The Art of Insight: How to Have More Aha! Moments Paperback – April 8, 2013 http://www.amazon.com/Art-Insight-Have-More-Moments/dp/1609948092
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| | 4.3 out of 5 stars | | | 7 customer reviews |
$15.59
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Book Description
Inspiration Whenever You Need It
We have all experienced it: the jolt of an insight arriving like a thunderclap, unexpectedly and without warning. But what if insights could be accessed more reliably? Drawing on years of research, reflection, and experiences with colleagues, friends, and clients, Charles Kiefer and Malcolm Constable present a thorough, pragmatic approach for dependably generating fresh thoughts and perspectives. Guided by their user-friendly practices and helpful exercises (both in the book and online at www.TAOI-Online-Learning.com), you’ll develop your own personal approach to cultivating a mindset where insights come so readily that new or long-standing problems are solved with confidence and ease.
Product Description
“Creating insights isn’t a magical process-this book provides a practical framework for generating insights for yourself and your organization. We’ve used many of these techniques with our innovation teams and they work.”
-Wayne Delker, Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President, The Clorox Company
“Conventional wisdom holds insights to be elusive and mysterious. Kiefer and Constable turn conventional wisdom on its head with this marvelous addition to the libraries of all those devoted to improving the quality of their thinking.”
-Len Schlesinger, President, Babson College, and former Vice Chairman, Limited Brands
“In my forty-five years in business, I have found insights to be invaluable in strategy formulation and vital in forming best-in-class products and services. This book provides a simple road map of how to achieve such insights.”
-Dick Kovacevich, retired Chairman and CEO, Wells Fargo & Company
Customer Reviews
Releasing the Hidden Power of Insight (Emphasis Directed to changing Corporate Management Decision Making)
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| | By Theodore R. Spickler on January 1, 2014 |
It’s tough changing behavior and this book attempts to do just that. As a corporate trainer, I am familiar with the usual fact-based, analytical approaches to problem solving taught in boardrooms throughout the world. Here Kiefer is changing the game by directing attention to your subconscious, intuitive mental processes in order to add creative spice to decision making. The goal is to stimulate creative, innovative outcomes rather than analyze situations to somnambulistic, rational dead ends. This is very much a “self-help” type of book where exercises are offered to the reader to help them drift away from the conscious, chattering brain to awaken the all too often slumbering subconscious. I applaud the effort to do this while at the same time note a somewhat mind numbing repetition within the 170 pages that, despite many anecdotes, can at times, seem to belabor the few points being made. That criticism is a bit unfair because repetition is a way to connect to the subconscious where behavioral changes in the reader are being sought. Several days after finishing the book, I noted a persistent nagging presence of the book’s message almost subliminally reminding me to release the intuition normally closeted beneath the surface. This is not like a novel to be read through once and then set aside. To be serious about it, the exercises need to be practiced just as the authors do in their corporate training programs offered through “Innovation Associates”. I suggest you team up with a like minded friend, read the book together, and help each other with the exercises. Just placing this content into your rational brain is unlikely, by itself, to gain the desired result. Read more ›
Very helpful insights into insights.
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| | By John S Wren on May 4, 2013 |
This is not just a book, although it can be read that way, it’s an online 100 minute workshop about how to have more insights, those new ways of looking at things that change the world.
I’ve gotten to know Charlie this past year, we’ve had many telephone conversations, email exchanges, and he submitted to an extensive interview with me for our Small Business Chamber of Commerce’s The Startup Show. (let me know if you’d like a link to the interview.)
In addition, I’ve studied this topic for decades, though I’d pretty much learned everything there was to know about it. But there’s more! As the TV or carnival pitchman says, and in this case, it’s true.
Some came by way of personal stories Charlie tells, where the original inspiration for Innovation Associates came from, something I just couldn’t quite get out of him in our interview, and the story of the end of his engagement to the wrong woman and a really powerful insight he had right at the end of the relationship that he’s been drawing from ever since.
We use some of these techniques at our Small Business Chamber IDEA Cafe Startup Workshops, I’ll be suggesting this book to our workshop leaders and to everyone who attends. […]
Thanks Charlie!
Spot on!
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| | By Steve Straus on May 29, 2013 |
Clear. Artfully stated. An almost indescribable subject, described very well. I’m recommending it because of its thorough treatment of the high-level, big picture of the nature of insight combined with the street-level, practical how-to guidance. I love it.
Hmm. Interesting
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| | By Nick McCormick on July 26, 2013 |
Who wouldn’t like to have more aha moments? Kiefer and Constable describe how to achieve more of them through the “Art of Insight,” which is made up of the 4 key elements summarized below:
- Understand what insights are so they can be recognized
- Put oneself in the frame of mind conducive to having insights
- Learn how to listen for insights
- Understand how thought works in your life
This reviewer is fairly analytical, so some of the concepts and exercises were a bit difficult to grasp. For example, the following excerpt describes a client’s experience with internal dialogue…
“When I’m actively thinking about a topic, it actually seems like I’m in a conversation with myself in my head. Sometimes it shows up as two people talking, both of whom are me, with a third one sitting on the side, listening to the other two mes talk to each other.” Whoa!
While there is no guarantee this book will make you the aha king, it may improve your current track record in that area. In addition to the book, you can also check out the Art of Insight Online Learning Experience at […]
–Nick McCormick, Author, “Acting Up Brings Everyone Down”