Creative People Must Be Stopped: Six Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying)

Creative People Must Be Stopped: Six Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying)

by David A. Owens
Released November 2011
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9781118002902

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Book description

A framework for overcoming the six types of innovation killers

Everybody wants innovation—or do they? Creative People Must Be Stopped shows how individuals and organizations sabotage their own best intentions to encourage "outside the box" thinking. It shows that the antidote to this self-defeating behavior is to identify which of the six major types of constraints are hindering innovation: individual, group, organizational, industry-wide, societal, or technological. Once innovators and other leaders understand exactly which constraints are working against them and how to overcome them, they can create conditions that foster innovation instead of stopping it in its tracks.

The author's model of constraints on innovation integrates insights from the vast literature on innovation with his own observations of hundreds of organizations. The book is filled with assessments, tools, and real-world examples.

  • The author's research has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, London Guardian and San Jose Mercury News, as well as on Fox News and on NPR's Marketplace

  • Includes illustrative examples from leading organizations

  • Offers a practical guide for bringing new ideas to fruition even within a previously rigid organizational culture

This book gives people in organizations the conceptual framework and practical information they need to innovate successfully.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Introduction: Creative People Must Be Stopped!
  7. Chapter 1: The Context of Innovation: Why Everyone Wants Innovation but No One Wants to Change
    1. Why Does Innovation Fail?
    2. How to Use This Book
    3. Summary
  8. Chapter 2: Why Most of Us Are More Creative Than We Think: Individual Innovation Constraints
    1. Are Innovators Born or Made?
    2. Perception Constraints: Looking Without Seeing
    3. Overcoming Perception Constraints
    4. Intellection Constraints: Old Thought Patterns for New Problems
    5. Overcoming Intellection Constraints
    6. Expression Constraints: Difficulty Articulating Your Ideas
    7. Overcoming Expression Constraints
    8. Putting the Framework to Work: Individual Constraints
    9. Summary
    10. Chapter Reflection: Individual Constraints
  9. Chapter 3: Why a Brainstorm Meeting Can Be Worse Than No Meeting at All: Innovation Constraints in Groups
    1. Two Brains Are Better Than One—Except When They Aren’t
    2. Emotion Constraints: Ego and Social Status
    3. Overcoming Emotion Constraints
    4. Culture Constraints: Cohesion and Meaning
    5. Overcoming Culture Constraints
    6. Environment Constraints: Comfort Versus Collaboration
    7. Overcoming Environment Constraints
    8. Process Constraints: Directing Members’ Behavior
    9. Overcoming Process Constraints
    10. Putting the Framework to Work: Group Constraints
    11. Summary
    12. Chapter Reflection: Group Constraints
  10. Chapter 4: Why You’ll Never Be a Prophet in Your Hometown: Organizational Innovation Constraints
    1. Do “Innovation” and “Organization” Belong in the Same Sentence?
    2. Strategy Constraints: Knowing the Intent
    3. Overcoming Strategy Constraints
    4. Structural Constraints: Efficiency and Control
    5. Overcoming Structural Constraints
    6. Resource Constraints: Capital and Capabilities
    7. Overcoming Resource Constraints
    8. Putting the Framework to Work: Organizational Constraints
    9. Summary
    10. Chapter Reflection: Organizational Constraints
  11. Chapter 5: If It’s Such a Great Idea, Why Isn’t Our Competitor Doing It? Industry Innovation Constraints
    1. Driving Competition with Innovation or Innovation with Competition?
    2. Competition Constraints: Innovation as a Last Resort
    3. Overcoming Competition Constraints
    4. Supplier Constraints: No Organization Is an Island
    5. Overcoming Supplier Constraints
    6. Market Constraints: Everybody Wants It Cheaper—and Faster and Better
    7. Overcoming Market Constraints
    8. Putting the Framework to Work: Industry Constraints
    9. Summary
    10. Chapter Reflection: Industry Constraints
  12. Chapter 6: Why My Innovation Means You Have to Change: Societal Innovation Constraints
    1. Can We Choose to Change Society?
    2. Values and Identity Constraints: I Like Who I Am
    3. Overcoming Values and Identity Constraints
    4. Social Control Constraints: Self-Protection and Regulating Behavior
    5. Overcoming Social Control Constraints
    6. History Constraints: The Past Isn’t Dead—It Isn’t Even Past
    7. Overcoming History Constraints
    8. Putting the Framework to Work: Societal Constraints
    9. Summary
    10. Chapter Reflection: Societal Constraints
  13. Chapter 7: How to Take a Really Hard Problem and Make It Completely Impossible: Technological Innovation Constraints
    1. What’s Hard About Manipulating Matter, Time, and Space
    2. Physical Constraints: Knowing What You Know (and What You Don’t)
    3. Overcoming Physical Constraints
    4. Time Constraints: Having Time and Making Time
    5. Overcoming Time Constraints
    6. Natural Environment Constraints: Altering Landscapes
    7. Putting the Framework to Work: Technological Constraints
    8. Using the Results
    9. Summary
    10. Chapter Reflection: Technological Constraints
  14. Chapter 8: When Failure Is Not an Option: Leading an Innovation Strategy
    1. Show Me the Money: Constraints on the Adoption of Innovations
    2. Managing or Leading Innovation?
    3. The Innovative Organization
    4. Creative People Must Be Stopped!
  15. Appendix A: Using the Assessment Results
  16. Appendix B: Innovation Team Contract Guidelines
  17. Appendix C: An Innovation Bookshelf
  18. References
  19. Acknowledgments
  20. About the Author
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Creative People Must Be Stopped: Six Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying)
  • Author(s): David A. Owens
  • Release date: November 2011
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9781118002902