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Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation
by
Why can some organizations innovate time and again, while most cannot?
You might think the key to innovation is attracting exceptional creative talent. Or making the right investments. Or breaking down organizational silos. All of these things may help—but there’s only one way to ensure sustained innovation: you need to lead it—and with a special kind of leadership. Col ...more
You might think the key to innovation is attracting exceptional creative talent. Or making the right investments. Or breaking down organizational silos. All of these things may help—but there’s only one way to ensure sustained innovation: you need to lead it—and with a special kind of leadership. Col ...more
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Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
June 10th 2014
by Harvard Business Review Press
(first published January 1st 2014)
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Start your review of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation

Great book! The author makes the argument that the future of innovation needs to be in the hands of a new kind of leadership. Leaders that can move people to find their own potential and then work together to encourage creativity and innovation. No longer is it leadership of just a solo genius, but leadership that can bring people together for a greater cause. The future is for leaders to be like Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King. The leaders of the future will need to move the mass
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This book sometimes feels like a cliche business book full of cherry-picked anecdotes to illustrate the authors' points, but nonetheless, its proposed framework is reasonably convincing. As is the case with many of these kinds of books, I gleaned a few insightful tidbits from random pages apart from the main points. A decent read.
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Feb 13, 2018
Érica Briones
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
challenge-2018
Excelentes cases, sólido framework de liderança para inovação
Decidi ler esse livro por causa de um artigo da HBR, um resumo da leitura. Vou dizer q fiquei decepcionada ao notar q o artigo resume muito bem o framework e em termos de visão consolidada da proposta funciona melhor, mas... para um entendimento mais profundo do q as pesquisadoras identificaram o livro é fantástico. Em especial destaco as leituras dos cases que são em muitos momentos cativantes.
Decidi ler esse livro por causa de um artigo da HBR, um resumo da leitura. Vou dizer q fiquei decepcionada ao notar q o artigo resume muito bem o framework e em termos de visão consolidada da proposta funciona melhor, mas... para um entendimento mais profundo do q as pesquisadoras identificaram o livro é fantástico. Em especial destaco as leituras dos cases que são em muitos momentos cativantes.

This is one of those books that could be a lot shorter but the authors tend to repeat a lot of concepts several times. Many of the cases that are used in the book are very interesting and if it wouldn’t be for that, I’d give it 3 stars. Good concepts that are helpful for leaders that need to drive their organizations forward.

Buku ini menceritakan mengenai hubungan antara kepemimpinan dengan inovasi, mirip dengan Creativity buku karangan Ed Catmull presiden dari Pixar. Beda-nya di buku ini Linda A Hill dan kawan-kawan meneliti di berbagai bidang bisnis bukan cuma industri film animasi, tp juga di industri otomotif, teknologi informasi, konsultan desain dll..

I'd skip a lot of cliche Chapters, and read the Chapters 7-11.
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Interesting collection of stories from successful leaders, but far too long. The book has some interesting insight but if you have already read about the innovation styles of Pixar, Google, and eBay you will find much of the same regurgitated information. If you are unfamiliar with those techniques, however, then by all means, read on my friend! Still, it's basic points are meaningful. Innovation is a creative collaboration; it should include a diverse collection of ideas, especially opposition.
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Solid summary of how to organize teams to innovate. The talk about creative abrasion (cultivating diverse ideas, not group think), creative agility (non-standard methods of working together, including changing the focus of the project), and create resolution (not settling for either/or solutions, but a third way that combines). The idea is to find the goldilocks zone in the middle, not to lean too far to control or freedom.
The best part about the book is the case studies of how others did it. Th ...more
The best part about the book is the case studies of how others did it. Th ...more

This book introduces a profound methodology of how to transform a standard organization to highly innovative enterprise including managing the different paradoxes of highly innovative environment. The transformational examples in the book are well thought of to explain the process. The interactions between creative abrasion, creative agility and creative resolution is remarkable.

Read for work but one of the most engaging management books I've read in a long time! Great storytelling.
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I use this book in my Leadership, Creativity and Innovation class and I think it is outstanding. Collective Genius is the best introduction that I know to the newer concept of "leadership without starting with a vision." In many leadership situations these days, leadership has to start well before the vision comes clear. This is a good contrast to the vision-focused works of writers such as Warren Bennis or Kouznes and Posner -- not that the vision leadership is wrong, just that there are other
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Es un libro maravilloso, indispensable e imprescindible si se quiere tener una visión moderna de lo que debe ser un líder en una organización del siglo XXI. Mediante una serie de estudios sistemáticos durante 10 años en diversas organizaciones los autores muestran con ejemplos extraídos de la realidad el qué y el cómo hacen y piensan los lideres para generar condiciones que propician la creatividad y la innovación.
It is a wonderful , indispensable and essential book if you want to have a modern ...more
It is a wonderful , indispensable and essential book if you want to have a modern ...more

La innovación está llena de paradojas, y para poder dirigirla hay que saber jugar con todas: hay que valorar a los individuos y a los grupos, hay que apoyar las ideas y confrontarlas, hay que experimentar, aprender y dar resultados al mismo tiempo, hay que permitir las improvisaciones y respetar la estructura, hay que ser pacientes y urgentes, hay que seguir iniciativas de todos los niveles de la organización. Todo al mismo tiempo y con una sonrisa en la cara.
El libro es un excelente resumen de ...more
El libro es un excelente resumen de ...more

Linda Hill, AM'79, PhD'82
Coauthor
From our pages (Nov–Dec/14): How do some organizations innovate over and over again, while most can’t even start? The authors spent the past nine years exploring this question, talking with exceptional leaders of innovation across the globe, in industries ranging from filmmaking to e-commerce. Collective Genius distills their findings. The book provides a practical tool for leaders seeking to build and sustain a culture of innovation throughout their organization ...more
Coauthor
From our pages (Nov–Dec/14): How do some organizations innovate over and over again, while most can’t even start? The authors spent the past nine years exploring this question, talking with exceptional leaders of innovation across the globe, in industries ranging from filmmaking to e-commerce. Collective Genius distills their findings. The book provides a practical tool for leaders seeking to build and sustain a culture of innovation throughout their organization ...more

The book is a collection of essays from leaders who have successfully created an environment conducive to innovation. Hidden in these essays are solutions that have worked and solved the fundamental problems that inhibit innovation. I believe most executives will identify with the problems and challenges discussed in the book. Full review. . .
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Good principles overall, but at times I felt the principles got lost in the lengthy case studies that were as much about celebrating the company being studies as focusing on the principles of innovation. Also, while they do make reference to factors like Google having a huge budget that many readers are likely to have, I felt like the case study could use a better boiling down than "but this would still work for you."
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Need more examples
Like so many academic works, this book contained interesting examples of leaders and their well-known organizations. It also contained interesting themes such as " the six paradoxes." What was missing were the "how they made it happen." Just telling us how fabulous projects turned out without offering best practices and techniques we can emulate was ultimately unsatisfying. ...more
Like so many academic works, this book contained interesting examples of leaders and their well-known organizations. It also contained interesting themes such as " the six paradoxes." What was missing were the "how they made it happen." Just telling us how fabulous projects turned out without offering best practices and techniques we can emulate was ultimately unsatisfying. ...more

The authors provide academic grounding (in their notes and bibliography) for stories that illustrate the paradox of developing innovative ecosystems that flourish because of leadership soft skills and social intelligence.
I applaud their stated purpose and hope they encourage readers "to examine your own mind-set and practices."
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I applaud their stated purpose and hope they encourage readers "to examine your own mind-set and practices."
...more

This is not a book I would have normally picked up; received it at a conference. Glad I read it. Focuses on leadership characteristics to foster innovation - and those characteristics being different from what is normally defined as "good leadership". A number of interesting stories. Also had the opportunity to hear one of the authors speak. Recommend.
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Apr 17, 2015
Mills College Library
added it
658.4092 H6469 2014

review to come in sept/oct issue of Global Business and Organizational Excellence.
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