Little Bets: Wie aus kleinen Entdeckungen bahnbrechende Ideen entstehen

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Was haben Apple-CEO Steve Jobs, der Komiker Chris Rock, der preisgekrönte Architekt Frank Gehry, die Story-Entwickler bei Pixar Films und der Army Chief of Strategic Plans gemeinsam? Bestsellerautor Peter Sims stellte fest, dass sie alle bahnbrechende Ergebnisse erzielten, indem sie methodisch kleine, experimentelle Schritte unternahmen, um neue Ideen zu entdecken und zu entwickeln. Anstatt zu glauben, dass sie mit einer großen Idee beginnen oder ein ganzes Projekt im Voraus planen müssen, versuchen sie das Endergebnis vorherzusehen, gehen sie eine Reihe kleiner Wetten ein, was eine gute Richtung sein könnte, lernen aus vielen kleinen Fehlern und von kleine, aber sehr bedeutende Gewinne, die es ihnen ermöglichen, auf unerwarteten Wegen zu passieren und zu außergewöhnlichen Ergebnissen zu gelangen.
Based on deep and extensive research, including more than 200 interviews with leading innovators, Sims discovered that productive, creative thinkers and doers—from Ludwig van Beethoven to Thomas Edison and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos—practice a key set of simple but ingenious experimental methods—such as failing quickly to learn fast, tapping into the genius of play, and engaging in highly immersed observation—that free their minds, opening them up to making unexpected connections and perceiving invaluable insights. These methods also unshackle them from the constraints of overly analytical thinking and linear problem solving that our education places so much emphasis on, as well as from the fear of failure, all of which thwart so many of us in trying to be more innovative.
Reporting on a fascinating range of research, from the psychology of creative blocks to the influential Silicon Valley–based field of design thinking, Sims offers engaging and wonderfully illuminating accounts of breakthrough innovators at work, including how Hewlett-Packard stumbled onto the breakaway success of the first hand-held calculator; the remarkable storyboarding process at Pixar films that has been the key to their unbroken streak of box office successes; the playful discovery process by which Frank Gehry arrived at his critically acclaimed design for Disney Hall; the aha revelation that led Amazon to pursue its wildly successful affiliates program; and the U.S. Army’s ingenious approach to counterinsurgency operations that led to the dramatic turnaround in Iraq.
Fast paced and as entertaining as it is illuminating, Little Bets offers a whole new way of thinking about how to break away from the narrow strictures of the methods of analyzing and problem solving we were all taught in school and unleash our untapped creative powers.