TMI US: Owl Book Review Grove

OWL BOOK REVIEW AVIARY

Michael Schrage, Serious Play, How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000
ISBN: 0-87584-814-1

Michael Schrage, research associate at MIT Media Lab, challenges modern corporations: unless you seriously play you can't seriously plan. The author, a columnist for Fortune magazine, says that prototypes themselves aren't the basis for good products or ideas. Rather it is whether models allow for teams to play with them that determines final outcomes. In short, "organizations manage themselves by managing their prototypes. "Don't look to innovation to produce better prototypes, writes Schrage. Rather look to prototypes to produce more innovative teams.

Schrage seems to be saying that with innovation, the "medium is the message." The very models one uses to look at things determines how you will look at them.

To quote Schrage: "Serious play turns out to be not an ideal but a core competence. Boosting the bandwidth for improvisation turns out to be an invitation to innovation. Treating prototypes as conversation pieces turns out to be the best way to discover what you yourself are really trying to accomplish." (p. xix)

Serious Play is a handbook for managers who wish to positively manage their innovation processes. While too complex to easily summarize in this review, any reader of this book will be challenged and then offered practical approaches to engage in Serious Play. Of particular value is a user's guide printed at the back of the book.

We highly recommend this book for any serious student of innovation.

Janelle Barlow, President
TMI, USA

Previous "Owl Book Review Grove" pages:

    #1 Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect

    #2 Bennis, An Invented Life

    #3 Morrison, The Second Curve

    #4 Foster, How to Get Ideas

    #5 Bear, Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter

    #6 Hemphill, Taming the Paper Tiger

    #7 Rifkin, Time Wars

   #8 Pearce, Leading Out Loud

    #9 Kao, Jamming

#10 Tannen, The Argument Culture

#11 Nancy, More Letters From a Nut

#12 Anders, Health Against Wealth

#13 Yates, The Critical Path

#14 Langdon, The New Language of Work

#15 Needleman, Time and the Soul

#16 Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence

#17 Conger, Winning 'Em Over

#18 Shapiro & Jankowski, The Power of Nice

#19 Fradette & Michaud, The Power of Corporate Kinetics

#20 Upshaw, Building Brand Identity

#21 Reis and Trout, Positioning

#22 Spencer, Winning Through Participation

#23 Underhill, Why We Buy

#24 Pine & Gilmore, The Experience Economy

#25 Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma

#26 Hirschfeld, Business Dad

#27 Harkins, Powerful Conversations

#28 Seybold, Customers.Com

#29 Ackerman, Identity is Destiny

#30 Childre & Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence

#31 Ryback, Putting Emotional Intelligence to Work

#32 Gladwell, The Tipping Point

TMI US
8270 West Charleston Blvd
Las Vegas, Nevada 89117

tel: 702 939-1800
fax: 702 939-1804
email: