The Creativity Leap

"Natalie Nixon's new book provides a fresh primer on how to cultivate creativity in the workplace.” —Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable Too many people associate creativity solely with the arts, even though to be an incredible scientist, engineer, or entrepreneur requires immense creativity. And it's the key to developing breakthrough products and services. Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist with a background in cultural anthropology, fashion, and service design, says that in the fourth industrial revolution a creativity leap is needed to bridge the gap that exists between the churn of work and the highly sought-after prize called innovation. Nixon says that since humans are hardwired to be creative, it is a competency anyone can develop. She shows that it balances wonder (awe, audacity, and curiosity) with rigor (discipline, skill-building, and attention to detail), and that inquiry, improvisation, and intuitionare the key practices that increase those capacities. Drawing on interviews with fifty-six people from diverse backgrounds—farming, law, plumbing, architecture, perfumery, medicine, education, technology, and more—she offers illuminating examples of how creativity manifests in every kind of work. Combining creativity tools and techniques with real-world stories of innovative people and businesses, this book is a provocation, an inspiration, and an invitation to unleash the innate creativity that lies within each of us. It offers a more dynamic and integrative way to adapt and innovate, one that allows us the freedom to access our full human selves.

Traditionally, company leaders develop a business strategy based on bottom lines and profit margins, then hire an ad agency to back up that strategy with creative advertising. But history shows that some of the most effective branding campaigns are born when companies work with ad agencies to develop a business strategy that has a big, creative idea at its heart-what CEO of Euro RSCG Bob Schmetterer calls the Creative Business Idea. In Leap, Bob Schmetterer shows advertisers how to combine advertising creativity and bottom-line realities to develop winning business strategies and winning ad campaigns. He analyzes some of the most creative business ideas in history, showing how successful advertising and marketing strategies do more than simply communicate the brand-they define it. Advertisers know how to create demand for an existing brand, but Schmetterer argues that the next challenge for advertisers is to help their clients apply creative thinking to their core business strategy before they launch a branding blitz. Leap is about connecting the left brain and the right brain to develop solid business strategies that are also creative, fresh, and exciting. It's about mixing business's cold fixation on numbers with the warm heart of art and creativity to build revolutionary brands. It's about connecting with and listening to the client, understanding the business and the product, tapping into the client's passion for the product, and transmitting that passion to the consumer. It's about what happens when the business makes creativity part of its core strategy-enabling it to move beyond self-imposed boundaries and expand the limits of its reach. With a wealth of examples from Volvo to Purdue, Schmetterer shows ad agencies and managers how to help their clients develop the big, creative idea that will transform their businesses-and perhaps their industries. It's time for companies to make the Leap that synthesizes business and creativity to reap the full rewards of profitable innovation. BOB SCHMETTERER is Chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide, a one of the world's top five global advertising and communications agencies with clients such as Intel, Peugeot, Air France, Orange, Abby National, MCI, Danone Group, Reckitt Benckiser, Volvo, and Yahoo!

Don’t just imagine the life you want, start living it right now with this guide to putting your dreams into practice every day. Inspirational author and speaker Heather McCloskey Beck wants you to know that there's nothing more important than figuring out what makes your heart sing—and doing it every day. So many of us have been trained to think it's not “responsible” to prioritize doing what we love, that there are more important things to life than feeling fulfilled. Yet we yearn for a more creative, engaged life. Beck, a popular Huffington Post columnist and creator of the global peace movement, Peace Flash, offers guidance, stories, and dozens of practical suggestions for how to take the leap into the life you were meant to live. If you've forgotten what makes you tick, Heather will help you rediscover it. If you know what it is but aren't doing it, she'll help you clear a path. Starting with just fifteen minutes. Today.

Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant “creative types” and left-brain dominant “analytical types." Such a division is not practical for preparing students to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. Strategic Design Thinking guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between. This book is an introduction to an integrative approach using the lens of design thinking as a way to see the world. The focus is on process instead of solution, and on connecting disparate ideas instead of getting bogged down by silos of specialization. Through this book, students will be introduced to design management, strategic design, service design, and experience design.

"You've certainly hit the nail on the head. If I had read Quantum Leap Thinking at the age of 20, I could have saved many, many mistakes and a helluva lot of wasted effort."— Clive Cussler, bestselling author Positive change can happen in sudden and profound leaps. Quantum Leap Thinking provides the foundation for breakthrough thinking that will trigger astonishing growth in your personal and professional life. • What if it was possible to break through fear and make positive changes in your life in an instant by a simple shift in your thinking? • What if you could lower your anxiety in a matter of seconds by changing your perceptions? • How would your life change if you had unshakable motivation for whatever you chose to do? Quantum Leap Thinking is the key to unlocking the door to new-found potential and peak performance. "An extraordinary guide to thinking your way to the next level in your life, within your career, your relationships or your self."—Joan Lunden, journalist and author "Quantum Leap Thinking [is] an opportunity to get our energy out and target it in the direction of great productivity, leaving us with a feeling of accomplishment."— Leon Tec, M.D., author of The Fear of Success and Targets

""Crammed with practical ideas, inspirational images & creative exercises, Conscious Creativity leads the reader through the process of establishing what kind of creative you are..." - Mslexia "The purpose of this book is to enable you to look at things in an alternative and more substantial way, so that you arrive at composition through genuine interest." - Juno magazine “Philippa Stanton is passionate about people connecting to their innate creativity and has distilled these incredible techniques and ideas on how we can tap into that. Philippa is a massively successful Instagramer at @5ftinf and yet she is only too aware how these little two dimensional squares can limit our experiences and restrict our creativity, so it’s not without a little irony that she’s written a book to encourage people to step away from their screens and connect more with the 3D world. It’s a fascinating subject and I wholeheartedly recommend the book for anyone who’s working in the creative industry or is curious about the world around them." - Sophie Robinson (DIY SOS, the Great British Interior Design Challenge, This Morning) How often do you notice the texture of a painted wall or the scent of a friend’s house and, importantly, how they make you feel? Connect your observations and your emotions and transform your creative practice with this essential toolbox packed full of exercises, tips, stunning images and personal experiences from dynamic artist Philippa Stanton. There is creativity in all of us, but it can easily be buried beneath our everyday concerns, or need a spark to bring it back to life. Whether you’ve lost your mojo or just need some fresh ideas, artist and photographer Philippa Stanton’s lively guide will stimulate your imagination and reinvigorate your creative life. Conscious Creativity will help you fully appreciate what is around you, opening all your senses to the beauty you may not notice every day, and showing you how to capture it. Simple, engaging exercises that encourage observation and experimentation will give you an insight into your own aesthetics as you take a conscious step to note the colours, shapes, shadows, sounds and textures that fill your world and how they make you feel. Bursting with practical ideas and inspirational images, Conscious Creativity shows you how to unlock your potential, learn to use your natural curiosity and take a leap into the most creative time of your life.

Every business faces the existential threat of competitors producing cheaper copies. Even patent filings, market dominance and financial resources can't shield them from copycats. So what can we do--and, what can we learn from companies that have endured and even prospered for centuries despite copycat competition?In a book of narrative history and practical strategy, IMD professor of management and innovation Howard Yu shows that succeeding in today's marketplace is no longer just a matter of mastering copycat tactics, companies also need to leap across knowledge disciplines, and to reimagine how a product is made or a service is delivered. This proven tactic can protect a company from being overtaken by new (and often foreign) copycat competitors.Using riveting case studies of successful leaps and tragic falls, Yu illustrates five principles to success that span a wide range of industries, countries, and eras. Learn about how P&G in the 19th century made the leap from handcrafted soaps and candles to mass production of its signature brand Ivory, leaped into the new fields of consumer psychology and advertising, then leaped again, at the risk of cannibalizing its core product, into synthetic detergents and won with Tide in 1946. Learn about how Novartis and other pharma pioneers stayed ahead by making leaps from chemistry to microbiology to genomics in drug discovery; and how forward-thinking companies, including China's largest social media app--WeChat, Tokyo-based Internet service provider Recruit Holdings, and Illinois-headquartered John Deere are leaping ahead by leveraging the emergence of ubiquitous connectivity, the inexorable rise of intelligent machines, and the rising importance of managerial creativity.Outlasting competition is difficult; doing so over decades or a century is nearly impossible--unless one leaps. Ultimately, Leap is a manifesto for how pioneering companies can endure and prosper in a world of constant change and inevitable copycats.