In this inviting and pragmatic guide, McClure and Wilde share a fresh way of thinking about innovation and launching new projects: ecosystem innovation. As business coaches and entrepreneurs themselves, they provide a helpful background in traditional means of innovation (optimization, waterfall, agile) and then demonstrate how taking a holistic view of the ecosystems in which “wicked problems” are embedded can help us in solving them. The authors urge readers to think of themselves as “choreographers”—that is, someone who “applies big-picture thinking, builds connections, and does some rule-breaking”—guiding a team’s disparate actors in accomplishing those “bigger things” of the title. Most helpfully, McClure and Wilde include a practical roadmap to implementing ecosystem innovation, from casting a bold vision to making sure that “everyone gets a pony” (that is, all the participants benefit).McClure and Wilde pack Do Bigger Things with real-life examples of people using ecosystem innovation to tackle difficult social and business problems and reach for big opportunities: from AirBnB revolutionizing the hotel industry to providing education in refugee camps to COVID vaccination campaigns in Mexico. Together with clear diagrams, “ecosystem maps,” as they call them, these examples make the process of applying the lessons of the book clear and flexible. Although part of the planning process involves setting ethical guardrails, the ethical concerns raised by some of their examples, such as Uber, are not explored in depth.
This guide would serve a reader well who is facing a challenging problem, in business or in their community, and looking to solve it outside of the usual models for innovation. McClure and Wilde emphasize that some projects demand other models of innovation, such as big ones with well understood parameters (engineering innovation) or small projects with unknown restrictions (agile pilots), leaving ecosystem innovation for big, complex problems. Whether an experienced “choreographer,” or someone new to the field entirely, the guidance here will help any reader accomplish transformation in pursuit of their goals.
Takeaway: Clear, actionable guide to “ecosystem innovation” for facing challenging projects.
Comparable Titles: Jeff Sutherland’s The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time , Leah Kral’s Innovation for Social Change.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
