Books about creativityBooks About Teaching and Creativity!

These books will improve your teaching and personal life by making you a better creative problem solver, and a better communicator.

Here are two books about teaching, eight books about creativity, and six books about selling your creative ideas.

The “selling” books are listed because your creative ideas are not useful until you sell people on how they will make the world a better place, or in other words, use your ideas to “make a dent in the universe,” Steve Jobs.

An idea without an audience is like a tree falling in the forest that no one hears — it did not make a sound, so go make your new ideas famous.

Books About Creativity

Creativity: What Color is Your Teaching?

Creativity: What Color is Your Teaching? (Fall 2022)

by Curtis Panasuk

Learn to use creativity (not art) to engage and involve your students so they will understand.  Instead of being a “sage on the stage” lecturing, you can learn how to be the “guide on the side” leading students to discovery.  Your students will be the ones who understand as in the quote, “Tell me and I forget, but involve me, then I understand.”

A Case Study Approach: Educational Leadership

A Case Study Approach: Educational Leadership

by Sharon Kruse and Julie Gray

This book was selected for a leadership class at the Graduate School of Education at Santa Clara University. The book presents actual leadership cases covering six core areas. It is the perfect guide for group discussions with your school administrators to prepare for these thirty possible situations. Each case is linked to relevant Professional Standards for Educational Leaders.

Secrets of Great Teachers

Secrets of Great Teachers

by Elisheva Zeffren with Perella Perlstein

This book shows you how to abandon rote learning, lose the lecture, and switch to engaging your students on a road of discovery. It shows you how to revive the Socratic method of asking your students guiding questions that will lead them to understanding. It shows you how to ask the questions that will model for the students the inquiry method of learning that will serve students for the rest of their lives.

Book Rerview of The Creative Thinker's Toolkit by Gerard Puccio and The Great Courses

The Creative Thinker’s Toolkit

by Gerard Puccio, Ph.D.

In this creativity course, Dr. Puccio will boost your creative output to the highest level. If you are a CEO, business person, teacher, parent, artist, writer or student this book will show you how to use powerful creative techniques to become a better problem solver, better communicator and a great writer! Learn to unleash your creative potential, and watch the creative ideas come pouring onto your paper.

Book Creative Confidence

Creative Confidence

by David Kelley & Tom Kelley

Creativity can be a matter of life and death, and this book describes how the invention of the Embrace Infant Warmer has saved the lives of tens of thousands of under-weight babies in developing countries. The authors make the point that everyone is creative, and they explain tools and techniques that will enable you to achieve your creative potential, and make the world a better place.

Zing! a book about creativity

Zing!

by Sam Harrison

This book describes five steps for achieving greater creativity in business and life. Each “step” is a chapter with the titles of Explore, Freedom, Pause, Embrace and Life! In the Explore chapter, the author explains the importance of absorbing information with the quote “Feed Your Mind All The Time,” then he tells how to tap that information with the phrase “Judge Not” as you strive for lots of creative ideas, not perfect ideas.

Book Review of Mind Mapping by Kam Knight

Mind Mapping

by Kam Knight

Mind mapping is a tool for making diagrams on paper that will guide your brain to solve problems. You write an a problem at the center of a blank paper, then draw lines radiating out like spokes on a bike wheel. At the end of each line, you write any ideas that comes to mind, then you draw spoke lines from each of those ideas, and write more ideas. Your paper is now covered with ideas, and some of them will solve your problem.

Book Review of Mind Maps For Kids by Tony Buzan

Mind Maps For Kids

by Tony Buzan

This book shows kids (and adults) of all ages how to use a tool called mind mapping to make learning fun and engaging. The immediate benefits apply to all subjects, and include better comprehension, enhanced verbal communication, improved writing, better focus and concentration. The bottom line is that mind mapping will lead to better grades, improved confidence, and it will be a lifetime learning tool.

ThinkerToys Creativity Books

ThinkerToys

by Michael Michalko

This book is in its 2nd edition, and at 394 pages, it is packed full of creative ideas.  It lists techniques that will make you more creative, and it gives real-world examples of how to apply the new tools.  There are plenty of stimulating exercises that will reinforce the creative concepts.  Whatever your passion, from cook to CEO, you can now sharpen your creative skills and reach your true potential.

Whack Creativity Book

A Whack on the Side of the Head

by Roger von Oech

Written in a fun, lighthearted style, this book will knock your creative senses loose.  For more than 30 years, this book has shown how to cast off the mental locks that have been holding back your creative potential.  It shows how to turn off self-imposed filters that have been blocking your creativity, and makes a convincing case why every company needs to hire a court jester if they want to thrive.

Books About Selling Your Ideas

Book The Regis Tourch by Regis McKenna

The Regis Touch

by Regis McKenna

According to Stanford University, Regis McKenna was responsible for launching some of the world’s most important innovations including the first personal computer (Apple Computer), and the first microprocessor (Intel Corporation). This book shows how he make Apple and Intel household names, and it shows how you can do the same with your creative ideas. This marketing classic is available at no charge with a click.

Art of the Start Creativity Book

The Art of the Start

by Guy Kawasaki

Written by the guy who helped make the Macintosh computer a household name, this “Guy” gives you a how-to book on making your own creative ideas into household names.  This book tells you how to take your creative ideas, and run with them to change the world.  You begin at the start, fasten your seat belt, then he shows you how to put the pedal to the metal as you zoom ahead to the finish line of success.

Book Win-Win Selling by Wilson Learning forward by Larry Wilson

Win-Win Selling

by Larry Wilson

Learn how to sell your creative ideas using the four steps of Relating, Discovering, Advocating and Supporting. RELATING is establishing a trusting relationship with your customer, then you can DISCOVER the needs and problems of your customer (and their customer). ADVOCATING is using your ideas to solve their problems (see Eskimos). SUPPORTING is making sure that your customer’s problems stay solved.

Book Review The Marketing Book by Jason McDonald

The Marketing Book

by Jason McDonald, Ph.D.

Take your creative idea, then build it, and they will come, if you read this book, and follow the advice of marketing expert Dr. Jason McDonald. A popular lecturer at Stanford University, Dr. McDonald is a master story teller who will keep you on the edge of your seat with his humorous style of writing. He also has written excellent books about social media and SEO to help you broadcast the message of your creative ideas.

Book Review of How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Win Friends And Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

The book is a classic about the fundamentals of human behavior in one-on-one interactions. It teaches you how to sell your ideas using the technique of active listening which allow you to draw out your customer’s problems, concerns and motives. The book explains how to boost your listening skills to new levels, and how to use what you learn about your customers to lead them to the best solutions of their problems.

Book Review of Soft Sell: The New Art of Selling to Close More Sales by Tim Connor

Soft Sell The New Art of Selling

by Tim Connor

This book will show you how to sell your creative ideas, using its quote, “Your customers will tell you how to sell them, if you just listen.” This approach is called consultative selling in which you partner with your customer to identify and solve their problems. In this approach, 90 percent of your effort is asking questions and listening to learn about your customer’s problems, and 10 percent is spent on advising solutions.