Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Key to Boosting Creative Productivity: A Review of Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky


"Ideas are worthless if you can't make them happen." Creatives tend to love the idea side of creativity to the neglect of the execution side. As a creative, I understand the energy that can be drawn from coming up with multiple great ideas, yet having those ideas never leave the comfort of my mind to interface with the real world. After all, when our time begins to be consumed with execution of our ideas, where does that leave room for coming up with new ideas? So we create, create, create all inside of our minds, but no one gets to experience what we've created because it still lives as merely an idea.

What if Steve Jobs hadn't executed on his ideas? Or Henry Ford? Or J.K. Rowling? They all had great ideas, but, more importantly, they made their ideas happen.

Scott Belsky is a creative who understands the need for creative people to develop new habits of acting on their great ideas. His book MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN outlines an effective process for creatives to put flesh onto their ideas. The book focuses on harnessing the areas of organization, collaboration, and taking the lead. The book encourages killing ideas and spending more time acting on ideas. A team approach to creativity helps to refine our ideas to make them better.

Easily the most valuable part of this book is the section on organization where Belsky describes the Action Method, a productivity strategy that would be useful to anyone. This section alone would help me to put more flesh on my ideas. The section on self leadership is equally valuable to making ideas happen.

This book is without question one of the most practical books I've come across. This book is also great in combination with Todd Henry's THE ACCIDENTAL CREATIVE to boost creative productivity for those who struggle with it.

I received this book for free for review from Portfolio

What's an idea that you really want to make happen right now?

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