Weird Ideas That Work: Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation

In today’s fast-paced economy, creativity and innovation are crucial for survival. However, traditional business rules often discourage creativity. Instead, Stanford professor Robert Sutton suggests hiring misfits, training them extensively, and instilling a corporate culture. Sutton’s book, Weird Ideas That Work, presents counterintuitive ideas to help businesses turn their workplace from safe to wild and creative. He uses behavioral psychology research to explain how innovation can be fostered in various aspects of business, including hiring, managing, motivating people, building teams, making decisions, and interacting with outsiders. Sutton’s 11 1/2 practices, drawn from various industries, demonstrate how some of the best teams and companies use these practices to generate new ideas and reap sales and profits. The book represents a breakthrough in management thinking, demonstrating that the practices needed to sustain performance are in constant tension with those that foster new ideas.