Book Review - Creative Change
How many times have you offered creative solutions to a problem, only to have them turned down and other, less creative solutions, which might not fully deal with the issue, used instead?
If that has happened to you, then you might want to read Jennifer Mueller’s book Creative Change.
The real problem, Jennifer suggests, is actually people's fear of uncertainty and risk.
We can all understand that if you are the decision maker and you have to make the best decision for your company, you want to know as many facts as possible, but often with creative ideas, which have never been tried before, there will be a lot of unknowns. While your idea might be amazing and you are positive it will make your company millions, because you cannot prove this, your decision maker is likely to turn you down.
So what can you do?
Jennifer carefully explained exactly why a decision maker will say no, why there is more to it than just the risk involved, and then goes on to explain what you can do to help them see your idea in a more positive light.
Some of her suggestions mean disrupting not just how people in your company think but also how you think, but if you really want your idea to succeed this is probably a really good starting point.
However, it is not just the people with ideas who need to read this book, but the decision makers themselves, so they can truly understand that there are creative ideas out there, they just need to look at them in a different way.
This was an interesting book and gave me a much better understanding of how I can present my work to help others not just understand it better, but also understand the real risks involved so they can make better decisions.