Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents [Hardcover]

Lynne C. Levesque (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0891061533 | ISBN-13: 978-0891061533 | Publication Date: April 3, 2001

While everyone may not have reached the pinnacle of their creativity potential, Lynne Levesque debunks the myth that creativity belongs to only a select few.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has become quite popular as a team-building tool. Many books have been written on the use of types at work, in relationships, and even in church. Levesque, who has her Ed.D. in creativity, serviceably merges the study of types with the study of creativity. She describes eight creative talentsAfour of which are most concerned with data-collecting and four of which are most concerned with decision-making. Each MBTI type possesses a dominant creative talent and an auxiliary talent. For each type, the author outlines the dominant features and how creativity can be maximized or inhibited. Finally, Levesque considers ways of effectively using types in business settings. Given the current popularity of type-talk, public libraries should consider purchasing.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Breakthrough Creativity" is increasingly needed in our changing workplaces. -- Business Journal (Central New York), Aug. 23, 2002

Engaging description of different personality types and relationships to creativity. A quick and compelling read. Best read in its entirety. -- Business Book Review, October 2001

Interesting twist to the old personality typing...really helps us to see and understand the underlying personality impulses of each group. Helpful stuff. -- Hartford Business Journal, May 28, 2001

Readers find out which type they best fit and learn how to leverage their natural talents in each area. -- Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 18, 2001

She writes in plain English about how to recognize and bring out the different types of creativity people have. -- Kansas City Star, May 29, 2001

Shows that greater clarity about individual talents can allow people to see where they need to pay attention, stretch, grow. -- The Charlotte Observer, September 29, 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061533
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061533
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Writing a book like "Breakthrough Creativity" involved a lot of experiences, research, and the help of many different people. It's like one of my grandmother's patchwork quilts, sewn together from the various pieces of my life.

In the midst of a business career that spanned 17 years in management and administration at two very large financial institutions, I fell into the study of creativity rather serendipitously. I can't remember how it started exactly, but it was a mix of a magical lunch conversation in Palo Alto, California with Jim Adams, the author of "Conceptual Blockbusting," attendance at a conference on Humor and Creativity in Saratoga Springs, New York, and the discovery of and enrollment in a doctoral program in creativity at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, not far from my then home in Hartford, Connecticut.

That chain of events significantly altered the course of my life over the past 20 years. My interest in the subject of creativity has continued to evolve, as a result of academic study and research, further deepened by summers at the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, New York. It has grown into my life's work as a result of my experiences consulting with individuals and organizations. My passion for this topic has caused me to leave the safety and security of a professional career and set sail on the rough uncertain seas of independent consulting.

My initial research in creativity involved interviews with many senior executives and has expanded to include the results and observations of my consulting practice, the workshops and classes I have facilitated, and conversations and interviews with many more individuals from all over the world. It has now been enriched by extensive study and practice in the work of Carl Jung and several years of research and writing around critical management challenges at Harvard Business School.

The decision to write this book to help individuals make creativity happen in their own lives and in their organizations was thus a wonderful synthesis of my years in management, my study and research, my interest in Jungian theory, my consulting and training experiences, and a lot of serendipitous events along the way.

But writing this book was not easy. It turns out that it is one thing to research, read and talk about creativity. It is a very different experience trying to be creative by writing a book! My experience of writing this book has given me an even greater appreciation for the creative process. It tested my perseverance, patience, commitment, and beliefs in myself. It also gave me a much greater appreciation for the many people in my life who have formally and informally been a part of this book. Their stories, formal interviews, and the conversations that occurred as I explored this subject in more depth are a very significant part of the book. More importantly, their support -- both emotionally and intellectually -- proved to be invaluable.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars **A valuable and different perspective **, November 15, 2001

By 

Paul L. Bancel (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents (Hardcover)

I am an experience MBA, and I was skeptical about another venture into exploring my own creativity.

It turns out Lynne Levesque's book Breakthrough Creativity was definitely a breakthrough in my perceptions. Creativity is not just for artists and advertising. I never really saw my engineering and project management work as "creative," but Levesque's book helped me recognize how confined one's perspective can be. I always sought creativity through sailing or sports. I didn't appreciate how it can play a role in everything I do.

This fresh outlook that we are all creative, with individually different creative talents, was a simple but important revelation. It was interesting to discover how much we limit our own creative endeavors. Levesque's metaphors analyzing creativity are imaginative and instructive, and her recommendations were very practical. Her recommendations are clearly grounded on her own business experience.

Levesque links creativity with resilience and a sense of possibility, a very powerful concept in today's troubled world.

I highly recommend reading this breakthrough book.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative Destruction of Barriers to Creativity, July 14, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents (Hardcover)

What is important to understand at the outset is that Levesque skillfully combines in this book some of the most important ideas developed by Carl Jung in correlation with concepts developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers for what is now known as "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)" personality inventory. According to Levesque, "The more you learn about this instrument and Jung's theory behind it, the more you'll see its applicability to an understanding of creativity." There are so many excellent books on the (sometimes elusive) subject of creativity and this is one of the best. Levesque asserts (and I agree) that almost anyone can think much more creatively. That is to say, almost anyone can develop the skills by which to activate and then nourish certain talents which Levesque rigorously examines in this book, one which is intended "to bridge the gap between your knowledge of yourself as creative and those workplace demands and expectations to produce new and different results. [This book] will help you to travel from the land of confusion to a continent of clarification and the security of knowing how you are creative and what you must do if you are to produce even more creative results.

The basis of the book is the belief that [italics] everyone is creative. Everyone is not alike in his or her creativity because [italics] there is no one best way to be creative. You may not have developed your creativity to the same degree as others, but it's there. Everyone has the potential to be creative at work." Levesque defines creativity as [in italics] "the ability to consistently produce different and valuable results." She devotes a chapter to each of eight dominant personality types: Adventurer, Navigator, Explorer, Visionary, Pilot, Inventor, Harmonizer, and Poet. In Part 3, "Managing Yourself and Others to Enhance Creativity", she shifts her attention first to strategies to achieve effective collaboration and then to a "personal action plan" which her reader must develop inorder to achieve what Maslow characterizes as "self-actualization."

Please allow a brief digression. One of my favorite tactics (gimmicks?) when conducting a brainstorming/problem-solving session with executives was inspired by one of DeBono's books, Six Thinking Hats. I ask participants to wear a Dr. Seuss hat of one of various colors, each of which symbolizes a specific personality with appropriate values. (For example, those who wear a black hat must "remain in character" by being cynical, skeptical, negative, etc. and attack others' comments and suggestions. Every 10-15 minutes, participants exchange hats and must assume a new "personality" appropriate to the color of hat worn. You get the idea.

A similar session could be conducted with each participant designated as being one of the eight "creative talents" discussed by Levesque. Even those who insist they are not -- and can never be -- creative will soon realize the value of taking a hard look at a given subject from variety of different perspectives. They may not generate any dazzling new ideas but, as Levesque insists correctly, they CAN broaden and deepen their awareness of what is possible.

Many advocate thinking "outside the box." According to Levesque, creativity is not just "thinking" out of the box. It's feeling, doing, and being out of the box. She asserts not only that almost anyone can THINK much more creatively but also that anyone can BE much more creative, wherever that may be. One of the most important components of "breakthrough creativity" is the realization that creativity is not just a "thinking" phenomenon. It can also be manifested in being a nurturing team leader, connecting differently with associates, strengthening relationships with clients, etc. Levesque's identification and exploration of this component sets her apart from DeBono, Von Oech, and others whose work I also admire.

Briefly, I want to comment on the word "breakthrough" and state that I share Levesque's high regard for Adams's Conceptual Blockbusting. What Levesque correctly points out is that there are certain barriers (or "blocks") which anyone must break through (or "bust") inorder to think more creatively. Almost all human limits are self-imposed. The first barrier to break through, therefore, is the belief "I'm not creative." (Von Oech has this in mind when, in A Whack on the Side of the Head, he discusses ten "locks" such as "The Right Answer" and "That's Not Logical.") Barriers, blocks, or locks...whatever you wish to call them...all are self-limiting only to the extent they are permitted to be.

Obviously, I think very highly of this book. As noted earlier, Levesque brilliantly integrates several important ideas developed by Carl Jung with concepts developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers for the "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)" personality inventory but she does not stop there. Recall her definition of creativity as [in italics] "the ability to consistently produce different and valuable results." Brooking, Davenport, Fitz-enz, Goleman, and countless others have expanded and enriched our understanding of "human capital." With this book, Levesque makes her own unique and substantial contribution to a collaborative exploration of unfulfilled humanity.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breakthrough Creativity Tool, May 26, 2001

By 

Marion Holbrook (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents (Hardcover)

Breakthrough Creativity unleashes the power of the Myers-Briggs tool for the management professional. As a Project Management consultant and coach, my clients face two major challenges and this book addresses both: 1) Building an "instant" team from diverse specialties and departments, and 2) Communicating effectively with a variety of personality types.

Lynne Levesque's book is a practical, easy to use, reference tool. I give my clients a copy of the book to reinforce our discussions - so they can get their teams into the "performing" stage faster, optimize team interactions, and produce creative results.