The GAME of Innovaion
Gamify Challenges, Level Up Your Team, and Play to Win
Author: David Cutler
Contributions: Lance LaDuke
Illustrations: Patti Dobrowolski
Design: Cara Belloso
Overview
The GAME of Innovation (McGraw Hill Professional; projected publication November 2021) is a VISUAL book that helps individuals and organizations of all stripes crack life’s complex puzzles. After examining common problem-solving pitfalls (chapter 0), it unveils a flexible, step-by-step approach to building powerhouse processes, working effectively with teams, and innovating the remarkable.
Part A – Gamify Challenges
Chapters 1 - 4
What if you approached organizational challenges as if they were GAMEs of profound consequences? Why not treat them with the discipline, tactics, and resolve of a skilled Olympian? Which problem will you confront? Who forms the team? What will they do? How is victory defined? Take great pains to build meaningful problem-solving processes. This section details four central GAME elements applicable to any dilemma:
Guidelines
Arena
Materials
Experience
What framework?
What conditions?
What tools?
What process?
Part B – Color Your Perspective
Chapters 5 - 9
Problem-solving is a team sport. Yet even the most devoted puzzlers can lose focus and get off track. Learn a powerful approach to aligning your community and boosting productivity. Five colored lenses—GREEN (Gather), PURPLE (Propose), BLUE (Boost), RED (Rip), and ORANGE (Own)—ensure that everyone is on the same page at a given time. Chapters detail techniques for investigation, ideation, feedback, and committing to one choice at the expense of
a thousand others.
Part C – Play to Win
Chapters 10 - 12
The design of a problem-solving GAME is critical, but only part of the puzzle. Just as important are your people. How are they led? How do they engage? What’s the culture? Shaping both the experience and outcomes, the final section focuses on facilitating effectively, cultivating happy teams, and arriving at the remarkable.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Got Innovation???
Chapter 0
Problems, Pitfalls, and Play
Why are problems so hard to solve?
-
It’s All Problems
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12 Puzzling Pitfalls
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The GAME of Innovation
Part A – Gamify Challenges
Chapter 1
Guidelines
What framework?
-
Challenge
-
Constraints/Criteria
Chapter 2
Arena
What conditions?
-
Puzzlers
-
Period
-
Place
Chapter 3
Materials
What tools?
-
Gatherables
-
Gear
-
Gameboards
Chapter 4
Experience
What process?
-
Sorts
-
Structure
-
Samples
Part B – Color Your Perspective
Chapter 5
Improve Your Vision
What perspective?
-
Problem-Solving Blindfolded
-
Great Gaming Glasses
Chapter 6
Green/Gather
What can be learned?
-
Hunt for Clues
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LEARN Before Solving
-
Interpret the Data
Chapter 7
Purple/Propose
What can be imagined?
-
Brainstorming Rules
-
10 Creative Catalysts
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Prototyping Innovation
Chapter 8
Blue/Boost & Red/Rip
What works? What's wrong?
-
The Challenge of Feedback
-
6 Approaches to Critique
Chapter 9
Orange/Own
What decision?
-
The Hardest Decision Of All
-
9 Techniques to Choose From
Part C – Play to Win
Chapter 10
Facilitationing
What does it take to lead?
-
The Facilitation Gig
-
16 Facilitation Techniques
Chapter 11
Happy Teams
What does it take to collaborate?
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Team Tenets
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Prickly Personalities
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Champion Collaboration
Chapter 12
Getting to WOW
What does it take to win?
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Dreams First
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Powerhouse Pitches