EXPLOITING CHAOS

While surfing the net, I have found a newly released innovation book by Jeremy Gutsche, host of Trend Hunter TV, one of North America’s most requested keynote speakers, & the founder of TrendHunter.com, the world’s largest network for trend spotting & innovation, boasting an audience of roughly 10 million monthly views.

This book is about powerful ideas and vivid stories that will
help you stimulate creativity, identify opportunity, and ultimately, EXPLOIT CHAOS.

The author has defined 'chaos' as "the uncertainty sparked by uncharted territory, economic recession, and bubbles of opportunity."

From the first chapter, which readers can download a copy from this link, it looks visually engaging to me.

Also, the author's 'Exploiting Chaos' framework is somewhat intriguing.

I have yet to read the book, but has a copy in my shopping basket with Amazon.

Gut feel tells me that he writes like maverick guru Tom Peters.

Looking purely from the index as outlined in the first chapter, I note that there isn't really much ground-breaking stuff in the book, but the author obviously has quite a market reputation as an innovation strategist.

However, not to discount him totally, I am curious to see how he has given the subject with a new spin.

Nonetheless, I have taken the liberty to extract some of the '150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change' - in bullet point form - from the book as follows:

- Crisis creates opportunity;

- You can thrive in times of loss;

- Reinvent what people want;

- Keep your finger on the pulse of pop culture;

- Learn the game and start to play;

- “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.”;

- Even the clever must adapt;

- You cannot escape disruptive evolution;

- Don’t become a boiled frog;

- Stay focused on opportunity;

- Find a way to make sense of all the noise;

- Accept that the world never returns to normal;

- You don’t need to have everything figured out;

- There is comfort in chaos;

- The only things slowing you down are the rules you need to break;

- Small decisions can have a profound impact;

- Learn to adapt;

- Don’t let monkeys inhibit change;

- Spark a revolution;

- Understand your perspective;

- Specifically what are you trying to do?

- Don’t be seduced by complacency;

- Look beyond the failure of others;

- Assume tremendous potential in rival ideas;

- Explore uncertainty;

- Avoid retreating to your comfort zone;

- Question rational thought;

- Understand the pattern of disruption;

- If you’re big, act small;

- If you’re small, act big;

- Chase the right dream;

- Exploit crisis to accelerate change;

- Shift perspective, spark revolution;

- You cannot predict the future... but you can predict scenarios and capitalize on disruption;

- Visualize disaster and opportunity;

- “The right questions don’t change as often as the answers do”;

- A decent proportion of your creations must fail;

- Be wary of your strengths; success leads to complacency;

- Don’t let complacency be the architecture of your downfall;

- It’s easy to find the peak of a hill... to find a larger hill, you have to walk through a valley;

- Create a gambling fund;

- Break down managerial confidence;

- Don’t ask, “Do you like it?” Ask, “What’s wrong with it?”;

- Make failure a part of every day;

- Win like you’re used to it, lose like you enjoy it;

- Fire people for not failing;

- Don’t celebrate the attainment of the summit, celebrate the style of climb;

- If you want to be remembered, invoke an emotional connection...;

- If you want to engage, invoke a cultural connection;

- Obsess about your customer;

- Don’t speak to your customers, speak with them;

- Inspire customers to champion your brand;

- Observe in the zone;

- Get uncomfortable;

- Do it yourself;

- Fight the confidence that you know your customer;

- Spend time in the zone;

- Seek authenticity;

- Tear apart structure;

- Become leaderless;

- Stop telling people what to do;

- Build a creative work environment;

- Act crazy, especially if you’re a senior leader;

- Hire freaks;

- Piss people off;

- Let reason triumph over hierarchy;

- Diversify thought;

- Cross-pollinate your ideas;

- Remove the walls that separate people and ideas;

- Destroy the perks of seniority;

- Encourage informality;

- Celebrate that nothing is precious;

- Destroy value;

- Throw away your best ideas;

- Laugh;

- There’s no point innovating if you think you already know the answer;

- Actively seek inspiration;

- Develop a toolkit to filter ideas;

- Awaken your inner Trend Hunter;

- Popular is not cool;

- Cool is unique and cutting edge;

- Most importantly, cool is viral... which is why marketers and product designers seek to attain it;

- Constantly seek to be unique;

- Don’t ignore the fringe;

- Hunt trends in 20 ways;

- Group ideas into meaningful clusters;

- Force yourself to re-cluster;

- Let clusters lead you to breakthrough ideas;

- Be methodical - and stay out of communist prisons;

- Use the Trend Hunter Adaptive Innovation Framework;

- Manage innovation like a stock portfolio;

- Do lots, explore, gamble, and be safe;

- Innovate inside the box;

- Create artificial constraints;

- Stay strong after a snakebite;

- Don’t play with the house money;

- You have to play to win;

- Take advantage of uncertainty;

- Pursue disproportionate value;

- Don’t add when you can divide;

- Pull weeds, grow roses;

- When you create something that connects, your message travels faster than ever before;

- Package your product like it’s the best in the world;

- Convey style before substance;

- Screw logic, tell a story;

- Let words create image;

- Invent mythology;

- Contextualize your message;

- Articulate your mantra;

- Convey everything in 7 words or less;

- Know why I should choose you;

- Rule #1: Relentlessly obsess about your story;

- Chaos permits you to think differently;

- Act now;