Albert Einstein once was quoted: Logic will get from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere, Does this make you want to unchain creativity and imagination? It certainly does for me
Whether you’re an entrepreneur at heart or hope to bring change and new ideas to an existing company, unchain creativity will challenge your perceptions and push you to explore things in new ways.
Let me share an interesting story with you that will help. It is an interesting story about two men who made a bet in 1960. There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager.
The first man, Bennett Cerf, was the founder of the publishing firm, Random House. The second man was named Theo Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr. Seuss. Cerf proposed the bet and challenged that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children’s book using only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss took the bet and won.
The result was a little book called Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss’s works and one of the best-selling children’s books in history.
At first glance, you might think this was a lucky fluke. A talented author plays a fun game with 50 words and ends up producing a hit. But there is actually more to this story and the lessons in it can help us become more creative and stick to better habits over the long-run. Here’s what we can learn from this bet.
By 2020 creativity will become one of the top three skills leaders will need. The unrelenting and unprecedented changes in today’s world present problems and opportunities never before faced – by anyone.
We cannot expect success by applying old solutions to new problems. More than ever before, creativity is required to be competitive.
So, how can we add more creativity into our daily lives when we might have challenges that are beyond our control? Our companies might be risk-averse; our goals might be too lofty, or maybe the sheer size of the to-do list feels like we will be busy until 2020 and we can’t add one more thing.
A challenge today is how to stimulate creative thinking into our teams. We must how to unchain creativity. And to achieve it, they are seeking ways to build a culture of creativity across the length of the organization itself so that it permeates across verticals and teams within.
There are many things that will help you expand creative thinking, but one of the surest ways is reading different topics to expand imagination and inspire the creative thinking we seek.
Here we’ll list top books to expand the imagination:
It’s Not How Good You Are; It’s How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden
With a title like that, this book has to carry something valuable for any person who dedicates themselves to reading it. It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: The world’s best-selling book by Paul Arden is a handbook of how to succeed in the world – a pocket ‘bible’ for the talented and timid to make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible. The world’s top advertising guru, \
Paul Arden, offers up his wisdom on issues as diverse as problem-solving, responding to a brief, communicating, playing your cards right, making mistakes and creativity, all notions that can be applied to aspects of modern life.
The world’s top advertising guru, Paul Arden, offers up his wisdom on issues as diverse as problem-solving, responding to a brief, communicating, playing your cards right, making mistakes, and creativity – all endeavors that can be applied to aspects of modern life.
This uplifting and humorous little book provides a unique insight into the world of advertising and is a quirky compilation of quotes, facts, pictures, wit and wisdom – all packed into easy-to-digest, bite-sized spreads. If you want to succeed in life or business, this book is a must.
Add more creativity?
There’s a lot of very good advice in this book, presented in a very easy to digest format. I come back to this book again and again whenever I need a pep talk, and every time it works. How are being unafraid of failure, having ambition, and being open to new ideas not relevant to your life?
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
On the list of books to expand the imagination of any aspiring actor is a classical sci-fi satirical novella which is a must-read for anybody.
In Flatland: Romance of Many Dimensions, using the world of Flatland, the author makes observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. Abbot’s two-dimensional world is occupied by geometric figures; women are simple lines as men are polygons.
Although its original publication went largely unnoticed, the discoveries of later physicists brought it new recognition and respect, and its popularity since has justly never waned. It remains a charming and entertaining read and a brilliant introduction to the concept of dimensions beyond those we can perceive.
Flatland is recommended to all those who seek to enlighten their view of the universe and potential universes. It is especially recommended to those seeking higher knowledge of any type. Flatland is truly a multi-dimensional experience and worth every minute.
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
Yes, it’s for kids, and yes, you can use it too. Trust me when I say that very few books will engage and train your imagination and creative muscles as much as this one.
The question is: how far will you go to recreate a story for each of these pictures? The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is comprised of 14 black-and-white drawings, each accompanied by a title and a caption, which will entice any actor reading it to make up his or her own story.
Picture books have a wide range of purposes in this world. They can teach and inform. They can amuse and entertain. Sometimes, though, I think that the most impressive picture books are the ones that inspire.
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a 1984 picture book by the American author Chris Van Allsburg. It consists of a series of images, ostensibly created by Harris Burdick, a man who has mysteriously disappeared.
Each image is accompanied by a title and a single line of text, which encourages readers to create their own stories. Many famous writers have tried to put their twists on the pictures.[1]
This is one of the first, most applicable, well composed scientific and practical explanations of how creative mind works and what makes a person more imaginative.
The famous collection of studies and explanations, de Bono’s famous Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity is a results-oriented bestseller that will train readers to move beyond a “vertical” mode of thought to tap the potential of lateral thinking.
The first practical explanation of how creativity works, this results-oriented bestseller trains listeners to move beyond a “vertical” mode of thought to tap the potential of lateral thinking. ‘Do not limit your mind, don’t assume’ could be a summary of the book.
The author has made quite a good start, explaining how new ideas could be formed and how the best looking idea may not be the best to pick up. The book would be useful for people who have been in a stable environment, a place where improvements are seen as threats so you couldn’t improve most of the things.”
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
This book is something unique in a way that it’s a collection of essays, articles and short stories that will introduce you to one of the most imaginative writers that ever walked the Earth. Use this time to learn from him.
Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings (Penguin Modern Classics) is full of many author’s stories, including the celebrated “Library of Babel”, whose infinite shelves contain every book that could ever exist, ‘Funes the Memorious’ the tale of a man fated never to forget a single detail of his life, and ‘Pierre Menard,
Author of the “Quixote”‘, in which a French poet makes it his life’s work to create an identical copy of “Don Quixote”.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Did you know that most imaginative and creative people love to read a lot, and they particularly focus on very well crafted fantasy stories that expand their imagination? Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane would be the first book you should turn to for this sort of thing.
A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.
It delivers a highly imaginative, fabulous and fascinating fable that envelops, and attempts to explain, everything in the space-time continuum. Yes, it’s that ambitious! It had me hooked from the first to the last page. Simply put: it is an incredible gem of a novel.
Neil Gaiman finds consolation in books, in adventures and fantasies. He offers the cues and answers the human world cannot. Lewis Carroll is quoted more than once, appropriate given Gaiman’s Mad Hatter imagination and the novel’s rabbit hole imaginings.
“They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.”
Opposable Mind by Roger L. Martin
Another well researched and science-based book on how to expand imagination and use the results to enhance your creativity.
While primarily written for business people, actors will also find this book of great help, since Opposable Mind: Winning Through Integrative Thinking by Martin, Roger L. published by Harvard Business Review Press (2009) teaches how to focus on what exceptional leaders do, and how to understand and emulate what they think, and how they do it.
Successful businesspeople engage in what Martin calls integrative thinking creatively resolving the tension in opposing models by forming entirely new and superior ones.
Some of the most interesting and most valuable material is provided in Chapter 7 as Martin explains how integrative thinkers “connect the dots.” He cites Taddy Blecher as one example.
I think the details are best revealed within their context. Suffice to say now that for Blecher, “existing models are to his mind just models, each with something useful to offer.”
The bottom line
Make your thinking vivid by including what comes naturally to you. For example, you may not be able to imagine sequences of images very well, but you may excel in imagining other modalities such as smell, touch, and sound.
You may be excellent in infusing your visualization with emotional charge and great feelings. DO not feel compelled to stay within any single modality but make your visualizations and imagination vivid and rich by including numerous modalities.
Your senses are wonderful tools for you to engage while unleashing the power of the imaginative mind. Make it colorful and exciting.
Make your imagination your ally and your best friend.
Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
