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Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond
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Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

by Alan Axelrod
February 2008
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
192 pages
4h 1m
English
Jossey-Bass
Content preview from Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

9.3. Lesson 81: Plan for Spontaneity

Free association and spontaneously occurring notions are valuable sparks and catalysts for creativity. They can't be forced, but they can be induced, encouraged, and planned for.

When Edison was starting out in his Newark, New Jersey, laboratory–workshop, he spontaneously sketched inventions and components on whatever scrap of paper happened to come to hand—and he encouraged his employees to do the same. This proved so valuable a source of ideas that Edison regularized the practice by deliberately placing notebooks throughout the work-space. By the time he moved into his Menlo Park facility, Edison "commenced the practice of placing note books all over my laboratory, with order to my assistants to draw out ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780787994594Purchase book