Tear down the obstacles to creative innovation in your organization Unlocking Creativity is an exploration of the creative process and how organizations can clear the way for innovation. In many organizations, creative individuals face stubborn resistance to new ideas. Managers and executives oftentimes reject innovation and unconventional approaches due to misplaced allegiance to the status quo. Questioning established practices or challenging prevailing sentiments is frequently met with stiff resistance. In this climate of stifled creativity and inflexible adherence to conventional wisdom, potentially game-changing ideas are dismissed outright. Senior leaders claim to value creativity, yet often lack the knowledge to provide a creative framework. Unlocking Creativity offers effective methods and real-world examples of how the most successful organizations create cultures of innovation and experimentation. Best-selling author and scholar Michael Roberto presents a thorough investigation of organizational obstacles to creative thought. Highly relevant to the growth crises many enterprises face in today’s economic landscape, this book examines how to break barriers to spark creativity and foster new ideas. This insightful and informative work allows business executives, senior managers, and organization leaders to: Recognize the six organizational mindsets that impede creativity and innovation Learn how to tear down the barriers that obstruct the creative process Create an environment that allows talented people to thrive Encourage creative collaboration in teams throughout an organization Leaders do not have to conceive innovative ideas, but rather open the path for curious and creative employees within their organization. Unlocking Creativity: How to Solve Any Problem and Make the Best Decisions aids organizations in removing obstacles to the creative process and helps to form an atmosphere of imagination and innovation.

Everyone wants to be more creative. Being creative makes life more fun and interesting. But many believe the common misconception that creativity is something you are born with and others can only envy. In Change Your Mind, Rod Judkins reveals that ‘creative’ people are no more creative than the rest of us. Rather, their gift is that they believe they are creative, and because of this, they are. Many of these people lack traditional artistic abilities (Francis Bacon couldn’t draw, so he didn’t; Andy Warhol couldn’t paint, so he didn’t) but that doesn’t stop them. This self-belief accounts for 90 per cent of their success. Creativity is a skill that everyone can learn and benefit from, whether you’re trying to start your own business, write music, come up with new ideas at work or just change your way of looking at the world. Follow theses 57 insider tips, which include nuggets of wisdom such as the importance of focus, why you should never wait for inspiration and how you should always turn a failure into success. With real-life insights into the minds of writers, artists and musicians, from Picasso to Paul McCartney, Change Your Mind will unlock the creative genius you always knew you were.

Creativity is the engine that drives personal self-fulfillment and business innovation. The busier and the more complicated life gets, the more difficult it is to relax and let creative ideas flow. Idiot's Guides: Unlocking Your Creativity helps readers get past the barriers that keep them from being creative at work and in their daily lives. Helpful success stories are also included.

When did you last take the time to do the things you loved as a child: crafts, games, getting your hands dirty? Or feel the same delight and wonder that you took from your favorite childhood activities? Despite the joy we gained from these pursuits, in our adult lives, we've left them behind-they're too frivolous, we're too busy or too old, and there's too much "real" work to do. It's time to change this mind-set. It's time to rediscover the things you love to do, because they energize, center, and connect you with the world in a meaningful and positive way. The Book of Doing offers a collection of ideas and activities that encourage you to use your life as a canvas and explore your creativity through everything you do-to create and make, to explore and experiment, to play and build, to paint and cook-to do. Go ahead. Roll up your sleeves and get to it. It's time to do the things that make you happiest.

(Music Pro Guide Books & DVDs). Here, record producer Beinhorn reveals how to deal with interpersonal issues record producers face when they work with artists one on one or in small groups. The situations and solutions are based upon the author's personal and professional experience working with a variety of different artists, such as Herbie Hancock, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soul Asylum, Hole, Soundgarden, Ozzy Osbourne, Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, Social Distortion, Korn, and Mew. Beinhorn's unique methods and perspective, applied to record producing and music making in the studio, opens the door to successful collaborative efforts. The author shows you how to find what he calls your sensory connection to the creativity process, which ultimately helps you find the intent behind your creative choices. You can read dozens of articles and books that feature a hundred different people talking about what microphones they used when they recorded Record X or how they set their stereo buss compressor, but you will never find out what prompted them to make these choices. Beinhorn's focus on collaborative effort enables record producers and artists to find solutions while working as a creative team. This perspective is especially valuable as it is transdisciplinary and can be applied to many occupations and modes of creativity outside of record production.

Ten years ago, the editor of a leading magazine invited me to lunch. I had been one of his contributors, but we had never met. He broke the ice by asking, “What is your hobby, Mr. Osborn?” “Imagination,” I replied. He paused, then wrote on the back of an envelope, “MY HOBBY IS IMAGINATION.” “Mr. Osborn,” he said, “you must do a book on that. It’s a job that has been waiting to be done all these years. There is no subject of greater importance. You must give it the time and energy and thoroughness it deserves.” That remark started this book. Although I earned my master’s degree in practical psychology and have devoted most of my life to the psychology of advertising, I cannot claim to be a psychologist. Nor have I tried to write as a psychologist. I have felt free to take figurative liberties with academic concepts. For instance, I realize that imagination is an integral part of man’s mind-body function; and yet, for the sake of clarity and readability, I refer to imagination as if it were an entity of itself. My frequent use of the term “brainstorm” may bother the reader at first. Although Chapter 33 will fully explain, an inkling of its meaning may be helpful here: “Brainstorm” is used mainly to label the kind of conference where a few people sit down together for an hour or so solely to use their creative imaginations—solely to suggest ideas on a specific subject, right then and there. During the past ten years, in quest of material and insight, I have interviewed hundreds of people and have read hundreds of books, speeches and articles. I am indebted to all who talked with me and to all whose writings I read. Many of their names will be found in the index.

A national bestseller, Let the Elephants Run is the essential guidebook for anyone looking to reignite their creativity. Creativity is in everyone’s DNA, not a select few. Award-winning musician and founder of CloudID Creativity Lab David Usher believes we just need the right tools to help us reconnect with our imaginations in our day-to-day lives, whether in the head office, the home office, or the artist’s studio. Using a mix of personal anecdotes and professional examples from the worlds of industry, technology, science, music, and art, he shows us that creativity is not magic; it is a learnable skill that any person or business can master. The dynamic full-colour design includes photographs, artwork, and illustrations, as well as action pages to help readers start cultivating the habit of documenting their ideas for future execution. Based on his wildly popular speaking engagements, Let the Elephants Run is the essential guidebook to reigniting and nurturing our creativity in accessible and productive ways.

IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley, IDEO partner and the author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation, have written a powerful and compelling book on unleashing the creativity that lies within each and every one of us. Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the "creative types." But two of the leading experts in innovation, design, and creativity on the planet show us that each and every one of us is creative. In an incredibly entertaining and inspiring narrative that draws on countless stories from their work at IDEO, the Stanford d.school, and with many of the world's top companies, David and Tom Kelley identify the principles and strategies that will allow us to tap into our creative potential in our work lives, and in our personal lives, and allow us to innovate in terms of how we approach and solve problems. It is a book that will help each of us be more productive and successful in our lives and in our careers.

What a Great Idea! instructs readers on how to challenge and defeat widely held notions that stifle creativity. Based on his hugely successful seminars, Chic Thompson, one of the country's leading students of the creative process, promotes aggressive and visionary thinking and unleashes readers' creative processes.

How to Have Great Ideas is the essential guide for students and young professionals looking to embrace creative thinking in design, advertising and communications. It provides 53 practical strategies for unlocking innovative ideas. Strategies include improvisation techniques, changing the scenery, finding hidden links, looking to nature for inspiration, combining unusual systems, challenging set boundaries and many more. Each strategy is packed with great examples of successful contemporary and historical designs – from a designer dress made out of an old typewriter to ticket machines powered by recycled bottles in China, via the reimagining of famous brand logos and mis-use of photocopiers. Packed with practical projects to kick-start inventive thought in idea-blocked moments, this book explores creative thinking across all visual arts disciplines.