Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most
A Financial Times Book of the Month: "An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg

"Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking." -- Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human

How can you challenge and change yourself when you need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.

Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.

Unsafe Thinking
is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
  • Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
  • Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
  • When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
  • How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
  • How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read, Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.
"1126941684"
Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most
A Financial Times Book of the Month: "An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg

"Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking." -- Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human

How can you challenge and change yourself when you need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.

Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.

Unsafe Thinking
is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
  • Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
  • Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
  • When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
  • How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
  • How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read, Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.
17.99 In Stock
Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most

Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most

by Jonah Sachs
Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most

Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most

by Jonah Sachs

eBook

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Overview

A Financial Times Book of the Month: "An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg

"Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking." -- Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human

How can you challenge and change yourself when you need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.

Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.

Unsafe Thinking
is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
  • Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
  • Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
  • When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
  • How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
  • How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read, Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780738220154
Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication date: 04/24/2018
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Jonah Sachs is the founder and a partner of Free Range Studios, a brand and innovation company that transforms companies through unsafe thinking. For his work he has been awarded "best of" honors three times at the South by Southwest interactive festival, earned a Webby award, and been featured at the Sundance Film Festival.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Dangers of Safety xi

Introduction: The Path to Unsafe Thinking xix

Part 1 Courage

1 The Safe Thinking Cycle 3

Why we stick to our guns even when we know we shouldn't

Programmed to Seek Safety 8

2 Fear as Fuel 13

How to embrace anxiety and break the safe thinking cycle

Getting Comfortable with Discomfort 18

Part 2 Motivation

3 Mastering Motivation 23

How to energize yourself and others to stay on the edge

Discovering Intrinsic Motivation 27

When Motivation Goes Awry 29

Creating Motivational Alchemy 30

The Right Motivation at the Right Time 33

4 Finding Your Source 37

Why we need to love the challenges we face

Loving Difficult Things 40

Navigating Your Way to Flow 42

Outsmarting Dings and Chimes 47

The Good Side of Distraction 49

Part 3 Learning

5 The Explorer's Edge 57

How to pursue expertise without falling into the expert's trap

Demystifying the Beginners Advantage 59

Seeing So Clearly We Become Blind 63

From Expert to Explorer 67

6 Ego and Urgency 73

How to tame the urges that keep us from exploring

Feeling So Smart We Become Stupid 74

Mastering the Need for Speed 79

Part 4 Flexibility

7 The Power and Perils of Thinking with Your Gut 89

Why we need intuition and how it often leads us astray

Brilliant Ideas That Look Insane to (Almost) Everyone 92

Our Hidden Genius 94

The Myth of the Golden Gut 97

8 Harnessing Intuition 105

How to recognize faulty intuition and hone your instincts

Fooled by Shortcuts 105

Fooled by Emotion 108

Interrogating Intuition 111

Learning Environments: Wicked and Kind 115

Disarming Our Biases 117

9 Leaping into the Counterintuitive 121

How to tackle difficult problems with unexpected solutions

Embracing the Absurd 125

Unsafe Thinking About Safety 131

How to Cultivate Counterintuitive Creativity 136

Part 5 Morality

10 When Wrong Is Right 145

Why being creative sometimes means bending (or breaking) the rules

The Cost of Creativity 148

Disobeying Wisely 153

Encouraging Others to Rebel 155

Keeping Rules at Bay 158

Breaking Our Own Rules 159

11 Creating with the Enemy 161

Why we need friends who look like foes

Seeking Out the Unlikeliest Allies 164

Part 6 Leadership

12 Unsafety in Numbers 173

How to break consensus and infect others with the confidence to take risks

Countering Conformity 177

Escaping the Trap of Agreement 179

Crafting Productive Conflict 180

Gleaning Ideas from the Edges 182

Making It Safe to Get Unsafe 185

13 Rewarding the Nonobvious 189

How the right incentives fuel breakthrough creative teams

Epilogue 195

Acknowledgments 199

Notes 201

Index 213

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