40 Tools in 20 Minutes: Hack your Marketing from Eric Leist

40 Tools in 20 Minutes: Hacking your Marketing Career from Eric Leist

Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull: A book review

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A tour de force work by creating, living, practicing and improvising a world class creative company culture at Pixar & Disney Animation group.

In particular, the practice has been honed for almost 25 years and additionally tested and successfully deployed inside iconic Disney Animation group. Not many people can claim this impressive repeat creative culture creation.

Any venture wishing to create a lasting creative culture must start with incredible constant self-awareness and absolute candor that begins with top leadership.

Creative culture practice is a marathon and not a sprint!

The most resonant theme expressed is candor at all time and all levels. One of the most misunderstood and ignored concept missing from many prior published works. Candor at all levels is the ability of all people at all levels of the organization having difficult and tough conversations to resolve hidden and unpredictable issues.

One memorable line is: if the hallway knows the truth and conference room does not then it reflects the lack of candor, where people are afraid to speak up without fear of retaliation.

In reading through Pixar quest to live a creative culture, it is very evident that Pixar practices the art of 'Design Thinking' in their particular way for every movie that Pixar has produced. For example, before any movie, the staff went to the actual location to do the 'research' which equates to Design Thinking's observe and empathize techniques.

One example given is, filmmakers of 'Nemo' went and visited dentists offices and then traversed the sewers to find out if fish can escape from dentists office sink to the ocean via sewers. Movies makers also became certified scuba divers to experience what it is like to navigate all the way from sewers to the ocean.

One of the surprises in the book is the last chapter about Steve Job's role at Pixar before its acquisition by Disney. It is the most touching and candid description of Steve Job's transformation to an excellent listener and his knack for giving constructive feedback during Pixar pre-release movie previews.

In fact, Steve's legendary product introductions were stories that people loved to buy iPod, iPhone, and iPad. I am sure he learned the art of storytelling from the master storytellers at Pixar.

This heart touching elucidation runs counter to all what his been written about Steve Jobs after his passing away. Ed Catmull's unique account comes from a close working relationship with Steve Jobs for over 20 years.

Finally, any company trying to navigate through the disruptive digital transformation should make this book a required reading for the entire organization, starting with top leadership.


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The Design of Business: Book Review

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A must read for any leader & corporate boards who are challenged with growth in current times and need to transform their companies into a constantly innovating organization.

Very profound insights as to why the lost art and desire of pursuing the unknown to uncover unmet user needs in this age.

The good news is: the solution is in plain sight!

But it requires deep thinking and calculated risk taking to grow. When companies like CocaCola starts to practice the art, the magic happens.

For corporate managers who are happy milking the current status quo, this book can provide a path forward to grow constantly.

In essence, it requires a transformation in the mind of leaders (leaders themselves must become constant learner's).


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Looking to Sharpen Your Creativity Muscle To Uncover Great Ideas

Here are some resources that will help you immensely.

1.       Thinker Toys By Michael Mchalko

2.      Cracking creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius by Michael Mchalko

3.      Weird Ideas That Work: How to Build a Creative Company by Robert Sutton

4.      Ten Faces of Innovation by Thomas Kelley & Jonathan Littman

5.      IDEO: http://www.ideo.com/expertise/play

6.      Mindtools Creativity Tools: https://www.mindtools.com/main/newMN_CT.htm

7.      Standford D(esign) School http://dschool.stanford.edu (great tools)

8.     Tim Brown TED Talk on creativity & play

9.      Jump Start: www.ideachampions.com/junp_start.html

10.  Solution Machine: http://home.att.net/~kennethfinn/SOL/solweb.html

11.   Job Force: http://gocreate.com/tools/jobs.htm

12.  100 What’s of Creativity: http: www.dontheideaguy.com/100whats/

13.  Prompts for SCAMPER: https://litemind.com/scamper

Note: If you like to buy the books above, you may want to try www.HALF.com or www.eBay.com for used books (sometimes prices are very good).