I was very excited to see the work of a good friend, Josh Linkner, debut at number 1 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble today:  Disciplined Dreaming:  A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity. 

Josh’s argument is that the only sustainable business differentiator left is creativity, when anyone with a computer and a credit card can steal your existing business away by copying it in a matter of weeks.  Business cycles have shrunk to no time at all.  Creativity throughout your organization is what will keep your business on top, constantly reinventing products, ways to market, services, and so on.  How do you delight your customers when the competition can do exactly what you can?  Creativity. 

If innovation is important to you, you need to read this book.  But Josh’s twist on the usual insight into creativity and innovation is that creativity is something that needs to happen at all levels of the organization.  Creativity and innovation are not just about the big blockbuster ideas – the iPhones and iPads – but also about everyday thinking:  how to improve a process, how to save time and money in shipping, how to streamline a budgetary cycle.  The difference between front-rank organizations and all the others is how well they keep innovating at all levels – and that takes creativity and Disciplined Dreaming. 

We’ve worked with Josh on his ideas and his speaking, and his presentation is one not to be missed.  You can check him out here.  He’s also a professional jazz guitarist of 25 years’ standing, and the head of a new venture capital fund.  Josh makes creativity seems effortless; read his book to find out how.