The Creativity Leap

This award-winning book "provides a fresh primer on how to cultivate creativity in the workplace" (Nir Eyal, New York Times–bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable).

Too many people associate creativity solely with the arts, even though to be an incredible scientist, engineer, or entrepreneur requires immense creativity. And it's the key to developing breakthrough products and services. Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist with a background in cultural anthropology, fashion, and service design, says that in the fourth industrial revolution a creativity leap is needed to bridge the gap that exists between the churn of work and the highly sought-after prize called innovation.

Nixon says that since humans are hardwired to be creative, it is a competency anyone can develop. She shows that it balances wonder (awe, audacity, and curiosity) with rigor (discipline, skill-building, and attention to detail), and that inquiry, improvisation, and intuition are the key practices that increase those capacities.

Drawing on interviews with fifty-six people from diverse backgrounds—farming, law, plumbing, architecture, perfumery, medicine, education, technology, and more—she offers illuminating examples of how creativity manifests in every kind of work.

Combining creativity tools and techniques with real-world stories of innovative people and businesses, this book is an invitation to unleash the innate creativity that lies within each of us.

Honorable Mention in the 2021 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award.

2020 Porchlight Business Book of the Year Awards winner in the Creativity & Innovation category.

"Fascinating and insightful." -Alan Weiss, PhD, President of Summit Consulting Group and author of Fearless Leadership "Practical, probing and essential." —Beth Comstock, author of Imagine it Forward and former Vice Chair, GE