Philip Oliver  describes his work-life as having two themes - adventure and innovation. And we go on an adventure from Singapore to South Africa, including diving for diamonds on the Coast of West Africa, to working in business improvement and innovation in the oil and gas industry in Scotland. We talk about what innovation means, really. Philip says there is no lack of literature on the subject, most of it is worthy of contemplation but actually not particularly helpful. Innovation has to be meaningfully unique (new and different) to you/your team, the organisation and the customer. 

We talk about the three conditions necessary for innovation (i) a creative spark (ii) diversity of thought and (iii) absence of fear. And we talk about how do might attend to this question of fear, how to encourage experimentation and learning and how to fuel collaboration. It is a question of leadership ... and leading with humility. Philip has many stories and examples from his own work-life, including his childhood.