I just finished reading reading the manifesto by Mathew May, Elegant Solutions: Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way . Why read this? Because it will get you to think about creativity, the process and the execution of ideas. The above link allows you to download the manifesto. This piece of writing has been on my desktop for several weeks now and I finally sat down and read it. I could go on about how the piece is now dog eared and underlined with scribblings of my own notes, it is. The point is reading it and then harvesting the ideas and systems which will allow individuals to further excel, in anything.
A few quotes from the text to further drive you to read this document:
"Behind each of the over one million ideas implemented at Toyota every year is a mindful approach to innovative work driven by a companywide war on imperfection coupled with a disciplined creative methodology."
"It's about ideas."
"...a hidden process much closer to the bedrock of human creativity and interaction."
"An elegant solution is one in which the optimal outcome is achieved with the minimal expenditure of effort and expense."
"Finally, elegant solutions aren't obvious, except, of course, in retrospect."
