Category Archives: Creativity Books

301 Ways to Have Fun at Work

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301 Ways to Have Fun at Work301 Ways to Have Fun at Work
by Dave Hemsath and Leslie Yerkes

It’s quite obvious that any employee would like to have more fun at work. However, it’s a little more of a challenge to convince management that creating a fun atmosphere in the workplace can increase productivity and morale while having a positive effect on the bottom line. In this fun-filled book, the authors will tell you how to do just that.

It’s one thing to have someone offer you their suggestions for improvement. In this book, however, the authors share examples from hundreds of companies that have found a wide variety of methods for focusing on fun within the work environment. They’ve developed Fun Icons which lead you through the book by identifying fun facts, fun resources, and fun quotes. They have included their twelve-step method to fun which they suggest you follow by implementing one step a month for a year.

They also offer a list of suggested readings—books they highly recommend for your reading pleasure and to aid you in your pursuit of fun at work.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 5.)

A Whack on the Side of the Head

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A Whack on the Side of the HeadA Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative
by Roger von Oech

Although first published in the early ’80s, this masterpiece has been enhanced and revised three times to provide cutting-edge approaches to becoming more creative in both your business and personal lives. It’s back—and better than ever—with more bright ideas and expanding exercises to bring its famous innovation boosters to a new generation.

Identifying the fundamentals of creative thinking, this book evolves around the ten mental locks that prevent you from being more creative. More importantly, you’ll learn how to unlock each as von Oech devotes an entire chapter to each of the ten while providing various exercises in support of his explanations.

Over the last two decades, the author has conducted a number of creativity workshops working with imaginative people in a variety of industries and disciplines. This book contains stories, anecdotes, insights, and ideas that evolved from those workshops.

This book should be read in combination with A Kick in the Seat of the Pants … and preferably read first. Just a suggestion. This is a book you’ll refer to often after your initial exposure.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 5.)

Heads, You Win!

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Heads You WinHeads, You Win!: How the Best Companies Think-and How You Can Use Their Examples to Develop Critical Thinking Within Your Own Organization
by Quinn Spitzer and Roe Evans

Remember New Coke, The Walt Disney Company’s aborted theme park near the Manassas battlefield or AT&T’s acquisition of the NCR Corp? Were these merely the mistakes of individual decision makers, or do they represent larger, organizational deficiencies in critical thinking? How confident are you in the collective brainpower of your organization?

The most crucial task facing any business leader in today’s brutally competitive economy is to sharpen his or hers organization’s ability to effectively solve problems, make decisions, and cut through the information clutter. In this book, Kepner-Tregoe’s CEO Quinn Spitzer, and executive Ron Evans cite the experiences and share the advice of presidents and CEOs of some of the world’s most innovative companies—organizations like Johnson and Johnson, Chrysler Corp., British Airways, and Harley Davidson, Inc.—which are successful because they capitalize on the brainpower of every employee.

Filled with practical tips and techniques and lightened with amusing real-life anecdotes, this book is an indispensable tool for sorting through the complexities of running a business today and identifying the essential skills that determine a company’s success.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 5.)

The Circle of Innovation

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The Circle of InnovationThe Circle of Innovation: You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness
by Tom Peters

In 1982, Tom Peters introduced himself to the business world by co-authoring one of the most influential management books of all time: In Search of Excellence. Now, through his in-your-face style, bold graphics, astounding facts and figures, and quotes whose sources range from Martha Stewart to Bill Gates, Peters introduces his seventh work, The Circle of Innovation. In this offering, he blows the lid off accepted management styles and opens our eyes to new ways of envisioning the challenges of today’s world. 

Whether you manage a six-person department or a 60,000-body behemoth, this book empowers you to transform your organization, your career, and yourself. Inspiring and timely, this blueprint for success is pure Peters—a handbook as energetic as it is profound. Tom provides a practical guide that will teach you how to reverse the rising tide of product and service commoditization and foster uniqueness, capitalize on the skyrocketing purchasing power of women, and convert sluggish staff into vital centers of intellectual capital, creativity, and innovation. 

Tom Peters has become a recognized leading voice in management theory, urging large and small companies to thrive on chaos. This book is certainly a step in that direction.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 4.)

The Power of Focus

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The Power of FocusThe Power of Focus: What the Worlds Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret of Financial Freedom and Success
by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Lew Hewitt

The best-selling authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series join forces to show you how to hit your business, personal, and financial targets with absolute certainty.

Whether they are corporate professionals, budding entrepreneurs, or home-business owners, most people are looking to achieve more in less time, while earning enough money to live comfortably. This book reveals the proven techniques thousands of people have used to attain all of the money they wanted while living healthy, happy, and balanced lives. This book is a practical, no-nonsense guide that shows readers how to reach their business, personal, and financial goals without getting burned out in the process.

Discover the three most important fundamentals for consistent success and ten powerful focusing principles as you enjoy numerous anecdotes and inspiring stories that reinforce each principle.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 4.)

Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers

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sacred-cows-make-the-best-burgersSacred Cows Make the Best Burgers: Developing Change-Ready People and Organizations
by Robert Kriegel and David Brandt

Tackling one of the most important business issues of today, the authors demonstrate why the latest panaceas—re-engineering, virtual teams, outsourcing, reinventing, restructuring, downsizing—almost always prove unsuccessful. They expose how these buzzword programs overlook the most fundamental element of all business: people. After all, people are the gatekeepers of change, with the power to breathe life into a new program or kill it. If they’re excited and positive, it’s open sesame; if they’re resistant, they’ll slam the door in your face.

Outmoded beliefs, practices, and processes … why do so many business people cling to their established ways as if their lives depended on them? The very things they refuse to give up, the sacred cows of the business world, are the lodestones that will kill their careers and their companies’ path to success? In this insightful and unique guide, the authors reveal why people hold on to the old and how to inspire them to bring on the new—to the point where they’re enthusiastically turning even their favorite sacred cows into burgers. This entertaining book offers concrete strategies to help you identify sacred cows, round them up, and put them out to pasture. Getting to the heart of the matter, Kriegel and Brandt show you how to coach yourself and others to create Change-Ready people.

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 2.)

1001 Ways to Energize Employees

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1001-ways-to-energize-employees1001 Ways to Energize Employees
by Bob Nelson

Take the brakes off your business. From management specialist and author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees comes a practical handbook full of ideas for increasing employee involvement and enthusiasm—the key to an organization’s success. Weaving together case studies, examples, suggestions, and quotes from hundreds of American’s most energized businesses and business leaders, this book is a how-to for getting not just the most—but the best—from everyone in the organization.

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 1.)

1001 Ways to Reward Employees

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1001-ways-to-reward-employees1001 Ways to Reward Employees
by Bob Nelson

Whether you manage a department, oversee a division, lead a company or run a family business with just only one employee, there’s an essential principle to follow that’s often overlooked: What most motivates the people who work for you is recognition.

A chock-full guide to rewards of every conceivable type for every conceivable situation, this book polls the whole of the American business community, finding innovative ideas in every corner; and from the spontaneous gesture of praise to formal company-wide programs, it presents hundreds of ways to say thank you to the people who truly deserve it.

This book is fantastic for every well-intentioned manager or frustrated employee. It makes a compelling case that recognition, rewards and positive reinforcement all do work and that they can work for you.

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 1.)

Who Moved My Cheese?

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Who Moved My Cheese?Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Spencer Johnson is an internationally-known bestselling author who originated and co-authored The One-Minute Manager as well as The One-Minute $ales Person, One-Minute Mother, One-Minute Father, One-Minute Teacher and One Minute For Yourself.

Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a “Maze” and look for “Cheese” to nourish them and make them happy.

“Cheese” is a metaphor for what you want to have in life—whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health or spiritual peace of mind.

And the “Maze” is where you look for what you want—the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in. In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. When you come to see “The Hand-writing On The Wall,” you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success in your work and in your life.

Written for all ages, the story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime!

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 1.)