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Summary: Simulation Enlarges Shared Space, Thinking, and Results!
Review: :'Serious play is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation.'Serious Play is one of those rare books that will change the paradigms that many companies and other organizations have, enable them to learn faster and more effectively, and then make better decisions. In the foreword, Tom Peters connects the concepts in this book to one that Bob Waterman and he wrote about in In Search of Excellence: Ready, Fire, Aim! The idea is that we can learn a lot by trying things out before they are finalized. In the process, our aim improves. This is an elegant description of some of the advantages of simulation. The book is rich in examples of how companies use simulation. These examples are clustered around financial models (both spreadsheets and more advanced computer models) for transaction decisions, creating three-dimensional models of new products for development and testing (Boeing's 777 and DaimlerChrysler's new cars), improving choices around environmental changes (Royal Dutch/Shell's planning process), and examining business model alternatives (demand and scheduling simulations for airlines and hotels, and combining better cost information from activity-based costing to identify strategic alternatives). Each of these clusters is examined in some detail, with lots of lessons of what works and what does not. Here are the book's organizational structure and key ideas: Part I: Getting Real 1. The New Economics of Innovation (it's usually cheaper to spend time and money on simulations than to make mistakes in the marketplace) 2. A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge (spreadsheets allow companies to look at more alternatives and explain them better, but there are dangers in relying on faulty ones) Part II: Model Behavior 3. Our Models, Ourselves (models reflect how we think about innovation and our assumptions more than the real world) 4. Productive Waste (the more we waste in thinking through alternatives, the better the final result and eventual economic returns are as long as we are focused on speed to implementation) 5. Preparing for Surprise (the most valuable benefits come from surprises we don't expect -- be sure to keep your eyes open and follow up) 6. Perils of Pathological Prototyping (ways to make simulations worthless or harmful -- lessons of what to avoid doing) Part III: S(t)imulating Innovation 7. S(t)imulating Interventions (creating shared space and information flows allows more types of stakeholders to participate including suppliers, other internal functions, and customers) 8. Measuring Prototyping Paybacks (understanding how you generate the most value from your project can improve your process) 9. Going Meta: Evolution as a Business Practice (future steps for simulation improvements) User's Guide (10 key lessons): (1) Ask who benefits? This may create bias. Eliminate or reduce the bias. (2) Decide what the main paybacks should be and measure them. Rigorously. Without this focus, your process can miss the most important elements of the activity for you. (3) Fail early and often. Iterations are more important than making the most progress with each prototype. (4) Manage a diversified prototype portfolio. Each way you prototype will have biases and errors in it. By duplication of prototypes in different forms, you can avoid those mistakes. (5) Commit to a migration path. Honor that commitment. This means that you integrate simulations into a business process. (6) Prototypes should encourage play. Otherwise, finished models simply cast ideas in concrete (clay models of cars often had this effect) (7) Create markets around the prototype. This means getting customers involved through methods such as beta testing. (8) Encourage role playing. This is an effective way to create empathy and a shared view of the problem. (9) Determining the points of diminishing return. This means to spend your time and efforts in those areas that are most productive, and to manage your total time to implementation against the cost of errors you can eliminate. (10) Record and review relentlessly and rigorously. This is the idea of how to improve your overall simulation process. What, then, are the limitations of this book? As someone who has worked with simulations and studied them for over 25 years, I believe the author missed some important points: A- Simulations are even more valuable for choosing what technologies to pursue than they are for any of the applications described here. By combining factors like the expected rate of cost decline, effectiveness enhancement, inherent demand for the technology, price elasticities, and functionality, one can estimate likely paths for one technology to dominate others. Then you can plan your development path to take advantage of those paths. B- All public companies can benefit from simulations involving polling of current and potential shareholders, but most limit themselves to financial models and spreadsheets which produce misleading results. C- A major advantage of simulations for looking at external scenarios outside your control is that those using the scenarios begin to think of strategies that will outperform under all these circumstances (Arie de Geus taught me this from his experience at Royal Dutch/Shell, but it was not reported in this book). D- Simulations are also very useful for generating new technology concepts. I often use these in my consulting practice to help R & D organizations to locate new technologies that are worth developing. E- Simulations work best because the play has no immediate 'real world' consequences. In several places, the author seems to suggest that people be evaluated for how well they perform in simulations (the military does this). Those real world consequences will harm the value of the simulation for creativity purposes. See Creativity in Context. As a result, I find the title a little off target. I think a better one would have been Seriously Improving Results from Playful Play. F- Simulations do not have to be numbers, model, or prototype based. Some of the most useful ones I have seen are based on having people create their own stories and story boards. Although story boards are described here as a method, they are not explored nearly enough. G- The author isn't careful enough about his use of terms. As a result (although he warns us to be careful), it isn't always clear what he means by a 'model' or a 'prototype.' I was surprised by this weakness in an otherwise well-done book. H- Simulations using analogies are among the most powerful. I did not see any of these described here. You can read the Synectics literature to get ideas for how to do this. Despite these limitations, I strongly urge you to read and apply this book. Simulation is a major step forward in improving innovation and communications. Those who fail to master simulation methods are doomed to be overcome by them. After you have finished reading the book, think about the 5 areas where an improved result would be most valuable to your company. Then think about how you could use simulations to help you create those improvements. Be sure to set high goals (like 2,000 percent solutions)! Then get started today! You'll be amazed at what you can learn!
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Summary: The way we play defines our success in innovation
Review: Do innovative companies make a lot of use of proto-typing and modelling or does a culture of proto-typing stimulate the development of an innovative culture?
Schrage builds a strong case that 'serious play', or extensive use of modelling, creates behavioural changes and generates a form of interaction that greatly enhances efficiency in getting innovations to market. "How organizations play with their models determines how successfully they manage themselves and their markets." He could well have borrowed the sub-title from Kees van der Heijden's Scenarios: the Art of Strategic Conversation. Scenarios are a form of model and both authors stress that it is the quality of the continuing strategic conversation that flows from design and use of models or prototypes that determines the quality of the result. The model or prototype itself is of course important, but it is the clarity of the purpose of modelling, the selection of the participants and the degree and method of their engagement and the quality of their interactions that is vital. The case is built around the following propositions that Schrage explores and expands on through the book. * Changing the economics of play transforms the economics of innovation ... [and] individual and institutional behaviors. * Behavior change matters more than technological change. It is cultural variables that define how the 'technological toys' succeed or fail to effect profitable innovation. * In general, the economics of modelling and prototyping has been transformed from managing scarcity to managing potential excess (the author has a chapter on the value of spreadsheets and the perils of 'spreadsheet wars'). * Models can be 'engines of surprise', by generating 'results utterly at odds with the assumptions embedded in them'. 'The challenge is recognizing and exploiting that unanticipated value.' Like any other business activity, the return to modelling must be measured. This raises difficult questions of metrics, to which the author devotes a chapter. Schrage also explores the important issue of the development of modelling approaches. As use of modelling or prototyping expands, the organisation needs to develop 'models of how it models'. The author quotes Dorothy Leonard-Barton: The Wellsprings of Knowledge on several occasions and the two books are complementary to each other. In particular, Schrage's book expands very usefully on the brief coverage in Chapter 5 of Leonard-Barton's book and provides a somewhat different and enriching perspective in doing so. My only quibble with the book is the minor one that, in seeking to cover a wide range of ways and arenas in which models and prototypes are used, there are sometimes confusing jumps from the jargon of one arena of prototyping/modelling to another. However, it is helpful to recognise that conceptual models, spreadsheet models, physical prototypes, simulations and a range of other tools belong to the same family, are used for the same general purposes and raise very similar behavioural and cultural issues.
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Summary: Three years on, still a great book
Review: Here's the best review I can give Michael Schrage's "Serious Play": Three years on, it's consistently the first book I pull out of my bookshelf when I'm looking for ideas for presentations, thoughts on introducing new products or services, etc. His commentary on "mean-time-to-payback" is something that will stick with you for years. It's brilliant stuff, written in clear, concise terms. And, surprisingly, very little of it is dated. Unlike many books from that era, there's no .com or Enron fixation for the author to be embarrassed about. Schrage's examples are pulled from health care technology, animation, theater...in short, an eye-opening spectrum of ideas. I consider "Serious Play" one of my best purchases ever.
Rating:
Summary: Three years on, still a great book
Review: Here's the best review I can give Michael Schrage's "Serious Play": Three years on, it's consistently the first book I pull out of my bookshelf when I'm looking for ideas for presentations, thoughts on introducing new products or services, etc. His commentary on "mean-time-to-payback" is something that will stick with you for years. It's brilliant stuff, written in clear, concise terms. And, surprisingly, very little of it is dated. Unlike many books from that era, there's no .com or Enron fixation for the author to be embarrassed about. Schrage's examples are pulled from health care technology, animation, theater...in short, an eye-opening spectrum of ideas. I consider "Serious Play" one of my best purchases ever.
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Summary: So many people love this book, what am I missing?
Review: I bought this book on the recommedation of the Tom Peters' "50" books. I've so tried to extract some value out of it, but Schrage goes on and on without seeming to get to the point. This book seems to be a mismash of Shrage's notes collected over the years. Yes, simulations change the way we work and interact, but how can we best use them to communicate ideas or speed delivery of new products? I derived much more value from Tom Peters merely encouraging me to prototype than from "Serious Play".
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Summary: Questions, questions (and not so many answers)
Review: I'm not sure of Michael Schrage's actual background in this field, but from the book, I got the impression that he's more of an academic/writer than someone actually deeply immersered in this process of "serious play" (prototyping or modeling). He certainly provides some useful tips and advice about the modeling or prototying process yet, for me, I found the book coming up short. One device the writer uses is to consistently ask the reader questions about the modeling/prototyping process, i.e."Is it better for a company to do more [modeling] iterations to perfect the product, or to use less and send the product quickly to market with less iterations, but beating the competition?" While this is an effective device in getting the reader to realize that these are very real questions any company will face in using extensive prototyping, unfortunately, Mr. Schrage doesn't really provide much guidance or assistance in how companies have arrived at conclusions regarding these issues. I'd like to ask Mr. Schrage, "How have these companies resolved these issues?, What kind of metrics do they use to decide those types of questions relating to decisions surrounding the prototyping process?" Maddeningly, these issues are never substantively dealt with. As Mr. Schrage informs the reader on page 201 (near the end of the book, but the start of a brief 13 page "User's Guide") ... "A time-pressed innovator hungry to benefit from serious play might prefer a book entitled 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Innovators' or 'The One-Minute Modeler'. This is not that book." I agree with that statement.
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Summary: Serious Play is Serious Fun
Review: Prototypes, simulations, beta versions, these, according to author Michael Schrage, are the stuff of Serious Play. Serious Play is a book that I found myself taking very seriously in deed. Its well-researched, highly readable pages gave me a framework for understanding so much of my own experiences, both in the development of games and the development of technography, that I found myself having genuinely serious fun reading and rereading this remarkably intelligent little book. The subtitle, "how the world's best companies simulate to innovate," explains a great deal of the power of Schrage's vision. His is a deep, and firmly rooted understanding of the emergence of a key practice for doing business in the new economy. He draws his insights from Microsoft and Disney, Boeing and Shell, top design firms and winners of the America's Cup. Designing games, I learned over and over again the value of a good prototype. No matter how clear my vision or how carefully sketched and documented the game might be, the only way I could successfully communicate the concept was by giving people something they could actually play with. At Ideal Toys, the toy and game designers worked next to the model making group. At Mattel Multimedia we had a whole division of people who spent their days creating storyboards or prototyping our ideas in Director. The more detailed and functional the prototype, the more successfully I was able to engage my programmers, my designers, my marketers, my bosses, my salespeople, and my audiences in the design and development of a truly innovative game. "Prototypes," explains Schrage, "should turn customers, clients, colleagues and vendors into collaborators...That's why such invitations should emphasize play...errors can be captured before they become obstacles, serendipity becomes a colleague. The more flexible and dynamic the prototype, the more flexible and dynamic the play -- and the greater the opportunities for profitable innovation." The efficacy of the outliner as a tool for supporting collaborative work can be explained by thinking of the dynamic outline itself as a prototyping tool. Every technography-enabled consultation has at its heart the goal of helping people play with their ideas. Schrage quotes British management professor David Lane: "Rather than attempting to take the position 'I am an expert in techniques that will teach you about your business,' the consultant should offer a process in which the ideas of the team are brought out and examined in a clear and logical way." Technography works because it gives people the chance to see their words on screen, and then to play with their ideas, to organize and reorganize, iterate and reiterate, until they are able to synthesize individual views into a coherent, well-structured vision. When I first met Michael Schrage and demonstrated technography to him, he was so moved by the power of what he experienced that he wound up writing Shared Minds. Today, reading Serious Play, I find my own ideas "brought out and examined in a clear and logical way," and myself moved to a new and clearer perspective on my work. As Tom Peters says of Serious Play, it is "simply the best book on innovation I've ever read."
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Summary: Great Book
Review: Serious Play superbly articulates what many of us probably already have thought was true, but haven't looked at in such a well-connected and insightful manner. Michael Schrage brilliantly shows that we're all not crazy - that the act of developing ideas with multiple iterations is not the result of disorganized minds, but is the way true innovation flourishes. He connects all the various way we model and develop ideas from financial spreadsheets to clay figures. A must for anyone involved with teams and the creative process.
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Summary: Preaching to the choir
Review: The most significant aspect of this book is that it provides a vocabulary and a language to discuss the nature of creative prototyping and modeling behaviors. The first thing you do is take off the cover, otherwise people think you're reading a really cheesy book. It's everything but that. It's been 4 weeks, and i'm on my 3rd time through it. I reference it and re-use it over and over. I've since recommended it to a genetic scientist friend of mine that works for a major drug company, a software engineer, and a broadcast designer. The thinking in this book has an epidemic effect with those that read it, and the excitement that it carries into their work and mine is the most influential and direct I have ever experienced. Some books are relevant once, but this will be accessed for years to come. This is my first book recommendation i have ever made. that is all...
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Summary: Who Moved Our Prototype?
Review: There is more significance to the title than one may initially assume. Some "play" can be taken much too seriously as when overzealous parents scream at their children as they begin to compete in organized sports; other "play" is not treated seriously enough as when a corporation discourages (perhaps even punishes) innovative thinking unless it has an immediate and favorable impact on the bottom line. Many executives, thus abused, may then vent their frustrations by behaving boorishly at a Little League game. In the Foreword, Tom Peters quotes Schrage's assertion that "Innovative prototypes generate innovative teams. Not vice versa." Peters then observes that, in Serious Play, the "big idea" is that "the prototyping process becomes the scaffolding" for an enterprise's approach to innovation. As Schrage explains, "I have always enjoyed rehearsals more than performances." I suggest that you keep that statement clearly in mind as you proceed through the book. It reveals much about Schrage's perspective on the correlations between prototypes and innovation. Here is how the book is organized: Part I: Getting Real, Part II: Model Behavior, and Part III:S(t)imulating Innovation. Schrage then provides a User's Guide and Bibliography. Throughout the book, he shares a wealth of real-world experience which explains what innovation is, and, what it can help to accomplish, not only with the design of a new product or service but also with the formulation of new and better ways for people to work together. The key is simulation; moreover, "not just playing with representations of ideas" (lots of ideas, the more the better) but "playing with the various versions of representations of ideas." Near the end of the final chapter, Schrage poses a number of critically important questions, suggesting that the "best hope for answering these questions, or coping with their implications, is to build or grow models and play with them seriously." The world's best companies simulate to innovate. For example: American Airlines, Boeing, DaimlerChrysler, General Electric, IBM, IDEO, Walt Disney, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, and Royal Dutch Shell. Schrage believes that the creative tensions between innovators who design and innovators who evolve "will likely result in breakthroughs in products, services, and their yet-to-be-anticipated hybrids." So, why not prototype how to prototype? Why not play simulation games which reveal new and better ways to simulate? Tom Peters describes Serious Play as "simply the best book on innovation I've ever read." I agree. Perhaps you will, also.
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