Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity

Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity

by Josh Linkner
Released February 2011
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9780470922224

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Book description

A 5-part process that will transform your organization — or your career — into a non-stop creativity juggernaut

We live in an era when business cycles are measured in months, not years. The only way to sustain long term innovation and growth is through creativity-at all levels of an organization. Disciplined Dreaming shows you how to create profitable new ideas, empower all your employees to be creative, and sustain your competitive advantage over the long term. Linkner distills his years of experience in business and jazz — as well as hundreds of interviews with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and artists — into a 5-step process that will make creativity easy for you and your organization. The methodology is simple, backed by proven results.

  • Empowers individuals, teams, and organizations to meet creative challenges posed by the marketplace

  • Turns the mystery of creativity into a simple-to-use process

  • Shows how creativity can be used for everything from innovative, game-shifting breakthroughs to incremental advances and daily improvements to business processes

  • Offers dozens of practical exercises, thought-starters, workouts to grow "creative muscles," and case studies

Disciplined Dreaming shows even the stuffiest corporate bureaucracies how to cultivate creativity in order to become more competitive in today's shifting marketplace.

#8New York Times Bestseller (Hardcover Business)

#2Wall Street Journal Bestseller (Hardcover Business)

#9Wall Street Journal Bestseller (Hardcover Nonfiction)

#9Washington Post Bestseller (Nonfiction Hardcover)

#1USA Today Bestseller (Money)

#10Publishers Weekly Bestseller (Nonfiction)

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Preface
  3. Introduction
    1. Why You Need to Care About Creativity
    2. What to Expect from Disciplined Dreaming
  4. 1. The Case for Creativity
    1. 1.1. The Risky Business of Playing It Safe
    2. 1.2. How Will Creativity Rewrite Your Future?
      1. 1.2.1. Succeeding Through Improvisation and Risk-Taking
      2. 1.2.2. Thriving in an Adapt-or-Die Marketplace
      3. 1.2.3. Focusing Bets on the Future
    3. 1.3. Are You Ready to Become a Disruptive Force of Change?
  5. 2. Disciplined Dreaming: Your System for Creativity
    1. 2.1. Disciplined Dreaming at a Glance
      1. 2.1.1. step 1: Ask
      2. 2.1.2. Step 2: Prepare
      3. 2.1.3. Step 3: Discover
      4. 2.1.4. Step 4: Ignite
      5. 2.1.5. Step 5: Launch
    2. 2.2. Getting the Most from Disciplined Dreaming
      1. 2.2.1. Exploding Limited Definitions of Creativity
      2. 2.2.2. Developing Your Creativity DNA
      3. 2.2.3. Developing Creative Muscle
      4. 2.2.4. Expanding Your Creative Vision
    3. 2.3. Finding a Home in the Messy Process of Creativity
  6. I. ASK
    1. 3. Defining the Creativity Challenge
      1. 3.1. Building the Creativity Brief
        1. 3.1.1. Section II: Defining the Creativity Challenge
        2. 3.1.2. Section III: Situation Analysis
        3. 3.1.3. Section IV: The Resistance
        4. 3.1.4. Section V: Target Audience(s)
        5. 3.1.5. Section VI: Communication Strategy
        6. 3.1.6. Section VII: Competition
        7. 3.1.7. Section VIII: Project Plan
        8. 3.1.8. Section IX: Key Metrics
      2. 3.2. Bringing Discipline to Your Dreams Through Vision, Clarity, and Action
    2. 4. Driving Curiosity and Awareness
      1. 4.1. Asking the Three Magic Questions
      2. 4.2. Making Meatloaf
      3. 4.3. Opening Your Beginner's Mind
        1. 4.3.1. The Big Box
        2. 4.3.2. The Five Whys
        3. 4.3.3. Zoom!
        4. 4.3.4. Tuning In
        5. 4.3.5. The Outsider
        6. 4.3.6. The Periscope
      4. 4.4. Developing the Five Skills of Master Innovators
      5. 4.5. Avoiding the Pike Syndrome and the Brain Trap
      6. 4.6. Raising Awareness Throughout the Organization
  7. II. PREPARE
    1. 5. Gaining the Keys to a Creative Mind and Culture
      1. 5.1. Preparing Your Mind for the Creative Process
        1. 5.1.1. Warming Up: The Top Ten Moves
        2. 5.1.2. Recognizing Creativity Killers
      2. 5.2. Building Creative Cultures
        1. 5.2.1. Establishing—and Living—Core Values
        2. 5.2.2. Celebrating Creativity and Connectedness
        3. 5.2.3. Following the Seven Rules of Creative Cultures
      3. 5.3. Connecting Your Culture to the Future
    2. 6. Preparing Your Environment to Promote Creative Passion
      1. 6.1. Breaking out of the Beige Cube Farm
      2. 6.2. Shaking Things Up
      3. 6.3. Spending Time Surrounded by Your Challenge
      4. 6.4. Taking It Outside: The Off-Site
      5. 6.5. Finding the Right Triggers and Symbols
  8. III. DISCOVER
    1. 7. Discovering the Ways of Creativity
      1. 7.1. Looking Through a Different Lens
      2. 7.2. Capitalizing on Inflection Points
      3. 7.3. Discovering New Potential in a Borrowed Idea
      4. 7.4. Turning a Problem Upside Down
      5. 7.5. Putting Patterns to Use
  9. IV. IGNITE
    1. 8. Generating Creative Sparks
      1. 8.1. Protecting Those First, Fragile Sparks
      2. 8.2. Twelve Ways to Strike Sparks of Creativity
        1. 8.2.1. Imbizo Groups
        2. 8.2.2. The Hot Potato
        3. 8.2.3. The Start Ain't Always the Start
        4. 8.2.4. The Wrong Answer
        5. 8.2.5. Stick It to the Man
        6. 8.2.6. Get Stimulated
        7. 8.2.7. The Time Capsule
        8. 8.2.8. The Hemingway Bridge
        9. 8.2.9. Personas
        10. 8.2.10. Provocation
        11. 8.2.11. Dagnabbits
        12. 8.2.12. TDWR (Think, Doodle, Write, Repeat)
      3. 8.3. Secrets of the Jazz Masters
        1. 8.3.1. Trading Fours
        2. 8.3.2. Building Contrast
        3. 8.3.3. Mixing It Up
        4. 8.3.4. Leaning on the Masters
        5. 8.3.5. Substituting a Single Element
      4. 8.4. Supporting the Combo
    2. 9. Igniting the Sparks of Creativity: The Eight Most Powerful Techniques
      1. 9.1. The Eight Commandments of Ideation
      2. 9.2. Ignite the Sparks!
        1. 9.2.1. EdgeStorming
        2. 9.2.2. The Long List
        3. 9.2.3. RoleStorming
        4. 9.2.4. SCAMPER
        5. 9.2.5. The Opposite
        6. 9.2.6. The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
        7. 9.2.7. The Blindfold
        8. 9.2.8. Brain Writing
      3. 9.3. Are You Ready for Lift-Off?
  10. V. LAUNCH
    1. 10. Bringing Your Ideas to Life: The Launch
      1. 10.1. Selecting Your Best Ideas
        1. 10.1.1. Scoring Your Ideas: The Matrix
        2. 10.1.2. The Poker Chip Method
        3. 10.1.3. Trial by Jury
        4. 10.1.4. Value Mapping
        5. 10.1.5. The Creativity Scorecard
      2. 10.2. Testing Your Selections
        1. 10.2.1. Prototyping
        2. 10.2.2. Mach 10 Innovation
      3. 10.3. Setting Your Metrics: Measurement
      4. 10.4. Building Your Action Plan
      5. 10.5. Taking Care of Business
    2. EPILOGUE: The Power of One
    3. A. The Top Six Creativity Myths (and Truths)
    4. B. Additional Warm-Up Exercises to Jump-Start Creativity
    5. C. Notes
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity
  • Author(s): Josh Linkner
  • Release date: February 2011
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9780470922224