8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lost your creativity? You will find it here!, August 23, 2000
This review is from: Lessons from the Sandbox: Using the 13 Gifts of Childhood To Rediscover the Keys to Business Success (Hardcover)
Alan Gregerman has struck a forgotten place, way back in childhood, when we used to have a lot of fun with whatever we did. In his book, Lessons form the Sandbox, he reminds us of what is important in life and work; tapping into our least used resource, our creative mind. He also reminds us that, tragically, we begin to loose our creativity when we are very young, bombarded with structure and other peoples ideas of what is important, like following all the rules . What can companies learn from the heads of small children? Plenty! Lessons from the Sandbox is a wonderful ride through the new world of business and an absolute gold mine of fresh ideas and straightforward wisdom about what it takes to create a greater sense of energy and excitement for customers, employees, and partners. This is one of the few business books I've read that not only challenges you to use more of your brain, but delivers practical guidance for improving the performance of your people and your balance sheet. Pick any chapter and be prepared to laugh, smile, dream a little, and even re-live your own childhood. Then roll up your sleeves and get to work putting his great ideas to the test. Want to learn how to focus, come up with better ideas, asking the right questions, or be more enthusiastic? It's all here and impossible to put down.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Lesson for Everyone, July 17, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Lessons from the Sandbox: Using the 13 Gifts of Childhood To Rediscover the Keys to Business Success (Hardcover)
This book takes a refreshing look at life, redefining the mundaneness of business-as-usual. Many of us have forgotten the power of imagination and curiosity we have as children. This book helps working adults use simplicity as a starting point in their own work. Not only is it okay to ask simple questions such as "how?" or "why?", but healthy. The overlap between parenthood and business inspires rejuvenating energy if we take the time to look at the gifts of childhood as Dr. Gregerman does.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lessons from the Sandbox, March 15, 2001
This review is from: Lessons from the Sandbox: Using the 13 Gifts of Childhood To Rediscover the Keys to Business Success (Hardcover)
This is a truly inspiring book on creativity. Thank God it is not a rehash of all the other books on bringing innovation into the work world. It doesn't offer insipid phrases like, "out-of-the-box thinking," or, "doing more with less." Nor does it contain those warn out "gimmicks" like the connect the nine dots with four straight lines routine. What it does offer, is wisdom -- our own!
Dr. Gregerman's prose, metaphors, and humor inspires us to rediscover and apply our wisdom in creativity in solving our thorniest organizational challenges. He takes us through the minds and spirit of young children in helping us understand and remember how minds that are not encumbered by past experience forge new possibilities through imagination.
As I was reading Lessons from the Sandbox, I was constantly reminded of the importance of (unencumbered) imagination, a critical rule for Albert Einstein. Einstein wrote, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination." In Dr. Gregerman's mind, adults have created "boxes" through the filters they have acquired through both experience and their current surroundings. Children are not encumbered with these filters, and thus we can learn from their outlook on how the world works. It has been said that children enter schools as question marks and wonder, and leave as periods and right answer machines. Lessons from the Sandbox clearly underscore this insight.
Dr. Gregerman has organized his book using thirteen "gifts" of childhood to re-ignite the creative sprit for people in the business world. These lessons range from the gifts of focus, urgency, wonder, questioning, and participation.
I have read many business books on creativity, and none have sparked my imagination as Lessons from the Sandbox. It has brought me laughter, recaptured the lessons I learned from my own childhood, and I have profited from the ideas I have already generated as a result of this gem of a book. - Bob Bookman, President, Team Productivity Programs, Inc.
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