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The Ten Faces of Innovation  By  cover art

The Ten Faces of Innovation

By: Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman
Narrated by: Stow Lovejoy
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Publisher's summary

Tom Kelley, author of The Art of Innovation and the general manager of IDEO, the world-famous design firm, illuminates the strategies IDEO used to beat the devil's advocate and drive creativity throughout the organization.

Nothing is more stifling for innovation than the role of devil's advocate. The devil's advocate can swoop into a situation from outside, raise questions and concerns, and effectively kill a creative idea without attempting constructive criticism. This role has become nearly universal in business today, but it is the role of the naysayer.

Kelley has spent nearly 20 years managing IDEO, and he uses that experience to identify the 10 roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter and resistance to naysayers. Among these roles are the Collaborator, who truly values the team over individual interests; the Experimenter, who takes calculated risks and uses tests to efficiently reach a solution to any problem; and the Experience Architect, who is focused on creating remarkable individual experiences and encounters within the organization.

This audiobook is filled with engaging case studies of companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill, and Samsung, who have all used IDEO's thinking to transform their company and customer experience. The Ten Faces of Innovation is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

©2005 Tom Kelley (P)2006 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Essential reading for every single person in your organization; even the CEO should read it! Each page contains a nugget that's worth the price of the entire book. Wow." (Seth Godin)
"Well written....Aspiring business innovators and fans of The Art of Innovation may find further inspiration in this handbook." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Ten Faces of Innovation

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

VERY Disappointing

I have immense respect for IDEO, love their work, and was really looking forward to this book. (I work in a similar industry.) Why was I disappointed? For a book about "Innovation", it's ironic that the text is so overwhelmed with tired cliches and metaphors. The book needed an "innovative" editor and writer!

At times, the cliches and metaphors were so bad and so thick in a section that I felt like I was reading a parody of a bad business book. (conceived by the Daily Show or Stephen Colbert.)

Some good ideas? Yes, absolutely, but considering the source, (and prior reviews) I expected it to be much more illuminating. As it was, I took about 2-3 ideas and parked them in my brain to consider. The rest? I just wasn't that impressed--do you need to be told: "Have your people work as a Team!" or (paraphrasing) "Don't let naysayers stop you!"?

C'mon Mr. Kelley, IDEO should be able to do better than that.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!!!

I found this book to be very informative. It was interesting to discover what types of Innovation Faces I wore personally and that were present in the company I work for. Its a good way to discover your own talents.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I don't understand the bad criticism

Where does The Ten Faces of Innovation rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I'd say it's in the top 5, definitely

Any additional comments?

I like to read reviews before buying the audiobooks, but reading a few of this book's reviews almost made me not buy it. I was in a Stanford design thinking course and the teacher recommended the book as additional reading, so I hardly could understand why a couple of people were so disappointed. They said the book didn't bring anything new, and I disagree. Of course different people understand about the subject in different levels, but the book is a great collection of suggestions and experiences that I doubt someone "already knows everything about it". If these people consider their experience so above average, I would invite them to think twice before reviewing, because they're not the target and their opinion might give the wrong impression to those wanting to listen to the audiobook. I strongly recommend it, I made hundreds of bookmarks and pretend to go back to them afterwards. Only one thing that I didn't like: for about 2 chapters, they change the narrator completely to a guy with a robotic voice that doesn't fit the content. They say nothing about that, and the old narrator comes back eventually (a great one, actually).

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Inspiring stories to draw from

I enjoyed the 10 Faces of Innovation. With innovation becoming a requirement of successful businesses, it was interesting to see it broken down so professionally by someone within IDEO...a company always mentioned in articles on innovation.

I got the most out of this book by listening to the stories told and trying to figure out how I could apply them to my own business.

Things are changing quickly, and no matter what business you're in, change can happen overnight. This book can help you keep on looking for fresh, innovative approaches for your business success.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Ed
  • 03-10-11

Hard to believe these guys do this for a living.

I have never had so many duh moments listening to an audiobook before. This book would be better narrated by a couple of readers and dramatised to make it a Winnie the Pooh adventure. I stopped listening and restarted a few days later and the book was no less irritating than when I had stopped. This is now the 4th time and I'm giving up. Very basic, nothing innovative about anything mentioned in the book, an absolute waste of time.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Must for Managers

If your company seems to have reached plateau, this book presents several ways to generate new ideas to drive your company to another level.

Good content and good presentation.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Pretty rudimentary

As a lot of other reviews have pointed out, the content in this book is very rudimentary. I think about 20% of the ideas were interesting to me. The rest seemed like fluff.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

engineer's must read

This is a must read for any engineer or engineering manager. It is written extremely well at outlining innovative personalities. The more everyone makes effort to take on the different faces of innovation the better the result of any product will be.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I listen to this over and over again

Very good book with applicable ideas. And yes, I do listen to it over and over again

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The last chapter is Missing

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Assigned for a class, easy to listen to.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Great points

Which scene was your favorite?

NA

Do you think The Ten Faces of Innovation needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No

Any additional comments?

The last chapter is missing from the audio. The length says 9 hours and 3 minutes but it actually is 8 hours 49 minutes. Those last few minutes sum everything up together.

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