The Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas

by Elaine Dundon

Book Overview

A guide that offers a "how-to" prescription for building creative and strategic innovation skills at all levels of an organization, rather than focusing on decision-making levels only. Breakthrough... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814471463
• ISBN13: 9780814471463
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Amacom
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 17 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

This book is needed NOW, more than ever!

Dundon makes it clear that "innovation" is not the same thing as creativity. Importantly, she establishes that the work of innovation requires discipline with an explicit focus on results. Indeed, her book should be required reading by anyone who is serious about personal and organizational performance. In a very practical and readable way, The Seeds of Innovation provides essential guidance for dealing with change while adding value on a sustainable basis. It's about time that someone demonstrated how real innovation can and does work! Now it's time to plant, cultivate, and harvest the "seeds of innovation" by reading and practicing the essential wisdom in Elaine Dundon's book!

Gives the reader real innovation techniques to use

Innovation is an overwrought, overused word/topic with many books written about it. You are reading this review because you are seeking thinking tools and techniques to apply to your version of Innovation, whether for an organization, community, or to be used personally. This book provides you, the reader/user, with an excellent and sensible framework to define, understand, develop, and implement processes that empower and support environments where "innovation" can happen (you still need to do the work). Dundon defines innovation as "the profitable implementation of strategic creativity." Whether your "profit" is quantified in money or good will, this book gently instructs you in the finer arts of achieving real innovative results by taking a holistic 3 innovation-dimension views on your challenges. I have purchased 20 copies of this book and given them to professional colleagues, the book is that rewarding. Innovation is not creativity, which is a very common misperception. More information can be found at www dot seedsofinnovation dot com I higly recommend this book as one of the most important books in its field ever written.

Relevant, Practical, Good Tool

Innovate or stagnate. Or, put another way, innovate or stand helplessly and watch your competitors eat your lunch! Wise leaders stimulate, encourage, reinforce, and reward innovation. If you're not doing this in your organization, now is the time to start...and this book will show you the path.The book is organized into three parts: The Seeds of Creative Thinking, The Seeds of Strategic Thinking, and The Seeds of Transformational Thinking. Dundon, a consultant and speaker on innovation, takes us out of the proverbial box. The process starts with an introductory chapter that delivers an introduction to innovation management. In this presentation, the author sets the stage nicely for the value of the balance of the book.Each aspect of thinking is essential to making a difference in an organization. Dundon explains the what, the why, the how, and provides examples in a very instructive text. Each chapter addresses skills and strategies to generate creativity, a strategic approach (big picture and visionary), and practical how-to ideas to support innovation in organizational settings. Reading the chapters alone is worthwhile, but we're not done yet. Following the eleven chapters are five appendices, a recommended reading list, and an index. The appendices provide an explanation of the nine step innovation process, a list of probing questions to energize innovative thinking, 99 innovations and 99 trends. Readers will find it valuable to go through the list of trends and consider their influence on how their organization does business...and will do business in the future. As a futurist by profession, I can vouch for this being a comprehensive and highly usable list. The additional criteria section, while not too long, offers even more thought-provoking insights to check your work, stimulate more discussion, and refine the product of your synergistic thinking. Readers will find this book valuable as a cover-to-cover read, but then highly effective as a tool to achieve significant results.

Timely and well written - Dundon reveals real insight

The Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy that Fosters New Ideas comes at a critical time in the quest for new ideas and breakthrough efficiencies by corporations, small businesses, universities and governments. It is a tour de force of how to inspire and manage innovation. And this is the great value of Elaine Dundon's work -- she presents "how" to inspire and manage innovation based on real experience and valuable research. I highly recommend this book.

Readable, well-researched and very useful

I liked the approach taken in this book. The author combines easy-to-understand ideas for creative thinking with some solid advice on how to make these ideas more 'strategic' or useful. I also liked the advice on how to 'sell' your idea because this is where the real challenge is in most organizations.Lola Rasminsky, Director, Beyond the Box™