Category: Books

The Power of Serendipitous Collaborations

The invention of the ice cream cone was an accident born of serendipitous collaboration at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. When an ice cream vendor ran out of dishes, he turned to a neighbouring vendor, Ernest Hamwi, who was selling waffles, for help. Hamwi quickly rolled his warm waffles into cone shapes, allowing the vendor to fill them with scoops of ice cream. The improvised solution... Read More--

Unlock Ingenuity through Play

The Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 – 1907) loved to play cards.  In 1869, he wrote the names and properties of the 63 known elements on individual cards, then arranged and rearranged them like a game of solitaire. He realised that elements with similar properties could be arranged in ‘suits’ ordered by their atomic weights.  He saw patterns that weren’t apparent... Read More--

Wilson Greatbatch – Accidental Inventor

A mistake that ultimately saved millions Wilson Greatbatch’s life reads like a case study in how curiosity, persistence, and a willingness to embrace mistakes can reshape the world. Born in 1919 in Buffalo, New York, he grew up fascinated by radios and electronics, often taking devices apart just to understand how they worked. That early tinkering spirit never left him, and it ultimately... Read More--

Accept Productive Boredom

In today’s busy world, we have developed a strong aversion to boredom. The moment our minds begin to wander, we reach for our phones, check email, or find some other distraction. Yet in doing so, we are systematically destroying one of the most powerful stimuli for unexpected solutions: unstructured mental downtime. The neuroscience is clear. When we’re not actively focused on a task, our... Read More--

Go Wide, Go Narrow…..

In his book, The Creative Shift, Andrew Robertson, Chairman of advertising giant BBDO, gives this succinct guidance for brainstorms and idea meetings: Go Wide, Go Narrow, Go Deep, Go Public. Go Wide. Use divergent thinking to generate a great number of ideas including absurd and silly ideas. No criticism or judgement allowed at this stage. Go Narrow. Sift the ideas down to a shortlist... Read More--

Why the Unexpected is so Important

Think about the last time something genuinely surprised you. Maybe it was a shocking sports upset, a wild plot twist in a film that made you gasp, or maybe just bumping into an old friend in a city hundreds of miles from home. That feeling, the sudden jolt where the world doesn’t quite work the way you thought it should, is a powerful and sometimes disturbing experience. The word “unexpected”... Read More--

The Unconventional lies beyond the Conventional

In his stimulating and provocative book, Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman gives this advice – originality lies on the far side of unoriginality.  The principle is that if you want to be innovative and unconventional it is probably better to serve your time learning a conventional skill before branching out on your own creative route.  Beethoven’s early compositions were strictly in the... Read More--

Expectation can Improve Creativity

In his book, The Expectation Effect, David Robson produces a wealth of research to demonstrate that our expectations have remarkable power to influence the mind and the body. People who believe ageing brings wisdom live longer than those who do not. Lucky charms really can improve the performance of athletes. Even when people know that the pill they are taking is a placebo, their health benefits. A... Read More--

Summaries of the 50 Top Business Books You Should Read

Would you like to have read the best 50 books on sales, marketing, leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and self-improvement?  Just imagine all the insights and lessons you would have learned and how that would have helped you in your business career.  But how much time would it have taken? I have created a new online Udemy course, Summaries of the 50 Top Business Books You Should... Read More--

Best Selling Lateral Thinking Books

Here are my top four best-selling Lateral Thinking Books Lateral Thinking Puzzlers – published by Puzzlewright Press. The classic collection of the top lateral thinking puzzles. First published in 1991 and still in print. It has sold over 600,000 copies and is a firm favourite with puzzle fans young and old. Lateral Thinking for Every Day – published by Kogan Page. My new... Read More--