RICH BRADEN is the founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based consulting firm, People Rocket. The company People Rocket partners with leaders and teams to innovate with confidence to drive clarity, effective execution, and strategic agility in complex, fast-changing environments. For the past 15 years he has been a design educator at universities around the world including Stanford University and Harvard University.

TESSA FORSHAW, PHD, is a cognitive scientist, senior researcher, and co-founder of the Next Level Lab at Harvard University. She teaches design thinking, creativity, and innovation at the Harvard Innovation Lab and Harvard University DCE. She also served on the Teaching Faculty at Stanford's design school for several years, and has worked in innovation consultancies across the world.

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Part I Becoming Innovation-ish 1

1 Innovation Hesitation 3

Holding Ourselves Back 4

Creativity Isn't Optional 8

Anybody Can Do It 9

Key Takeaways 12

2 Innovation-ish Dynamics 13

Focusing on People, Not Steps 15

Thinking Creatively Is Human Nature 17

Unlocking Your Innovative Brain 19

Innovating as a Team Sport 25

Key Takeaways 27

3 The Innovation-ish Compass 29

Choosing Roof-Shots Over Moon-Shots 30

Navigating with Innovation-ish 32

Starting Is Easier Than You Think 36

Key Takeaways 37

Part II Mindsets 39

4 Your Mindset Matters 41

Choosing Your Mindset 43

Exploring the Six Innovation-ish Mindsets 44

Key Takeaways 49

5 The Interactions Mindset 51

Going into the Real World 52

Collecting Different Types of Data 55

Preparing for Interactions 58

Interacting with People 60

Exploring Types of Interactions 62

Key Takeaways 64

6 The Insights Mindset 65

Seeing Insights 67

Developing a Synthesizing Mind 70

Using Different Types of Reasoning 75

Solving the Right Problem 79

Framing Problems 82

Key Takeaways 86

7 The Ideas Mindset 87

Generating Ideas 88

Embracing Wild Ideas 94

Applying Brainstorming Levers 98

Key Takeaways 105

8 The Iterations Mindset 107

Iterating to Learn 108

Testing Your Ideas Early 115

Managing Fidelity and Scale 118

Key Takeaways 122

9 The Inspirations Mindset 123

Inspiring Others 124

Making Stories Sticky 128

Understanding Your Audience 139

Key Takeaways 140

10 The Implications Mindset 141

Asking "Should We?" First 142

Then Asking "Can We?" 148

Key Takeaways 154

Part III Moves 155

11 Moves Are Actions 157

Understanding Move Characteristics 161

Getting Your Hands Dirty 166

Key Takeaways 169

12 Using Moves 171

Using Historical Moves 172

Customizing Moves 176

Translating Moves 179

Finding Analogous Moves 182

Exploring Example Moves 185

Key Takeaways 194

Part IV Metacognition 195

13 Thinking About Moves 197

Mapping Your Moves 198

Creating a Move Map 200

Key Takeaways 207

14 Being Metacognitive 209

Reflecting to Choose Your Strategy 211

Asking Metacognitive Questions 212

Key Takeaways 218

Part V Activating Innovation 219

15 Fueling Innovation 221

Harness Ambiguity 222

Embrace Failure 226

Key Takeaways 232

16 Take Small Steps 233

Increasing Innovation-ish-ness 234

Giving Yourself Permission 235

You Have What You Need to Start 238

Key Takeaways 240

Epilogue 243

Glossary 249

Endnotes 255

Some Sources of Moves and Inspiration 291

Index 297