Episode 5: “Creativity + Innovation from any Distance” Show Notes

Show Recap

Is an innovation center an innovation gatekeeper? We sat down with MURAL CEO Mariano Suarez-Battan to discuss how to encourage all employees to experiment and innovate, and how to keep creativity and teamwork alive whether your team is in an office or remote.

Customer Obsessed Picks

Mariano’s Pick

Mariano shared two books on the show. The first is by Dr. Jean Liedtka and is called Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers. This book is perfect for anyone who is interested in the practical business applications of design thinking to inspire innovation and creative teamwork.

The second book Mariano mentioned is Jobs to Be Done by Jim Kolvak, which is a playbook for designing a vision, strategy, and plan that’s centered on your customers’ needs to help drive growth and achieve your business outcomes.

Erin’s Pick

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. If you’re a leader, you cannot pay lip service to diversity and the underlying issue of race (and other intersectional challenges) that affect who we hire and promote, how we work on teams, the office cultures we create that embrace some and not others. Let’s get uncomfortable and educate ourselves about the problems and how to talk about them, because they’re not going away. And believe me, this book will make you uncomfortable, but don’t push it away. As Oluo says in her introduction, sit with your discomfort- explore it and ask yourself why these ideas make you uncomfortable and how you can grow. This is essential reading for everyone, but especially for those in positions of authority and leadership.

Eric’s Pick

Eric just finished The Last Dance documentary on Netflix which tells the story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. There are a lot of leadership lessons packed in there, so put it in your queue.