Your Next Big Idea: Improve Your Creativity and Problem-Solving

Sanders, founder of Heard, a tech company that helps local governments connect with citizens, debuts with an easy-to-follow road map for ramping up innovation. “Everything starts with an idea,” he writes, but to be successful, entrepreneurs must not only have ideas, but also master three skills: innovation, creativity, and problem-solving. To help readers refine their chops in those areas and to “come up with 100 meaningful ideas a week that you can apply to your career or personal life,” Sanders offers a wealth of exercises and activities. One should start by “asking questions and identifying problems, needs, and wants” by jotting down “three problems you had to overcome today while completing tasks, activities, or other commitments,” then read stories Sanders provides about other people’s days and identifying the problems they faced. “Brainstorming and mindmapping,” meanwhile, includes “rapid free-thinking” idea sessions free of judgement, and coming up with a chart about “a change you can make to forward yourself in your life or career.” Sanders isn’t short of ideas himself in this treatise on turning ideas into reality, and the “Big Idea Journey Map” that structures the book works nicely. Entrepreneurs wanting to get their creative juices moving should give this a look. (Self-published)