Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries

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Overview

What do Apple CEO Steve Jobs, comedian Chris Rock, prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, the story developers at Pixar films, and the Army Chief of Strategic Plans all have in common? Bestselling author Peter Sims found that all of them have achieved breakthrough results by methodically taking small, experimental steps in order to discover and develop new ideas. Rather than believing they have to start with a big idea or plan a whole project out in advance, trying to foresee the final outcome, they make a series of little bets about what might be a good direction, learning from lots of little failures and from small but highly significant wins that allow them to happen upon unexpected avenues and arrive at extraordinary outcomes.

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.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Small, calculated risks lead to game-changing innovation in this collection of case studies from the co-author ofTrue North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership(2007).

Readers who wonder how Amazon reached its first $10 billion quarter while Borders filed for bankruptcy will want to read this guide to sustainable growth culled from interviews with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and 200 other leaders in innovation. According to Sims, Amazon developed its Associates program, which rewards other websites for sending buyers to Amazon, using the same method of trial and error that comedian Chris Rock uses to hone his stand-up routine. The key, as the title suggests, is to make a series of little bets that turn small losses into big wins over time. The author draws from a wide range of sources, from micro-lending to military operations, to illustrate the creative process that turned Pixar from a struggling computer-hardware company into a popular animated-film company and inspired architect Frank Gehry to build the spectacular Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Citing the wisdom of Everett Rogers, who coined the term "early adopters," and contemporary thinkers like Silicon Valley's Eric Ries, Sims packs a lot of scholarly research into a short number of pages and comes up a little disjointed. But the back stories are impressive. By showing how experimentation has been instrumental not just in Silicon Valley, but all over the world and long before the Internet, Sims' research could inspire even the stodgiest corporation to take a risk.

Diverse and uplifting—a veritable gumball machine of memorable anecdotes to inspire creativity.

Library Journal
Google, Pixar, Apple, NBC's Tim Russert, Chris Rock, and others are used as examples of "little bets" to create new ideas and improve them again and again. Sims (Stanford Inst. of Design, Summit Partners) presents an interesting collection of examples (Failing Quickly, Genius of Play, Design Thinking) to support the various successes. Unfortunately, the roles of timing or circumstance or dumb luck are never addressed. Therefore, one should not expect to confuse the use of little bets with sure bets in the innovation process. Read by John Allen Nelson, the audiobook is recommended with reservations for a discerning listen by innovation practitioners expecting to enhance (not replace) his/her innovation tool kit.—M. Gail Preslar, formerly with Eastman Chemical Co. Business Lib., Kingsport, TN

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781439170427
  • Publisher: Free Press
  • Publication date: 4/19/2011
  • Pages: 224
  • Sales rank: 56,457
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Peter Sims is the coauthor with Bill George of the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestselling book True North. His work has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and TechCrunch and he is a contributor to the Reuters and Harvard Business Review blogs. He received an M.B.A. from Stanford Business School where he and several classmates established a popular course on leadership. He has spoken or advised at such organizations as Cisco Systems, Eli Lilly, Current Media, Molson Coors, Qualcomm, and Frost & Sullivan. Previously, Peter worked in venture capital with Summit Partners, a leading investment company, and was part of the team that established the firm’s London Office.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Big Bets versus Little Bets 19

2 The Growth Mind-set 35

3 Failing Quickly to Learn Fast 51

4 The Genius of Play 65

5 Problems Axe the New Solutions 77

6 Questions Are the New Answers 97

7 Learning a Little from a Lot 117

8 Learning a Lot from a Little 131

9 Small Wins 141

10 Conclusion 153

Further Readings and Resources 163

Notes 179

In Gratitude 203

Index 205

Customer Reviews

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  • Posted October 7, 2011

    I really enjoyed this book

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 3, 2011

    Terrific writing, wide range of great stories

    This is an incredibly well written book that debunks the idea of the "lone genius" and shows you how to use calculated small bets to make changes or improvements in your work which will eventually reveal your big breakthrough idea. Sims is a passionate advocate for rethinking our outmoded notion of creativity which limits its use to so-called creative fields. Highly recommend for people in all lines of work and at all level of the management food chain.

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