ALIEN Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas
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- Create Date：2021-05-11 08:51:03
- Update Date：2025-09-06
- Status：finish
- Author：Cyril Bouquet
- ISBN：1541750918
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Summary
How do people come up with truly original ideas？ The answer is to think outside the box—way outside。
For the past decade， Cyril Bouquet， Jean-Louis Barsoux， and Michael Wade， professors of innovation and strategy at IMD Business School， have studied inventors， scientists， doctors， entrepreneurs， and artists。 These people， or “aliens，” as the authors call them， are able to make leaps of creativity， and use five patterns of thinking that distinguish them from the rest of us。
These five patterns—Attention， Levitation， Imagination， Experimentation， and Navigation—lead to a fresh and flexible approach to problem-solving。 Alien thinkers know how to free the imagination so it can detect hard-to-observe patterns。 They practice deliberate ways to retreat from the world in order to see the big picture underlying a problem。 And they approach ideas in systematic ways that reflect the constraints of reality。
Through surprising and compelling stories， the authors show how readers can use this method to develop out-of-this-world ideas。 ALIEN Thinking can help any of us find innovative solutions to the most difficult problems。
For the past decade， Cyril Bouquet， Jean-Louis Barsoux， and Michael Wade， professors of innovation and strategy at IMD Business School， have studied inventors， scientists， doctors， entrepreneurs， and artists。 These people， or “aliens，” as the authors call them， are able to make leaps of creativity， and use five patterns of thinking that distinguish them from the rest of us。
These five patterns—Attention， Levitation， Imagination， Experimentation， and Navigation—lead to a fresh and flexible approach to problem-solving。 Alien thinkers know how to free the imagination so it can detect hard-to-observe patterns。 They practice deliberate ways to retreat from the world in order to see the big picture underlying a problem。 And they approach ideas in systematic ways that reflect the constraints of reality。
Through surprising and compelling stories， the authors show how readers can use this method to develop out-of-this-world ideas。 ALIEN Thinking can help any of us find innovative solutions to the most difficult problems。
Reviews
Ady
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A。L。I。E。N。 Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas by Cyril Bouquet， Jean-Louise Barsoux， Michael WadeI have mentioned LeaderBooks nearly every month in my book reviews because it is the program that I use to guide me in my business reading。 I have been using this program for a couple of years。 Each month， I read one book in the business and development category slowly throughout the month。 I answer critical questions each chapter， write down my own thoughts and insights， highlig A。L。I。E。N。 Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas by Cyril Bouquet， Jean-Louise Barsoux， Michael WadeI have mentioned LeaderBooks nearly every month in my book reviews because it is the program that I use to guide me in my business reading。 I have been using this program for a couple of years。 Each month， I read one book in the business and development category slowly throughout the month。 I answer critical questions each chapter， write down my own thoughts and insights， highlight and annotate throughout the book， talk with other people about the insights we have， and build a detailed action plan to take the best aspects of the book and apply them to my own life。 Most of the time， the books are ones that I consider “okay”。 I don’t get a lot out of any individual book， but I get something out of every book。 But there are always one or two books each year that stand out to me。 I find that books that center around “thinking” are often the books that stand out to me。 This makes sense because Ideation is my number one strength in the StrengthsFinder program。 （My top 5: Ideation， Strategic， Learner， Activator， Achiever） Since this is an area where I am naturally inclined， the actions that I take see better results and the message of books about thinking resonate with me more。A。L。I。E。N Thinking strategically breaks down ways to encourage breakthrough ideas with five patterns: Attention， Levitation， Imagination， Experimentation， and Navigation。 There are compelling stories scattered throughout the book to highlight this method in action。 I enjoyed the structure， the telling， and the concept。 I suspect that this book is one that will leave a mark on me。 I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to boost their ability to creatively look at problems。 I do not rate non-fiction books， but if I did this would be highly rated by me。 Subjectively， this is a book that I am happy to have on my shelf。 CAWPILE Score NAStar Rating NARead in Print， 304 Pages 。。。more
Chris Boutté
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I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would。 Sometimes， books like this are way too anecdotal and seem more like subjective self-help "woo woo"， but these authors did a great job。 I'm someone who has a million ideas a day， and I need help organizing those thoughts to get them off the ground。 ALIEN Thinking provided practical advice with case studies， and even though there are plenty of anecdotes， they tied in really well with the strategies。 I found myself taking some time after each cha I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would。 Sometimes， books like this are way too anecdotal and seem more like subjective self-help "woo woo"， but these authors did a great job。 I'm someone who has a million ideas a day， and I need help organizing those thoughts to get them off the ground。 ALIEN Thinking provided practical advice with case studies， and even though there are plenty of anecdotes， they tied in really well with the strategies。 I found myself taking some time after each chapter to wrestle with an idea I had using one of their strategies and made some great strides with different projects I'm working on。 I can definitely see myself reading this book again in the future。 。。。more
Joseph
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I received a digital electronic galley of this book in exchange for a fair review。The authors use the mnemonic ALIEN （Attention， Levitation， Imagination， Experimentation， Navigation） to advocate an approach that businesses can use for creative thinking in innovation and problem solving。 Five of the chapters expound on the particular category by explaining the topic， using business examples for emphasis and at the end of the chapter provide a summary and some exercises that readers can use to fur I received a digital electronic galley of this book in exchange for a fair review。The authors use the mnemonic ALIEN （Attention， Levitation， Imagination， Experimentation， Navigation） to advocate an approach that businesses can use for creative thinking in innovation and problem solving。 Five of the chapters expound on the particular category by explaining the topic， using business examples for emphasis and at the end of the chapter provide a summary and some exercises that readers can use to further understand the concept。 Later chapters address how digital strategies can complement ALIEN thinking and how the 5 categories conceptually fit together。Overall， the book is well-written， thematically well-arranged and the exercises are practical and thoughtful。 Critically important （but not enough attention is paid to） is how multiple variables can stymie the implementation （or Navigation） of breakthrough thinking in organizations。 Furthermore， the authors write， "ALIEN thinkers may need to fly under the radar while their innovations are in the early stages of development， recruit influential supporters， and position their offerings in ways that don't overtly threaten the status quo。" Doesn't this stymie iconoclastic thinkers-- to have to navigate politics and culture which is the biggest reason why companies fail to adapt？ I think the better solution is to recognize the organization you are in and if it doesn't reward this type of thinking then move to one that does or develop your entrepreneurial skills and try to partner with similarly committed individuals。 There are enough people in organizations who are skilled in the art of politics。 To think that an innovative individual should then be skillful in the use of political machinations to adopt something that would ultimately be beneficial to the company seems to me a waste of their talents。 Paradoxically， the authors' examples of these types of situations further highlight this problem as most of the companies they write about have already internally embraced the idea but are now expending their energy toward regulators， external stakeholders， etc。 There is a huge difference between a path breaking idea that is squashed internally and never gets accepted versus one that is accepted and has the whole organization on board to overcome externally-related challenges。 The story the authors tell of Steven Sasson， who while at Kodak developed and understood the promise of a digital camera， almost makes it seem as if he was somehow culpable for Kodak refusing to embrace the technology because of not being a deft politician skilled at navigating alliances， upsetting prominent individuals or using company-appropriate language。 He had the audacity to call his invention 'filmless photography，' which apparently in the Kodak culture was more destructive than a nuclear bomb。 Instead， the blame in my opinion goes solely to Kodak leadership who missed this opportunity because of a calcific culture and should serve as an example of how this culture won't win in the era of disruptive innovation。 Instead Kodak's leaders， and other autocratic cultures should be hoisted on their own petard to be made an example of how poor leadership sucks the soul out of its employees and ruins jobs。There is also some dissonance about the use of technology in implementing this type of thinking。 On one hand the authors write， "Overreliance on technology interferes with her awareness of her surroundings， her ability to feel， to make connections， to learn as she goes， and to adapt。" Whereas later in the book the authors write， “The most successful ALIEN thinkers today。。。understand the power of digital technologies to inspire， test， improve， and promote their ideas。" Although technology can assist companies in developing insights in new markets， explore new products and improve operations， I think the biggest trap companies can fall into is burying themselves analyzing big data and then creating a story based on this retrospectively collected data rather than talking to employees， customers， critics， etc。 Even the type of sensors that collect bodily data at this point have not been scaled to where there is widespread adoption。 Weight loss and exercise apps have not been successful in medical studies， which highlights what successful ideas are meant to do， which is change behavior。 In order to do this there are multiple explanatory variables that encompass psychology， decision-making， motivation， etc。 within complex adaptive systems that contribute to a true understanding of introducing a successful idea that solves a big problem。 However， this book， as much as possible， gives a wide lens to at least be able to think about these problems in a quasi-disciplined way。 。。。more
Paul
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