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The Power of Innovative Thinking: Let New Ideas Lead to Your Success

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By taking the time to think about the way you think, you can actually become a better, or at least more effective, thinker. That's the main premise of Jim Wheeler's brief book, which despite being somewhat simplistic, still manages to convey some valuable insights into thinking patterns. Readers who are new to the study of mental processes will be well pleased with Wheeler's work, which is written in a non-intimidating, conversational tone. He takes a methodical approach in examining human thought and offers clear suggestions as to how to change your thinking habits to encourage positive results. We [...] recommend this book to human resources executives, who will find its concepts helpful in training employees, forming teams and identifying potential leaders, and to any executive or student looking for a competitive edge.

A neat book. All the decisions we make are based on some amount of thinking, whether it is in work or personal lives. It's so natural that many of us don't even reflect on what factors influence our thinking and how we can actually try to improvise it. This book is not a weighty, ponderous academic or psychological or even witty or intruging read. It's more of a commonsense, light weight read with enough material to make it intresting and useful to take away atleast something about the different ways we can think through solutions. For instance, the author categorizes thinking into four different slots - Strategic Thinking (this is the one we use when we make plans for the future; this is the one which CEO's are supposed to put on when charting out strategies for their orgs); Power thinking (this is the one we use to surmount obstacles; It needs positive mindset); Creative thinking (when we try to do divergent thinking on the various options for solving a problem; or working on a task; creative is not just related to artsy areas); Analytical thinking (the one we use when we get to make decisions; i.e pick up from choices). The author then elaborates on the ways to improve on these four thinking styles.

Since thinking is so ingrained and wired into our subconsciousness, it is not necessarily easy to rewire it easily. But, atleast it is useful to reflect on the ways we think and work incrementaly to improve upon it to be more effective.

You can expect this book to be an easy read. Interactive with easy to remember material. You may find a couple of watered down clichés to be a bit banal.

Chapter IX is very fruitful. The entire theme of the book is summarized in this section with a few bonus nuggets.

As the author states in this chapter:

"When you finish reading "The Power of Innovative Thinking",don't expect a miracle, your thinking skills will not magically improve - unless you want them to! You are in control of the way you think.

"Powerful thinking skills put you in control of situations instead of allowing situations to control you. Take the time to think, and after reading this book, take the time to think about thinking. You will stay in control".

In my judgment I don't believe this is a book you would keep on your bookshelf for frequent re-reads, however, it will make a useful dressing to plug any case of hemorrhaging you experience during downtime.