The Innovation Show

One in ten French people still believe the earth may be flat;  One-quarter of Australians think that cavemen and dinosaurs existed at the same time;  One in nine Brits think the 9/11 attacks were a US government conspiracy;  15 per cent of Americans  believe that the media or government adds secret mind-controlling signals to television transmissions.  Our main interest is not niche stupidity or minority belief in conspiracies, but much more general and widespread misperceptions about individual, social and political realities. Do you eat too much sugar?  Is violence in the world increasing or decreasing?  What proportion of your country are Muslim?  What does it cost to raise a child?  How much do we need to save for retirement?  How much tax do the rich pay?    When we estimate the answers to these fundamental questions that directly affect our lives, we tend to be vastly wrong, irrespective of how educated we are.  Today’s book - informed by over ten exclusive major polling studies by IPSOS across 40 countries - asks why in the age of the internet, where information should be more accessible than ever, we remain so poorly informed.  It is a pleasure to welcome the author of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything, Bobby Duffy, welcome to the show.

Whoop, live in-studio guest in our new studio Choosing Courage LIVE with Jim Detert. Jim is the world's foremost expert on workplace courage, He explains that courage isn't a character trait that only a few possess; it's a virtue developed through practice. We welcome a friend of the Innovation Show and a previous 2-time guest, He is the author of Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work we welcome Jim Detert. More about Jim: https://jimdetert.com

How do you cope when faced with complexity and constant change at work? Here’s what the world’s best leaders and teams do: they improvise. They invent novel responses and take calculated risks without a scripted plan or a safety net that guarantees specific outcomes. They negotiate with each other as they proceed, and they don’t dwell on mistakes or stifle each other’s ideas. In short, they say “yes to the mess” that is today’s hurried, harried, yet enormously innovative and fertile world of work. Today’s guest describes how, like skilled jazz players, leaders need to master the art of unlearning, perform and experiment simultaneously, and take turns soloing and supporting each other. And with examples that range from manufacturing to the military to high-tech, he illustrates how organizations must take an inventive approach to crisis management, economic volatility, and all the rapidly evolving realities of our globally connected world. It is a pleasure to welcome the author of: Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz, Frank Barrett, welcome to the show. More about Frank here: https://www.yestothemess.org

For a moment late in 2018, one bitcoin, which physically amounts to a few electrons blipping on a tiny bit of silicon, was worth $20,000—the same as a pound of gold. Libertarian technologists who believed bitcoin would be the foundation of a new world order saw the moment as an apotheosis. Everyone else saw a bubble. Everyone else was right, and the bubble burst. But bitcoin survived, and the battle for its soul rages on. Today’s book drops us into the unfolding drama, tracing the rise, fall, and rebirth of cryptocurrency through the experiences of major players across the globe. We follow Silicon Valley entrepreneur Brian Armstrong and the turbulent rocket ride of his startup, Coinbase, as he tries to take bitcoin mainstream while fighting off hackers, thieves, and zealots. Our guest today keenly observes the world of virtual currencies and what happens when startups try to disrupt the world of high finance. Clear explanations of crypto technology are woven into an amazing landscape full of meme-fueled startup hijinks, hacking (so much hacking!), shady investors, government investigations, billionaire bros and their Lambos, and closed-door meetings with Jamie Dimon. This is the surprising story of the origins of cryptocurrency and how it is changing money forever. We welcome The author of Kings of Crypto One Startup’s Quest to Take Cryptocurrency out of Silicon Valley and onto Wall Street Jeff John Roberts

Our guest’s research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.
 Questions he poses include: 
Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?

Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?

 Can scale show us how to create a more sustainable future?

By applying the rigour of physics to questions of biology, He found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we each need. He then made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business world. These investigations have led to powerful insights into the elemental natural laws that bind us together in profound ways, and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple tune, however diverse and unrelated they may seem. It is a great pleasure to welcome the author of “Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies” Geoffrey West

Our guest’s research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.
 Questions he poses include: 
Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?

Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?

 Can scale show us how to create a more sustainable future?

By applying the rigour of physics to questions of biology, He found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we each need. He then made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business world. These investigations have led to powerful insights into the elemental natural laws that bind us together in profound ways, and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple tune, however diverse and unrelated they may seem. It is a great pleasure to welcome back the author of “Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies” Geoffrey West

Our guest’s research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.
 Questions he poses include: 
Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?

Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?

 Can scale show us how to create a more sustainable future?

By applying the rigour of physics to questions of biology, He found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we each need. He then made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business world. These investigations have led to powerful insights into the elemental natural laws that bind us together in profound ways, and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple tune, however diverse and unrelated they may seem. It is a great pleasure to welcome the author of “Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies” Geoffrey West

Our guest's books have sold well over one million copies and spent a whole nine months on the New York Times bestseller list! Our guest is a master negotiator and has been successfully negotiating everything from insurance claims to hostage releases to his own son's hair length and hundreds of other matters for over five decades. Ever since coining the term "win-win" in 1963, he has been teaching people the world over how to get what they want in any situation. As a result of his extensive negotiating experience and his unique presentation style, he is internationally renowned as someone who can quickly grasp both sides of an issue and get the most for his client out of a difficult negotiation. His advice? "Simple," he says, "I care...but not that much!" In today’s book - and in his signature humorous and self-deprecating style - he explains how the reader can learn powerful yet subtle negotiating ploys to help them in their business, career, and even family relationships. As our guest puts it, "Negotiation is the game of life." It is an honour to host the author of You Can Negotiate Anything, The Game of Negotiating and the focus of today’s episode “Negotiate This!: By Caring, But Not T-H-A-T Much”, Herb Cohen

Our guest’s research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.
 Questions he poses include: 
 Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion? 

Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?

 Can scale show us how to create a more sustainable future?

 By applying the rigour of physics to questions of biology, he found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we each need. He then made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business world. These investigations have led to powerful insights into the elemental natural laws that bind us together in profound ways, and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple tune, however diverse and unrelated they may seem. It is a great pleasure to welcome the author of “Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies” Geoffrey West

Today’s guest hopes it will leave you seeing, thinking, and feeling differently about how to grow and remain relevant in these transformative times. How to grow yourself, grow those around you, and grow your practice, passion, or company. How to remain relevant by understanding what it takes to make sense and thrive in a world of rapid technological, demographic, and global upheaval. And to do so by questioning much of what business takes for granted: •why data is often not the way forward and we may have too much of it •why change sucks •why having more—rather than fewer—meetings is better •why it is essential to have a culture and courage that calls out “the turd on the table. You not only will learn what makes great leaders but also how to deal with, or not become, a bad boss. Our guest has served Over a forty-year career at the companies of the Publicis Groupe, an eighty-thousand-person global marketing and business transformation firm, He helped found and cofound some of the first digital agencies and future-oriented strategic consultancies in the world as well as contributing to the shaping and growth of one of the two largest buyers of digital, data-driven media in the world. We welcome the author of "Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data" Rishad Tobaccowala