Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to InnovateSuccessful innovation demands more than a good strategic plan; it requires creative improvisation. Much of the "serious play" that leads to breakthrough innovations is increasingly linked to experiments with models, prototypes, and simulations. As digital technology makes prototyping more cost-effective, serious play will soon lie at the heart of all innovation strategies, influencing how businesses define themselves and their markets. Author Michael Schrage is one of today's most widely recognized experts on the relationship between technology and work. In Serious Play, Schrage argues that the real value in building models comes less from the help they offer with troubleshooting and problem solving than from the insights they reveal about the organization itself. Technological models can actually change us--improving the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and innovate. With real-world examples and engaging anecdotes, Schrage shows how companies such as Disney, Microsoft, Boeing, IDEO, and DaimlerChrysler use serious play with modeling technologies to facilitate the collaborative interactions that lead to innovation. A user's guide included with the book helps readers apply many of the innovation practices profiled throughout. A landmark book by one of the most perceptive voices in the field of innovation. |
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User Review - shdawson - LibraryThingIt is a pretty good book, but it did not greatly excite me. Read full review
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Contents
| 11 | |
| 37 | |
| 61 | |
| 95 | |
| 115 | |
| 131 | |
STIMULATING INTERVENTIONS | 155 |
MEASURING PROTOTYPING PAYBACKS | 177 |
GOING META EVOLUTION AS A BUSINESS PRACTICE | 193 |
Users Guide | 201 |
Bibliography | 215 |
Index | 233 |
About the Author | 243 |
Other editions - View all
Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate Michael Schrage No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
ability answer approach assumptions become benefits better budget build built challenge clients collaboration companies competitive conversations corporate costs create creative culture customers cycles decisions discovered economics effective engineers enterprise evolve example experience firm force fundamental future GETTING global ideas important improve industrial innovation insights interactions internal investment issues iterations kind less look manufacturing marketplace matter means measure medium ment metrics Microsoft MODEL BEHAVIOR observed offer opportunities organizational organizations payback percent performance physical politics possible practice problem profit proto prototypes prototyping cultures questions reality reason relationships requirements result risk role rules S(T)IMULATING says scenarios serious play simulation spreadsheet stories successful suppliers surprise tions transformed treated turn types virtual waste
Popular passages
Page 177 - I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind...
Page 11 - The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain And simple to express: Err And err And err again, But less And less And less.
Page 1 - For, to speak out once for all, man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays.
Page 141 - Noyce principle of minimum information: One guesses what the answer to a problem is and goes as far as one can in a heuristic way. If this does not solve the problem, one goes back and learns enough to try something else. Thus, rather than mount research efforts aimed at truly understanding problems and producing publishable technological solutions, Intel tries to get by with as little information as possible.
Page 15 - I would go a step further and assert that it is really impossible for a client, even working with a software engineer, to specify completely, precisely, and correctly the exact requirements of a modern software product before trying some versions of the product.
Page 132 - A well-developed corporate financial model not only collects and stores data, but also processes and presents them in such a way that they are useful for decision making. For this reason, I think that the corporate financial model will be at the heart of future management information systems. But the corporate model has become a powerful tool in its own right. It is extremely valuable for comparing and evaluating alternative courses of action that a company may take. The model is also useful in short-term...
Page 13 - The mental model is fuzzy. It is incomplete. It is imprecisely stated. Furthermore, within one individual a mental model changes with time and even during the flow of a single conversation. The human mind assembles a few relationships to fit the context of a discussion. As the subject shifts, so does the model.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate |
| Author | Michael Schrage |
| Publisher | Harvard Business Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 1422155102, 9781422155103 |
| Length | 272 pages |
| Subjects | › Business & Economics / Strategic Planning Technology & Engineering / Nanotechnology & MEMS |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |