Voiceovers and The Innovation Code

I recently narrated the fascinating audio book The Innovation Code: The Creative Power of Constructive Conflict by Jeff and Staney DeGraff. The hardcover goes on sale August 7th but the audio book version is available now on Audible. FYI you can learn more about Jeff deGraff via his website and Twitter feed.

The premise of the book is that you need conflict to be both innovative and productive in the workplace. I don’t mean that everyone needs to scream at each other all the time. Who the hell wants to work in a place like that? To quote the Amazon blurb:

Harmony is sublime in music but deadly to innovation. The only way to create new, hybrid solutions is to clash. Innovation happens when we bring people with contrasting perspectives and complementary areas of expertise together in one room. We innovate best with people who challenge us, not people who agree with us. It sounds like a recipe for chaos and confusion. But in The Innovation Code, Jeff DeGraff, dubbed the “Dean of Innovation,” and Staney DeGraff introduce a simple framework to explain the ways different kinds of thinkers and leaders can create constructive conflict in any organization. This positive tension produces ingenious solutions that go far beyond “the best of both worlds.” Drawing on their work with nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies, the DeGraffs help you harness the creative energy that arises from opposing viewpoints. They identify four contrasting styles of innovator—the Artist, the Engineer, the Athlete, and the Sage—and include exercises and assessments for building, managing, and embracing the dynamic discord of a team that contains all four. You can also figure out where you fit on the continuum of innovator archetypes. Using vivid examples, The Innovation Code offers four steps to normalize conflict and channel it to develop something completely new. By following these simple steps, you will get breakthrough innovations that are both good for you and your customers. This is a rigorous but highly accessible guide for achieving breakthrough solutions by utilizing the full—and seemingly contradictory—spectrum of innovative thinking.

This is a great book that I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to be more effective as an employee or a business. That’s pretty much everyone, I guess…!

TIP OF THE WEEK

Are you an Artist, an Engineer, an Athlete, or a Sage? Take the test!

I took the test and I’m an Engineer. That didn’t surprise me a bit. Remember that this isn’t a binary thing: you’re not 100% one of them and none of the other three. I think it’s a good thing to know what your dominant worldview is. Self-awareness is always a good thing and it will make you more effective as a voiceover business.

Think about the people in your life both professionally and personally. Which dominant worldview do they have?

Do they complement you? Are there too many people in your life who think and act the same way you do? Do you need more or less Artists, Engineers, Athletes, or Sages in your life?

Someone once said that good leaders surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them. Be the leader of your voiceover business; listen to people who don’t think the same way you do. You may learn something!

NEWS AND NOTES

My next “Business and Money 201” webinar will be Thursday, July 20th @8PM EST. That’s this week! The subject: Cost/Benefit Analysis. We’re gonna talk about crunching the numbers that is your voiceover business.

HAPPY HAPPYS

Happy Hot Dog Day and International Yada, Yada, Yada Day!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, The H is Silent, but I’m Not.

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Tom Dheere is a 30-year veteran voice actor specializing in corporate narration and commercials. Known as a "street-smart professor," he blends his theater-based training and guy-next-door performance style with mastery over voice over project management .

When he isn’t in the booth, he provides strategic business consulting at VOStrategist.com and produces the comic book Agent 1.22.