Interesting read and food for thought.... To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. George Kneller But what is genius, without a heart? Oliver Goldsmith Genius…means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. William James The best vision is insight. Malcolm S. Forbes What do we mean, specifically in business, when we talk about a person's creative genius? Too often we think of genius in its extreme manifestation in science or the arts, focusing upon individuals (Einstein, Mozart, Michelangelo) who seem to have functioned at exceptional levels almost all of the time. There are indeed rare individuals who seem constantly in the zone creatively—but each and every one of us carries a potential to at least occasionally shift toward and experience a true flash of genius. In the workplace, genius is best understood as a sudden momentary flash of expanded awareness and insight that transcends the normal plodding function of cognitive logic, and taps the higher integrative function of the whole brain. As you have probably experienced, these powerful fl ashes of business insight seem to emerge out of the blue. They also typically come to us from our deeper wellsprings of creativity only when we shift into a particularly receptive and expanded quality of consciousness. The thesis of this book is that this supposedly unpredictable out-of-the-blue notion of insight and greatness is an outdated notion. New research and insights garnered from cognitive science and then applied in awareness-management methodologies indicate that everyone on your team can learn how to actively encourage, nurture, and even provoke regular fl ashes of peak awareness, insight, and creative genius. It's time to mine the awareness asset for all it's worth—and it's worth untold wealth when refined to its essential power. Executives, managers, team leaders, and HR directors continually face the challenge of maximizing productivity, creativity, communication, employee health, and other core parameters of successful business. Secondary programs can be introduced at the HR level, but significant changes in culture don't usually happen in companies unless they are initiated and inspired at the executive level. Why? Because everyone on your team looks to you, not just for the details of your vision, but also for the underlying spirit with which you're approaching that vision. You do teach by example—and nowhere is this more important than in the quality of consciousness that you broadcast at work. Business life matches the dynamic of "follow the leader"—if you choose to raise your own quality of consciousness at work, and begin to make higher-level decisions as a result of time spent at higher awareness levels, everyone will emulate your example. You open huge windows of opportunity for the rest of the members of the organization, because you're leading them toward higher creativity and courage. For awareness management to truly work, it is without question best to begin at the executive level. When executives learn to apply awareness-expanding techniques, they dramatically reduce the effort necessary to get the entire organization thinking and working at a higher level of awareness. This is, of course, the very essence of true leadership—that the person in charge already has an inner sense of the new territory toward which he or she is confidently aiming the entire organization. http://www.books24x7.com/