Customer Reviews

The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in You and Your Team

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Obviously, innovation, creativity and new ideas are important in business. Author Paul Sloane offers a number of techniques and practices to encourage the generation and development of new ideas. He says little startlingly new, but he offers leaders a handy, practical guide to the well-trodden paths of brainstorming, tolerance of failure and leadership by example. The most enjoyable part of the book is the long list of utterly dunderheaded quotations from experts in various fields declaring that such innovations as submarines, nuclear power, railroads and steamships are impossible. We recommend this book because it will encourage you to question your assumptions and to look for places where conventional wisdom is probably wrong - there's certainly no harm, and a great deal of good, in that.

Quite by chance, I read The Leader's Guide To Lateral Thinking by Paul Sloane over the weekend. What stood out in that book for me is - you won't find anything new if you look hard in the same direction.

I thought the examples used in it were quite powerful, since I still remember them. One is the fish bowl example (separating the small fish from the one large fish that eats them with a glass partition) - that the brain becomes complacent after a while and stops questioning. The other one was that of Henry Ford - who fired a senior manager who salted his soup before tasting it. Ooh ! That was apparently because he "prejudged situations" and Ford didn't want someone like that. IMHO, it was very unfair - I might have also probably salted my soup, if I was familiar with the restaurant :-) but then, run the risk of being fired by someone like Ford!

There was also plenty of quotes from people that made me stop and think how the world has evolved and living has become more comfortable, just by the sheer brilliance of the human brain!

That book put me (back) on a higher frequency and I am all excited about reading books again. And i'd heartily recommend this as a reading for anyone, not just for use in workplace, but also for everyday situations.

This is a delightfully fresh approach to a very well-worn subject: how to enable innovation and creativity in business. Paul Sloane sets out the vital importance of innovation in modern business, using a very wide range of stimulating examples and case studies. He also offers a number of very practical methods businesses can use to encourage and foster a climate of innovation. You won't find all the techniques useful, but there's such a broad spread there's bound to be a few which work for any particular business.

The writing is intelligent but very readable, so it works on two levels: as a light, thought-provoking read and as a practical manual for taking action with a particular business.

In Chapter 11, Paul Sloane remarks that 'many of the rules that apply in businesses were set in earlier times and have endured by force of habit'. The main objective of the book is to give the reader tools and tips for becoming a lateral leader and empowering colleagues to challenge these rules, often by thinking the apparently unthinkable. This objective is 100% achieved.

Each Chapter ends with a lateral thinking puzzle to illustrate the importance of 'thinking outside the box' when trying to solve a problem creatively, and with a number of Exercises with titles like Brainstorming, Reverse the Problem and What If?

Perhaps the best examples of the personal habits to be overcome in building a lateral thinking team are the tendency to jump to conclusions, impatience to offer solutions, and reluctance to listen properly to other people's ideas.

The author successfuly shows us how to cast aside the blinkers and find the best answers to even the most intractable problems.

At times when management literature abounds with dos and donts based on conventional wisdom, here is a powerful defender of the values of unconventional wisdom. Paul Sloane makes a strong case for innovation and lateral thinking in business, where doing new, different things in new, different ways is more important than doing the same things more efficiently. The book is rich with examples from the real world where creative thinking and action have led to astonishing successes (even after numerous failed attempts)and examples where conservatism and conventional thinking have led to obsolescence or catastrophe. The author argues that creative skills can and should be developed at the individual level, the team level and the company level and the book abounds with tips and techniques to help people and organizations expand their potential for innovation. Lateral thinking puzzles placed at the end of each chapter, help reinforce the fact that we all think "in boxes" with assumptions and preconceptions that do not always correspond to reality. An excellent book.

As a leader within your organization, how can you encourage and empower your employees to take a creative, entrepreneurial approach to exploit new opportunities? Paul Sloane's new book provides some valuable, practical insights that can help you to create a more innovative culture in your organization. Sloane does a marvelous job of explaining how to unlock your employees' creative potential, using lateral leadership skills and strategies. His lively and energetic writing style is both informative and inspiring, while his advice is based on the best practices of some of the world's most successful and innovative organizations.

If you want to learn how to think outside the box and open your mind to creativity this is a great book.

This book is short, sweet, and to the point. It serves as an easy read to introduce a variety of individuals with different backgrounds, disciplines, and responsibilities, to key aspects of innovation. Being approachable, the topic is both interesting and appealing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this myself and have since asked many people to read it to get them up to speed with innovation.