Welcome to the Think For A Change Blog and the first stop on the February edition of the Post2Post Virtual Book Tour produced by Idea Sandbox. 

Post2Post is an awesome new web-based book tour where great authors and their books are connected with great websites/blogs and their readers.

For five business days, making five stops, the author moves from one site to the next - discussing with the web hosts and readers - the book, the big idea, and other items of interest.

This month, the Post2Post Virtual Book Tour focuses on the fantastic book, Creativity Today by Ramon Vullings and Igor Byttebier with a newly released section on organizational creativity by Godelieve Spaas.  The authors are all self-described “soul mates” in the Netherlands-based consulting firm, new shoes today.

As described above, the Creativity Today Post2Post Virtual Book Tour continues on the following schedule:
 

Site	Date
Think For A Change Paul R Williams	Mon, Feb 11
ConnextionPastor Charles Whitmore	Tue, Feb 12
Principled Innovation Blog Jeff De Cagna	Wed, Feb 13
The Marketing Fresh Peel Chris Wilson	Thur, Feb 14
Grassroots Innovation Greg Eisenbach	Fri, Feb 15

First up, let’s review the book.  Creativity Today is organized logically along a commonly referenced model of creative problem solving; Getting Started (Problem Identification), Diverging (Search for Ideas) and Converging (Selection of Ideas).  Additionally, the book provides great background and educational material through in-depth reviews of understanding creativity basics, common misconceptions, how the human mind solves problems and finally, important creativity skill sets.

However, what makes this book truly unique and very user friendly is that each chapter is also broken down in two distinct sections.  The first section is instructive, or what the authors call the “Insight Pages.”  This is where the book introduces new creative problem solving concepts and provides easy to understand examples and techniques.  The second section of each chapter, and where I feel this book really shines, is labeled the “Training Pages.”  Here, countless exercises and hands-on activities are provided to embed what you just learned.  After all, immediate application of knowledge is one of the best methods for learning.

Newly added with the most recent printing edition, a section of the book called “Creation Today” explores organizational creativity and provides the readers with actual examples of organizations that have used the processes and tactics described in this book to their financial advantage.

The book also introduces a new descriptive word in the field of creativity, something that many people and organizations often tend to ignore or throw away…a concept called “nearlings.”  A nearling is a positive word for something new that you did with the right intentions, which has not (yet) led to the right result.  This gets back to the old adage that you never throw away an idea, because the right time for the idea may not have yet arrived.

In order to dig a little deeper into Creativity Today, last week, co-author Ramon Vullings and I sat down to discuss the book, his background and new shoes today in greater detail.

Ramon is a skilled facilitator for innovation processes and a good public speaker / master of ceremonies in various languages. He gets very enthusiastic about 'reducing risk aversion' and increasing an organization's innovative capacity.

Before working with new shoes today, Ramon worked internationally as a Management Consultant and as European CRM Operations Manager for the CRM practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers and later IBM. At the moment, Ramon focuses mainly on passion as the driver for operations management and innovation.

And now…to the questions…

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Q.    Isn’t it a crazy coincidence that two completely different people named Paul Williams (Paul Williams of Think For A Change, LLC & Paul Williams of Idea Sandbox) have a passion around creativity, innovation and all things Disney?
A.    Really crazy, at first I didn't see it, just figured it out by the way of writing.

Q.    How did you get started in (and educate yourself about) personal and organizational creativity?
A.    I always had a key interest in where “things,” ideas, and processes came from.  During my studies we had a minor called, "Think Different" and this sparked my imagination.  The tutor there advised me to join 'KreaNET' a Dutch Creativity Network. This is how I rolled into the area of creativity and, over my ten years at Coopers & Lybrand - PricewaterhouseCoopers - IBM, I tried to put as much creativity & innovation in my Management Consulting work.

Q.    What do you see as the key barriers to increasing personal creativity…organizational creativity?
A.    Personal:  Thinking that creativity is a “given” skill, or something which cannot be developed further.  Also, the inability to let go and being too risk averse; Organizational: The inability to let go of “control” and allow space for the new and experimental

Q.    How many techniques do you use in a typical idea generation session?
A.    Varies on the subject/orientation. In general I would say, after the purge... 4 to 5 techniques

Q.    What do you look for during an idea generation session to tell when you have reached the optimum number/quality of ideas?
A.    Energy in the group (group dynamics); Time (how much time do we have to converge/select, put the ideas into action; Passion (if there are a decent number of ideas where people get really “fired up”); and finally my own view on the quality (looking at the base question)

Q.    What do you see as the biggest mistakes leaders make today with respect to organizational creativity and innovation
A.    Biggest mistake: Not showing leadership!  Not acting!

- allowing organizational confusion in key creativity and innovation processes
- allowing uncertainty in decisions that need to be made (will the training for all employees be postponed... etc)
- allowing people to give bad examples (the boss who's never there... etc)
- not making true (agenda) space to allow innovation to take root
- not choosing ideas to implement (which actually means letting go of something else in order to allow the new ideas and to rise to the top)

Q.    In the book, you mention that one of the most important things about creativity is that you have to experience it to really understand what it all about.  You also mention that feelings are in integral part of the experience.  What specifically do you mean by that?
A.    Two views on feeling:

1. Managers (in a business situation) sometimes use creativity as a “cover” to push personal agendas through the system, or to gain commitment for something already decided.  People wonder if what they're working on is real or not.
2. You can read as many books on fitness as you want, but reading alone won't make you get in shape.  You need to experience/feel creativity to truly understand what it can bring to you and your situation.  Experiencing or feeling something makes the experience richer and better “stored” in your brain.

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So, as we close out this stop on the Post2Post Virtual Book Tour, I’ll freely admit that my copy of the book is now dog-eared with the corners folded on both the top and the bottom of many pages.  There are single phrases followed by whole sections highlighted in yellow.  Post-It Notes and sticky flags fan out from every side. 

The book is filled with many great lessons on personal and organizational creativity, with each lesson followed by practical examples and hands-on material that beginners and experts alike can use immediately and get started on TODAY!

In the end, the most important thing about a great book is whether or not it provides value to the reader.  So when a salty old veteran in the field of organizational creativity and innovation like me learns something new, I’d call that providing GREAT value…wouldn’t you?

I encourage you to get your copy today!!!

Creativity Today

by Ramon Vullings, Godelieve Spaas, and Igor Byttebier
of new shoes today Author Site | 800CEORead | Amazon UK