Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

Successful innovation demands more than a good strategic plan; it requires creative improvisation. Much of the "serious play" that leads to breakthrough innovations is increasingly linked to experiments with models, prototypes, and simulations. As digital technology makes prototyping more cost-effective, serious play will soon lie at the heart of all innovation strategies, influencing how businesses define themselves and their markets. Author Michael Schrage is one of today's most widely recognized experts on the relationship between technology and work. In Serious Play, Schrage argues that the real value in building models comes less from the help they offer with troubleshooting and problem solving than from the insights they reveal about the organization itself. Technological models can actually change us--improving the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and innovate. With real-world examples and engaging anecdotes, Schrage shows how companies such as Disney, Microsoft, Boeing, IDEO, and DaimlerChrysler use serious play with modeling technologies to facilitate the collaborative interactions that lead to innovation. A user's guide included with the book helps readers apply many of the innovation practices profiled throughout. A landmark book by one of the most perceptive voices in the field of innovation.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Foreword(p. ix)
• Preface(p. xiii)
• Acknowledgments(p. xxi)
• Overview(p. 1)
• Part I Getting Real
• 1 The New Economics of Innovation(p. 11)
• 2 A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge(p. 37)
• Part II Model Behavior
• 3 Our Models, Ourselves(p. 61)
• 4 Productive Waste(p. 95)
• 5 Preparing for Surprise(p. 115)
• 6 Perils of Pathological Prototyping(p. 131)
• Part III S(t)imulating Innovation
• 7 S(t)imulating Interventions(p. 155)
• 8 Measuring Prototyping Paybacks(p. 177)
• 9 Going Meta: Evolution as a Business Practice(p. 193)
• User's Guide(p. 201)
• Bibliography(p. 215)
• Index(p. 235)
• About the Author(p. 245)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This densely written book focuses on using prototypes to manage and enhance innovation. According to Schrage, serious play, or "improvising with the anticipated in ways that create new value," is not a game but rather a core competence of the innovative organization. Examples from fields as diverse as finance, design and manufacture of durable goods, software development, and reengineering add flesh to the author's ideas. Extension to less tangible processes is rare, however. Schrage discusses the implications for supplier and customer relationships as well as organizational culture, internal coordination, and the importance of being surprised. The final chapter is an executive summary for those "with a sense of urgency"; however, only the most experienced, astute innovators will understand the summary without having digested the preceding chapters. Serious Play is not a casual reader's delight. It assumes prior knowledge of innovation and innovation management and a determination to sort through technological jargon and acronyms, making this a poor first book for newcomers to the field. However, the ideas presented are exciting, and employees and organizations that rely on their ability to innovate should find this volume thought-provoking. Graduate, research, and practitioner collections. B. J. Keinath; Metropolitan State University

Booklist Review

At such firms as Walt Disney, Microsoft, 3M, Sony, and Hewlitt-Packard, serious play is serious work. Schrage, a research associate at MIT Media Lab and columnist for Fortune, sets out to explore "serious play," which he defines as creative improvisation in corporations. Serious play is taking place worldwide, and it uses such "toys" as models, simulations, and prototypes. With the development of sophisticated technology, the distinction among these three toys has blurred, and they all are used as an effort to recreate some aspect of reality that matters; their real value is the insight they provide an organization. The irony of innovation in any field, especially the most competitive, is that you can't be a serious innovator unless you are willing to play--which means seriously investing in the challenge of confronting the uncertainties that future markets will bring by rigorously questioning and revising the rules. This is a "must read" book. --Mary Whaley

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Michael Schrage is a research associate at the MIT Media Lab, a Merrill Lynch Forum Innovation Fellow, and a columnist for Fortune magazine.