What If?: How to Start a Creative Revolution at Work

Rating:
Summary: Sound advice in an easy to read form but nothing new
Review: A book on creativity in business lives in a very crowded space these days and this one doesn't really offer much to make it stand out from the crowd. Despite being a quick and easy read, it offers little more than motherhood statements about the importance of developing creativity skills. Anyone with the most basic experience in creativity and innovation will recognise the basic concepts, while someone who is new to the area will be patently uncomfortable with the tone and language used in the book.

The book is peppered with jargon that only serves to diminish its' credibility, eg "greenhousing", which translates to "suspend judgement and build on ideas, even if they seem crazy at the time". It creates the impression that the authors have attempted to hide their lack of originality behind a veneer of jargon.

That said, the advice that's in here is sound enough and the case studies make interesting reading, although they tend to focus on big business (despite the author's claims that this is a book for anyone). Overall, this reads like a self-promotional marketing exercise for the author's design agency. Not a handbook I would recommend. A book on creativity in business lives in a very crowded space these days and this one doesn't really offer much to make it stand out from the crowd. Despite being a quick and easy read, it offers little more than motherhood statements about the importance of developing creativity skills. Anyone with the most basic experience in creativity and innovation will recognise the basic concepts, while someone who is new to the area will be patently uncomfortable with the tone and language used in the book.

The book is peppered with jargon that only serves to diminish its' credibility, eg "greenhousing", which translates to "suspend judgement and build on ideas, even if they seem crazy at the time". It's as if the author has substituted originality for a veneer of jargon.

That said, the advice that's in here is sound enough and the case studies make interesting reading, although they tend to focus on big business (despite the author's claims that this is a book for anyone). Overall, this reads like a self-promotional marketing exercise for the author's design agency. Not a handbook I would recommend.