Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An urgent and relevant guide to fostering the bold yet intelligent risks that will help you thrive in business--and in life. "Safe thinking" is everywhere, and there are concrete reasons why. The reliance on well-known patterns, carefully constructed plans, and the expertise we've developed in facing prior challenges has a magnetic pull on our psyches. Overcoming this bias is an urgent problem that nearly everyone in business must now confront. In Unsafe Thinking, Jonah Sachs probes deeply into the pitfalls of safe thinking through the experiences of successful trailblazers in a wide range of fields from business, health, education, and more. For example, take the story of Helena Foulkes, a vice-president at CVS who asked: Why would a company committed to health and wellness sell cigarettes? "Because it's a $2 billion part of our business and removing cigarettes won't make a dent in reducing smoking," shareholders replied. Yet Foulkes convinced her colleague; cutting cigarettes has opened many other profitable avenues, and smoking has actually decreased in communities where many people used to buy their cigarettes at CVS.
Sachs also delves into the scientific literature of many leading researchers in the areas of cognition and creativity. What emerges is a fascinating set of stories of individuals who, despite the fears and resistance we all face, have deeply changed themselves, their companies, and the fields in which they work. Sachs calls these people "unsafe thinkers." But they are not simply mavericks and radicals who break all the rules. It turns out that there are clear principles and habits of mind these people exhibit that account for their success. Sachs lays out ample evidence that anyone, armed with the will and basic understanding of how to do it, can become an unsafe thinker.
Synopsis
Learn how to take the bold yet intelligent risks that will help you thrive in business--and in life. How can you challenge and change yourself when we need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.
Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.
Unsafe Thinking is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
- Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
- Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
- When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
- How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
- How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read,
Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.
Synopsis
A Financial Times Book of the Month
"An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg
"Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking."--Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human
How can you challenge and change yourself when you need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.
Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.
Unsafe Thinking is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
- Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
- Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
- When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
- How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
- How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read, Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.
Synopsis
A Financial Times Book of the Month: An enchanting book about how to question the conventional, challenge the status quo, and unlock the creative solutions right under your nose. --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg Unsafe Thinking delivers an array of fresh insights on creativity, motivation, and staying in 'flow.' Packed with powerful case studies, it will propel you out of your rut and onto a path of better, sharper thinking. -- Daniel H. Pink, author of When and To Sell Is Human
How can you challenge and change yourself when you need it most? We're creatures of habit, programmed by evolution to favor the safe and familiar, especially when the stakes are high. This bias no longer serves us in a world of constant change. In fact, today, safe thinking has become extremely dangerous.
Through stories of trailblazers in business, health, education and activism, and leveraging decades of research into creativity and performance, Jonah Sachs reveals a path to higher performance and creativity for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone. He introduces troublemakers willing to challenge corporate culture like the executive who convinced CVS to drop its multibillion-dollar tobacco business. She now leads the pharmacy giant. Readers will get firsthand accounts of breaking from the status quo from a Nobel prize winning doctor who nearly got himself thrown out medicine, a two-time NBA championship coach who brought joy back to his team by tuning down the focus on competition, a CEO who rebuilt her reputation and life from the ashes from one of the biggest flops in internet history and a Colombian mayor who started an incredibly successful career of political reform by mooning an angry crowd.
Unsafe Thinking is full of counter-intuitive insights that will challenge you to rethink how you work. You'll learn:
- Why your area of deep expertise is often where you'll find your biggest blind spots
- Why anxiety can be fuel for creativity
- When to trust intuition and when to challenge it
- How collaborating only with those that share your values stunts your creativity
- How to build an organization that embraces intelligent risk.
An inspiring and accessible read,
Unsafe Thinking has the power to change both the way you approach your work and your life.