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Sir Ken Robinson World Renowned Expert on Innovation and Creativity

Books

Out Of Our Minds: Learning To Be Creative Order from Amazon.co.uk

Businesses everywhere are investing huge resources to make people more creative. Creativity and innovation are vital to the new knowledge economies in particular - and for all companies to keep pace with the dizzy speed of change. But why do adults need help to be creative? Most young children are buzzing with imagination. What happens to their creativity as they grow up? Why do so many adults think they're not creative (and not very intelligent) and that other people are? What's the real problem - and what should be done about it?

Out of Our Minds argues that the fundamental problem is the very process that's meant to develop our natural abilities - education. Businesses are now trying to fix a downstream problem that originates in schools and universities. Education systems everywhere are rooted in a narrow definition of academic intelligence that ignores some of our most important creative abilities. They do this on the mistaken assumption that it makes economic sense. After more than ten years at school, and even after university, too many people leave education with no idea of their real abilities and creative powers - and with qualifications that are now increasingly worth less. Government initiatives to raise standards are making the problem worse.

Out of Our Minds looks at the revolutionary changes that are transforming how business works and the urgent need to promote creativity and innovation. It argues that for all businesses the key to the future is a new understanding of creative intelligence and the whole idea of human resources. It says what should be done immediately to recover people's creative abilities - and argues for radical changes in corporate cultures to make the most of these resources. The problems of creativity must also be tackled at source - in the education system. Out of Our Minds traces the roots of the current pre-occupation with academic work and qualifications. It reveals why this system is no longer working and why the future must lie in developing, not stifling, our natural creative abilities.

BOOK REVIEWS

A truly mind-opening analysis of why we don't get the best out of people in a time of punishing change. Director Magazine

There are certain books that manage to be authoritative, entertaining and thought-provoking and are also well-written and richly exemplified. Few authors are able to fashion this mixture. Alvin Toffler and Charles Handy can craft it. I shall add Ken Robinson's absorbing account of creativity to my personal list of gems. Times Educational Supplement - Book of the Week

This is a very sincere impression of a deeply significant work in this area - I am really impressed with the historical perspectives and breadth of insights drawn from the arts, sciences, psychology and many other fields. It is an immensely powerful statement of the current educational situation in the times we live in and highlights very powerfully the need for transformed thinking from top to bottom. Creative-Management, UK