Get Houdini on me will you?

The Houdini Solution: Put Creativity and Innovation to Work by Thinking INSIDE THE BOX by Ernie Schenck. Schenck is an ad guy, creative director type.

 

Basic Premise: We all live inside some box and creativity is really driven by thinking within constraints.

 

I buy that. I think we only get creative when we have constraints like cost, space, time and so on. That’s when creativity kicks in to produce novel and innovative solutions.

 

But the book is definitely a skim until you get to chapter 10. Up until that it is mostly stories you have heard before and not much practicality. Chapter 10 is worth the price of this paperback.

 

In that Chapter you have 50 creative exercises to drive creative thinking.

 

I have read a bunch of creativity books over the past 20 years but this was the best capture of 50 ideas in one place. So, I will keep the book (after sharing it with my colleagues) just for that list.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Houdini-Solution-Ernie-Schenck/dp/007146204X

Any other creativity books you would recommend?

 

Dave Travis is Managing Director of Leadership Network.