The Innovation Show

Innovators. Changemakers. Entrepreneurs. Intrapreneurs. Catalysts. One of these things is not like the other. That is to say, each of these types of people can make a whole lot of change happen in the world, but within any group of innovators, changemakers, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs, are those people called Catalysts, Those of us who have a deep-rooted need to create positive change. Among Catalysts, there is an unmet need to be seen and valued for who we are and how we show up in the world. We move so fast that we lose people. We can break shit without intentionality. And all of that can lead to burnout—frequently.

Catalysts feel a deep sense of drive toward a better future state. We can't help but see potential change and set it in motion, wherever we are. We're energized and we're driven by it.

We welcome the author of Move Fast. Break Stuff. Burn Out.: The Catalyst's Guide to Working Well, Shannon Lucas, welcome to the show.

Even before the pandemic, it seemed the world was spinning so fast it's difficult to keep up. Arguably a lot of the technological disruption that was around in 2019 simply got accelerated – remote working, digitisation and AI to name just three.

Our guest today notes in his new book: Two hundred and fifty years ago the Industrial Revolution replaced our arms and legs at work. The fourth Industrial Revolution is now replacing our brains. He says The Machine Age is engulfing both organisations and people. This shift is challenging the very essence of what it means to be human.

His book won Business Book of the year in 2020.

We welcome the author of The Human Edge: How curiosity and creativity are your superpowers in the digital economy, Greg Orme.

Leaders have experimented with open innovation programs, corporate accelerators, venture capital arms, skunkworks, and innovation contests. They've travelled the world to learn from today's hottest, most successful tech companies. Yet most would admit they've failed to create truly innovative cultures.

There's a better way. And it all starts with the power of habit. The central argument in today's book is that the world's biggest untapped source of energy isn't the wind, water, or sun. It is inside existing organisations, which are brimming with innovation energy. Today that energy is largely constrained and contained. You need to release, harness, and amplify it.

Today's book will show you how. We welcome a friend of the innovation show, 3-time guest and author of a plethora of titles author of Eat, Sleep, Innovate Scott D. Anthony welcome back to the show.

More about Scott: https://www.innosight.com/insight/eat-sleep-innovate/

Faced with the choice of starting a company or joining a large corporation, Steve Jobs believed that it was 'more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy'. But for innovators inside established companies, making a distinction between being a pirate and joining the navy is a fallacy.

We have to figure out a way to become pirates in the navy! There is nothing harder in business than trying to innovate within large corporations. Innovators in big companies often face internal opposition as well as their external competitors. It is the management of the core business that tends to get in the way of innovation.

If you work in corporate innovation, if you run an innovation lab or work in one, if you are a pirate I'm the navy, there is so much in this episode, there are some hard truths to face, some butter pills to swallow, I certainly know I've made some of the mistakes our guest identifies.

More about Tendayi here:

https://tendayiviki.com

Today's book was born out of a desire to show how and why ritual is critical in our everyday lives, using examples from across the animal world, including elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans, wolves, dogs, lions, zebras, whales, flamingos, fish, and even insects.

Although social animals exhibit many rituals, this book focuses on ten important rituals that are essential to our well-being: greeting rituals, group rituals, courtship, gifting, spoken rituals, unspoken rituals, play, grieving and healing, renewal, and travel and migration.

Ritualized greetings, such as mouth-licking in wolves or a handshake in humans, are a form of information gathering, and they have evolved among social animals to strengthen bonds and build trust.

Let's take play For example, play affords individuals the opportunity to experiment with their surroundings and come up with creative solutions critical to a species' survival. Examples include a lion cub practicing hunting skills by pretending a littermate is prey or a toddler building a fantastical world in a sandbox, which fosters coping skills for later life challenges.

Reincorporating the lost art of ritual will better equip us to discover new ways to reconnect to others, to ourselves, and to the natural world.

More about Caitlin: https://www.caitlineoconnell.com

Paradigmatic shifts in the business landscape, known as inflection points, can either create new, entrepreneurial opportunities (see Amazon and Netflix) or they can lead to devastating consequences (e.g., Blockbuster and Toys R Us). Only those leaders who can "see around corners" - that is, spot the disruptive inflection points developing before they hit - are poised to succeed in this market.

Columbia Business School Professor and corporate consultant Rita McGrath contends that inflection points, though they may seem sudden, are not random.

Every seemingly overnight shift is the final stage of a process that has been subtly building for some time. Armed with the right strategies and tools, smart businesses can see these inflection points coming and use them to gain a competitive advantage. Seeing Around Corners is the first hands-on guide to anticipating, understanding, and capitalising on the inflection points shaping the marketplace.

We welcome author of Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen, Rita McGrath

https://www.ritamcgrath.com

https://www.valize.com

Barry O'Reilly shares how the Cycle of Unlearning is a new way of thinking and a new way of leading organisations in every industry. It's not difficult to learn more. What is difficult is to know what to unlearn, what to stop, and what to throw away. This is the paradox of success.

While thinking and doing certain methods may have brought you success in the past, it's almost certain they won't continue to bring you success in the future.

We discuss the importance of unlearning

How Serena Williams unlearned her way to success

The Origins of Disney's Magic Band

And much more.

More about Barry here: https://barryoreilly.com

This mind-opening episode summarises some of the groundbreaking analysis of the business, economic, and technological trends of today to predict what the world will look like in 2030 – and how the Coronavirus pandemic will accelerate each of these major trends.

Our guest is author of "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything", Mauro Guillén

Some stats from the book:

Birthplace of the next industrial revolution: sub-Saharan Africa

The reason: 500 million acres of fertile yet undeveloped agricultural land

The size of Mexico: 500 million acres

Percentage of the world's wealth owned by women in 2000: 15

Percentage of the world's wealth owned by women in 2030: 55

If Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters: global financial crisis averted

Worldwide, the number of people who went hungry in 2017: 821 million

Worldwide, the number of people who will go hungry in 2030: 200 million

Worldwide, the number of people who were obese in 2017: 650 million

Worldwide, the number of people who will be obese in 2030: 1.1 billion

Percentage of Americans projected to be obese in 2030: 50

Percentage of the world's land occupied by cities in 2030: 1.1

Percentage of the world's population living in cities in 2030: 60

Percentage of worldwide carbon emissions produced by cities in 2030: 87

Percentage of world's urban population exposed to rising sea levels in 2030: 80

The largest middle-class consumer market today: United States and Western Europe

The largest middle-class consumer market in 2030: China

By 2030, the number of people entering the middle class in emerging markets: 1 billion

The number of people currently in the middle class in the United States: 223 million

The number of people in the middle class in the United States in 2030: 209 million

More about Mauro:

http://www.mauroguillen.com