Osborne, Larry. Innovation’s Dirty Little Secret: Why Serial Innovators Succeed Where Others Fail. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. Kindle Electronic Edition.
Chapter 10, “Planning in Pencil: Letting an Innovation Be What It Wants to Be” (Loc. 959-1056)
Osborne lists several examples of inventions which served different purposes than originally intended. “That’s why we should always plan and innovate in pencil. And not just at the beginning, when we’re coming up with new and creative ideas. Use a pencil all the way through the lifecycle” (Loc. 985). He advocates guarding flexibility to allow for change. As an illustration he uses the idea of a ministry built on every weekend attenders going to a small group during the week. The innovations made over time included deciding not all leaders needed training (Loc. 1001), not tying content to the sermon (Loc. 1004), and not having leaders in tiers (Loc. 1010). The idea remained the same but implementation and purpose frequently changed. Osborne lists the innovations of Starbucks and of video campuses for churches as examples of flexible innovation. Planning for change is paramount (Loc. 1047).