Creativity has long been thought to be an individual gift, best pursued alone; schools, organizations, and whole industries are built on this idea....
read full description
reviews
May 02, 2010
Guy
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jun 18, 2009
Gloria
rated it: 
Admittedly a quick read through, starting with part 2, moving to part 3 and going back to part 1.
Part 2 is perhaps the meatiest of the sections. But it was in part 1 that I gleaned that I should be thinking about this in terms of verbal (versus visual) brainstorming and group work. So that was pretty important.
Lots o' examples which I skimmed, being familiar with many of them. Nice development of taxonomies. Useful. Because of that, the four (instead of three) stars.
More...
Part 2 is perhaps the meatiest of the sections. But it was in part 1 that I gleaned that I should be thinking about this in terms of verbal (versus visual) brainstorming and group work. So that was pretty important.
Lots o' examples which I skimmed, being familiar with many of them. Nice development of taxonomies. Useful. Because of that, the four (instead of three) stars.
More...
Feb 19, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
Wow, this book blew me away. It condenses and distills much of what various other books hint at in terms of economic transformation. Dr. Sawyer covers a lot of ground, has many, many case studies but does so in a easy to comprehend manner. You can tell he has been an good educator, he writes clearly and concisely and does not talk too much in "business speak". For anyone hoping to make some sense of the "new" economy we are finding ourselves in, this book will either exhi
More...
Dec 31, 2010
Jenni
rated it: 
Group Genius written by Keith Sawyer, challenges commonly held beliefs about the path to creative innovation. Sawyer draws upon historical, as well as current day, events and practices to illustrate his belief that “the lone genius is a myth.” There is no inventor sitting in his room toiling away at creative thought, but rather creative thought stems from people’s experiences in life and the influence others have had upon it. Relevant to anyone wishing to bolster creativity in their business pra
More...
Nov 18, 2009
Ty
rated it:
this book was a bit uneven for me... it starts strong with lots of insight into how creativity works, especially focusing on the power of informed brainstorming and the key role of conversation in creativity. i found the anecdotes about how famous inventions really happened to be very interesting. later in the book, the author starts to give prescriptions about how companies can organize for improved productivity and i found this part much less useful. still a good book on creativity.
Jan 01, 2012
Leah
rated it:
A scholar who immerses himself in improv comedy, jazz and intellectual creativity? My kinda guy. Keith Sawyer's style is easy to read, understand and implement. Unfortunately for my students, as I read Sawyer's book, I simultaneously rewrote the classes I was teaching in order to accommodate Sawyer's ideas. Lucky for me, my students were brave enough to let go of their assumptions and fears in order to strive for transformative group flow experience. As a result, divergent, kooky and brilliant i
More...
Jul 01, 2010
Richard (Rick)
rated it:
This is what my current research is on, so no doubt hat is why I like this book so much. But Sawyer does such a good job of making the science behind group creativity understandable and engaging. He's coming to visit us at BYU in the fall, and I'm rereading this to refresh my memory of his ideas.
Dec 16, 2007
Don
rated it: 
Not the most scintillating read, but I've been checking out a lot of these books to bolster my understanding of Web 2.0 business collaboration, since I've been doing a lot of magazine writing on the topic over the past year. The biggest take-home of this book is that great ideas and inventions aren't the products of individual genius, and they don't take place in a single blazing moment of inspiration; they happen collaboratively, through small, connecting sparks of innovation, and continual tri
More...
Dec 22, 2010
Chip
rated it:
The first half of this book was a bit slow. It picked up in the second half. I'm not sure it gave me any great "insight", but it reminded me of a number of things that are important to keep "top of mind".
Dec 17, 2009
Pam
rated it:
I learned that Brainstorming isn't done best the way we all think it should be...
Mar 26, 2009
Jon
rated it:
The premise of this book is intriguing. Genius and innovation rarely, if ever, happens as a result of a single person acting alone. Sawyer brings to light many examples of "genius" that seemed to happen alone, but didn't. Bell, Edison, Einstein and others who in reality acted in concert with others, not alone. This idea that people working together always generate the greatest innovation. Sawyer can get bogged down in a bit too much detail for me, but the topic, and his grasp of it, ke
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 19, 2009
Christopher
rated it:
I have long been a proponent of the concept of group genius long before it was defined by Keith Sawyer. However, to see this corroborated was both inspiring and validating. Let this be an eye opener to those whose can only move when all is mapped out. Nurturing creativity to provide solutions will come more readily to those who understand the process. This is a must read for anyone who needs to work with people for any purpose from community functions to corporate goals.
Jul 14, 2008
Jean-claude
rated it:
Anybody using Web2.0 technologies will appreciate the examples. But just like books on creativity that focussed to much on the individual, this one goes to the opposite corner of looking at creativity emerging from the action of groups. The reality is that both are really important.
For the Open Science crowd this is worth at least a good skim.
For the Open Science crowd this is worth at least a good skim.
Nov 18, 2007
Brent
rated it:
This is an interesting take innovation and the power of group collaboration. The main idea is that innovation is not a solitary creation, but the building of sparks together over time from many people into extraordinary ideas.
Feb 26, 2010
Erik
rated it:
This was a book I read for work (provided by my manager) about innovation and how it is groups that are truly creative, not individuals. Most of the book is very interesting. It is pretty clearly contrived in many cases (how often are there exactly 10 reasons something is true?), is very obviously tilted toward companies that obviously prove his points (shock), and goes a little too crazy in trying to generalize his ideas to humanity (apparently we must innovate optimally to survive -- I'm cer
More...
Jan 25, 2012
Jan 17, 2012
Dec 09, 2011
Nov 27, 2011
Nov 10, 2011
Oct 15, 2011
Sep 22, 2011
Sep 19, 2011
Sep 04, 2011
