What a Great Idea! 2.0: Unlocking Your Creativity in Business and in Life

With over 250,000 copies sold and translations in five languages, What a Great Idea! 2.0 is a proven guide to unlocking creativity. In this fully updated edition, author Chic Thompson draws on his entrepreneurial successes working with leading innovative companies like Disney and W.L. Gore.
Yoshiro Nakamatsu, inventor of the CD, Floppy Disk, and digital watch, described Chic as "a creative genius." In 2001, Harvard Business School released a case study on Thompson's career.
Whether you're looking to develop new products, overcome bureaucratic hurdles, or inject more creativity into your life, What a Great Idea! 2.0 provides the tools and wisdom you need.

1. Cultivate an idea-friendly mindset.
2. Defuse “Yes, BUT” thinking with “Yes, AND” to empower ideation.
3. Overcome mental blocks like gaslighting yourself, catastrophizing, and negative self-talk.
4. Generate ideas others miss by reframing problems and finding hidden opportunities.
5. Ask “What if?” questions to spark connections and visualize with analogies.
6. Create “Smash-ups” by combining, unlike concepts.
7. Think in opposites and extremes outside your comfort zone.
8. Let your ideas flow through DIY brainstorming.
9. Learn techniques for evaluating, prioritizing, and de-risking concepts through quick prototyping and smart pivoting.
10. Master compelling narrative and visual pitches.
11. Sustain your creative capacity through brain exercises and overcoming mental blocks.
12. Absorb wisdom from illuminating interviews like Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu, the “Edison of Japan.”

Unlock your creative potential with What a Great Idea! 2.0. Develop the skills to see what others don't, make connections where none existed, and bring imaginative ideas to life.

Chic Thompson is the president of Creative Management Group, a Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Business School and adjunct faculty at The YPO University (Young Presidents Organization), the Brookings Institution and the Federal Executive Institute. In 2001, Harvard Business School released a case study on the speaking career of Chic Thompson entitled What a Great Idea! Chic received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Delaware and his Masters in Education from the University of Virginia. He then worked in new product development and marketing for W.L. Gore and Associates (Gore-Tex), Johnson & Johnson and Walt Disney. Chic has given over 3500 presentations and has teamed up with talent ranging from Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey to Cirque du Soleil and Second City Improv.