About the Book
A Financial Times Book of the Month: "An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg "Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking." -- Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human
How can you challenge and change yourself when you need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.
Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.
Unsafe Thinking is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read, Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.
About the Author :
Jonah Sachs is the founder and a partner of Free Range Studios, a brand and innovation company that transforms companies through unsafe thinking. For his work he has been awarded "best of" honors three times at the South by Southwest interactive festival, earned a Webby award, and been featured at the Sundance Film Festival.
Review :
"Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking."--Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human
"Unsafe Thinking explores the alternative to the tried and tested solution...[A] mix of anecdote and scientific research."--Financial Times (an "FT business book of the month")
"Unsafe Thinking provides an inspiring and practical guide on how to truly think outside of the box and stay in productive flow. Master storyteller Jonah Sachs combines the latest research with accessible best practices to help us all become more comfortable being uncomfortable."--Lisa Kay Solomon, Chair, Transformational Practices, Singularity University, coauthor, Moments of Impact and Design a Better Business
"[Sachs is] an excellent writer whose candor and curiosity translate into compelling storytelling...A wonderful book for association CEOs and board leaders ready (or not) to recalibrate risk-taking and strategic planning."
--Associations Now
"A blazingly original book. In crisp, breezy prose, Sachs details winning strategies from explorers and business organizations through history. I found the stories themselves riveting, and Unsafe Thinking is destined to become a classic in creative thought."--Mary Karr, author of The Liar's Club and Lit
"A deeply insightful book for creators that only a creator could write."--Peter Sims, founder & CEO, Parliament, Inc., author of Little Bets
"All innovators have to have very tough skins. But beyond the peril of going against the crowd is the joy of fresh creation. Read this book and reflect on your own life. It could make a big difference."--Former U.S. Senator bill Bradley
"An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose."--Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg
"Fascinating."--Forbes
"Focuses on how leaders can think in new ways and encourage their organizations to think in new, unconventional ways."--National Center for the Middle Market
"I found some real insights...in a new book, Unsafe Thinking, by Jonah Sachs, who is one of the influential social innovators I know. He outlines a set of straightforward practices that both he and I believe we can all use to create counter-intuitive breakthroughs ourselves. We don't need to wait for lightning to strike, if we proactively improve our ability to accept more seemingly outlandish solutions and ideas."--Martin Zwilling, Inc.com
"Learning to be more comfortable with uncertainty might be the most important innovation in business and life we have today, and it is just one of the many gems in Sachs's brilliant book."--Psych Central
"Posing the question of why so many people get stuck in conventional, old-fashioned thinking when it comes to work, journalist Sachs argues, energetically...that the answer lies in a mixture of fear and habit...Sachs walks through the key components of unsafe thinking, namely courage, motivation, learning, flexibility, morality, and leadership, using his interviewees' stories...to illustrate his points. The writing is lively."
--Publishers Weekly
A practical and truly entertaining roadmap to becoming more creative and productive. A must-read for anyone facing a changing world."--Jonah Berger, Wharton Professor, author of Contagions
