Interview with Scott Berkun on “The Myths of Innovation”
Another interesting podcast, here on IT Conversations an interview with Scott Berkun (“The Myths of Innovation”), get the mp3:
How do you know whether a hot technology will succeed or fail? Or where the next big idea will come from? The best answers come not from the popular myths we tell about innovation, but instead from time-tested truths that explain how we’ve made it this far. In The Myths of Innovation, author Scott Berkun takes a careful look at innovation history, including the software and Internet Age, to reveal how ideas truly become successful innovations-truths that people can apply to today’s challenges. He joins Phil, Scott, and Ben to discuss his new book and his career.
He first reviews his background and what led him to leave a position at Microsoft to become a freelance writer. He gives some pointers for individuals wanting to find a career in writing. He talks about his first book, The Art of Project Management, and how that book was developed. The group then assesses innovation as a concept and Scott gives some examples of some of the mistaken beliefs about how popular inventions and innovations came about. The discussion is a fascinating overview of the essential truth of how new ideas come about.
Besides, I want to point you to a book review, by Jeffrey Phillips,
[…] This is a great book if you are interested in innovation and want to learn more about the commonly held beliefs and how to overcome them.
and of course to this interview of Guy Kawasaki with Scott Berkun:
Question: What are the primary determinants of the speed of adoption of innovation?
Answer: The classic research on the topic is Diffusion of Innovation by Rogers, which defines factors that hold up well today. The surprise to us is that they’re all sociological: based on people’s perception of value and their fear of risks—which often has little to do with our view of how amazing a particular technology is. Smarter innovators know this and pay attention from day one to who they are designing for and how to design the website or product in a way that supports their feelings and beliefs.
Fits oh so nicely into my understanding and work related with enterprise 2.0 adoption …
