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How do you escape ‘business as usual’ thinking and regularly and reliably create breakthrough ideas?
Millions are spent every year in the quest to generate breakthrough ideas to drive growth. Yet fewer than 25% of people believe they’re doing a good job of harnessing creativity to get to big ideas.
The Breakthrough Brain helps you harness human creativity with the digestible, inspiring and immensely practical Neuroscience of Creativity framework. Discover the five principles you need to master to demystify creativity unlock regular and reliable innovation and solve this disconnect: Cognitive Focus, Cycles of Deep Thinking, Creative Flow, Challenging Reality and Courageous Choices.
The result? You're free to play your creative A game, rediscover the joy of creativity, ignite big ideas and drive business growth.
Whether you’re in Innovation, Insights, Marketing/Brand or R&D, or simply have a mandate for injecting fresh thinking into your business, this is for you.
Coral McConnon is the Founder and CEO of 8 Innovation and a champion for the power of creativity to deliver smarter, more strategic innovation. She has worked with global brands on hundreds of complex front-end innovation challenges, applying the neuroscience of creativity to get to bigger ideas that land.
Coral McConnon is the Founder of 8 Innovation and a champion for the power of creativity to deliver smarter, more strategic innovation. Over the last 15 years she has worked with global brands on hundreds of complex front-end innovation challenges, applying the neuroscience of creativity to ignite bigger ideas that land.
By understanding how our brains work when creating new ideas, Coral is a catalyst for teams to escape ‘business as usual’ thinking and play their creative A game. Her MSc, focused on the Neuroscience of Creativity, added depth and rigour to the 8 Innovation framework.
Her approach is influenced by the New Zealand #8 wire mentality, the knack of ingeniously solving problems creatively yet pragmatically that originated in the New Zealand farming industry, just as Coral did.
She regularly posts thinking on smarter innovation on LinkedIn and hosts webinars helping people apply the neuroscience of creativity to real-world innovation.
Foreword: the power of human creativity xxiii
Quick start guide xxv
- You are in a moment of need xxv
- You have a specific challenge to overcome xxvi
- You are curious and want to innovate smarter xxvii
Introduction 1
From No. 8 wire ingenuity to neuroscience: practical creativity that delivers results
The no. 8 wire mentality 1
Breaking through the noise and clutter 2
Why the breakthrough brain? 3
Why the neuroscience of creativity? 4
Do we still need human creativity? 5
What this book is not 5
Part One Getting started: rethinking creativity
1 Getting our heads around creativity 9
1.1 What is creativity? What is innovation? 10
1.2 Creativity fundamentals 11
1.3 How has modern creativity evolved? 15
1.4 Returning to first principles 19
1.5 Wrapping up 20
2 The creativity disconnect 21 The real challenges of deploying creativity in complex environments
2.1 Creativity is elusive and misunderstood 22
2.2 Is there a creativity skills deficit? 23
2.3 Getting it wrong is costly 24
2.4 Innovation fatigue 26
2.5 Early-stage innovation isn’t easy 26
2.6 Wrapping up 29
3 The Neuroscience of Creativity Model 31
The 5C principles that make creativity repeatable
3.1 So, what does neuroscience reveal? 32
3.2 The Neuroscience of Creativity Model 37
3.3 Elevating thinking 40
3.3 Returning to the common challenges 41
3.5 Wrapping up 42
4 Pragmatic AI: elevating human creativity 45
Using AI to amplify, not replace, human creativity
4.1 What changes? What stays the same? 46
4.2 What today’s AI actually does (and doesn’t do) 46
4.3 The role for AI and human creativity 48
4.4 Applying AI to early-stage innovation 49
4.5 Wrapping up 50
Part Two Getting smarter: the neuroscience of creativity
5 Cognitive Focus 55
Creativity thrives under constraints
5.1 Introduction 56
5.2 The evidence from neuroscience: Cognitive Focus 57
5.3 Innovating smarter: Cognitive Focus 61
5.4 What good looks like 71
5.5 Summary 74
5.6 The Innovating Smarter Diagnostic 76
6 Cycles of Deep Thinking 79
Designing innovation journeys for the way our brains really work
6.1 Introduction 81
6.2 The evidence from neuroscience: Cycles of Deep Thinking 81
6.3 Innovating smarter 89
6.4 What good looks like 94
6.5 Summary 96
6.6 The Innovating Smarter Diagnostic 97
7 Creative Flow 101
Creating the conditions to engage teams to do their best work
7.1 Introduction 102
7.2 The evidence from neuroscience: Creative Flow 104
7.3 Innovating smarter 108
7.4 What good looks like 118
7.5 Summary 121
7.6 The Innovating Smarter Diagnostic 123
8 Challenging Reality 127
Disrupting business- as-usual thinking and creating new connections
8.1 Introduction 128
8.2 The evidence from neuroscience: Challenging Reality 130
8.3 Innovating smarter 137
8.4 What good looks like 149
8.5 Summary 151
8.6 The Innovating Smarter Diagnostic 153
9 Courageous Choices��������������������������������������157
Designing decision- making so bold ideas survive in the midst of uncertainty
9.1 Introduction 158
9.2 The evidence from neuroscience: Courageous Choices 159
9.3 Innovating smarter 165
9.4 What good looks like 171
9.5 Summary 174
9.6 The Innovating Smarter Diagnostic 176
Part Three Getting going: innovating smarter
10 Integrated application: get it together 183
Smarter innovation needs an integrated approach
10.1 What we’ve covered 184 10.2 Mapping the principles: an innovation journey 188
10.3 Specific issues: diagnosing what’s going on 192
11 Check- in: common questions 197
Practical answers to the ‘yes, but…’ questions
11.1 Chapter 5: Cognitive Focus 197
11.2 Chapter 6: Cycles of Deep Thinking 199
11.3 Chapter 7: Creative Flow 200
11.4 Chapter 8: Challenging Reality 202
11.5 Chapter 9: Courageous Choices 204
12 Beyond early- stage innovation: the principles in everyday life 207
Five provocations for smarter thinking
12.1 Provocation 1 – make meetings less awful 208
12.2 Provocation 2 – work in rhythms, not marathons 209
12.3 Provocation 3 – feed motivation through progress 210
12.4 Provocation 4 – leave your desk now 210
12.5 Provocation 5 – fix how decisions get made 211
13 Creativity that delivers 213
A final word on designing the conditions for smarter early- stage innovation
13.1 The Neuroscience of Creativity Model 213
13.2 Demystifying creativity 215
13.3 No. 8 wire creativity 215
13.4 Closing thoughts 216
Notes 219
Recommended reading list 233
Glossary 239
Acknowledgements 259
About the author 263
References 265
Index 285