Our first featured book on the Connect IT blog is Tom Kelly’s The Ten Faces Of Innovation. Our featured books are some of the best readings available on themes and ideas related to the Connect IT theme for 2010.

The Ten Faces of Innovation gives managers a new understanding of what personas build up teams with the creativity and capacity to generate creative strategies and new products.

While in business school we are encouraged to work in teams for many of our group projects, and when it comes to our cap-stone courses or even going through MBAs at Ryerson, we are encouraged to work with people going through the different majors be it in Business Management: Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management, HR, or on the ITM side of things: ERP, Knowledge Management, Digital Media, or Application Development. This book breaks that mold.

The Ten Faces of Innovation explores the value of including in your teams people who represent one or more of 10 different personas:

• The Anthropologist
• The Experimenter
• The Cross-Pollinator
• The Hurdler
• The Collaborator
• The Director
• The Experience Architect
• The Set Designer
• The Story Teller
• The Caregiver

Just like in the balance between business and IT, the goal isn’t to be able to do everything, but as teams work together understanding the different roles, and how each team member contributes is essential.

This book goes beyond just defining each persona and helps us understand the barriers that prevent organizations from being creative, and how the personas can work together to create new value.

Photo Credit: wilkins lee