Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents - Hardcover

Leveque, Lynne C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0891061533 ISBN 13: 9780891061533

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey, 2001

Synopsis

Howard Gardner's classic book Multiple Intelligences exploded the myth that intelligence can be measured along a single dimension. Now Lynne Levesque shows that creativity, like intelligences, exists in a variety of forms, and demonstrates that high-performance organizations need to make use of creativity in all its dimensions. It takes more than just "thinking outside the box" to build a flexible, adaptive organization that will survive competitive battles, grow and prosper, and provide the environment that attracts and keeps the best talent. On the basis of her research in personality, innovation and creativity, as well as her experience helping top executives achieve their full potential, Levesque describes eight distinct creative talents. People of each talent have a unique way of looking at challenges, collecting data and generating creative solutions. Breakthrough Creativity describes in individual chapters how each talent works, how each contributes to the creative process and how each can improve decision making, team building and strategic planning and thinking. Breakthrough Creativity brings to life the stories and rich experiences of working individuals around the world to help readers discover their own creative talents and use them to further their professional and personal lives.

About this title

About the Author

After completing her Ed.D at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Lynne C. Levesque let her passion for the topics of creativity and leadership drive her departure from her banking career toward independent consulting and adjunct teaching positions in local colleges and universities.  As part of that consulting practice, Lynne published Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talent.

From the Back Cover

Howard Gardner's classic book Multiple Intelligences exploded the myth that intelligence can be measured along a single dimension. Now Lynne Levesque shows that creativity, like intelligences, exists in a variety of forms, and demonstrates that high-performance organizations need to make use of creativity in all its dimensions. It takes more than just "thinking outside the box" to build a flexible, adaptive organization that will survive competitive battles, grow and prosper, and provide the environment that attracts and keeps its best talent. On the basis of her research in personality, innovation and creativity, as well as her experience helping top executives achieve their full potential, Levesque describes eight distinct creative talents. People of each talent have a unique way of looking at challenges, collecting data and generating creative solutions. Breakthrough Creativity describes in individual chapters how each talent works, how each contributes to the creative process and how each can improve decision making, team building and strategic planning and thinking. Breakthrough Creativity brings to life the stories and rich experiences of working individuals around the world to help readers discover their own creative talents and use them to further their professional and personal lives.ContentsForewordPrefaceAbout the AuthorPart 1: Understanding Varieties of Creativity1 How Are You Creative?2 Discovering Your Creative TalentsPart 2: The Eight Creative Talents3 The Adventurer4 The Navigator5 The Explorer6 The Visionary7 The Pilot8 The Inventor9 The Harmonizer10 The PoetPart 3: Managing Yourself and Others to Enhance Creativity11 Strengthening Creativity in Teams12 Developing Your Personal Action PlanEndnotesResourcesBibliographyIndex

From the Inside Flap

Creativity is more than just a process for solving problems. You can be creative in the way you manage people, turn a novel idea into a marketable product or service, participate in a team, resolve conflict, or motivate others to grow and develop. Many talents are needed to seek out new responses, break down outworn mind-sets, and create new landscapes for business today. It takes more than just "thinking outside the box"--the traditional view of what it means to be creative.

BREAKTHROUGH CREATIVITY shows that we cannot meet these new demands with the old perceptions we hold of our own creative abilities. Lynne Levesque reveals that we all have different dimensions of creativity that have been little recognized and less understood. She brings these hidden dimensions to life using the stories and rich experiences of managers and executives around the world to help you discover your creative talents and use them consistently, purposefully, and effectively to achieve top performance at work.

Arguing that we are all creative, just differently gifted, Levesque challenges conventional thinking that creativity belongs to only a select few born with a special set of talents. From Visionaries and Explorers to Pilots and Poets, BREAKTHROUGH CREATIVITY describes eight distinct creative talents and in individual chapters shows how each talent works, how it contributes to the activities of the creative process, and how it can improve decision making, team building, and strategic planning and thinking.

Reviews

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has become quite popular as a team-building tool. Many books have been written on the use of types at work, in relationships, and even in church. Levesque, who has her Ed.D. in creativity, serviceably merges the study of types with the study of creativity. She describes eight creative talentsAfour of which are most concerned with data-collecting and four of which are most concerned with decision-making. Each MBTI type possesses a dominant creative talent and an auxiliary talent. For each type, the author outlines the dominant features and how creativity can be maximized or inhibited. Finally, Levesque considers ways of effectively using types in business settings. Given the current popularity of type-talk, public libraries should consider purchasing.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0891061533
• ISBN 13: 9780891061533
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228