Innovation is one of the buzz words that has appeared in the business community a lot in the past many years. Every company wants to be an innovator, but many people mistakenly believe that innovation is the art of creating better products (think iPod, for example). But there are many more ways to innovate. In this book Kelly describes the ten ways businesses and individuals improve our lives through innovation, from designing better products to improving customers' waiting time for a particular service. Some businesses thrive when faced with challenges while others improve their bottom line by paying particular attention to clients, but each action is innovation and it has enriched our lives. This book focuses largely on the practices and experiences of IDEO, a global design consulting firm and the author's employer, but there are other valuable examples included in the book as well. All in all, this is an interesting book, if not an innovative book on the concept of innovation.

This Book is good for people who already have initiated his knowledge on Innovation. Not an ideal book for initiaters.

Having successfully written a good book - The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm- how do you cover essentially the same subject again just four years later? Tom Kelley manages to do it by taking a different approach in The Ten Faces of Innovation.

The author and his colleagues in IDEO suggest that there are ten personality types that can help create innovation. They don't all have to work together to create an innovative culture, but Kelley suggests that the more you have in a company, the easier it is to put the Devil's Advocate in place who is always looking to find fault with concept or product. Personalities that drive innovation include The Anthropologist. He quotes Marcel Proust - "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes," and as with other concepts rehashes some of the thinking from his 2001 book where he wrote `Innovation begins with an Eye.' I don't reference this as a criticism, because I believe successful Innovation is a cultural process. The more you can reinforce that culture, the more successful you are likely to be.

Other personalities he cites include, The Experimenter, The Collaborator, The Director and The Experience Architect. In writing about the Cross-Pollinator, he cites work done with P&G, reinforcing some of the comments on collaboration and cross-pollination which P&G CEO A.G. Lafley makes in his excellent book The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation.

Kelley provides a number of interesting examples as to how innovation changed companies or organizations. My favorite one - because if its mind-blowing simplicity - is how paint company First Dutch Boy redesigned their paint can by making it cube shaped and providing a screw-off cap. Innovation can be mind-bogglingly simple if we just look at things in a different way.

Given that he is writing about a company he works for and believes strongly in, there is bound to be a level of self promotion in the book. Who cares? It is a good read, it provides plenty of commonsense thinking and is seriously good reading if you are serious about Innovation

Having successfully written a good book - The Art of Innovation - how do you cover essentially the same subject again just four years later? Tom Kelley manages to do it by taking a different approach in The Ten Faces of Innovation.

The author and his colleagues in IDEO suggest that there are ten personality types that can help create innovation. They don't all have to work together to create an innovative culture, but Kelley suggests that the more you have in a company, the easier it is to put the Devil's Advocate in place who is always looking to find fault with concept or product. Personalities that drive innovation include The Anthropologist. He quotes Marcel Proust - "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes," and as with other concepts rehashes some of the thinking from his 2001 book where he wrote `Innovation begins with an Eye.' I don't reference this as a criticism, because I believe successful Innovation is a cultural process. The more you can reinforce that culture, the more successful you are likely to be.

Other personalities he cites include, The Experimenter, The Collaborator, The Director and The Experience Architect. In writing about the Cross-Pollinator, he cites work done with P&G, reinforcing some of the comments on collaboration and cross-pollination which P&G CEO A.G. Lafley makes in his excellent book The Game-Changer.

Kelley provides a number of interesting examples as to how innovation changed companies or organizations. My favorite one - because if its mind-blowing simplicity - is how paint company First Dutch Boy redesigned their paint can by making it cube shaped and providing a screw-off cap. Innovation can be mind-bogglingly simple if we just look at things in a different way.

Given that he is writing about a company he works for and believes strongly in, there is bound to be a level of self promotion in the book. Who cares? It is a good read, it provides plenty of commonsense thinking and is seriously good reading if you are serious about Innovation

I'm a big believer in collaboration. No one is an island and should stand or think alone. Tom Kelley explains in simple terms the personas necessary to operate in an IDEO way. I believe the IDEO way is very similar to my background working in the film business.

When working on films, you show up on the set and each department, without much communication, goes to work weaving in and out of other departments for the benefit of the end product. When you work with good people it becomes an effortless task to do your job and do it well. At the end of the day you feel good about yourself, your peers and the result of you efforts.

IDEO seems to posess a similar structure, though many would argue that structure doesn't exist in a creative atmosphere. In many creative fields, structure and guidelines are open to interpetation. The truly creative will understand when to break the rules and when to bend them. As Kelley says, it's about listening and asking the right questions to get the best result for each situation. There are several places in the book that reiterate the same question in a better way to find out the "right" answer.

I'm also a big fan of "T" people. I find them more interesting to talk with and more willing to listen to your point of view. IDEO comes across as a great community where people work together as opposed to a a place where one holds down a job. Kelley makes it seem like fun is had by everyone all the time and, while we all know this isn't necessarily always true, you can bet that the environment is one of pride and confidence knowing that you're able to do the best you can and be supported by management.

Read the book and see which persona you are as well as your other team members and decide how you can be a better team. I'd like to see a poster (hint, hint) of the 10 faces with a short definition posted in every office and work area.

Wilfred Bion, one of the great psychoanalysts of the last fifty years said that the purest form of listening is to listen without memory or desire. By that he meant that when when you listen with memory you're trying to plug someone into an old agenda; when you listen with desire you're trying to plug them into a new agenda. But in neither case are you listening to their agenda.

For some reason that I am not sure of I found myself reading Tom Kelley's wonderful book without memory or desire, but feeling open to everything he was saying.

It may be that I felt Kelley in this book was talking "with" me rather than "at", "over" or even "to" me. I could easily visualize and more often than not feel, what he was talking about.

If you can open up you mind as you read this book, you will learn and experience much of the feeling of what it's like to innovate.

A book you must read to understand the how to gace all the steps of innovation

This book was helpful in exploring the different sides of innovation, but seemed somewhat utopian.

It would have been good to have greater discussion about how to deal with conflict between different personas, or how to effectively build a team comprised of a wide variety of personas.

It was a very interesting book. Great examples from companies that IDEO has worked for.
I would have liked to see practical work application suggestions per chapter.
But overall, this is a worthbuying book.

10 Faces of innovation By Tom Kelley is very good book to get insight of organizational roles fostering innovation.
The roles are described very well with relating examples.
Going through book is really good experience.
There is tremendous amount of knowledge packed in this book, all the knowledge may not be revealed in first reading.

Portraits of some roles- personas make very strong impression mainly from set of learning personas. but some portraits of building personas are not so strong. They are very important but not well explored.

the book does not tell any thing about "how to build the innovation personas" in organization but reading the book gives the idea which role I am playing & what more I can do.

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm
by Tom Kelley

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
by Thomas Kelley


Much had already been written - the good & the bad - about these two books after they were published. I do not wish to travel on the beaten path.

I just want to share some of my own thoughts from a different perspective.

I have recently reread these two books following my return from holidaying in Italy. I had read both of them for the first time when they were respectively published several years ago.

I have in fact reread them syntopically with Frans Johansson's 'The Medici Effect', which in many ways, has influenced my own thoughts about the abovementioned two books.

Following my recent holiday trip to Italy, particularly my revisit to the Vatican Museums in Rome & the Uffizi Museum in Florence, I became fascinated by the great work of the Medici family.

The title of 'The Medici Effect' actually refers to an explosion of creativity and imagination that occurred in Florence during the Renaissance era, stretching from the late 14th century where it started right up to the early 17th Century, where it had spread to the rest of Europe, when the powerful & influential Medici banking family funded artists, artisans, painters, sculptors, and even thinkers and scientists from many different cultures and disciplines to come together to debate, discuss, and discover new ideas.

[Out of 1,000 European artists, painters & sculptors during that period, about 350 of them had lived &/or worked in Florence, Italy.]

Through their generous patronage, we are able to speak of and admire the wonderful masterpieces & elegant work of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Donatello, Raphael, Ghiberti and countless others.

Tom Kelley's two books as mentioned above essentially drives home the point about 'The Medici Effect.'

I see IDEO's successful problem solving approach with clients as a true application of the deliberate 'blending' of brainstorming methodologies, work practices, human resource cultures & physical infrastructures. As Tom Kelley had steadfastly asserted: 'Methodology alone is not enough."

The adoption of the ten different high-touch personnas as defined by the author in his later book truely reflects the 'Medici Effect.'

In my personal view, this innovative 'blending' is the strategic heartbeat of IDEO's success in the marketplace.

The other stuff, like observing carefully the anthropology of endusers, high-energy brainstorming with time pressures, quick prototyping, & taking risks are actually peripheral to the deliberate 'blending' process. These stuff had been covered in great detail in the first book.

In fact, as part of IDEO's problem solving repertoire, the cross-pollinating of inputs from their internal teams, clients' teams, knowledgeable people not directly involved with projects, & from people who make up target markets, further accentuates the Medici Effect.

Come to think of it, & in terms of personnas from the creativity standpoint, I reckon what Tom Kelley had talked about so passionately in his later book, builds, in some subtle ways, on the earlier thoughtware of Roger von oech (as illustrated in his two books on his four creative personnas: Explorer, Artist, Judge, Warrior) & Edward de bono (as illustrated in his 'Six Thinking Hats' book, which I believed had been somewhat influenced by Ned Herrmann's 'The Creative Brain'.)

Building on the Art of Innovation, Kelly brings us the new theory of the ten faces of innovation. It is simple to read and easy to understand. Another book which I found just as breezy to read was Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers.

Tom Kelley's book The Ten Faces of Innovation defines ten personas (thankfully not "named"--Bob, Sally, etc--just titled) that exemplify roles in an innovative team. They aren't job titles or exclusive positions, and people can work across roles as well.

* The Anthropologist, who observes people and discovers ways to help them
* The Experimenter, an expert in prototyping and testing, probably the classic "innovator"
* The Cross-Pollinator, with broad interests who enjoys connecting different cultures
* The Hurdler, who champions projects and carries them over beaurocratic obstacles
* The Collaborator, who brings people together to work cooperatively
* The Director, encouraging, inspiring, supporting, organizing and championing innovators
* The Experience Architect, a specialist in designing full "experiences" that transcend simple products or services
* The Set Designer, creating spaces that inspire and support innovation
* The Caregiver, who improves the subjective, emotional aspects of products and how they relate to us
* The Storyteller, who tells stories about people and products in creative and interesting ways

The book is heavily IDEO-centric, and most of the examples are from Kelley's own 20-year career there. Not really a surprise for a book subtitled "IDEO's strategies..." but worth mentioning; this is basically IDEO in book form. It includes several weird asides that are clearly IDEO/Kelley quirks, for instance his long tangents into the power of napping at work, comfortable hotel beds, and (ugh) T-shaped people. The IDEO focus gets pretty old after a while, and makes you wonder about the broader applicability of the ideas. What works in a design consulting company that works almost exclusively on short-term projects may not be the best structure for others.

But the personas are broad and--as mentioned above--not exclusive to people's job roles, so they are good signposts for anyone interested in developing their own innovation skills. I suspect it would be less interesting for a sole inventor/designer, but for people working at companies they are especially applicable.

The Ten Faces of Innovation describes ten complementary personas - personality types or roles that contribute in different ways to creative teams:

Anthropologist - this is perhaps the most literal title, meaning people who have been professionally trained as social anthropologists to observe people and processes and interactions `with a fresh eye'. These are probably the biggest antidote to "But we've always done it like that" thinking.

Experimenter - willing to take a chance, maybe, but also willing to explore alternatives and test concepts through prototyping, trial-and-error and applied science.

Cross-pollinator - like a bee flitting between the private parts of flowers, the cross-pollinator spreads good ideas and techniques between specialisms, breaking down silos and sharing good practice

Hurdler - able to leap tall buildings (well project hurdles anyway) in a single bound. They are adept at finding ways over (or more likely around) around immovable obstacles to reduce the banging-your-head-against-a-wall bruising.

Collaborator - knits people and teams together by finding common interests and objectives. Sometimes described as the spider who weaves the web linking everyone to everyone else.

Director - nothing to do with the title on her business card, the Director provides clarity and direction, a rallying point for the troops yet with the humility to actively listen to input from the team.

Experience architect - with an uncanny knack of putting themselves in the customer's shoes, experience architects can visualize products and services at the point of use, no mean feat when they are barely on the drawing board and even the customers are an unknown quantity.

Set designer - this is a fascinating persona: someone who creates visual spaces and physical representations relating to the job at hand. Not really office architects as such, set designers invent scenarios and contexts. They are also comfortable to break unwritten rules and help people mix fun with work (now there's a thought!).

Caregiver - in the sense of nurses and doctors (no, not the teenage version), caregivers support their colleagues, providing a sympathetic sounding board and gentle encouragement when times are tough, and motivating and inspiring people to give there all at all times.

Storyteller - anyone familiar with The HP Way or the origins of Apple and Microsoft will recognize the value of constantly telling and re-telling inspirational stories as a way of reinforcing corporate culture. It's clear that this is a comfortable personal for author Tom Kelley since both books quite literally tell a story.

The book is peppered with genuine examples, most of which involve the genesis of familiar but once remarkable products that broke the mold in some way - style, design, functionality, whatever. Some of you reading this may have bought Palm V PDAs, for instance, on the strength of their sleek looks and brilliant user interface - the Graffiti stylus script language so close to English that anyone can pick it up with a few minutes' practice. How many of you appreciate the innovative use of glue instead of screws to bond the Palm V's case together, or the flat-pack lithium batteries inside? Like many other examples, the attention to detail and the multiple overlapping layers of innovation go well beyond the obvious external visual cues. This is innovation-in-depth.

Whether you are interested in applying innovation and creativity to work initiatives or life in general, the IDEO books are inspirational, instructional and fun to read - what a combination. Recommended.

Welcome to an enjoyable, easy read - which is not to dismiss Tom Kelley's fine ideas. With the aid of Jonathan Littman, Kelley works throughout this book to show how innovation can be much more painless than most people think, and more fun. Kelley makes thinking collaboratively sound like a blast. In the process, he convinces you that your organization should nurture and cherish playing with ideas. Although he admits that his consulting company, IDEO, found itself grinding along on tedious projects at times, and that he has watched people shoot down perfectly good suggestions, his underlying message is one of open possibility. He presents 10 roles you can play during meetings, any one of which would be enough to add considerable value. By showing that these roles are temporary, he sends the message that if you want to stay competitive, you can change, and even must. As he examines everything from product names to rules governing how workers decorate their cubicles, Kelley demonstrates the many opportunities you have to create something new. The cost is often little or nothing; sometimes innovation simply means getting out of your employees' way. We recommend this book to managers who wish to break old patterns and encourage creative thought companywide.

If you want to create an environment where innovation is the norm, what do you do? Tom Kelley doesn't have a prescription, but he does have some people he'd like you to meet. This book is about the roles that people in an innovation driven organization take on to create fresh new ideas on a regular basis.

If you're an individual contributor, this is a very helpful book both to understand the people around you and your own specific skills. What's more, although in some ways Kelley is describing personality attributes, he is also describing skill sets and ways of looking at the world that you can decide to cultivate. No one is going to be excellent at all of these roles- but that doesn't mean you can't strive to be well rounded!

As a manager, the main take-away lesson is that there are many different types of creativity that can reinforce each other if put together. The most important part of building a creative organization may come at the hiring stage, where you can most easily create a mix of the different personas. But if you're in a stable organization, as most of us are, you can use the "ten faces" to identify the different styles of creativity in your people, and use that information to form teams and projects to bring out their best.

The book is very heavy on anecdote and example. Every one of the ten personas has several stories that illustrate how such an approach can generate ideas that otherwise wouldn't have been considered. The Anthropologist will put themselves in the place of the average user or consumer, as did a woman who faked a pregnancy to see how she would improve the birthing experience at a major hospital. The Experience Architect will take a commodity service and turn it into a show that customers will enjoy for its distinctiveness, like the ice cream "cooking" at Cold Stone Creamery.

The persona that I found most intriguing, and perhaps also furthest from my own, was the Set Designer. Kelley believes strongly in the power of space to shape the minds of those who inhabit it, and just reading about some of the things that go on at IDEO is enough to make my own cube - which I had thought very nicely decorated - seem drab and uninspired.

"The Ten Faces of Innovation" is not a good book to read if you want to know exactly how to change your company, but it is an excellent resource for spotting the early creative behavior every innovator should want to encourage in their team.

Excellent book, I would recommend it to anyone.

Inspiring.

Particularly people working in project based situations.

Rich with experiences from the author.

Many good stories in this book.

Memorable phrase from the Experimenter - "Fear makes failure more likely and experimentation nigh impossible".

We need to have a vocabulary about innovation instead of the typical management or leadership focused books.

Some parts are a little repetitive, but well worth it.

This book outlines what IDEO believes to be the 10 key types of individuals who help foster innovation. Remember that IDEO's entire purpose for being is to create innovative solutions to business problems. Kelly understands this and uses his real life examples to illustrate a point but expects corporations to take baby steps in comparison. For example, IDEO is very free with their environment, so much so that the team found an antique bombers wing and fixed it to a main wall in their Boston office.

It is an excellent and interesting read and is highly recomended. Just don't expect it to be a step by step guide. It gives you some concepts, poses a number of thought provoking questions and leaves it up to the reader to determine what changes could make the most impact on your company.

This book outlines what IDEO believes to be the 10 key types of individuals who help foster innovation. Remember that IDEO's entire purpose for being is to create innovative solutions to business problems. Kelly understands this and uses his real life examples to illustrate a point but expects corporations to take baby steps in comparison. For example, IDEO is very free with their environment, so much so that the team found an antique bombers wing and fixed it to a main wall in their Boston office.

It is an excellent and interesting read and is highly recomended. Just don't expect it to be a step by step guide. It gives you some concepts, poses a number of thought provoking questions and leaves it up to the reader to determine what changes could make the most impact on your company.

This book was perfect for anyone who is trying to develop a strategy to overcome the Devil's Advocate. In addition, it's very helpful in trying to put together a well rounded design team.

IDEO has done it again. And this time the workings of a creative organisation, with a mix of diversed individuals of different creative characteristics. In this book, Thomas Kelley has exemplified many scenarios that require the RIGHT MIX within a team in driving creativity within any organisation. He weighs in each individual's charateristic strengths and weaknesses, and from these, formulate the BEST FORMULA in which the RIGHT TEAM of members can contribute and work creatively, harmonously, as well as productively.

Isn't it time for your organisation to 'stretch' your creativity characteristics of everyone involved? This book will teach you how to achieve that!

If your definition of a "creative" person is someone who uses Photoshop or works for your ad agency, it's time to hold your calls, turn off your Blackberry and read this book. Discovering the people in your organization who can grow your business, regardless of their function, is the difference between building value and constantly playing catch-up to the innovators in your market.

After you're done, you can pass the book along to your favorite anthropologist, cross pollinator or hurdler. But who knows?... you might find out you're one yourself.

Anyone within an organization that leads development efforts, particularly in a team environment, should read Kelley's book. Kelley provides insight as to how teams, composed of particular roles, can create new products and services. As a former team leader at one of the US's last remaining commercial airplane companies, I've seen the teams and issues described by Kelley. The "anthropologist" role focuses on observation; yet, the observation provides more than just the opinion of the observer. Rather, Kelley asks that the observation occur without prejudice or preconceived notions. Kelley provides vivid descriptions of the other key roles needed for teams, including the sponsor role. Again, any person engaged in development efforts, particular those efforts wherein problems must be addressed and solved, needs to read this book and apply the ideas.

As usual Kelley writes for the "everyman" as well as someone "in the field". An enjoyable read, that can be applied to business situations with great effect.

Anyone within an organization that leads development efforts, particularly in a team environment, should read Kelley's book. Kelley provides insight as to how teams, composed of particular roles, can create new products and services. As a former team leader at one of the US's last remaining commercial airplane companies, I've seen the teams and issues described by Kelley. The "anthropologist" role focuses on observation; yet, the observation provides more than just the opinion of the observer. Rather, Kelley asks that the observation occur without prejudice or preconceived notions. Kelley provides vivid descriptions of the other key roles needed for teams, including the sponsor role. Again, any person engaged in development efforts, particular those efforts wherein problems must be addressed and solved, needs to read this book and apply the ideas.

As usual Kelley writes for the "everyman" as well as someone "in the field". An enjoyable read, that can be applied to business situations with great effect.

This book really misses the mark on 'defeating the devil's advocate'. It offers nothing more than a characterization of the type of person you have to deal with.
However, it does offer good ideas in innovation, how to make quick demos, and how to find new perspectives.
If you're in personnel/management, and you want to build a creative team, this book gives invaluable insight into how to do so.

This book really misses the mark on 'defeating the devil's advocate'. It offers nothing more than a characterization of the type of person you have to deal with.
However, it does offer good ideas in innovation, how to make quick demos, and how to find new perspectives.
If you're in personnel/management, and you want to build a creative team, this book gives invaluable insight into how to do so.

The book is thought-provoking and interesting. It addresses innovation from a different slant, mostly focusing on "who" triggers it in your organization. On the positive side, it describes 10 different innovator-archetypes that we can all recognize. On the negative side, it does not really tackle how to trigger innovation or at least how to recruit and identify those who already excel in it. The book is somehow light-hearted, but I guess it was written this way in order to be introduced to large audiences.

The book is thought-provoking and interesting. It addresses innovation from a different slant, mostly focusing on "who" triggers it in your organization. On the positive side, it describes 10 different innovator-archetypes that we can all recognize. On the negative side, it does not really tackle how to trigger innovation or at least how to recruit and identify those who already excel in it. The book is somehow light-hearted, but I guess it was written this way in order to be introduced to large audiences.

I thought this was a very though-provoking book. It was interesting seeing a reputable company (IDEO) talk about their strategies and how they can drive innovation for other companies. The books talks about 10 different roles that people take, with each role bearing great importance, and how they all are needed in creating this ideal creative and innovative environment.

I think a lot of these roles exist today in many organizations, especially in the company that I work for now. It has opened my eyes and allowed me to see how my company can benefit from these ideas and strategies. In this competitive day of age, innovative is crucial in products and services success.

Kelley takes the reader on tour of the IDEO design studio through his explainations of the ten personas that he believes make innovation happen. I've never really thought of working anyplace else after I joined IBM, but the types of work and the culture he describes in the book make IDEO a real contender if I ever was to leave IBM.

The personas he describes are applicable to any environment, not just IDEO. They are personas, and not job roles. He makes this very clear. Someone can be a software engineer and also manifest a number of the personas described.

The Ten Faces are:

The Anthropologist observes the way people behave with a "beginner's mind" to observe nuances that provide a deep understanding of how people interact with their environment.

The Experimenter prototypes, and prototypes again. Often in real time drawing on diverse resources to build and test out ideas. This desire to prototype goes as much for objects as it does for services and experiences.

The Cross-Pollinator explores other industries and cultures and then translates what they find into the fields they are responsible for. Cross pollinators are also called "t-shaped" people because they have depth in at least one area and breadth of knowledge in many fields.

The Hurdler works to overcome obstacles and roadblocks by outsmarting them. Budgets, adversity, bureaucracies and failures are all challenges that The Hurdler may come up with ingenious ways to overcome.

The Collaborator "often leads from the middle of the pack" to bring people together and build new solutions. Collaborators work with teammates, colleauges and even competitors. This is similar to Gladwell's Tipping Point notion of a 'connector'

The Director brings together talented people and provides an environment and direction fo them to spark their creative talents. They give the spotlight to others and rise to tough challenges, using brainstorming as a way to let talented people shine.

The Experience Architect looks to appeal to people's deep needs by developing compelling experiences. The focus on key elements of an experience that are crucial to its succes.These trigger points can be as simple as the alarm clock and bed in a hotel room.

The Set Designer creates environments that allow team members to do their best work. The realize that the work environment is an important element of what makes people productive. They make things like brainstorming lounges and dynamic work environments possible.

The Caregiver looks to serve customers in a way that is beyond standard service. They anticipate what customers will need and plan for it in advance.

The Storyteller carries on the tradition of sharing narratives that communicate fundemental emotions or values. They eschew the 'fast path' where a story would be more appropriate, avoiding 'cutting to the chase' when they can instead engange people in a dialog that moves them. This crowd is not a big fan of Powerpoint :-)

The book's attention aestetic to detail is refreshing - from the glossy paper and color photos, to the cleaver use of color and pull quotes. The content does not fall short either. Not only is the book a great endorsement for IDEO, but for general innovation techniques that really appear to work. The personas described in the book are bolstered by a number of examples that bring them to life.

A definite recommendation.

Tom Kelley's book, The Ten Faces of Innovation, provides strategies for companies of any sort to boost their creative power in the marketplace through reinventing the roles of their employees. This book, through structured lessons filled with relevant case studies, chronicles ten characters that workers can assume to promote new avenues of innovation. These characters/ personalities are: The Anthropologist, The Experimenter, The Cross-Pollinator, The Hurdler, The Collaborator, The Director, The Experience Architect, The Set Designer, The Storyteller, and The Caregiver. Through each of these dynamic personalities, an organization can develop the individual creativity of its employees as well as the innovative techniques of the entire corporation.

I believe that this book is useful for practically any person who believes in the transforming powers of creativity and innovation within a company. Kelley definitely notes time and time again that the idea of the ten faces of innovation does not specifically apply to managers, low-level employees, or people who are working in a `creative' company or industry. I also began to believe, through Kelley's assertions, that his diverse readers could all profit from some bit of information or another that lends itself to their personal type of business. While I think that many of the main readers of the book may be organizational consultants, research and development workers, and upper-level employees, the most effective target of the book is the individual team member at any level of an organization. In fact, I think it is the kind of book that could/ should be handed to a new employee at the signing of their contract to emphasize the company's need for effort in innovation no matter through what department. The new employee entering a company that wants to undergo a rejuvenation in innovation can get a fresh and unusual perspective on their new work environment, and analyze its creative needs immediately.

The only aspect of this book that continually bothered me was the constant list of analogies drawn between creative teamwork efforts and the Olympics. While, yes, this sounds quite strange, Kelley does seem to favor Olympic sports as a way to emphasize a worker overcoming any type of creative obstacle. I found that the use of Olympic sports comparisons were overused, and thus the sharpness of the point the author was trying to make was occasionally lost on me. I felt that there are better comparisons with which to switch up idea explanations that may not necessarily be sports-oriented, which still could emphasize the point Kelley was trying to illustrate.

Overall, this is possibly the best business book I have yet read. The information is as equally informative as it is motivational. This may mainly be because Kelley's aim is to inspire small movements toward major shifts in viewpoint and operation, so his suggestions are never overwhelming and play to almost anyone's individual talents, whether they be scientific in nature or customer-oriented. I would also recommend the book to anyone entering a new corporate profession, as its motivational capacity gets the reader pepped to put their best foot forward, and gives tips that you can work with everyday...even the repetition of the book gets you in the mindset to make a creative environment for yourself.

This book is very pragmatic on how organizations can set the stage for increasing innovation. Tom Kelley and IDEO are masters at thinking out of the box and coming up with ways to help companies get out of the rut and set themselves up to become more focused on what customers' problems really are and potential solutions to those problems.

This book is very pragmatic on how organizations can set the stage for increasing innovation. Tom Kelley and IDEO are masters at thinking out of the box and coming up with ways to help companies get out of the rut and set themselves up to become more focused on what customers' problems really are and potential solutions to those problems.

This book helped me learn more about myself and how I approach things in my work and the world overall.

I had seen a presentation from this company and wanted to learn more. They are great and the book is fantastic.

I had seen a presentation from this company and wanted to learn more. They are great and the book is fantastic.

A very useful book for anyone interested in bringing, supporting or re-energizing creative, innovative thinking within a company or a project team. It gives you a language for and an understanding of how to replace the often destructive "devil's advocate" within your organization with 10 more productive and positive postures -- personas that are about gathering knowledge, creating forward motion, creating meaningful context -- instead of about shooting down ideas, as the "devil's advocate" often does. It's also organized for quick and easy reading. I've been so impressed with this book that I'm about to dive into Kelley's previous work, The Art of Innovation, which I've not yet read. With today's emphasis on innovation as a key element of business success, I think "10 Faces" is a must read.

A very useful book for anyone interested in bringing, supporting or re-energizing creative, innovative thinking within a company or a project team. It gives you a language for and an understanding of how to replace the often destructive "devil's advocate" within your organization with 10 more productive and positive postures -- personas that are about gathering knowledge, creating forward motion, creating meaningful context -- instead of about shooting down ideas, as the "devil's advocate" often does. It's also organized for quick and easy reading. I've been so impressed with this book that I'm about to dive into Kelley's previous work, The Art of Innovation, which I've not yet read. With today's emphasis on innovation as a key element of business success, I think "10 Faces" is a must read.

The Ten Faces of Innovation will remind many people of earlier works that favor mental diversity such as de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and von Oeck's A Kick in the Seat of the Pants.

What's different about The Ten Faces of Innovation is that it has many examples built around the experiences of one organization, the product design firm IDEO. Mr. Kelley is the general manager of that organization which makes this book into both an insider memoir and a sales brochure. So think of this book as being both a thesis and a case history. Multiple examples from one organization in group creativity and innovation have been hard to find in the business literature.

Like most case histories, this one is full of fun stories and occasional examples that may be new to you.

But you soon get the idea that innovation is all about understanding the market, observation as people use offerings and try to solve problems, brainstorming alternatives, rapid prototyping and quick experimentation -- Themes that are developed in more detail in Mr. Kelley's earlier book, The Art of Innovation.

The ten faces are anthropologist (see what's been going on), experimenter (try something new), cross-pollinator (attach two things together for the first time), hurdler (get past stalls), collaborator (bring people together to cooperate), director (set the action into a coherent whole), experience architect (make it Wow!), set designer (facilitate interaction through the environment), caregiver (nurture those involved) and the story teller (who gets the nub of the truth across in a few words -- with plenty of reference to Stephen Denning's, The Leader's Guide to Storytelling -- a fine book).

In the end, Mr. Kelley points out that not every team will have all ten faces, that some people can put on more than one face and you sometimes just have to do the best you can. Some of these roles are creative while others are more into integration or execution. That part of the taxonomy wasn't as well developed. The book would have been stronger if that line of thought had been spelled out more in the various situations that arise.

By the end, I found myself a little bored and a little disappointed. While Mr. Kelley knows a lot about his own organization and its projects for famous clients, he's on less firm ground when he writes about others . . . often relying on books rather than interviews. I was particularly struck that he entirely missed mentioning P&G's new approach to developing new products through contests among world experts. That method seemingly makes a lot of what Mr. Kelley is saying obsolete. Perhaps it is still relevant if you cannot afford to run such global contests. But most organizations can based on the Goldcorp Challenge model.

You will probably gain more benefit from reading The Art of Innovation than this one. I also recommend Corporate Creativity as a better source of case studies for how companies have accomplished more through their own creative efforts and of course, Professor Amabile's many wonderful studies.

The Ten Faces of Innovation will remind many people of earlier works that favor mental diversity such as de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and von Oeck's A Kick in the Seat of the Pants.

What's different about The Ten Faces of Innovation is that it has many examples built around the experiences of one organization, the product design firm IDEO. Mr. Kelley is the general manager of that organization which makes this book into both an insider memoir and a sales brochure. So think of this book as being both a thesis and a case history. Multiple examples from one organization in group creativity and innovation have been hard to find in the business literature.

Like most case histories, this one is full of fun stories and occasional examples that may be new to you.

But you soon get the idea that innovation is all about understanding the market, observation as people use offerings and try to solve problems, brainstorming alternatives, rapid prototyping and quick experimentation -- Themes that are developed in more detail in Mr. Kelley's earlier book, The Art of Innovation.

The ten faces are anthropologist (see what's been going on), experimenter (try something new), cross-pollinator (attach two things together for the first time), hurdler (get past stalls), collaborator (bring people together to cooperate), director (set the action into a coherent whole), experience architect (make it Wow!), set designer (facilitate interaction through the environment), caregiver (nurture those involved) and the story teller (who gets the nub of the truth across in a few words -- with plenty of reference to Stephen Denning's, The Leader's Guide to Storytelling -- a fine book).

In the end, Mr. Kelley points out that not every team will have all ten faces, that some people can put on more than one face and you sometimes just have to do the best you can. Some of these roles are creative while others are more into integration or execution. That part of the taxonomy wasn't as well developed. The book would have been stronger if that line of thought had been spelled out more in the various situations that arise.

By the end, I found myself a little bored and a little disappointed. While Mr. Kelley knows a lot about his own organization and its projects for famous clients, he's on less firm ground when he writes about others . . . often relying on books rather than interviews. I was particularly struck that he entirely missed mentioning P&G's new approach to developing new products through contests among world experts. That method seemingly makes a lot of what Mr. Kelley is saying obsolete. Perhaps it is still relevant if you cannot afford to run such global contests. But most organizations can based on the Goldcorp Challenge model.

You will probably gain more benefit from reading The Art of Innovation than this one. I also recommend Corporate Creativity as a better source of case studies for how companies have accomplished more through their own creative efforts and of course, Professor Amabile's many wonderful studies.

Outlining ten major roles often played on successful and innovative teams, this book catalogs personas used at IDEO to create new products and services. The book is easy to read and contains powerful, persuasive arguments about some of the activites teams need to participate in to unblock the rut they're in or to combat negative environments. I'd recommend this as a light-hearted read for people who see themselves as an energetic personality and are interested in coming in to work on a Monday and giving their team a kick-start.

However, I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone attempting to build more capacity for innovation into their organization. It doesn't really cover how to hire, use, or retain people in these roles or even how to develop the roles in the people you already have.

Much of the text is also a rolling story - you come away from each of the roles feeling like they must be a critically important part of the team and that the people who have played them are clearly smart people, but unsure of whether it was the role, the person, or both that made the team successful. Or even that the person was more than just a ringside activity on an already creative team.

IDEO seems to me like an ideal employer. A lot of firms talk about innovation resulting in nice reports but not in new products or processes. IDEO is working together with a whole range of organizations to shape these new products and learns a lot on innovation processes during the projects. An ultimate win-win!
Tom Kelley collects stories about IDEO client-projects and uses them in his books on innovation. No heavy theories and frameworks in his books, just stories. This book uses ten personas as umbrella, but the content could easily be switched between chapters. The stories give a nice insight into IDEO and different cases, but new insights are rare. You can use the 'personas' to look at your own situation, but since they are rather general don't expect too much of it. The author doesn't bother elaborating on the framework of personas, so why should you?
It's an easy book to read (it took me half a day) and I enjoyed it because we have too little IDEOs in the world and this books shares some of their passion for solutions with you.
One of the personas introduced in the book is the storyteller and that is exactly the value of the author and this book. No more, no less.

The Economist wrote that "innovation is now the single most
important ingredient in any economy" . In this vein, BUILDING ROLES include architectural designs, stage-setters, caregivers
and storytellers. The anthropologist sees with new eyes.
Cross-polination occurs through artful juxtaposition. For instance, Orville and Wright cross-polinated materials and
mechanics from bicycles to airplane applications. Collaborators
seek to cooperate in order to accomplish substantial projects
successfully. Directors manage and brainstorm. Hurdlers do more
with less. Experimenters formulate and test products, processes
and new ideas in implementation.

This book is a goldmine for a wide constituency of business
people and formal academia.

My impressions about the book:

Positive :

-The comprehensive listing of 10 factors or "faces" since innovation is about "People creating value through the implementation of new ideas."
-Plenty of examples/cases
-Color pictures for illustration of cases
-Once chapter per "face"

Negative:

-Case studies discussed are superficial in analysis
-Some case studies are "force fits"
-No concrete measure to keep the "devil's advocates" at bay- Only a passive approach of listing past successes.

Powerful topic - Weak presentation.

Scope for innovation !!

Could have been better. Perhaps my expectations are high since this book comes directly from an insider at IDEO. Had it been written by someone else, I would have rated it 5 stars.

There are few companies whose products can remain the same for year after year. The most successful companies have been those who can continue to innovate and replace their own products with better ones before their competitors do it instead. Gillette is a classic example where their new razors replace the razors they sold last year. And of course the new razor blades are dramatically improved, at least in the marketplace and in the profit margin to Gillette.

The first chapter in this book is on the Devil's Advocate who can kill new innovation while seemingly not being negative.

After that, each of ten chapters cover a different approach to encourage innovation that will fit into moving the corporation forward. The author has developed a set of clever names to describe the various types of supporters that they have been able to identify as helpful. By understanding the type of support you are getting from an individual, you'll know what information to give him to help him help you to look good.

This is a great analysis of how to create a culture of innovation in a company.

It seems I've valued my ability to play Devil's Advocate a bit too highly. According to Thomas Kelley, I may have had a hand in quashing new ideas rather than enouraging them.

Not that there's anything wrong with playing Devil's Advocate, but why limit yourself to a single role? You could become typecast as an idea-killer -- a singularly difficult rut to get out of.

Kelley outlines ten other roles -- "Faces" -- that you can adopt when going through the creative process. Anthropologist, Experimenter, Cross-Pollinator, Hurdler, Collaborator, Director, Experience Architect, Set Designer, Storyteller, and Caregiver. Each Face falls into a persona category of Learning, Organizing, or Building.

While no single Face is going to make your ideas any more successful than another, being able to play each role (or assemble a team with a complementary strength in each role) will only increase your chances for success, and make your ideas stronger than ever.

Then Ten Faces also give you an excellent response to that guy (that guy who is no longer me!) who says "Let me play Devil's Advocate a moment..." and proceeeds to rip into your idea and rain on your parade. Simply respond with "Well, let me play Hurdler a moment and tell you how we can get around that problem." or "Let me play Anthropologist a moment and tell you what I've found when observering our customers."

The Ten Faces of Innovation basically gives you the ability to tell the Devil's Advocate to "Go to... Heck."

With Jonathan Littman, Kelley provides in this volume a wealth of information and counsel which can help any decision-maker to "drive creativity" through her or his organization but only if initiatives are (a) a collaboration which receives the support and encouragement of senior management (especially of the CEO) and (b) sufficient time is allowed for those initiatives to have a measurable impact. There is a distressing tendency throughout most organizations to rip out "seedlings" to see how well they are "growing." Six Sigma programs offer a compelling example. Most are abandoned within a month or two. Why? Unrealistic expectations, cultural barriers (what Jim O'Toole characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom"), internal politics, and especially impatience are among the usual suspects. That said, I agree with countless others (notably Amabile, Christensen, Claxton, de Bono, Drucker, Kelley, Kim and Mauborgne, Michalko, Ray, and von Oech) that innovation is now the single most decisive competitive advantage. How to establish and then sustain that advantage?

In an earlier work, The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Kelley shares IDEO's five-step methodology: Understand the market, the client, the technology, and the perceived constraints on the given problem; observe real people in real-life situations; literally visualize new-to-the-world concepts AND the customers who will use them; evaluate and refine the prototypes in a series of quick iterations; and finally, implement the new concept for commercialization. With regard to the last "step", as Bennis explains in Organizing Genius, Apple executives immediately recognized the commercial opportunities for PARC's technology. Larry Tesler (who later left PARC for Apple) noted that Jobs and colleagues (especially Wozniak) "wanted to get it out to the world." But first, obviously, the challenge was to create that "it" which they then did.

In this volume, as Kelley explains, his book is "about innovation with a human face. [Actually, at least ten...hence its title.] It's about the individuals and teams that fuel innovation inside great organizations. Because all great movements are human-powered." He goes on to suggest that all good working definitions of innovation pair ideas with action, "the spark with fire. Innovators don't just have their heads in the clouds. They also have their feet on the ground." Kelley cites and then examines several exemplary ("great") organizations which include Google, W.L. Gore & Associates, the Gillette Company, and German retailer Tchibo. I especially appreciate the fact that Kelley focuses on the almost unlimited potential for creativity of individuals and the roles which they can play, "the hats they can put on, the personas they can adopt...[albeit] unsung heroes who work on the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day out."

Because individuals and organizations constantly need to gather new sources of information in order to expand their knowledge and thereby grow, Kelley recommends three "Learning Personas": The Anthropologist, The Experimenter, and The Cross Pollinator.

Because organizations need individuals who are savvy about the counterintuitive process of how to move ideas forward, Kelley recommends three "Organizing Personas": The Hurdler, The Collaborator, and The Director.

Because organizations also need individuals and teams who apply insights from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing roles to make innovation happen, Kelley recommends four "Building personas": The Experience Architect, The Set Designer, The Caregiver, and The Storyteller. Note both the sequence, interrelatedness and, indeed, the interdependence of these ten "personas."

I am reminded of comparable material in A Kick in the Seat of the Pants. Specifically, Roger von Oech's discussion of what he calls "The Four Roles of the Creative Process" (i.e. Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior). Also Six Thinking Hats in which Edward de Bono explains the need for a creativity "wardrobe" comprised of several hats. Specifically, white (rational, logical, and objective), red (emotional), black (negative), yellow (positive, hopeful, optimistic), green (creative and innovative), and blue (ordered, controlled, structured).

What Kelley achieves in this volume is to develop in much greater depth than do von Oech and de Bono what are essentially ten different perspectives. He does so, brilliantly, by focussing the bulk of his attention of those who, for example, seek and explore new opportunities to reveal breakthrough insights...and while doing so wear (at least metaphorically) one of de Bono's hats (probably the green one). Kelley devotes a separate chapter to each of the ten "personas," including real-world examples of various "unsung heroes who work on the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day out."

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