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Title: When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups by Dorothy Leonard, Walter Swap, Harvard Business School Press ISBN: 0-87584-865-6 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Creative Mindset
Comment: In Leonard and Swap's book, "When Sparks Fly: Igniting creativity in groups," the authors acknowledge that with the right physical and psychological group environment, creativity can easily emerge from all members of a group. This creativity can be brought forth in groups ranging from five to five-thousand. The authors present their views and information in a congenial way, which gives the book a lighter sense. Their overall intention was not to create a guide which would be viewed as mentally cumbersome to absorb, but rather to write a book which bestows fresh ideas upon the reader in a non-technical way.
The book begins by challenging the typical myths associated with creativity, and subsequently proving them to be incorrect. The authors assert that by using certain motivational and managerial techniques, greater overall creativity can be achieved, even by those who would not typically be referred to as the "creative" type.
The chapters cover all of the basics of group formation and management, beginning with basic creative group problems, addressing techniques with which to harness creativity and keep it focused in the right direction, and leaving the reader with the knowledge and motivation to foster the proper environment for the foundation and formation of a creative group. This is achieved through a five-step process defined by the authors as: 1) preparation, 2) innovation opportunity, 3) generation of options, 4) incubation, 5) the convergence on one option. These steps are intuitively arranged and thoroughly explained throughout the course of the book.
Overall, this book seeks to leave you with the idea that creativity, while an inherit ability to some, can also be thought of as a process. Once creativity is learned to be viewed as a process, many new avenues with which to inspire creativity can be realized and achieved through careful manipulation of the work environment. These authors truly provide a great prospective on a somewhat perplexing topic to most managers.
Rating: 4
Summary: True organizational crativity
Comment: THis book shows how the true creativity (the one for everyday work) arises and how managers should do in their corps to leverage this invaluable asset.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Essential Tool for the Internet Age
Comment: Innovation in the workplace is difficult to achieve for all organizations. Most businesses do not have a resident genius, but rely on the creativity of many people over multiple disciplines. Managing these different perspectives and expectations can be a nightmare. Risks of alienation, creating winners and losers and outright failure inhibit even the most self-assured manager. Within the first 15 pages of the book the authors, Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, introduce Ken Iverson, the chairman of Nucor Steel who reported that, "when his company took on a new, extremely high-risk creative project, he slept like a baby -- he woke up every two hours crying!"
According to the authors, group creativity requires thoughtful preparation, cultivation of different options, time to reflect and careful culling of the "right" ideas. Each step in the process will either energize the team to work harder or become part of a demoralizing and fractious process. As Leonard and Swap write, "Two (or more) heads are better than one, however, only if (1) there is useful knowledge inside the heads; (2) all that useful knowledge can be accessed; and (3) all that accesssed, useful knowledge can be shared, processed, and synthesized by the group."
While reading the first section, I "borrowed" a legal pad from my spouse to pilfer the numerous creative ideas suggested. By the time I was done, I had filled the entire pad and was writing on the cardboard back, with designs for programs to reward creativity and groundrules for initiating appropriate creative sessions. Just about everything is covered -- from why preppy Tommy Hilfiger can design for urban youth to how Weyerhaeuser created new, cost effective particleboard. While the reader may not want to use every single idea, there are many new ideas to choose from, representing the best-of-breed these authors have found from around the world's corporations in their considerable body of research.
When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups marks the publishing debut for a team of seasoned professors: Dorothy Leonard, of Harvard Business School, and Walter Swap, dean of the colleges at Tufts University. It is a rare business book: accessible, fresh and realistic. Perhaps it is no accident that the book was written shortly after the marriage of these two well-respected academics. Sparks do fly.
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Title: Commercializing New Technologies: Getting from Mind to Market by Vijay K. Jolly ISBN: 0875847609 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Art of Innovation : Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman, Tom Peters, Tom Peters ISBN: 0385499841 Publisher: Currency Pub. Date: 16 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen ISBN: 0060521996 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Patricia Ward Biederman, Warren G. Bennis ISBN: 0201339897 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Ignite Your Intuition by Craig Karges ISBN: 1558746765 Publisher: Health Communications Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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