The Truth About Creativity

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

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/.

Expert Reviews

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

Customer Reviews

Your opinions count

Be the first to review this product. Write your review now.