When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups - Hardcover

Dorothy Leonard; Walter Swap

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875848656 ISBN 13: 9780875848655

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 1999

Synopsis

Where do the best creative ideas come from? Most managers assume that it's the readily identifiable "creative types" that offer the quickest route to out-of-the-box thinking. Yet, say Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, most innovations spring from well-led group interactions. The authors sweep aside conventional thinking about creativity and offer proven strategies for stimulating and directing the group dynamics that lie at the heart of innovative thinking. When Sparks Fly outlines and analyzes each step in the creative process and gives practical suggestions for managing teams. According to Fortune, "The insights in the lively book could turbocharge your team (and maybe even your career)."

About this title

About the Author

Dorothy Leonard is the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration Emerita at Harvard Business School. Walter Swap is the former dean of The Colleges and professor of psychology at Tufts University.

From the Back Cover

"Finally, a book that dispels the notion that creativity is limited to rare individuals working in isolation. When Sparks Fly is a wide-ranging, readable compendium of strategies for stimulating innovative thought in organizations." -Jerry Hirshberg, President, Nissan Design International "In the years that I've been studying creativity, I haven't seen a single business book on the topic that adequately conveys the major findings about group creativity. When Sparks Fly does-and in an engaging, clear, and enjoyable way. Drawing on their combined talents in the domains of psychology, organizational behavior, and technology development, Leonard and Swap have written a comprehensive and unique book." -Teresa Amabile, MBA Class of 1954 Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School "Leonard and Swap marshal an impressive array of evidence that group creativity can be taught, nurtured, managed, and even grown from scratch. With creativity and innovation poised as the next frontier of international business competition, every manager who wants to make a difference should read When Sparks Fly." -David M. Kelley, CEO, IDEO Product Development, and Engineering Design Professor, Stanford University "An invaluable and thoroughly contemporary guide to the practice of business creativity." -John Kao, Author of Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, and CEO, The Idea Factory "People are an organization's only true long-term competitive advantage-an advantage that grows exponentially when group creativity is unleashed. When Sparks Fly shows how to ignite this creativity in real life." -Richard Teerlink, Former Chairman and CEO, Harley-Davidson, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0875848656
• ISBN 13: 9780875848655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 242