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The Imagination Machine: How to Spark New Ideas and Create Your Company's Future Kindle Edition

by Martin Reeves (Author), Jack Fuller (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 73 ratings

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A guide for mining the imagination to find powerful new ways to succeed.

We need imagination now more than ever—to find new opportunities, rethink our businesses, and discover paths to growth. Yet too many companies have lost their ability to imagine. What is this mysterious capacity? How does imagination work? And how can organizations keep it alive and harness it in a systematic way?

The Imagination Machine answers these questions and more. Drawing on the experience and insights of CEOs across several industries, as well as lessons from neuroscience, computer science, psychology, and philosophy, Martin Reeves of Boston Consulting Group's Henderson Institute and Jack Fuller, an expert in neuroscience, provide a fascinating look into the mechanics of imagination and lay out a process for creating ideas and bringing them to life:

The Seduction: How to open yourself up to surprises
The Idea: How to generate new ideas
The Collision: How to rethink your idea based on real-world feedback
The Epidemic: How to spread an evolving idea to others
The New Ordinary: How to turn your novel idea into an accepted reality
The Encore: How to repeat the process—again and again.

Imagination is one of the least understood but most crucial ingredients of success. It's what makes the difference between an incremental change and the kinds of pivots and paradigm shifts that are essential to transformation—especially during a crisis.

The Imagination Machine is the guide you need to demystify and operationalize this powerful human capacity, to inject new life into your company, and to head into unknown territory with the right tools at your disposal.

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imagination, sucess, imagine, business, goals, succeeding, creativity, creative, spark, ideas

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Advance Praise for The Imagination Machine:

"We may not all be artists, but it's high time we started thinking like them. If you want to escape the tyranny of metrics and incrementalism, and if you're serious about confronting uncertainty with courage and creativity, this book is a great place to start." — Margaret Heffernan, author, Uncharted

"In today's business environment, the capacity to move beyond cookie-cutter models and copies of what others are doing is critical. That requires putting known things together in unforeseen ways; the ability to wonder, to get inspired when things fail or don't work; and to see surprises as sources of ideas. This book fills an important gap in our knowledge about how to systematically apply imagination, creativity, and learning to business strategy." — Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, Executive Chairman, LEGO Brand Group; former President and CEO, LEGO Group

"This book captures essential concepts of nurturing imagination as a sustainable organizational capability. Let's all ask active, open questions—and stay hopeful, as the book suggests." — Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO, Sinovation Ventures

"Creativity and imagination have increasingly become the key sources of outsized business success. Yet creativity and imagination aren't taught in most business schools, they're not encouraged in most business cultures, and they tend to be stifled by most popular management processes. Reeves and Fuller have written a delightful exploration of the imagination in business that should be read by any leader aiming for long-term success." — Alan Murray, CEO, Fortune Media

About the Author

Jack Fuller is a Special Project Manager at the BCG Henderson Institute. He is the author of numerous business articles on topics including purpose, strategy games, transformation, play, and goal setting. He has also worked with a range of BCG clients, focusing on brand strategy, customer journey mapping, and innovation. Fuller has appeared on UK Channel 4's Sunday Brunch as a guest philosopher, on Australia's Radio National Life Matters, and as a speaker at conferences on the humanities in Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Australia. He holds a degree in neuroscience from the University of Melbourne, where he contributed to research in human brain mapping and brain, behavior and evolution, as well as a master's degree and a doctorate, both in theology, from the University of Oxford, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. Martin Reeves is director of the Boston Consulting Group Bruce Henderson Institute and a senior partner based in New York City.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08DYFMC1X
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press (June 8, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 8, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 45647 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 375 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #958,702 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #887 in Starting a Business (Kindle Store)
- #984 in Popular Psychology Creativity & Genius
- #1,081 in Business Systems & Planning

Customer Reviews:
4.4 73 ratings

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Martin Reeves
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Martin Reeves is a managing director and senior partner in BCG’s San Francisco office, and the Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute (BHI), BCG’s vehicle for exploring ideas from beyond the world of business, which have implications for business strategy management.
Martin’s latest book, The Imagination Machine (HBR Press, 2021 June) explores how to systematically harness imagination to generate new ideas and transform your business.
He is editor of the “Inspiring the Next Game” book series, a set of perspectives on emerging themes in business published in partnership between De Gruyter and the BCG Henderson Institute:
· Sustainable Business Model Innovation (2023)
· The Rise of AI-Powered Companies (2022)
· Business Ecosystems (2022)
· New Leadership Imperatives (2022)
· Dynamics Business Strategy (2021)
· The Resilient Enterprise (2021)
· Winning the ’20s (2021)
· Mastering the Science of Organizational Change (2021)
Martin is also the co-author of Your Strategy Needs a Strategy (HBR Press, 2015) and host of the Thinkers & Ideas podcast, where he interviews leading thinkers about influential ideas on business, technology, economics, and science. He is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fortune, and other management journals on business strategy and management.
Martin holds a triple first-class MA in natural sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management. To learn more about Martin’s latest research visit The BCG Henderson Institute's website, subscribe to BHI’s newsletter or connect with him on social media.
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Jack Fuller
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Jack Fuller is the founder and CEO of therapy company Archive (archivetherapy.com) and co-author of The Imagination Machine (Harvard Business Press, 2021). He is also a licensed psychotherapist.
Jack has a degree in Neuroscience from Melbourne University, and an M.Phil and D.Phil in Theology (Ethics) from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. His doctorate was on ‘Desire and the Ethics of Advertising’.
Previously Jack was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group in New York, and a member of the BCG Henderson Institute. Prior to that he taught and helped develop products at The School of Life in London. His writing has been published in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Review, The Conversation, and The Sydney Morning Herald. He also contributed to research published in Human Brain Mapping and Brain, Behavior and Evolution.
Jack was born in Birmingham, UK, and grew up in Brisbane, Australia. He currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
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4.4 out of 5

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Mateo Buriticá

Buen libro para tener marcos de referencia para inspirarse y encontrar nuevas soluciones/problemas

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2024

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Un buen libro para construir un proceso creativo que nos permita ver otras posibilidades y como implementarlas para mejorar nuestro negocio/vida.

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T. Wedell-Wedellsborg

Useful and entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2021

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Great book that goes way beyond the usual platitudes around innovation. Lots of tangible, research-driven advice on how to maximise the creative potential of both people and their organizations. Beyond that, I really enjoyed the book's illustrations (there's useful sketches on almost every page), the steady drip of humorous asides, and not least the various historical anecdotes the authors provide. You can feel that this book was written by people who think about more things than just P&L statements (although they think about those, too).

4 people found this helpful

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Robert Morris

How to harness imagination systemically within the workplace to drive your company's growth

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

According to Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, "The aim of this book is to draw on the best knowledge we have about imagination and filter this through practitioners' minds -- our own experience and interviews with business leaders -- to produce a practitioners' guide to building and operating an imagination machine: a company that systematically harnesses imagination to drive growth."

I was curious to know to what "machine" in the title refers. Reeves and Fuller explain: "We use the word 'machine' because imagination is a tool, and companies are tools to serve public needs. Although imagination is somewhat unruly, there is no reason we cannot develop a more systematic approach to cultivating and using it, just as business has in other domains that depend on quirky characteristics of the mind, like advertising and human resources. And although the word 'machine' may evoke images of factories from the last century, modern machines are increasingly flexible and intelligent. A company worthy of the name imagination machine is one that can consistently reinvent itself and what it offers to the world."

Reeves and Fuller make brilliant use of several reader-friendly devices, notably "Good Questions to Ask" and "Organizational Diagnostic" sections that conclude Chapters Three to Eight as well as hundreds of illustrations throughout all ten chapters. I also want to congratulate them on the brief but substantialprofiles of organizations that have become "imagination machines." For example, Apple, BCG (Boston Consulting Group), Four Seasons, Google, Pfizer, Pixar, and Zappos.

These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Reeves and Fuller' coverage:

o Life cycle of ideas (Pages 11-19)
o Surprises that can trigger the imagination (12-14)
Note: "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny.'" Isaac Asimov

o Games to trigger the imagination (36-37 & 88-89)
o Charles Merrill and Merrill Lynch (39-41)
o Rethinking mental models (43-62)

o How to broaden scope of scale when rethinking models (53-57)
o Accelerating imagination through action (70-75)
o Probing to collide mental models with reality to provoke feedback and surprise (76-86)
o Collective imagination (91-116)
o Evolvable scripts (117-139)

o Corporate scripts (124-130)
o Sustaining imagination (141-160)
o Supporting mental ambidexterity (144-160)
o Human collaboration with artificial intelligence (166-172)
o Rekindling imagination for sustained growth (177-185)

This book is a magnificent achievement. Reeves and Fuller provide an abundance of information, insights, and counsel that will help to prepare those who read it to establish and then continuously strengthen a workplace culture within which -- at all levels and in all areas -- imagination is most likely to thrive. That culture will resemble a machine to the extent that it consistently sustains worker efficiency and effectiveness throughout the given enterprise. Some of the most valuable material focuses on how to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of human collaboration with artificial intelligence.

I agree with Reeves and Fuller: "AI can free us from more routine activities; it can carry out core tasks, to which humans bring a layer of empathy; or it can provide an ongoing stimulus for imagination." Much of attention is directed to suggesting how different kinds of AI-human collaboration might play out across each of the areas examined in the book. I highly recommend checking out another book: Kai-Fu Lee's AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2018).

It remains for those who read their book to absorb and digest the information, insights, and counsel it provides, then use their enriched imagination to set and then achieve BHAGs, what Jim Collins characterizes as "Big Hairy Audacious Goals."

These are Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller's final thoughts. "Leadership and management tend to be centered on performance maximization, but even high-performing enterprises need to be reimagined to retain vitality in the face of complex and unpredictable challenges. This requires a new discipline of harnessing imagination and new leadership behaviors to support it. We hope that this book provides some first pragmatic steps in that direction."

In this context, I am again reminded of an insight of incalculable value, suggested by T.S. Eliot in his Four Quartets, Chapter 2 ("Little Gidding"):

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all of our exploring
Will be to arrive at where we started
And know the place for the first time."

Eliot reminds us that one of the greatest benefits of exploration is to increase one's knowledge, of course, but also to gain new perspectives on the knowledge we already possess. We must trust our curiosity to drive that relentless process of strategic inquiry...and also allow our imagination to inspire us (in Tennyson's words) "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

7 people found this helpful

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Philly-Customer

The Imagination Machine -- A fascinating, timely and important Book

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

As the world begins to emerge from the COVID-19 health, economic and social crisis, companies – large and small, public and private, for-profit and social – are being prompted to reinvent and reimagine themselves to be able to survive and prosper. Executive leaders around the world will have to take a hard look at how to do business in the post COVID-19 era, since the shocks caused by this pandemic will affect every aspect of a company’s business and will lead to Business Model Innovation. But how do you reimagine your business? How can your organizations become more imaginative? #TheImaginationMachine by @Martin Reeves and @Jack Fuller, answers these and related questions and provides a clear process for creating actionable ideas. It is a timely and fascinating book, filled with many examples and very helpful illustrations. The writing style and the format of the book make it easy to internalize the powerful messages. It is a must read and I strongly recommend it.

One person found this helpful

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Marco Magnani

A brilliant book: a must read

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2021

The Imagination Machines is an insightful book about how companies can flourish in the face of adversity, take advantage of disruptive changes to create new opportunities, increase corporate resilience and longevity.
During their professional life, author Martin Reeves has advised many CEOs to shape successful business strategies in complex environments. In this book, he and Jack Fuller analyze and explain the role that imagination might play in building competitive advantage and finding new paths to growth.
The pandemic makes this book very timely. Today more than ever, organizations need to rethink their business models, relying on traditional strength but also daring to introduce and push new ideas, leveraging on strong leadership but also cultivating, nurturing and using imagination.

One person found this helpful

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Mark Amtower

Perhaps the most important book a business leader will read

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021

Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller provde a practical roadmap to the future for CEOs and other executives. This book shows you how to view business situations in multiple ways, allowing you to see avenues that were not obvious.

Chock full of examples of companies that have adapted to changing situations and adopted new directions as a result.

This is a must read for current and future leaders.

3 people found this helpful

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Can Uslay

Actionable insights to shift your innovation engine to a higher gear

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021

Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller provide the blueprint to kick your innovation engine to a higher gear. Their insightful examples range from Lego and Turo to Merill Lynch. This accessible cookbook of imagination comes with games, questions, quiz sheets, templates, and diagnostic tools, complete with a complimentary napkin e-gallery. Leave it on your coffee table at home or work for years of inspiration. Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Freiberg

New perspective on business strategy

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

The authors argue that businesses and leaders need imagination now more than ever - an interesting new perspective on business strategy, competition, and management. Much had been written about how technology is transforming businesses, but it's equally important to focus on what are the uniquely human skills and capabilities, that can't be mastered by machines, like imagination.

The book is filled with cartoons and graphics - it's not your traditional strategy book.

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Filipe pessoa

Mais imaginação nas Organizações = Mais inovação

Reviewed in Brazil on April 10, 2023

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Um livro essencial para quem está buscando tornar suas organizações mais inovadoras incentivando os colaboradores a serem mais imaginativos e efetivos na busca ou reinvenção de negócios. Extremamente bem fundamentado, traz exemplos reais de organizações que se reinventaram, inclusive, após uma experiência de quase-morte, como o caso da Nokia. Também apresenta formas simples, práticas e eficazes de introduzir elementos que auxiliem a criação de uma verdadeira cultura de imaginação e inovação. Na minha opinião, o ponto alto está no capítulo 9 (imaginação artificial?) onde os autores apresentam uma breve, mas provocativa discussão de como a IA vai acelerar nossa imaginação e, por consequência, nossa taxa de inovação.

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Mr J Oliver

A brilliant read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2021

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The Imagination Machine is a book packed with thought-provoking ideas and practical exercises and examples. At a time of significant global uncertainty, many firms will seek to re-imagine their businesses and this book will go along way to help executive teams go into this process with confidence.

Dont expect this to be another 'quick read' business book - it's the opposite! You will be fully immersed in a journey into the unknown and The Imagination Machine will be your guide.

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