Some of my favorite resources

Carol Dweck “Mindset” is a classic— she’s known for making the distinction between “Growth” and “Fixed” thinking. If you feel like you know everything you’ve meant to learn, you have a fixed mindset; if you’re open to learning new things (which is optimal! life is about constant change) you’re in a growth mindset.

Bella Martin & Bruce Haningon “Universal Methods of Design” is a collection of creative problem solving tools used by designers in lots of disciplines— user experience, interaction design, industrial design... It’s a great way to see 100 (100!) concrete action steps to develop solutions.

Value Proposition Design is my favorite go-to for business planning. Alex Osterwalder designed a one sheet solution for figuring out effective business models. It’s such an easy tool, you can quickly figure out your own business’ strengths and weaknesses, along with your competitors as well. Check out the tool online, it’s called the Business Model Canvas.

Tom Kelley and David Kelley, authors of “Creative Confidence”, are the people I’d credit with making creative problem solving approachable. David Kelley founded IDEO, an industrial design firm that now provides tremendous resources online for businesses to engage in self driven creative exploration at IDEO U.