Lisa Bodell is the founder and CEO of futurethink, an internationally recognized innovation research and training firm. Lisa founded her company on the principle that with the right knowledge and tools, everyone has the power to innovate. As a leading innovator and cognitive learning expert, she has devised training programs for hundreds of innovators at leading companies. In her brand new book Kill the Company End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution Bodell offers lots of business insights to stir bottom-up innovation in companies. It’s the creative destruction on a micro-level. By leveraging creative and innovative powers in employees, the status quo can be ended, the current company killed and an innovation revolution started.
Everyone is a change agent, according to the author. It’s so important to move from what she calls Zombies, Inc. to Think, Inc. This involves both risk and trust: to allow all employees the opportunity and environment to be curious and inquisitive. No more handcuffs, but guardrails. Yes, projects may fail, and not 100% of the R&D budget will lead to successful innovation. The author wants you to kill fear, complacency and distractions.

Bodell identifies individual skills needed to shape tomorrow’s businesses:
- strategic imagination
- provocative inquiry
- creative problem solving
- agility
- resilience

On a business level the following behaviours should be leveraged:
- focus on the future
- challenge the status quo
- identify / invest in smart risks
- active collaboration
- continuous learning

Bodell draws from the work of such education luminaries as Sir Ken Robinson and the groundbreaking Blue School (founded by members of the Blue Man Group). The book reminded me of Daniel H. Pink‘s a whole new mind, Lynda Gratton’s Hot Spots, Satish Nambisan and Mohanbir Sawhney‘s The Global Brain and other works on innovation. On Killthecompany.com you can find the toolset described. ( )