Enterprises of every kind need creative thinking to power innovation and drive the business forward. Where do ground-breaking ideas come from? Do they arise by sheer happenstance? Are they the province of a special few who have a certain kind of mind? Or can you and I learn where to look for the kinds of insights that open up new territory and generate fresh solutions to real-world problems?

Maybe we can’t simply decide to wake up tomorrow as a new Leonardo da Vinci or Charles Darwin or Steve Jobs. But we can take steps to situate ourselves where new ideas happen, says Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). What’s more, we can master the knack of opening our minds to them—and then work to turn some of them into practical reality.

Those three aspects of creativity—forming new connections, cultivating a receptive mind, and following through to realization—constitute the basic divisions of Johansson’s book. His analysis, liberally illustrated with historical and present-day examples, sparkles with revelations to inspire entrepreneurs at the frontiers of invention. It also offers solid practical tips for everyday problem-solvers.

Read the entire review in Peer to Peer, the magazine of the International Legal Technology Association. ( )

The Intersection, Frans Johansson writes in "The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, & Cultures," is that wonderful place where people from different fields of study or walks of life meet, share ideas, and walk away with far more than they could ever create alone. It’s where a Swedish chef who was born in Ethiopia combines ingredients in ways none have ever done before and puts a New York restaurant (Aquavit)—and himself—on the map. It’s where a young Ph.D math student creates a revolutionary card game (Magic), which earns $40 million for the company which buys and produces it.

“When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary ideas,” Johansson writes (p. 2). “The name I have given the phenomenon, the Medici Effect, comes from a remarkable burst of creativity in fifteenth-century Italy.”

And for those of us who work in the field of staff training, it is where we learn just as much from students as we can offer them, with the result that all of us are teacher-trainers as well as student-learners and what we find is spread to others we will soon encounter.

Johansson might suggest that we are constantly dancing at the edge of the Intersection if not completely immersed in it. Many of us travel and, therefore, are constantly exposed to a wide range of stimulating settings, challenges, and people. Our students—even if they are all from a particular field such as libraries—themselves interact routinely with people from incredibly diverse backgrounds and with tremendously varied interests. We are, more and more, expanding our definition of community through the contacts we make with the resources available to us in a Web 2.0 world. And some of us plant and nurture seeds through what we teach and learn in every session which we lead, thereby adding to what grows within Johansson’s Intersection.

We are also constantly exposed to seemingly disparate elements—Skype, reference services, and those who use library services without actually entering a brick and mortar library, for example.

The beauty of the Intersection is that it really does not require very much effort—just a commitment to remain inquisitive. We need to be able to question what we learn and know and teach. Break down the barriers. And be open to a constant stimulating change of our perspective. Most of all, we need to listen: to ourselves, to those around us, and to those we meet in books and magazines, online, in classrooms, and even in our dreams

The rest falls into place. ( )

A motivating challenge to seek innovation. The intersection of disciplines and ways of thinking produce value. Several interviews and case studies add interest. ( )

Frans Johansson presents within the pages of The Medici Effect concepts which form the foundation of a theory for both innovation and invention. Johansson illustrates these concepts by cleverly using several examples ranging from a diverse menu at a Swedish restaurant to using methods employed by ants in a telecommunication technology. Within this range Johansson dissects the root of creativity and true innovation; the author refers to it as the intersection. The intersection represents the crossroad where different disciplines come together to exchange and create ideas together. Within interdisciplinary teams of professionals rises true innovative ideas. A great read for those who are looking to be more creative at work, home, or anywhere. ( )

"Donald Campbell, one of the leading psychologists in creativity research in the sixties, concluded that persons "who have been uprooted from traditional cultures, or who have been thoroughly exposed to two or more cultures, seem to have the advantage in the range of hypotheses they are apt to consider, and through this means, in the frequency of creative innovation." The point is not that a person who has been exposed to multiple cultures can simply fall back on two or more different ways of viewing an issue. Rather, it is taht such a person is not wedded to a particular point of view. Simply by being aware that there are multiple ways of approaching a problem, he or she will more likely view any situation from multiple perspectives." -pp 47 ( )