If you are a corporate executive, manager, supervisor, teacher, college professor, minister, doctor, coach, volunteer, or even a parent who wants to unleash the creativity of the people you lead, then this is your book .
I assume you are like most of the leaders I have worked with over the last several years . Face it . Your competition likely has the same product, technology and delivery system that you do . You are facing tremendous change and heated competition, whether you are rushing to get your latest product to market or trying to attract more members to your church .
Beyond that, it’s quite possible you’re facing cutbacks or downsizing, or you’re still smarting from the last round of re-engineering and reinvention . Still ringing in your ears are the demands to “do more with less” and “work smarter, not harder .” No doubt you’ve tried solutions that used to work—but those solutions just aren’t enough anymore; the problems (or what you think are the problems) have changed .
The fact is, the only competitive edge you have is how you harness the creative energies of the people who work with and for you to develop new approaches to problems and implement solutions that work. Creative Problem Solving has never been more important than today.
But how do you work smarter? How do you do more with less? How do you create new approaches and creative solutions to difficult problems?
This book will deliver practical methods you can immediately apply to help you become more creative and to nurture the creativity in the people who work for you.
Result? Competitive advantage that makes you a winner in the marketplace .
Think of this book as an instruction manual that will help you to lead on the creative edge . I will lay out a process that will enable you to redefine problems so that they can be solved more effectively, generate more ideas than you ever thought possible, and build and implement ideas to create worthwhile change or improvement . All of this will occur with a focus on you, the leader, and the crucial role that you play in guiding your organization toward the future .
This procedure is called Creative Problem Solving, and it has helped hundreds of businesses over the past four decades to gain the competitive advantage they need to win in the marketplace . Creative Problem Solving has been applied successfully in scores of situations, including automobile manufacturing, hospitals, churches, schools, high- tech companies, government agencies, product packaging design, paper manufacturing, large organizational computer systems, and even fertilizer manufacturing .
The value of using a specific process for creativity is that it provides you with a blueprint or a method for problem solving . When you have a problem solving method that works, you can more effectively solve problems . This approach is much more efficient than trying to decide how you are going to attack a problem when it crosses your path . By knowing the system, you can focus on what you might do to solve the problem instead of wasting time trying to decide how you are going to solve the problem . A structured process for creativity helps you to work the problem more efficiently .
Within these pages you will meet leaders from a variety of organizations who have implemented Creative Problem Solving methodologies in their organizations . You will learn of the challenges and successes these leaders have faced and enjoyed as they attempted to make their organizations more creative places . When you’re finished with this book, you should clearly understand the critical role a leader plays in fostering creativity in an organization and how that creativity leads directly to bot- tom-line financial success . But most importantly, it will give you skills to help you achieve that success .
Because this book focuses on solutions, you will discover it is not a collection of 1001 idea-generating techniques . It does not focus on gimmicky games you must play to be "creative" You won’t be told you must memorize truckloads of creativity jargon and acronyms in order to be creative. This book is not a technical dissection of the creative process or a collection of leadership principles and theories . It is not a book on how to negotiate the best deal, resolve a union strike, discipline an employee, fire someone or become a debt-free millionaire.
It is a book that will introduce you to seven of the most effective creativity principles I have used over the last seventeen years . Each principle will be developed in two chapters: the first will lay a theoretical foundation, the second will build on and apply that foundation . The goal all along is to help you achieve significant, even startling, results . I will introduce you to some all-purpose creativity tools that will be effective on just about any problem or challenge you might encounter . All of the methods I will present have been scientifically validated in a number of settings . This stuff works!
Bottom line? This book focuses on results.
Creativity for creativity’s sake is great (and it can be a lot of fun), but in today’s world we need to achieve significant results at a much faster pace than at any other time in history . Therefore, I will provide you with specific actions
designed to nurture your own creativity and to help the people who work with you to focus their creative ability in such a way that organizational and personal performance will dramatically improve .
But Does this Apply to Me?
At this point I predict someone might be saying, “Well, that’s good . But I didn’t see my organization in your list . My business is different . I don’t think this stuff applies to me .”
Don’t be so sure!
Often, when I am negotiating a contract with an organization— whether the company wants me to deliver a speech, lead a multiple-day Creative Problem Solving training program, facilitate a Creative Problem Solving session, guide some strategic planning, or help with new product development—the client makes a point to tell me just how different her business is from any other business I have ever worked with . And yes, her organization is different…but only about ten percent different .
Over the course of my career I have found that organizations are about 90 percent the same and about ten percent different . The 90 percent of similarity derives from the fact that all organizations are comprised of a group of people who (it is hoped) are working together toward a common goal . I emphasize "it is hoped" because many times people are not working toward a common goal . Many times they don’t even know what the goal is . The 10 percent of difference focuses on the specific product or service that the organization delivers . That 10 percent is the difference between getting more people to join a church or manufacturing transmission gears for cars.
The good news is that the creativity methods you will learn in this book are designed to work in any type of organization . They are designed to help people renew their creative ability and focus their ideas for action, regardless of their sphere of work . My ultimate goal is to show you how creativity can be a strategic business weapon crucial to gaining a competitive edge in the marketplace . Of course, we’ll have a little fun along the way, but we can’t afford to lose sight of the book’s central theme:
Creative Problem Solving can make your business a clear winner.
So let’s get on the winning track right now!
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Dr. Roger Firestien is a recognized leader of creativity and innovation and an influential figure that is well-respected within his community. His popular blog series, serves countless viewers and his FirestienRoger twitter and Facebook interact with his growing number of daily followers. For more information about Dr. Firestien, see funding and investments via Crunchbase.
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