When John Cleese calls your book ‘brilliant’, and your presentation on education and creativity is the #1 watched video on TED.com, you know you’ve done something right. And needless to say Sir Ken Robinson has done something right in writing this book, exploring the fields of education, creativity, and why we are destined to fail at being creative unless we change some fundamental things in the way we teach, learn, communicate and understand society.

Loved it because:

• Deep understanding of creativity, social dogma’s and the problem at hand
• Inspirational stories that make the theory come alive
• Informative yet entertaining writing style that makes you keep on reading
• Exploring fundamental stuff that holds the promise of big, big changes ahead

You might not like it because:

• The book raises many questions the curious reader wants to see answered, but don’t get answered directly. The book explores, uncovers and envisions, not nessecarily answers the though questions it poses.
• The book made me want to read more once I got through it. The high phase, joke and idea filled pages just seem to fly by as you read and suddenly come to a full stop at the last page.

The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t prepared for him.

Failure. The mere thought can paralyze even the most heroic thinkers and keep great ideas off the drawing board. But is failing really that bad? We get an inside look at the mishaps of Honda racers, designers and engineers to learn how they draw upon failure to motivate them to succeed. From poor color choices to blown race engines, these risk-taking individuals provide an honest look at what most people fear most. Watch the film and discover the upside of failure.

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is an excellent analysis of how creativity occurs, and how creative individuals have influenced their respective fields and domains of knowledge and arts. He does so by going through an extensive analysis of over ninety creative individuals of note. The book presents a process that is useful to any person who is attempting to improve their organizational or personal creativity or is curious about the components of creativity.

Loved it because:

• Written by a very talented writer, and author of the best seller ‘Flow‘.
• Insights from actually, successful, creative people. Mihaly observed and interviewed a long list of creatives and hands you their insights that have come with experience.
• A good definition and insights into the essence of creativity itself – the psychology of wanting to invent, improve and discover.

You might not like it because:

• Mihaly makes a number of claims that are a little hard to swallow for young professionals and digital natives (the idea that you have to work in one field for about 10 years in order to do something truly creative), a group that is fairly unrepresented in the book and list of interviewed creatives.
  

Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono is the first best-seller in a long series of creativity books by the uber-guru of creative thinking.Lateral Thinking is a way of thinking that is different from our natural thinking process (linear thinking), one that heightens the chance of developing a creative idea.

Loved it because:

• Game-changing insight into our mind and the way the generate ideas
• Entertaining examples and puzzles
• Clear formats for educating the idea of Lateral Thinking

You might not like it because:

• The book gets a little repetitive after the first 200 pages, with a strong focus on grade-school education in the last third of the book.

Innovation is the design of future value

Imagine a room. The room is your creative space. The space you have to move freely from idea to idea, and let creativity happen. This room could be a brainstorm session, or just some time to yourself to think. In a perfect world, ideas would just float in and out of that room, and your prepared mind would be able to make those connections that create value.

But people aren’t perfect, and therefore perfect hypothetical scenario’s aren’t perfect. Most of the time, ideas don’t start flowing freely through this creative space. Brainstorm magic doesn’t automatically happen, and even the best sources of inspiration can find fierce opposition making it difficult to create those Great Ideas.

The problem is most of these creative spaces don’t start out empty. People don’t come to a brainstorm session without presumptions or pre-made solutions they’ve already made up their minds about. You don’t start without presumptions about a problem and its solution.

These assumptions and ideas are the elephants. Continue reading »