The Truth About Creativity: Rules are there to be challenged

The Truth About Creativity provides a practical and example-laden journey through creativity and its talent-releasing benefits for organisations, teams and individuals. Many of the truths are new perspectives on well-known creativity topics and will teach you how to: capture and use half-thoughts in the workplace; use alternative techniques to brainstorming; realise ideas must get complex before they get profound; succeed with a £10 budget; build momentum to take people with you; test the validity of ideas with a 5 minute business plan; recognize the customer isn’t always right – but listen to them anyway…and more.

Table of Contents:
The Truth About Creativity   PART I: INCREASING YOUR CREATIVE POTENTIAL   Truth 1: Creativity is yours for the taking   Truth 2: Creativity is child’s play   Truth 3: Climb out of your box    Truth 4: Map your journey before you explore    Truth 5: Give creativity a guide   Truth 6: Tune in to turn creativity on    Truth 7: Creativity is a way of thinking   Truth 8: Make time for creativity   PART II: DEVELOPING CREATIVE CHARACTERISTICS   Truth 9: Don’t stop at the first idea   Truth 10: Rules are there to be challenged   Truth 11: It ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it   Truth 12: Half-thoughts need to be heard   Truth 13: Compare to create – the power of using metaphors   Truth 14: See what you see, not what you think you ought to see   Truth 15: Failure is good for you    PART III: PUTTING CREATIVITY TO WORK   Truth 16: Brainstorming is not the only technique   Truth 17: Test the validity of ideas with a five-minute business plan   Truth 18: An ounce of process delivers pounds of success   Truth 19: Symptoms and causes first, ideas after   Truth 20: You can teach your colleagues to use half-thoughts   Truth 21: Newsflash: Insanity and routine are not worlds apart   Truth 22: Set your limits on limitless thinking   Truth 23: Different starting places lead to different results   Truth 24: Your creativity budget can be less than £10   Truth 25: Change your perspective to develop insights   Truth 26: The customer isn’t always right…but listen to them anyway   Truth 27: Complete the pattern and you will find the answer   Truth 28: The best offense is a good defense   Truth 29: Don’t forget the obvious   PART IV: TRAITS OF CREATIVE TEAMS   Truth 30: Team diversity is a virtue   Truth 31: Impassioned people make the difference   Truth 32: Reading, your window for ideas   Truth 33: Build momentum to bring people with you   Truth 34: Liberate your team with a shared purpose    Truth 35: Creative cultures are nurtured not prescribed   Truth 36: New ideas come from new communities   Truth 37: Management tools work, but never admit that you are using one   Truth 38: The joke is on you, or at least it should be   PART V: USING CREATIVE SPACE   Truth 39: Deskshare builds mindshare    Truth 40: Everybody has a special place   Truth 41: Seed ideas in a hot house to help them grow   Truth 42: Dare to share your creative efforts   PART VI: ACHIEVING CREATIVE SUCCESS   Truth 43: Good ideas need quality, acceptance and execution   Truth 44: Recognise, reward and celebrate for long-term success   Truth 45: Creativity – the final frontier   Truth 46: Feed your creative spirit      

About the Author :
Patrick Harris is the definitive blue-sky thinker, driven by an ultimate desire to reach practical, workable solutions. He is appreciated for his ability to inspire creativity in individuals, distil strategies into actionable plans and generate powerful momentum inside organisations.Much of his expertise and recognition emanates from his work as Director of Creaticity for the Orange Group. Working for the executive board, Patrick co-designed and managed the corporate strategic think tank that underpinned the company’s strategy during the octane-fuelled period of 1998 – 2002. After leaving Orange, he founded thoughtengine, a consultancy working in numerous sectors and focusing on creativity, strategy, brand and futures. Patrick enjoys helping people and organisations to resolve complex issues and to employ inspired strategies.   He is a former non-executive Director of France Telecom UK R&D and is currently a Director of Medinge, a brand think tank focusing on furthering the humanitarian efforts of brands and their organisations - http://www.medinge.org/. Patrick is recognised as an engaging and thought-provoking speaker.   Patrick was born in the USA and complemented his early career with ten years of competitive water skiing. He holds a BSc and an MBA (Hons), is married with two children and lives in London. He can be contacted via thoughtengine - http://www.thoughtengine.co.uk/.    

Review :
Creativity is an essential skill in business and life, and yet most people are never formally educated in the topic.  Patrick has devoted his career to both practicing and teaching creativity in everyday situations.  You may be seeking a broad overview, some illuminating examples, a few practical techniques for that project on Monday – or all of the above.  If you can’t work directly with Patrick, then get this book. Jason Brown, Vice President Marketing and Customer Loyalty, eBay   Patrick Harris provides the manual and the toolkit here which is both easy to follow and to use. This is essential when the implications are potentially so profound. Breaking the shackles of uniform thinking and tapping into this reservoir of latent ingenuity may well make the difference between business success and failure. It may also be the difference between human survival and extinction. It is therefore an undertaking of great value, and one that is all the more commendable because of its easy to digest layout and prose. Simon Large, Finlays, Commercial Director   Patrick changes the way people think about life and the world around them.  The Truth About Creativity captures who Patrick is- a shaper of ideas and people. This book will draw you in and provide you with a compass to unlock your own creative capabilities. Andrew Jackson, Ministry of Economic Development, NZ   Are you a monkey, dolphin, lion or elephant? Do you know the difference between "urgent" and "important"? Two fascinating facts I learned from Patrick's wonderful book on Creativity. Packed with questions and challenges, this is a must-read for anyone needing to understand creativity. Ian Ryder - Deputy CEO, British Computer Society   The Truth About Creativity could not be more timely. With extraordinary insight and understanding, Patrick Harris has gently and systematically taken the reader through a process that demonstrates that we all can be creative. The Truth about Creativity is much more than an exemplary guide about fostering and promoting creativity, it is at the same time a welcome roadmap that marks out essential steps for moving from the seeming stagnation of the present to a richly creative future. Randolph Kent, PhD, Director, Humanitarian Futures Programme, King’s College, London   Thinking creatively is what drives Patrick to get out of bed each morning. The Truth About Creativity embodies the thoughts of a man who really enjoys challenging people to think differently. It’s great to see his techniques eventually captured on paper in such an easy-to-use and succinct fashion. Andrew Culpan, Co-Founder Aroxo & Former Vice President Strategy MTV Networks                  A unique perspective on creativity based on Harris's practical experience and his passion for promoting originality and imagination in business. His truths are delivered in a simple structure that is usable and accessible to everyone, making you want to change the way you do things...now! Jeanette Purcell, Chief Executive, Association of MBAs   This book debunks the idea that creativity requires total freedom or even anarchy – instead it provides a framework of wonderfully engaging and practical ideas to flex the creativity muscle.  Most importantly it doesn’t read like an instruction manual, but is more like a very tempting recipe book – and one where you can’t wait for the next meal. Harry Rich, Chief Executive, Enterprise Insight   Entertaining us with countless stories, riddles and jokes, Patrick Harris expertly leads us out of the proverbial box and into the playground, where he urges us to be bold, to recognise, value and unleash our inherent creativity. James Goodman, Head of Futures, Forum for the Future Patrick clearly illustrates in his book that it is not about to be or not to be creative as a personal characteristic, but it is about how to learn to be more creative as an individual and an organization. Willem Manders, Strategy, Change and Assurance Manager, EP Learning, Shell Exploration and Production   Patrick is an excellent listener and in many ways personifies ‘The Inquisitive Nature’.  He takes a rare and wonderfully child-like delight in delving, de-bunking and divulging – and that is one of my definitions of creativity. Peter Kyle, Chief Executive, The Shakespeare Globe Trust   If Patrick Harris' book on creativity were a cake you'd want to gobble it down in its entirety immediately! It's deliciously excellent. Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder, Kids Company   Patrick's book could do for creativity what Christopher Booker did for story telling with his Seven Basic Plots - just with more humour! Alex Batchelor, Executive Vice President – Marketing, TomTom   "The Marvels of this book are like a well rehearsed play, each session an enjoyable and entertaining read that makes the reader giggle…a true game changer…" Ambition, The Association of MBAs