I have designed and structured this book to be like a manual, a how-to guide about practical innovation skills.
There are six main parts, structured around the core themes of each of The Six ‘I’s®:
- Identify
- Ignite
- Investigate
- Invest
- Implement
- Improve
Introduced with a story, and the strengths and challenges of the profile of that particular ‘I’, each chapter then focuses on three core elements:
- The skills
- The mindset
- The resource guide
Each chapter covers the skills, mindset and resources to help you understand and improve your ability to get better at that stage of innovation. There are also lots of examples and illustrations that I hope will help to bring innovation to life.
SKILLS
First, I cover six discrete skills that are important to the stage of innovation being explored. Of course, the skills can be useful in other stages of the innovation journey, but in that particular phase they carry more weight and importance. After a description and example of each, I will introduce you to a range of core activities and tools. Some of the tools are well-known and publicly available through other sources, some are proprietary. It is not intended as an exhaustive guide, but a digest that I have selected to help you generate opportunities and ideas and increase the likelihood of success. Where you are interested, you can use the Resource Guide at the end of each chapter to delve deeper. For ease of reading, the activities and tools are summarised in a table at the beginning of each chapter.
I also outline some tips on how to communicate with people who have strengths in the ‘I’ under discussion as well as some warning signs that may happen if you miss this particular stage of innovation.
MINDSET
Second, I cover the relevant mindset associated with the ‘I’. Like the skills, the mindset is useful in other stages, but in that particular stage it is the orientation that most needs to be cultivated. For example, at the ignite stage, creativity is absolutely fundamental if we are to generate new solutions to the challenges or problems we are trying to solve.
I also include a range of ‘Try This’ Tips to help you develop the associated mindset of that chapter.
At the end of the Mindset overview, there is an interview with an individual who has used The Six ‘I’s® in their organisation, with examples of how they have used their profile and how it has helped them to be more successful at innovating.
RESOURCES
Third, I outline resources that you can refer to if you want to build up your knowledge on that particular ‘I’. This includes articles, books, websites and other ideas that you might find useful. You can come back to the Resource Guide at any time.
| Activities |  |
| Tools |  |
| Resources |  |
| Try This |  |