February 19, 2015

The Four Lenses of Innovation, with Rowan Gibson

On this week’s episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast, we look at the four lenses of innovation – what the four lenses are and how they can be used to drive corporate innovation, how they can be employed to emulate the mind of the innovator, and what we can all learn about innovation from the greatest minds of the Renaissance. This week’s episode is the first in a 2-part interview, the second half of which will air next week.

Rowan Gibson, a world-renowned innovation expert who has served as a keynote speaker on the subject of innovation in 60 countries around the world, joins us to talk about these topics and more. Rowan is an internationally bestselling author whose just published book is titled The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking.

Rowan has previously written two major books on corporate innovation and business strategy: Innovation to the Core and Rethinking the Future, both of which are published today in over 20 languages. Rowan is also the co-founder of Innovation Excellence.com, the most popular innovation-themed website in the world, built on an international group of over 22,000 members from 175 countries. And if you’ve been a long-time listener of this podcast, you’ll remember him from the lucky 13th episode of “The Innovation Engine,” when he talked about Building a Blueprint for Innovation.

Highlights from this podcast episode with Rowan Gibson include:

  • Why Rowan believes innovation isn’t just the domain of corporate superstars but can be learned by anyone that understands the right lenses through which to view the world and how to apply them
  • Rowan talks about the explosion of knowledge that occurred during the Renaissance and what we can learn from the thinking processes that led to this explosion of creativity and invention (the very same thinking processes we can emulate using the four lenses)
  • Why companies should empower everyone, up to and including the janitor, to employ their creativity in the workspace
  • The power – and danger – of patterns in our thinking and everyday lives, and how to break these patterns in order to innovate

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Interested in hearing more? Tune in to the full episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast below.

About The Innovation Engine

Since 2014, 3Pillar has published The Innovation Engine, a podcast that sees a wide range of innovation experts come on to discuss topics that include technology, leadership, and company culture. You can download and subscribe to The Innovation Engine on Apple Podcasts. You can also tune in via the podcast’s home on Spotify to listen online, via Android or iOS, or on any device supporting a mobile browser.