The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

Benjamin and Rosamund Zander (Harvard Business School Press, 2000)

Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Rosamund Zander, a family therapist and painter, draw on their experience to share insights on practices for creativity. The Zander's practices are based on two premises: that life is composed as a story and that, with new definitions, much more is possible than people ordinarily think.

Jamming : The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity

John Kao (Harperbusiness, 1997)

I bought this book initially because I loved the title. It resonated with a lot of interest in jazz as a metaphor for team work. It turned out that what's inside is great too! Jamming provides a lot of ideas for managers who want to create the conditions for creativity in their organizations (and eliminate creativity-killers).

Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate

Michael Schrage (Harvard Business School Press, 1999)

Schrage provides a compelling account of the role of prototyping in innovation. He describes a variety of different prototyping approaches and makes the case for companies having a conscious prototyping strategy. Although much of this book is focused on products, much is relevant to any kind of group collaboration and creativity.

Deep Play

Diane Ackerman (Vintage Books, 2000)

Diane Ackerman is a writer and poet. She describes "deep play" as "that more intensified form of play that puts us in a rapturous mood and awakens the most creative, sentient, and joyful aspects of our inner selves." This book provides a new way of integrating what we know about the role of play in human development with how we think about life and work. This book stimulates thinking about rituals and games and group process.