Outsmart Your Instincts: How the Behavioral Innovation Approach Drives Your Company Forward

Evolution is killing innovation!
''Just trust your gut'' is great advice when your instincts tell you to run from a lion in the jungle. But when it comes to thinking innovatively about your business, those same instincts can be your own worst enemy. Cognitive biases—the instinctual mental shortcuts we all have in our brains that shape how we see and respond to the world around us—can also be the archnemeses of innovation/innovative thinking. New ideas appear too risky. Data gets discounted if it doesn't match the hypothesis of the researcher. And even like-minded innovation enthusiasts can find that enacting disruptive change is tough when they all see things the same way.
It's time to let go and learn a new way to think.
Created by innovation experts, Outsmart Your Instincts cleverly merges behavioral science with business savvy. Using the trademarked Behavioral Innovation™ model, the authors provide an in-depth examination of eight unique biases (Negativity, Confirmation, and Conformity among them) that get in the way of creativity/creative thinking—and show us how we can overcome these barriers and break from the status quo.
With clever, thought-provoking activities, accessible writing, and easy-to-follow advice, Outsmart Your Instincts shows us how and why we react to new ideas the way we do, and then—helps us rethink what-we-think. Once we learn to outsmart our own instincts, we can take on challenges as true innovators who rely on all of our brains' powers—not just our guts—and be equipped to outsmart the competition.

Adam Hansen is VP Innovation/Innovation Process Consultant at Ideas To Go and a career-long innovation leader, student, and devotee. He has served on the board of the Product Development and Management Association and as an innovation and strategy expert with select causes in education and health care. Outside his work, Adam enjoys his family, music, and the woods surrounding his home in northwestern New Jersey.
Ed Harrington is CEO at Ideas To Go and has spent a lifetime helping a who's who of corporate America come up with new and innovative ideas. He cut his teeth on marketing and new products at P&G before opening Ideas To Go's New York metro office, advancing to President and CEO. He is a board member at the Yale Center for Customer insights and cites Albert Szent-Györgyi's quote, ''Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen and thinking what no one else has thought'' as the encapsulation of his approach to innovation.
Beth Storz is President/Innovation Process Consultant at Ideas To Go with a rich history of helping companies and brands be more innovative. Her love of facilitation and helping people discover their own creative and innovative potential fuels her own need to try new things and explore new ways to approach problem-solving—whether that's taking the lead on developing new innovative processes, or figuring out how to make the most of her vegetable garden each year. Beth spends her free time with her husband and sons—laughing, traveling, and enjoying life.