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Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming The Obstacles Between Vision And Reality (2010)

by Scott Belsky(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

159184312X (ISBN13: 9781591843122)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Portfolio Hardcover

review 1: Here's the thing: Belsky has great ideas in the book, but he makes them happen with bad examples. Thomas Kinkaide and James Patterson aren't the best examples when you want to impress artists. There are workhorses who do. Stephen King's a machine, but not a hack. Piccasso cranked them out. We could make a list, I'm sure. But if making ideas happen means making them happen even when they should die, it's not worth it. The practical suggestions in this book you can find anywhere, but its interest is in the applicability to artists. Belsky does a good enough job there that the book's worth four stars.
review 2: Some tips from this book:Action Method for creative projects - involves organizing the project into Action Steps, References and Backburner items.List down... more all your projects based on the level of energy that it requires - Extreme, High, Medium, Low, Idle. Projects placed at the Extreme end should be the most important for the time being.- keep 2 lists for action steps, one for urgent and one for important and preserve different periods of time to focus on these- choose 5 projects that matter the most, family being one of them- make a daily focus area - grab 5 action steps that you want to focus on today- don't hoard urgent items- create windows of time for uninterrupted focusAlways keep the ball moving forward.Have a "keep shipping" mentality.Keep relentlessly following up.Walt Disney - 3 different rooms to foster ideas and assess them. Room one: idea generation without restraints, room two: Aggregate and organize, room three: critically review the project without restraint.Setup "challenge" meetings (called "thrashings") periodically where only one in the team can ask critical questions.Use progress as a motivational force by having "Done Walls" with completed action steps.Share Ideas Liberally (through blogs or circles). Shared ideas and feedback received leads to incremental innovation.Feedback: solicit feedback from team in terms of what they need to START, STOP, CONTINUE doing.Harnessing the forces around you to make things happen- Transparency boosts communal forces- Seek competition to keep challenging yourself- Commit yourself in order to commit others- Create systems for accountability- Create a pressure of being in the spotlight- Seek simulation from serendipity by reading or reviewing subjects that are not relatedCommunity- Overcome stigma of self-marketing- "respect-based" self-marketing * identify differentiating attributes * develop a communications strategy * execute communications strategy-find your own frequency, and tune in to engage othersLeadership Capabilities- be willing to go without "success" in the eyes of others- trick yourself to stay engaged by creating a set of incremental rewards for long-term pursuits- do not hoard ownership of successesCreative Team- probe candidates for their true interests and extent to which the candidate has pursued those interests- Create a "T" team - people with general breadth of skills that support collaboration and deep expertise in a single area- Foster an immune system that kills ideas- create environment so that teams are comfortable fighting out their disagreements and diverse points of view, but they share conviction after the meeting. Recognize that purpose of disagreement is to fully explore the options- share collective ownership of ideas- leaders should talk last- judge leadership capability of peers, superiors during conflict situations- during crisis, encourage teams to step back and regain perspective, quit blaming and start brainstorming solutions- develop others through power of appreciation- ask people where they go for help - identify these hot spots - then listen to them and empower themSelf-Leadership- self-awareness in a safe atmosphere- develop tolerance to ambiguity- During failure, document * what external conditions explain the failure * what internal factors have compromised judgement * are there any gems in the unintended outcome?- think "contrarianism" - act of purposely thinking against then grain when approaching problems and brainstroming new ideas- Be willing to be deviant (unpopular, misunderstood and even shunned during creative pursuits)- Have a backward clock (if you were told the exact day your life would end, would you manage your time and energy differently?)- Have an enduring love for idea or interest to push you past obstacles and allows you to continue practising the craft because they love the process more than the outcomeBook: The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (Ollie Johnson) less

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