As a new product and innovation professional, Adam Hansen has always believed in the power of possibility – accepting new approaches, questioning conventional wisdom, and being open to anything. This impulse led him to a career in developing new products for innovative companies such as Mars, Melaleuca and American Harvest, before joining the innovation firm, Ideas To Go, in 2001.


Now as a facilitator, Adam is passionate about helping clients understand their own possibilities—even beyond the scope of their projects—so they take the innovative energy and momentum they gained at ITG back to their own organizations.


Adam is the co-author of Outsmart Your Instincts – How The Behavioral Innovation™ Approach Drives Your Company Forward, which explores the intersection of behavioral science and innovation, revealing simple ways to get past the nonconscious cognitive biases that make innovation unnecessarily difficult.


Adam’s path to innovation process started with an MBA in product management from Indiana University. He also cultivated his passion for New Product Development on the board of the Product Development & Management Association and serving as a volunteer innovation advisor for the National HIV Clinicians’ Network at UCSF.


 


Links

Adam Hansen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adhansen/


“Outsmart Your Instincts”: https://www.amazon.com/Outsmart-Your-Instincts-Behavioral-Innovation/dp/0997384506


M&M Mars: https://marschocolate.com/


Ideas to Go: https://www.ideastogo.com/


Metacognition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition


Biases & Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit?usp=sharing


Teresa Amabile, PhD “Brilliant but Cruel”: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6409


“Yes, and…”: https://bigthink.com/experts-corner/why-yes-and-might-be-the-most-valuable-phrase-in-business


Viktor Frankl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl


Kurt Lewin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin


Johan Huizinga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Huizinga


Homo Ludens/The Playful Ape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens


System 1 / System 2 Thinking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow


Assumption Busting: https://www.ideastogo.com/articles-on-innovation/assumption-busting-with-ikea


Functional Fixedness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_fixedness


Conformity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity


Progress Principle: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=40692


Blood Harmony: https://www.deseret.com/1999/6/10/19449890/sibling-harmony-br-family-members-often-have-tight-vocal-harmony


Hammond Organ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_organ


Leslie Speaker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_speaker


Rap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping


Rock n Roll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll


Major Third Chord: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_(chord)


Major Ninth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth


Two-Seventh Resolving to Five: https://www.hearandplay.com/main/resolve-dominant-seventh-chords


Linnea Gandhi episode: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/linnea-gandhi-crushing-on-statistics/


John Sweeney episode: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/john-sweeney-everything-is-a-story/


NY Times – Overcoming Your Negativity Bias:  https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/overcoming-your-negativity-bias/


John Cacioppo: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200306/our-brains-negative-bias


Homo Ludens, by Johan Huizinga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens


  


Musical Links

Iron Butterfly “In A Gadda Da Vida”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIVe-rZBcm4


Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUwEIt9ez7M


Doobie Brothers “China Grove”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udSHItTjWyQ


Steely Dan “Don’t Take Me Alive”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gV1sxB8TxI


Monkees “Pleasant Valley Sunday”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUzs5dlLrm0


The Thorns “Among the Living”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-aL6FCvMY


Crosby, Stills & Nash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMJug2iz3NA


The Beatles “Rubber Soul”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_Soul


The Beatles “Revolver”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(Beatles_album)


Crowded House “Don’t Dream It’s Over”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9gKyRmic20


The Beach Boys “God Only Knows”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8qZMFFDYa0


Louis Prima “Yes, We Have No Bananas”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hF05ik5TFQ