Best Books on Creativity and Innovation
Learn to think out-of-the-box and accelerate your your career!
As technology and automation become more prevalent in every single industry, soft skills like creativity and innovation become very critical to rise up in your field. Unfortunately, the daily grind of life can erode our thinking abilities and dry up our creative juices. Other days we just feel stuck in a creative rut and it can feel nearly impossible to tap into inspiration.
Books on creativity are an ideal solution to boost your motivation in these gloomy times. They are low-cost, they give instant inspiration and practical strategies for problem-solving and expand your mind to receive new ideas.
Here is the list of Top 7 books on creativity and innovation. Read one or all the books in this list, they are sure to enlighten you and set the stage for tremendous success!
Books on Creativity & Innovation:
1. Alchemy 2. Creativity Inc. 3. Design Thinking 4. 131 Boredom Busters & Creativity Builders for Kids 5. The Accidental Creative 6. Creative Careers 7. Tools of the Titans.
1] Alchemy
Author — Rory Sutherland. This book is mainly about marketing, but the anecdotes and case studies are absolute genius in terms of creativity. They are also very good examples of how out-of-the-box thinking lead to huge sales and revenues for a range of business models. The book includes innovative strategies applied to county tourism, non-profits looking to increase their fundraising efforts, product marking for generic commodities and small businesses on stringent budgets.
This book makes you re-evaluate your deep-rooted assumptions and challenges your limiting beliefs, so it is a book I recommend to everyone.
2] Creativity Inc.
Author — Ed Catmull The author is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, the firm credited with churning out blockbuster movies like Finding Nemo, Toy Story (series), Cars, Monster University and many more. Many of these movies won prestigious Academy awards and rake in billions of dollars in revenue from theatergoers and related merchandise.
This book is an inside view of the systems and processes that nurtured the creative genius and allowed teams to repeatedly produce bestselling movies.
If you are a manager and would like your team to scale new heights of productivity and innovation, then this book is a must read!
Some of my favorite quotes from the book are: a. Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. b. It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.
3] Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
Author — Tim Brown This was a recommended read for my MBA class on leadership and innovation, and I fell in love with the concept. We often think of innovation as exclusive traits for designers, entertainers and product companies. This book shatters those norms and reveals how ordinary folks can generate brilliant ideas and implement them in profitable ways.
This book is a new way of thinking about innovation whether you work in a product company, manufacturing or service industry. Even freelancers can use the concept to get better requirements and feedback from their clients, saving themselves hours of work that either doesn’t satisfy the client or requires multiple iterations and corrections.
4] Boredom Busters
Author — Jed Jurchenko I bought this book to entertain my nieces and nephews, but the exercises can be easily used to flex your innovation muscles. I have used it as team-building exercises and also before brainstorming sessions for work. The beauty of the ideas are that they are low-cost and can be done very easily with minimal props and available items.
5] The Accidental Creative
Author — Todd Henry. Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to unlock your creative potential with various techniques, along 5 broad themes. Some strategies include “combinatory play”, stimulating people networks who bring fresh perspectives, how to maximize your energy to be more productive, etc.
6] Creative Careers
Author — Jeffrey Madoff This book is not yet released (June 2020) and I received an early copy from #NetGalley. No sponsorship to name this book! :)
However, this book is quite relevant since it targets people who work in creative careers like entertainment, writing, etc. However, many of the principles and topics are equally relevant to all careers, for example, building strong relationships, starting off as an entrepreneur or building your personal brand. This book will help readers to marry business sense and creativity, and uplift their careers.
7] Tools of the Titans.
Author — Tim Ferris. This book is indirectly about innovation and creativity. Far more important the book provides strategies to be insanely successful, and who doesn’t want that?
No matter which industry or what stage of your career, you are sure to find practical guidance from a stalwart in your niche, all available in this book. Do not limit yourself to the expert interviews from your domain though. Reading what worked for other luminaries might just help you get brilliant ideas to apply in your field, a concept called “combinatory play” that is praised by world leaders like Bill Gates and many others.
This is just an amazing book that I recommend to everyone I know!
Do you have books that spark innovative thinking? Add your list in the comments section.
Until next time, Adieu and Happy Reading!