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