????不久之前，“創新宗師”托德?亨利推薦一位前來咨詢的客戶——一位高級經理人——每周拿出一個小時的時間思考新點子。亨利在《即時創意：如何抓住稍縱即逝的靈感》（The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice）一書中寫道：“每周拿出一個小時，提前安排，雷打不動。這一個小時不做具體工作，專心思考工作。”

????亨利回憶起那位客戶當時的反應：“他反問我：‘什么？！你讓我就干坐在那里胡思亂想？！’”

????如今的商業環境，一周7天，每天24小時，高度亢奮，大部分人可能都會這么反應。誰有空靜靜地坐下來思考？但亨利寫道，公司為員工，尤其是領導者支付工資，是因為他們能夠創造價值，而“花一個小時，熟練、專注地思考關鍵的問題，這樣為公司創造的價值比急著回復電子郵件創造的價值不知要大多少。”

????也許有人會說，即使我愿意試著每周拿出一小時來進行思考，我也不見得就是屬于有創造力的那一類人啊。亨利沉思道：“職場中一直有種根深蒂固的迷思：人們認為創造力是一種虛無縹緲的神秘力量，其不可琢磨的程度介于祈禱與美國稅務法之間，很難被人掌握。”

????亨利在書中寫道，他的即時創意（Accidental Creative）公司在對數百位商務人士進行培訓時發現，不論是圖形設計師還是首席財務官，都能有效提升能力，“產生有規律的創造性靈感。”

????其中必不可少的一步是：跳出習慣的思維模式。與其他關于創新的著作不同，《即時創意》一書承認創新者在實際工作中需要面臨的重重障礙，包括對失敗的擔憂、官僚味十足的繁重工作等等，并提出了克服這些障礙的策略。

????《創新者的DNA：掌握破壞性創新的五項技能》（The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators）一書的作者與亨利英雄所見略同，他們同樣認為，創新技能并非天生，而是后天培養形成的。他們經過詳盡的研究后才作出了這樣的結論。

????楊百翰大學馬里奧特商學院（Marriott School at Brigham Young University）的杰夫?戴爾教授、歐洲工商管理學院（INSEAD）的赫爾?葛瑞格森教授，以及哈佛商學院（Harvard Business School）的克雷頓?克里斯滕森合作進行了這項長達八年的研究，從75個國家收集了600多名發明家和5,000名高管的數據。

????研究的結論是：創新是“積極的努力”。《創新者的DNA》一書的作者認為：“蘋果公司（Apple）的口號‘不同凡想’雖然能夠鼓舞人心，但還不夠完美。創新者必須始終堅持特立獨行，才能在思想上與眾不同”

????如何做到這一點呢？《創新者的DNA》一書描述了在他們研究過程中經常遇到的五種習慣。其中一個習慣是積累各種表面看來毫不相干的經驗。該書作者提到，史蒂夫?喬布斯曾經體驗過各種新鮮事物，“從印度的神廟里進行的冥想和修行，到旁聽里德學院（Reed College）的書法課。”這些經歷為蘋果產品的新功能提供了靈感來源。喬布斯曾經說過：“創造力就是找到事物之間的聯系。”

????我們不必為了提高創造力而跑去神廟冥想，不過這兩本書中有一個觀點幾乎毋庸置疑，那就是：要想成為更具創新性思維的人，必須兼具耐心和勤奮。一些開創性的點子，即便它們看起來是突發奇想，但事實上都是以精心準備為基礎的。或者，正如路易斯?巴斯德所說：“機會總是垂青有準備的人。”

????（翻譯 劉進龍）

????Not long ago, creativity guru Todd Henry recommended to one of his consulting clients, a high-ranking manager, that he set aside one hour a week to generate new ideas -- "one hour, predictably scheduled, no exceptions and no violations," Henry says in his book, The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice. "This is not time to do work. This is time to think about work."

????That executive's reaction, Henry recalls: "He fired back at me, 'What?! You just want me to sit around and think?!"

????In today's wired, 24/7 business climate, most people can relate. Who has time to sit and ponder? Yet, Henry writes, companies pay employees, particularly leaders, for the value they create, and "you can create infinitely greater value for the company in an hour of skilled, focused thought about critical problems than by responding to your email slightly faster."

????Let's say you're willing to try setting aside an hour a week for pondering, but you think you're just not the creative type. "There is a persistent myth in the workplace that creativity is a mystical and elusive force that sits somewhere between prayer and the U.S. tax code on the ambiguity scale," Henry muses.

????In coaching hundreds of businesspeople through his firm, Accidental Creative, Henry writes, he's realized that anyone, from graphic artists to chief financial officers, can boost their capacity for "regular flashes of creative insight."

????An essential step: Get out of your own way. Unlike most tomes on innovation, The Accidental Creative acknowledges the real-world stumbling blocks that would-be innovators face -- from fear of failure to bureaucratic busywork -- and offers specific strategies for getting past them.

????The authors of The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators agree with Henry that creative people are made, not born, a conclusion they reached by way of exhaustive research.

????Professors Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen, of the Marriott School at Brigham Young University and INSEAD respectively, and Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School, teamed up to conduct an eight-year study that collected data from more than 600 inventors and 5,000 executives in 75 countries.

????The result: Innovation is "an active endeavor," the authors write. "Apple's slogan 'Think Different' is inspiring but incomplete. Innovators must consistently act different to think different."

????How? The Innovator's DNA describes five habits that turned up in their study time and time again. One of these is gathering a wide range of seemingly unrelated experiences. The authors note that Steve Jobs has experimented with new things all his life, "from meditation and living in an Ashram in India to dropping in on a calligraphy class at Reed College," all of which would later trigger ideas for new features in Apple (AAPL) products. "Creativity is connecting things," Jobs once said.

????Nobody needs to take off for an Ashram to become more creative, but these books leave little doubt that becoming a more innovative thinker takes patience and hard work. Groundbreaking ideas, even those that look like bolts from the blue, usually come from painstaking preparation. Or, as Louis Pasteur put it, "Chance favors the prepared mind."