Your Next Big Idea
Improve Your Creativity and Problem-Solving
By Samuel Sanders
Do you ever wonder how some people are just naturally creative?
If you’ve ever been jealous of these folks, Samuel Sanders’ Your Next Big Idea should be your next read. In the book, he takes readers through strategies that boost creativity and offer new ways to look at things focusing on innovation, creativity, problem-solving and ideation. These tools can be helpful beyond just your next big business venture, Sanders advises.
“When you see people come up with great business or life ideas, you may chalk it up to luck or natural creativity,” Sanders writes, “[But] there’s a process to coming up with ideas that are beneficial to yourself and society.” (May; Heard Publishing; $15)
Anxiety at Work
8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done
By Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
We all know the feeling: You have so much on your plate and are too afraid to ask for help that you don’t even know where to start. Or you’re sitting in a meeting and have something important to contribute, but you’re too nervous to bring it up.
Work can bring a lot of stress and anxiety to our lives, and often we don’t know how to deal with it. Sometimes we don’t deal with it because we see that others who are stressed are rewarded for overcoming it, write Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. And sometimes, they say, anxious people are needed.
“Leaders need to understand how important the anxious are to the success of any organization,” Gostick and Elton write. “We find society functions because of the worrywarts in it, not despite them.” (May; Harper Business; $30)
How to Change
The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
By Katy Milkman
You’ve read the books, gone to the seminars, found a good mentor or coach, and yet change still seems hard. If that sounds like you, Katy Milkman’s How to Change will likely be pretty relatable.
“Why is it that these tools and techniques designed to spur change so often fail? One answer is that change is hard. But a more useful answer is that you haven’t found the right strategy,” Milkman writes.
Finding success doesn’t occur on a one-size-fits-all path, according to Milkman. You have to find what works for you, and in some cases, an answer tailored to overcoming your challenge or competition.
“We search for solutions that will deliver the quick knockout victory and tend to ignore the specific nature of our adversary,” Milkman writes. “It’s critical to size up your opponent and develop a strategy tailored to overcome the particular challenges you face.” (May; Portfolio; $28)