Innovation is the ruling buzzword in business today. In this book, innovation experts Peter J. Denning and Robert Dunham inform us how the chances of an innovative idea’s becoming successful can be increased. Defining innovation as not simply an invention, but a policy and process that is to be managed, they explain that it is a personal skill that can be learnt, developed through practice, and extended into organizations. It is also the art of getting people to adopt change.

The authors identify and describe eight personal practices that all successful innovators perform: sensing, envisioning, offering, adopting, sustaining, executing, leading, and embodying. Together, these practices can boost a fledgling innovator to success. Weakness in any of these practices, they show, blocks innovation.

The authors Denning and Dunham describe innovation at scales ranging from the private (a family organization of chores and allowances) to the planetary (the invention and adoption of the World Wide Web). They provide a detailed account of the eight practices and how to accomplish them; and they chart the path to innovation mastery, from individual practices to teams and social networks.

“Truly innovative thinking about innovative thinking—but it’s the authenticity of the authors’ experience that makes this book uniquely valuable and valuably unique.”

—Michael Schrage
Research Fellow, MIT Sloan School Center for Digital Business