Resources Idea Books Page 3 | 2 | 1

Idea Books to inspire, inform and guide you.

	Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement (Columbia Business School) By William Duggan Whether the subject is art, science, or business, William Duggan takes us on a fascinating exploration into how the human brain connects experience and knowledge to create entirely new ideas in momentary flashes of insight. A definitely important read for anyone charged with bringing innovation to strategic leadership. Robin Harper [Read an interview with William Duggan]
	Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor By Michael Gelb, Sarah Miller Caldicott Back in the fifties, Thomas Edison was quite rightly represented to us as the epitome of American industry and innovation. Some of us may have wondered how he did that. Gelb describes five principles derived from Edison's creative genius and provides a practical guide to help us implement our own "innovative potential." [Read an interview with Michael Gelb]
	How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas: Get Curious, Get Adventurous, Get Creative By Chris Barez-Brown Not only does it offer a variety of insights into how to generate great ideas, it offers up actionable and realistic ways to apply this thinking within your organization. The book feels alive. Bavez-Brown brings his content to life through quotes from visionaries, inspiring case studies, illustrations...
	Leadership for the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in a Shared-Power World By Barbara C. Crosby, John M. Bryson First published in 1992, this book presented a revolutionary approach to community and organizational leadership in a shared-power world. Now, in this completely revised and updated edition, the authors expand on their proven leadership model and offer new insights and guidance to leaders. It is a practical resource for a new generation of leaders and aspiring leaders and includes success stories, challenges, and real-world experience.
	Group Creativity: Innovation through Collaboration By Paul B. Paulus, Bernard A. Nijstad Most research and writing has focused on individual creativity. Yet, in recent years there has been an increasing acknowledgment of the importance of the social and contextual factors in creativity. Even with the information explosion and the growing necessity for specialization, the development of innovations still requires group interaction at various stages in the creative process.
	The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures By Dan Roam The premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas. Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a watershed moment: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience.
	Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns By Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive-academically, economically, and technologically—we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need "disruptive innovation."
	The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks By C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan From the greatest minds in business today comes a groundbreaking new blueprint for executing the next stage of customer-created value. C.K. Prahalad, the world's premier business thinker, and IT scholar M.S. Krishnan unveil the critical missing link in connecting strategy to execution--building organizational capabilities that allow companies to achieve and sustain continuous change and innovation.
	Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win By Polly G. LaBarre and William C. Taylor Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile. [Read an interview with Polly LaBarre]
	Expect the Unexpected (or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus By Roger von Oech Von Oech uses 30 of Heraclitus's pithy and paradoxical epigrams to approach problems in a fresh manner. He explains his premise: "Creative thinking involves imagining familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected patterns, and finding connections among unrelated phenomena." [Read an interview with Roger von Oech]
	The Innovation Killer: How What We Know Limits What We Can Imagine -- and What Smart Companies Are Doing About It By Cynthia Barton Rabe Rabe defines innovation as "an application of an idea that results in a valuable improvement." Her definition emphasizes that the ability to think innovatively should be a goal for every function in an organization -- not just the new product or technology team. [Read an interview with Cynthia Rabe]
	A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative By Roger von Oech Now Roger von Oech's fully illustrated and updated volume is filled with even more provocative puzzles, anecdotes, exercises, metaphors, cartoons, questions, quotations, stories, and tips designed to systematically break through your mental blocks and unlock your mind for creative thinking. This new edition will attract an entire new generation of readers with updated and mind-stretching material. [Read an interview with Roger von Oech]
	Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy By Christoher Phillips Phillips embarks on a search for truth and meaning through a series of conversations that is at once refreshing, humorous, troubling, confusing, encouraging, depressing, and provocative. What makes Plato's Socratic dialogues so enduring--and Phillips's book so intriguing--is that for both Plato and Phillips, philosophy is not something you read or study. It is something you do. [Read an interview with Christopher Phillips]
	Socrates' Way: Seven Keys to Using Your Mind to the Utmost By Ronald Gross In Socrates' Way, you meet Socrates face-to-face, hear his voice, and learn how he changes people's lives. The book provides step-by-step guidance on how to harness his methods to vastly enhance your own creativity and autonomy. Specifically, Socrates shares the seven keys to using one's mind to the utmost. [Read an interview with Ronald Gross]
	Creative Problem Solving: An Introduction, Fourth Edition By Donald J. Treffinger, Scott G. Isaksen, K. Brian Stead-dorval Creative Problem Solving includes practical tools for understanding the challenge, generating ideas, and preparing for action; expanded guidelines for planning your approach to Creative Problem Solving; strategies that ensure successful group dynamics; the latest trends in creative thinking and group problem solving; and practical suggestions for those new to Creative Problem Solving.
	Mental Models: Aligning design strategy with human behavior By Indi Young There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product--buy you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful. [Read an interview with Indi Young]
	The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential By Tony Buzan and Barry Buzan This idea-rich, relentlessly upbeat manual proffers graphic images as an aid to unlock creative thinking or clarify emotions. The authors first outline "radiant thinking," a method designed to enhance one's associative, nonlinear thought processes. Next they explain how to create "mind maps"-colorful, structured, drawings, cartoonish or complex, as a tool to overcome mental blocks, organize ideas, brainstorm, strengthen one's memory and imagination, and make meetings more productive.

Resources Idea Books Page 3 | 2 | 1

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