The Innovative Mindset: 5 Behaviors for Accelerating Breakthroughs

by John Sweeney, Elena Imaretska

The Innovative Mindset calls the accepted definition of innovation into question, urging you to consider how innovation might function as a behavior that you perpetuate, rather than an inflexible theory or corporate-defined initiative. By asking yourself what it takes to be innovative—and by being honest with yourself about the answer—you can incorporate innovation into your life much in the same way that you would a behavior to help you lose weight, increase your strength, learn to play the piano, or improve your relationships. This groundbreaking text helps you identify what you need to do in order to become more innovative and less fearful, and assists in creating a regimen that transforms how you act.

Innovation has become one of the most popular buzz words of the Digital Age, and there is no better time to reevaluate the true meaning of a concept than when it is being touted by individuals and companies around the world. A fresh, practical understanding of innovation can revolutionize the way you think about work.

Master innovation by reexamining what it means and how you can implement it as a behavior
Explore the transformative power of the Mindset of Discovery in poignant, up-to-date case studies and improvisation-based tenets
Spark innovation, maximize productivity, and increase profitability as a result of implementing the Big Five behaviors
Boost performance as you foster and leverage your new approach towards innovation

The Innovative Mindset reevaluates the nature of innovation and shows how a change in perspective can lead to more dynamic, more successful endeavors.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2015

About the author

As the owner and director of America's oldest comedy theater, Brave New Workshop, John has honed his powers of improvisation to ignite cultures of innovative behavior within America's biggest businesses including Microsoft, PwC, General Mills & United Health Care.

Featured across countless media platforms including Inc, Forbes and Financial Times, he uses his scientific understanding of how human behavior is influenced, to implement simple but groundbreaking tools such as 'Yes and...' and 'The Big 5' so you too can be at peak innovation fitness.

But the driving force behind Sweeney's success are the results he helps clients achieve by effectively bridging improvisational theater skills and behaviors to the workplace through his speeches, training and writing. His improvisational insights have resonated with a broad spectrum of forward-thinking business leaders from some of the most innovative and largest companies in the world - ensuring every level of the organization is operating within the mindset of discovery.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 4.5 star review. So, I love Brave New Workshop. I’ve been fortunate enough to work closely with them on a few things in the past 6 months or so and this book really brings some of what I’ve learned behind the scenes to life. So excited we get to offer this to our employees as part of our Q1 book club this year :)

[Gavin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book that I bought to read during my lunch-breaks. However, it's safe to say that it is not the book I expected it to be. I think it should actually be classified as a biography, as most of the musings I read in the first 50 pages before giving up were very personal in nature, and not what I expected with regards to the topic. Perhaps because I have been quite adept throughout my career in innovating, I did not find the references to things like God being a basis for innovation to be very relevant, or indeed, having any place in a business book (being European, I suppose you could say my non-secular bias is coming through). The book seemed to have little to do with innovation and much more on personal musings. I do wonder what someone who is not innovative at all would take from this book. Myself, I am going to try and sell it back to Amazon to recoup at least a fraction of what I paid for.

[Kim Staley · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book doesn't cover much in the way of new territory, I liked that it laid out a "fitness plan" to help you keep up on the five innovation practices: listening, deferring judgment, reframing, declaring, and jumping in. Too often I have read books that don't provide any practical advice, so I appreciated that the fitness plans provide several options for each practice. I'm already finding ways to apply the practices to my work and personal life.

[Yoshikage Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took the Economist's online course "The Innovative Mindset: Improvisation and Business in the 21st Century" by the same authors and quite liked it.

[Christine Zibas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is innovative thinking something you're just born with or can it be learned? Authors John Sweeney and Elena Imaretska argue that bringing innovation into the workplace or home is really a matter of mindset and practice. Their thought-provoking book offers real examples of how companies and individuals use the five basic principles articulated in this book to create real change.

While most companies depend on innovation to move forward, inherently things operate on a status-quo basis. Bringing a new mindset to the game and forging some practical ways to expand on creativity is the brain child of the Minneapolis-based Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre. This improvisational comedy setting was the birthplace of a far wider use of innovation.

Throughout the book, the authors use their own experience as well as some Q&A with other innovators to explore the boundaries of innovation and design practices for bringing more of it into the lives of corporations and their employees. Even if the reader isn't interested in using these techniques in the workplace, there's plenty of application for their use in one's personal life as well.

Also covered are the issues that hold people back from innovating, or sharing innovative ideas, primary among them fear. What I enjoyed most about the book are the real takeaways, things that anyone can do to practice the five keys shared here -- listening, deferring judgment, declaring, reframing, and jumping in. This "business" book combines the best of both worlds: theory and practice.

[Ann Drewiske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and inspiring - a must read for all managers who complain about stick in the mud teams, oppressive upper management, or who find themselves stalled out and in a negative thought pattern about work or projects.