Creative Intelligence: Igniting the Power of Your Ideas

A 13-book creativity course to help you generate bold ideas, express your voice, and turn inspiration into real-world impact.

The 13-book journey that helps you think boldly, act creatively, and shape real-world impact.

In a world where everybody is an expert in innovation but only a handful know how to set it off, Creative Intelligence provides you with inspiration and a toolkit.

At the Art of Learning Leadership Academy (AOLLA), we don't believe creativity is a nicety. It's an imperative for leaders, entrepreneurs, and change-makers navigating through uncertain times. That's why we crafted Creative Intelligence: Build Ideas That Matter, a program built on 13 uniquely curated Bookish Notes. Each a powerful micro-guide, distilling the most essential principles from bestselling and ageless books on creativity, innovation, and idea generation.

Creativity Is Not a Gift—It’s a Skillset

Let’s bust a myth right away. Creativity is not reserved for "the chosen ones." As Kevin Ashton describes in How to Fly a Horse, creativity is labor. It's concentration, iteration, failure, and determination. You don't hope for inspiration. You start, refine, and keep going.

This same truth echoes in James Webb Young's A Technique for Producing Ideas, where he teaches that ideas regarding creativity stem from a systematic process: collect raw materials, digest, incubate, and lo, the "idea" appears.

Creativity is deliberate.

From Raw Thought to Real Innovation

Jim McKelvey’s The Innovation Stack offers a blueprint for real-world creative transformation. Innovation happens not in one giant leap, but through problem-solution-problem loops, creating a sequence of interlocking decisions that competitors cannot copy. When you take a risk to serve overlooked people or solve unusual problems, you’re forced to innovate. That’s where originality lives.

Lee Zlotoff’s The MacGyver Secret takes this further by training you to access your subconscious problem-solving power. His three-step process — define the problem, distract yourself with light activity, and return to ask for answers, shows that creativity isn’t just conscious. It’s deeply intuitive, too.

Your Voice is Your Advantage

In Feck Perfuction, James Victore and Danielle LaPorte make the case for unapologetic self-expression. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Weirdness is a strength. And the truest creativity comes when you stop asking, “What do they want?” and instead ask, “What do I have to say?”

This links powerfully to Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, who reminds us that all creative work builds on what came before. The goal is not to imitate. But to absorb, remix, and reflect what resonates with your unique voice. “Stealing” like an artist means owning your influences and making them yours.

The Conditions for Ideas to Bloom

In Creativity Rules, Tina Seelig emphasizes that creativity thrives when you combine knowledge, attitude, and action. She encourages approaching creative challenges with curiosity, resilience, and a willingness to experiment. One of her core insights is that constraints, rather than limiting creativity, often fuel it. By embracing limitations as design challenges, innovators are better able to push past conventional thinking.

She also highlights that ideas don't live in isolation. They grow when people collaborate, test assumptions, and stay open to unexpected possibilities. This complements the lesson in Bright Idea Box by Jag Randhawa. Creativity flourishes in environments where everyone is empowered to contribute.

Meanwhile, The Idea Hunter by Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer insists good ideas are everywhere if you’re willing to hunt for them with curiosity and courage. Idea hunters don’t wait—they search, question, and synthesize.

This notion of intentional discovery is also central in How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster, who maps out five steps: have a goal, gather information, think about it, incubate, and birth the idea. These cycles reappear across many of the books, proving that creativity follows patterns we can learn.

From Ideas to Action

Books like The Business Idea Factory by Andrii Sedniev demystify ideation. You can learn to generate hundreds of ideas by practicing and using structured prompts. Similarly, The Imagineering Process by Louis J. Prosperi offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Disney trains people to dream big and execute with precision. The principles—visualization, storyboarding, feedback loops aren’t just for creatives. They’re tools for entrepreneurs and leaders.

And at the heart of this course is What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada. This poetic children’s book asks what happens when you nurture an idea—no matter how fragile, strange, or uncertain it seems. You protect it. You believe in it. And it grows into something world-changing.

What You’ll Learn in the Course

By engaging with these 13 Bookish Notes, you’ll learn how to:

Consistently generate, refine, and implement ideas.
Access your subconscious creativity.
Express your unique voice with confidence.
Build habits and environments that support innovation
Transform failure into fuel for invention.
Start before you’re ready—and keep going.

Every Bookish Note includes implementation tools like a Habit Garden, Reflection Pages, and a Reading-to-Action Matrix to help you apply what you’ve learned immediately. You’ll develop your own creative rituals, design systems for consistent ideation, and explore how to solve problems others avoid.

This Is for You If...

You’re tired of “thinking about it” and ready to create.
You want to make bold moves in your business, career, or life.
You’re looking for a structured yet flexible way to nurture your creativity.
You want more than inspiration—you want results.

Ready to Build Your Creative Intelligence?

Creativity isn’t magic. It’s a mindset, a practice, and a powerful tool for shaping your life and work. The Creative Intelligence course shows you how.

Join AOLLA today to get access to this course and our full library of Bookish Notes.

✅ 13 high-impact Bookish Notes.
✅ Worksheets and application tools.
✅ A supportive learning community.
✅ A leadership lens on creativity.

🔗 Explore Membership at the Art of Learning Leadership Academy →

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.

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Categories: : creativity and innovation, professional development and leadership, strategic reading and application