The Innovation Show

Today's book is a provocation. Its goal is to help you to increase your CQ and your organization's CQ. It encourages you to integrate both wonder and rigour into your daily life in order to produce new and novel products, services, and experiences that deliver greater value to your community and your organization. To this end, you'll gain three major tools from this book: Catalyzing inquiry Integrating improvisation, and elevating intuition. When you build these three practices into your work on a daily basis, you will discover true creativity— and its output, innovation— beginning to take place. We welcome the author of "The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work", Natalie Nixon More about Natalie https://www.figure8thinking.com

Our guest today is a learner who courageously took on challenging turnaround roles in industries where he had no prior experience. He used his rigorous French education and elite training as a McKinsey consultant to lead five companies as CEO, culminating in the transformation of Best Buy. During these years, he went through a personal transformation, from seeking to be the smartest person at the table to becoming a passionate and compassionate leader of people. By the time he became CEO of Best Buy in 2012, he had led turnarounds as head of EDS France, Vivendi's video game division, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and Carlson Companies. Despite his achievements by his early forties he was feeling disillusioned from chasing success. This is what inspired him to take "a step back and spend time looking into his soul to find a better direction for his life." In his study with Catholic monks and a number of CEOs in France, he realized that work is a noble calling to serve others and an expression of love. He believes work must be guided by the pursuit of a purpose with people at its center. This conviction has shaped his life and his career. It is a great pleasure to welcome: Senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, and author of, "The Heart of Business - Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism", Hubert Joly Find Hubert here: https://www.hubertjoly.org

Bethany McLean, an expert in corporate scandals and author of The Smartest Guys in the Room, discusses Enron's rise and scandalous fall. Topics include Enron's deceptive practices, the influence of stock market riches, the importance of early support in career development, the value of writing for understanding ideas, the visionary idea of transforming the natural gas business, Enron's manipulation of mark-to-market accounting, reflections on earning money and justice, and the fascination with human nature.

Today's book presents a different approach to enterprise strategy and leadership. A complementary approach the author calls: pioneering leadership. Rather than simply work within existing parameters of operational excellence pioneering leadership sees you embarking upon quests. Such quests allow us to systematically explore complex and uncertain futures. We don't set goals in the hopes that a particular future will manifest — rather, we explore multiple possible futures, and prepare proactive stratagems to capitalize on each. The result of this continuous and dynamic approach is that enterprise strategy and leadership is enriched with viable, alternative options to pursue. Such options allow enterprise leaders to mitigate risk, obtain strategic advantage and ensure meaningful progress as the world changes. Pioneering leadership is challenging to initiate and maintain — especially when compared to the established approach that favours fast results with a bias toward prudence and predictability. But! If we can crack through our default thinking, pioneering leadership offers enterprise leaders the chance to obtain the most important thing of all — enduring relevance. It's a pleasure to welcome the author of How to Lead a Quest A handbook for pioneering executives, the Arch-Wizard of Ambiguity, Dr Jason Fox Find Jason here: https://www.drjasonfox.com https://www.cleverness.com/word

Incremental improvement is no longer sufficient in helping organizations navigate the complexity, uncertainty, and volatility of today's world. Our guest today explores how to create non-linear, dramatic change in organizations. He explores the emerging science of change that teaches us about how to build organizations – from businesses to governments – that change and adapt rapidly. It is great pleasure to welcome the author of "Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times", John Kotter. More about John: https://www.kotterinc.com

Today's guest is widely recognized as the world's leading expert on personal and organizational productivity. Time Magazine called today's book, "the definitive business self-help book of the decade." We welcome the international best-selling author of "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity", David Allen

Digital Goddess is a book for entrepreneurial women at any stage of life who want to know what it actually takes to build a business, in a world that's not always fair, predictable, or politically correct. It is one woman's story—by no means universal, but common enough to be instructive. It's about how our guest has dealt with the way things are, not the way I hoped things would be or the way I think they should be. It's about sucking it up, making the hard choices, and dealing with the consequences. We welcome author Digital Goddess: The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur, Victoria Montgomery Brown

We are living through a crisis of distraction. Plans get sidetracked, friends are ignored, work never seems to get done. Why does it feel like we're distracting our lives away? In "Indistractable", behavioural designer Nir Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving you to distraction. Empowering and optimistic, this is the book that will help you design your time, realise your ambitions, and live the life you really want. He is a friend of the show, where we previously featured his book "Hooked" and he is with us to share insights from his brilliant best-seller "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life", Nir Eyal. More about Nir: https://www.nirandfar.com

What makes your favourite nonfiction books so compelling, understandable, or enjoyable to read? Those works connect with you, as a reader. When you recognize what's happening, you can apply those same methods to your own writing. Whether you're an expert trying to communicate with a mainstream audience or a nonfiction writer hoping to reach more people, our guest offers us the insight we need to reach more people with your words. It's a pleasure to welcome the author of "Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why", Anne Janzer More about Anne: https://annejanzer.com

You've got one shot to sell your ideas...but you're busy. So you leverage what's available: slides, data, charts, facts… and you end up with scrambled messages and no clear call to action—this is what our guest calls the Frankendeck. Today's book teaches us to organize our ideas, data, and insights to help our audience quickly understand what they need to know and do with the information. It arms us with a framework for crafting influential narratives that up-level the conversation and drive business results. Everyday Business Storytelling with Janine Kurnoff We welcome the author of Everyday Business Storytelling: Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience, Janine Kurnoff More about Janine: https://www.presentation-company.com/team_member/janine-kurnoff