According to Bruce Nussbaum, “Creativity is deeply undervalued in America today outside a tiny few university and business enclaves. Our best schools teach the tools of efficiency and analysis. Yet we know that creativity increasingly is the greatest value-generator.” As the former editor at Business Week and a current instructor at Parsons The New School for Design, Nussbaum explores the concept of creative intelligence (CQ) as a new form of cultural literacy – a skill that can and should be worked and built like a muscle. In his new book, Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create, Connect, and Inspire, he takes the reader on a walking tour of what creativity is – covering how it develops and how it may be cultivated or stunted, all while supporting his viewpoints with interesting anecdotes of well known people. And because, at the end of the day, ‘money makes the world go round’ Nussbaum closes with a discussion of the role of creativity within a society’s economy and how our views of it can spur or diminish economic return.

Also hot off the presses this month is the new book, Zig Zag, by psychologist, professor, jazz pianist, and former video game designer – Dr. Keith Sawyer. Oh, and Sawyer also happens to be one of the world’s leading experts on creativity. In Zig Zag, Sawyer has put together an eight-step creativity program filled with research based techniques to help the reader reach new creative heights. I’ve not read it yet but based on the reviews this sounds like a fun read that people are loving.

Images via Amazon.