ITG's annual Summer of Innovation Giveaway is back! This year’s theme is "shifting perspectives," and we're featuring three thought-provoking titles for you to win: Trust, Knowing What We Know, and The Book of Mistakes. For more details on our giveaway, head to our submission page, here. ⇩

In addition to our three featured books, we had our team ideate on the multimedia titles that shifted their perspectives. From video games to podcasts, our team has compiled 11 recommendations that they’ll be explaining to you in their own words! For our team’s picks, keep scrolling!

ITG’S GIVEAWAY TITLES:

TRUST — Hernan Diaz

“Trust, a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2022 novel by Hernan Diaz, is a captivating story that uses the backdrop of finance to illustrate the shifting landscape of personal relationships, business, and politics in early 20th century New York. The literal perspective shifting of voice and writing styles in this novel made me think differently about not only what I see versus what's really going on but also about thinking innovatively in all areas of life.”

— ITG President + Facilitator, Dina Pancoast

Hear a more in-depth review from ITG President, Dina Pancoast, in the video below! ⇩

KNOWING WHAT WE KNOW — Simon Winchester

“Knowing What We Know by Simon Winchester is a non-fiction exploration of knowledge, how it is transmitted, and how innovation through the ages has changed our relationship with it. A framework introduced early in the book, DIKW, is a perspective on the categories of Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. The way the author describes the differences of and interactions between these 4 categories and how they relate to each other is eye opening.”

— ITG CEO + Facilitator, Greg Cobb

THE BOOK OF MISTAKES — Corinna Luyken

“The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken is a kids book about making mistakes and fixing them to turn them into good ideas. You usually think of mistakes like, you need to get a different piece of paper if you can't erase a mistake, but this book shows you that you can turn it into something. Like if you splatter a red splatter of paint, you can turn it into an apple by drawing the apple around it and a brown line and a green leaf. My favorite part of the book is when she drew two long arms and a neck and she added a collar with frills and elbow patches. That was a good idea.”

— Ashley, 7 years old, Greg’s daughter

ITG’S CURATED OMNI-MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS:

In addition to our three featured books, we’re also sharing the 11 omni-media recommendations we’ve collected from our team that they consider groundbreakingly perspective shifting!

Interested in one media in particular? Use the buttons below to head there now!

MOVIES & TV:

THE MENU — Mark Mylod

“The Menu, a comedy horror film directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, is a deliciously macabre unraveling of influence, greed, status, and food played out over the course of a perfectly designed and exclusive menu except for one ingredient. One of the diners wasn’t on the guest list. The Menu utilizes classic social commentary and revitalizes the tropes with plenty of fresh flavor. It’s a film best served with little foreknowledge as it’s at its best when I was asking myself ‘Wait, what’s happening? What did they just say?’ in bemused disbelief. The film invited me to gleefully suspend my disbelief and just let the process happen. It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the ‘how’ and the ‘why’, but The Menu helped me enjoy the ‘what’ from the amuse-bouche all the way to the dessert.”

— ITG Project Manager, Rob Gonzalez

THE OWL HOUSE — Dana Terrace

“The Owl House is an animated series you can stream on Disney+. It's a new take on the heroes journey, the hero being a teenage girl who doesn't feel like she fits in. She unexpectedly finds herself in a realm where everyone is as weird as she is. It has action and it's heartwarming and relatable. It really shows you you can't judge a book by it's cover, especially when it comes to other people.”

— Harry, 13 years old, Dina's son

SEVERANCE — Dan Erickson

“Severance is, in my view, one of the most underrated Television shows of the past few years. The series introduces the sci-fi concept of—you guessed it—severance, where a person disconnects their work selves from their personal selves. That means that anything you do outside of business hours won’t be remembered by the version of your work self (the “innies”), and anything your work self does won’t be remembered by your regular self (the “outies”).

This separation of self creates a fascinating dynamic between two versions of the same person—they think they know what the other does, but a culture of secrecy at the company clouds reality. Exploring complex themes of morality and identity, the show shifted how I see the connection between what humans do in their free time and what they do for work. And Severance does it by taking the contrast to extremes.

If you want a thriller that makes you think, keeps you engaged and interjects just the right amount of humor, I highly recommend Severance.”

— ITG Facilitator, Tyler Thompson

YOU HURT MY FEELINGS — Nicole Holofcener

“You Hurt My Feelings, a new comedy with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, explores the little white lie. Julia plays a writer married to a therapist. She is in the process of writing her second book and her husband is and has always been very supportive. She accidentally overheard him telling someone else he didn’t care for her new novel. It is a simple premise – is it okay to tell a little white lie if you are trying to encourage someone or spare their feelings? Are you doing more damage than good in the long run? In Julia’s case, she lost all trust in her husband. If he could tell her that lie, what else was he capable of?

This is a very funny movie, but you leave vowing to always be truthful to others, even if it hurts their feelings. Easier said than done. ”

— ITG Travel Agent + Panel Manager, Becky McCrone

VIDEO GAMES:

RISK OF RAIN 2 — Hopoo Games

“Risk of Rain 2, developed by Hopoo Games, is a captivating co-op roguelike third-person shooter. Players navigate levels, battling enemies and collecting items for survival. The game's scaling difficulty and freedom in playstyle offer a unique perspective. To reach the final boss, players must progress through multiple levels, gathering loot by defeating enemies. However, there's a timed difficulty scaling mechanic, challenging players to make strategic decisions: invest time in collecting items or rush ahead to avoid the continuously overpowering foes. In this way, Risk of Rain 2 offers a new perspective in video gaming that emphasizes the value of time and decision-making.

My partner and I failed our first several play-throughs of the game miserably, and I believe this is by design. The game throws you in with limited information about the game’s mechanics and encourages the player to lose, restart, and learn from previous mistakes.

With its addictive gameplay and breathtaking visuals, Risk of Rain 2 offers a stand-out experience.”

— ITG Marketing Manager, Sena Abernathey

THE STANLEY PARABLE — Galactic Cafe

“The Stanley Parable is a first-person game of exploration, not only of a virtual environment, but a meta-narrative concerning the nature of choice and freedom in such games. It's not about shooting aliens, lining up jewels, or collecting power-ups. It's about figuring out what in the world is going on in this surreal environment, and the assumptions and elements of willful suspension of disbelief required to maintain the illusion of a game. It's also about how many different ways this story can play out or what wacky things you can get the narrator to say, depending upon your actions. It's thought-provoking and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.”

— ITG Creative Consumers® Associates Panel Manager, Jordan Peacock

SUPERLIMINAL — Pillow Castle

“Superliminal is a puzzle video game available on PC, Playstation and Xbox. Its perplexing, confusing and it tricks the mind. It's hard to beat, hard to finish which makes it a fun challenge. The game literally plays with perspective because the objects that are part of the puzzle solving get larger and smaller as you move them around. If you beat it in under 30 minutes, like I did, you get a gold trophy!”

— Harry, 13 years old, Dina's son

BOOKS:

THE BOTANY OF DESIRE — Michael Pollan

“Michael Pollan’s, The Botany of Desire, is a perspective-shifting classic. The book explains the evolution of four cultivated species – apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes – from the plant’s POV, and how the plant has actively played on our desires to maximize their own success. In other words, it’s the plants that are cultivating us. The first time I read this in the early 2000s, it kickstarted my curiosity practice, providing both the motivation and inspiration to examine everything through a different frame.”

— ITG Facilitator, Monica Grant

HOUSE OF LEAVES — Mark Z. Danielewski

“House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is a multi-layered, experimental novel that interweaves multiple storylines with pages that require rotation to be read, footnotes spiraling into an accompanying narrative, text formatting as a plot-supporting emotional device, and a house that defies basic laws of physics to slowly reveal unnervingly vast spaces. By opening up new “adjacent possibles” in storytelling and constantly keeping us on our toes, House of Leaves can help us exercise our anticipation muscles and embrace a world that can seem increasingly disorienting, but has fantastic opportunities to respond creatively.”

— ITG Principal + Facilitator, Adam Hansen

OTHER: PODCASTS & MUSICALS

HOW I BUILT THIS — Guy Raz

“How I Built This, with Guy Raz, is a Podcast where the host interviews a variety of entrepreneurs across industries. It is particularly helpful to me, both as a small business owner, and as an innovation Facilitator. As part of ITG’s ownership team, we continuously try new things and it can be daunting, frustrating, and scary, but hearing the stories about how each entrepreneur persevered (with either luck, skill or pure tenacity), has inspired me, and enabled me to think differently about our business. As a Facilitator, it gives me further insight into how and why ideas succeed, fail, or are just ahead of their time.”

— ITG Principal + Facilitator, Beth Storz

PARADE — Mark Mylod

“The 2023 Tony Award winner for best musical revival, Parade, is based on the true story of the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man wrongfully accused of murder. The story of Parade includes the differences among social and political statuses, as well as spotlighting religion, in the South. Although Frank’s story takes place in the early 1900s and was the reason that the Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913, the case was then reopened in 2019. This story showed me that some events that take place in the present-day are no different than what has been going on for centuries—if someone is truly determined in their mind, then they’ll create the outcome they want at the expense of others.”

— ITG Project Manager, Allyson Cooper

We’ll be introducing each of our recommendations on our LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and newsletter in full detail in the upcoming weeks, so be sure keep your eyes peeled for updates!

To throw your hat in the ring for the featured book of your choice, visit our giveaway page using the button below! Happy perspective shifting! ⇩