“A paradigm shifter and a deeply enriching, impactful book. Get ready to awaken your creative genius!”
– San Francisco Book Review
“An intriguing, transformational toolkit for individual empowerment and teamwork.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“Impressively well written, organized and presented. Of special value to readers with an interest in Business Management & Leadership, Workplace Culture, and Self-Improvement.”
– Midwest Book Review
In our era of rapid change and technological disruption, we’re being called on to innovate like never before. But innovation doesn’t just happen. It’s the result of one of the most powerful and sustainable forces available to us: creativity.
If you want innovation, you must activate creativity. And in the new world of work, going it alone won’t work any longer. We have to get Creative Together.
With real-life stories, research-backed insights, and powerful reflection questions that open you to new possibilities, you’ll rewrite the story of who you are as a creator.
Then, you will learn to adventure together with others—bringing your whole, creative self into a new, more conscious and proactive way of working together.
Most of us are living in an old story of what creativity is and who we are as creators. The old story says that creativity is something elitist—a kind of unique “giftedness.” It tells us that a few of us are gifted and the rest of us are not. But creativity is not an ability, as most of us believe. It’s a potential that every one of us has been gifted.
Greet the unknown with passion.
Ignite your creative potential.
Flex your Superpowers.
Thrive in co-creation.
Experiment in the Swamp.
Dare to dream big.
Steven has unpacked and elucidated a fascinating and thorough exploration of perspectives and practices of the subtleties of how we all really get things done and could potentially do that better—especially things that are interesting, necessary, new, and effective. This is a must-read manual for anyone curious about elegant productivity, written candidly and intelligently.
The age of the lone wolf is over. The age of co-creation is here. Steven shares a deeply insightful and step-by-step approach for anyone that’s driving organizational change and transformation inside the largest organizations in the world. Learn how to become a beacon for unlocking enterprise value while staying true to the story in your heart of what you see and know is truly possible.
In today’s hyper-connected economy, collective genius beats individual brilliance. That’s why Creative Together is such a timely and important book. In this immensely practical guide, Steven Kowalski shows you how to amp up your organization’s performance by harnessing the power of collaborative innovation. Creative Together offers essential advice for any organization that hopes to stay relevant in a world of head-snapping change.
You cannot read this book or even skim it without coming away with new thoughts and thinking about your own creativity. And if anything is critical to the career pursuit it is the ability to think creativity. Every job demands it. If you agree with the importance of a creative mindset and want to understand more about your own approach, here’s a challenge: gather a group of colleagues and form a reading club around this book. Answer the creative questions the author poses throughout. They will stimulate memorable conversations and give you immediately applicable ideas.
In today’s unprecedented times, we must boldly and intentionally invent new ways of living and working as we uncover new opportunities and embrace what is possible. It is only when we discover the source from which all creativity flows that we can spark innovation and create new realities. This requires a personal journey and necessitates re-writing old narratives. In this remarkable book, Steven takes us on an adventure showing us what it means to bring your whole, creative self into new ways of working together. This is required reading for all of us seeking to heal the fragmentation in our society at this moment in time.
In this deeply realistic book, Steven shows how we can tap into our creative potential to navigate the realities of working with others inside organizations—and how we can bring our best and the best of others into the world. It has insights and dynamic structures that surprised me with their elegance and practicality, even though I’ve been working in this field in one way or another for decades. This is a tour de force that is realistic and generative, that will change the way that you live your life for the better no matter where you are on its journey and allow you to give the gift you have in being here.
Creative Together lays a good foundation for developing your creativity and that of the organizations you lead. I especially value that creativity is potential inherent in all, that purpose is primary, that creativity is enhanced by constraint, and that it requires a walk together into the unknown. This book also explicates the importance of creating collaboratively, how to do that well, and how our reactive tendencies are likely to interrupt collaborative creative synergy. There is much to recommend in this book.
Steven Kowalski has written a refreshingly creative book about creativity! Engaging, insightful, and most of all practical, “Creative Together” will ignite the creative potential in all of us. What a perfect book for times like these!
Steven has captured a core truth of our complex, uncertain world—when teams work together to pioneer new solutions for our greatest challenges, we have to get Creative Together. And, as Steven reminds us, this journey to greater team effectiveness starts within. Then, once we remember how strong and creative we truly are, we can bring our creativity forward for effective teaming to rebound, adapt, invent, and disrupt. A must-read for leaders and teams today.
Steven’s approach and methodology truly activates a teams’ creativity. Having partnered with him with one of my leadership teams, I saw this in action. In Creative Together, Steven has captured the essence of his approach for developing next level leaders to meet critical business challenges while also developing individual and team creative capabilities.
This book fills a long-standing gap in the creativity literature; how to embrace creativity, and discover and capture innovation opportunities in a cohesive, practical way that all of us can adopt. The book shows how creativity is not just for the elite few. It is for everyone. The key is to unlock the potential for creative thought and action that lies within each of us, but which is often hidden behind layers of personal, cultural, and organizational inhibitors. Steven brings together a unique combination of personal and organizational experience, as well as deep formal training and rigor, into an easy-to-follow road map for building the creative self. A must read for every organization hoping to build resilience and future readiness through innovation.
Beautifully written, brilliant and jam packed with deep wisdom, practical models, inquiries and exercises – Creative Together is essential reading for any leader that wants amplify their impact, joy and love for themselves and organizations they lead. Steven illuminates the truth around our own genius and how to strip away the obstacles, habits, and beliefs so that we can tap into our inherent superpowers and co-create. It’s an original perspective on the power of our creativity and the brilliance, trust, love and generosity that is possible when tap into it together. Bravo Steven – your book is a rare and valuable gift. One that I will share with all the leaders I have the privilege of coaching.
Steven Kowalski, PhD, is a leading voice in the global movement for conscious creativity with more than 25 years of experience as an organizational development expert. Through his firm, Creative License™ Consulting Services, he works with clients to shape organizational cultures and reinvigorate how teams co-create new value. As a coach, speaker, and consultant-partner, he facilitates the creativity of scientists, engineers, business leaders, and professionals across industries. Steven holds a PhD in adult learning and organizational creativity from UCLA, and is the author of more than 100 workplace learning programs.
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