Rowan Gibson Reveals The 4 Lenses Of Innovation In New Book
Although true genius is rare, the capacity to innovate is inherent in everyone, says noted business innovation expert Rowan Gibson in his groundbreaking new book, THE 4 LENSES OF INNOVATION: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking (Wiley / March 2015).
With some expert guidance, the proper tools, and a little practice, anyone can improve their creative thinking skills, according to Gibson, who works with Fortune 500 companies to build a deeply embedded capability for innovation that engages everyone at the firm. “Once we accept that creativity is not a birthright, but a skill that can be taught and acquired, we can begin to seriously tap into the latent innovation potential inside all of us and across our organizations,” he says.
Gibson has studied creativity and innovation throughout human history – from the dawn of civilization ‘til today – and has identified an underlying signature to breakthrough thinking. In THE 4 LENSES OF INNOVATION he shows that Renaissance innovators such as da Vinci, Galileo, or Gutenberg, shared a lot in common with the innovation heroes we venerate today – icons like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, or Richard Branson. In case after case of successful innovation, the same distinct patterns of creative thinking recur time and time again. Gibson calls them “lenses” or innovation perspectives:
Challenging Orthodoxies Questioning deeply-held beliefs and assumptions by taking a contrarian stance
Harnessing Trends Spotting and exploiting emerging trends and discontinuities that have the potential to change the game
Leveraging Resources Understanding the limitless capacity for redeploying skills and assets in new ways, combinations, or contexts
Understanding Needs Paying attention to unmet needs and frustrations others have ignored, and designing solutions to address these “pain points”
Rather than simply hoping for a Eureka moment, Gibson shows that by systematically looking at the world through these four innovation lenses, it is possible to uncover limitless opportunities for radical innovation that were previously hidden from view. THE 4 LENSES OF INNOVATION describes a proven system that can be used to unlock innovation on the organizational level – a methodology and process for generating, capturing, sharing, and using powerful insights at the very front end of innovation efforts.
While many innovation books tend to focus on the need to build a cultural environment where creativity can flourish, Gibson argues, “Breakthrough ideas are not generated by social systems themselves – by cities, or campuses, or networks. They come out of the heads of individuals who are connected to these communities. So to truly solve the mystery of where new ideas come from, we need to understand not just the environments that enhance our capacity to dream up and introduce new things, but also the thinking processes inside the human mind that lead innovators to their Eureka moments.”
THE 4 LENSES OF INNOVATION is about understanding particular patterns of thinking that unlock our ability to innovate. It’s about learning how to emulate the mind of the innovator. Rowan Gibson offers a roadmap to innovation success for companies – and for individuals – all over the world who are searching for their next big idea.
About the Author
Rowan Gibson is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on business innovation. Media outlets have labeled him “Mr. Innovation”, “the Innovation Grandmaster”, “the W. Edwards Deming of innovation”, and “a guru among the gurus”. He is the internationally bestselling author of three major books on business strategy and innovation which have been published in a total of 25 languages.
Over the last two decades, Gibson has worked with some of the world’s largest and most successful companies – including Accenture, Apple, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, IBM, Mars, P&G, and Volkswagen – in 60 countries around the world. He teaches them how to seize new growth opportunities, create new markets, and even transform entire industries by recalibrating their innovation systems around “The 4 Lenses of Innovation.”
Gibson is co-founder of www.innovationexcellence.com, the world’s most popular innovation website. For more information, please visit www.rowangibson.com.
THE 4 LENSES OF INNOVATION
A Power Tool For Creative Thinking
By Rowan Gibson
Publisher: Wiley
Publication date: March 2015
Price: $35.00 / trade paperback
ISBN: 978-1-118-74024-8