Innovation Starts With Disruptive Hypotheses. Here’s How To Create One

Innovation Starts With Disruptive Hypotheses. Here’s How To Create One

A disruptive hypothesis is an intentionally unreasonable statement that gets your thinking flowing in a different direction. It's kind of like the evolutionary biology theory of "punctuated equilibrium," which states that evolution proceeds slowly and every once in a while is interrupted by sudden change. Disruptive hypotheses are designed to upset your comfortable business equilibrium and bring about an accelerated change in your own thinking.

The ability to ask, "What if?" is an essential part of every executive's skill set.

Knoll Unveils An Office Chair That Lets You Squirm

Knoll Unveils An Office Chair That Lets You Squirm

What do you do when you sit in your office chair? That's a silly question, but a meaningful one. When you break it down, you actually don't do much sitting at all. Rather, you squirm. You spin around to talk to someone, you lean over, you slouch and slump. You hang over the edge, sit on a folded leg, and lean on your elbow. In short, you rarely conform to the perfect position that the chair was probably designed for, by a team of dozens. So much for design.

Wanted: A Ham As Beautiful As Any Sculpture

Wanted: A Ham As Beautiful As Any Sculpture

Gilt Taste, the new gustatorial version of the members-only clothing store, says its Mangalitsa ham is soft, creamy and "fantastically porcine." That's sort of the calling card for Mangalitsa, a pig breed that originated in Hungary and is now prized by foodies as the porcine version of Kobe beef, owing to the decadently marbled cuts of meat it produces -- and also, according to some, the sweetest fat of any animal in the world.