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Editorial Review:
There are thousands of books about thinking. But there are very few books that provide clear how-to information that can actually help you think better.
Think Better is about Productive Thinking — why it’s important, how it works, and how to use it at work, at home, and at play. Productive Thinking is a game changer — a practical, easy-to-learn, repeatable process that helps people understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively. It's based on the thinking strategies that people we celebrate for their creativity have been using for centuries. Tim Hurson brings Productive Thinking out of the closet and presents it in a way that makes it easy for anyone to grasp and use — so you can think better, work better, and do better in every aspect of your life.
Think Better demonstrates how you can start with an intractable technical problem, an unmet consumer need, or a gaping chasm in your business strategy and, by following a clearly defined, practical thinking process, arrive at a robust, innovative solution. Many companies use the Productive Thinking model to generate fresh solutions for tough business problems, and many individuals rely on it to solve pressing personal problems.
The principles you'll find in Think Better are straight-forward: separate your thinking into creative thinking and critical thinking; stay with the question; strive for the “third third” by generating lots and lots of ideas; and look for unexpected connections.
The model consists of six interlocking steps:
Step 1:What's Going On? Explore and truly understand the challenge.
Step 2: What's Success? Envision the ideal outcome and establish success criteria.
Step 3: What's the Question? Pinpoint the real problem or opportunity.
Step 4: Generate Answers List many possible solutions.
Step 5: Forge the Solution Decide which solution is best. Then make it better.
Step 6: Align Resources Create an action plan.
Tim Hurson starts by explaining how we all build inner barriers to effective thinking. He identifies our habits of thinking that severely limit our behavior, from “monkey mind” to “gator brain.” Then he demonstrates how to overcome these barriers.
More than anything, productive thinking is an attitude that will let you look at problems and convert them into opportunities. At the end of this disciplined brainstorming process, you'll have a concrete action plan, complete with timelines and deadlines.
The book is filled with many of Hurson's original brainstorming tools that will empower you to generate, organize, and process ideas. For example, you can identify your best ideas using the five C's: Cull, Cluster, Combine, Clarify and Choose. And you can transform an embryonic idea into a robust solution with POWER, which stands for Positives, Objections, What else?, Enhancements and Remedies.
To create the future, you first must be able to imagine it. Productive thinking is a way to help you do that.
Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking Reviews:
How to increase the ROI of innovative thinking 
2008-08-06 -
Tim Hurson explains that the premise of this book "is that success in our business, professional, and personal lives is less a matter of what we know than of how we think. If we can develop the thinking skills to generate more options and then evaluate those options more effectively, we can all live richer, fuller lives - and so can the people around us." The focus of the this book is on the thinkx Productive Thinking Model (PTM), developed by Hurson and his colleagues after rigorously evaluating a number of other methodologies that include the Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS) and Integrated Definition (IDEF).
There seems to be greater emphasis on improving problem solving than on improving any other function of better thinking (e.g. generation, evaluation, and selection of innovative ideas), although the PTM process consists of six interlocking steps that can help to achieve a variety of objectives. Each step includes a variety of tools and techniques that Hurson explains, citing relevant real-world examples throughout his narrative to illustrate how various companies have used the PTM. Hurson devotes a separate chapter to each step.
For example, Step One responds to the question "What's Going On" and requires a situation analysis. Here are some issues to address at the stage of the process:
1. "What's the Itch?" (i.e. problem to be solved, question to be answered)
2. "What's the Impact?" (i.e. pay-off, benefits, improvements)
3. "What's the Information?" (i.e. what is currently known about the situation)
4. "Who's Involved?" (i.e. Who are the stakeholders? Who else will be affected?)
5. "What's the Vision [or "Target Future]?" (i.e. ultimate objective as well as its implications and consequences)
In Chapter 13, Hurson recaps the Productive Thinking Model (PTM) and offers a number of observations and suggestions to those who are considering use of this model as well as those who have made it commitment to it and are now engaged in the difficult but necessary processing of making appropriate modifications of it to accommodate the needs, resources, and objectives of their own organization. Then in Chapter 14, Hurson suggests four essential criteria for developing productive thinking skills and embedding productive thinking in organizational cultures.
In this final chapter, he also asserts that -- as practiced in much of corporate America -- training "is an astonishing waste of resources" when there is no follow-through on front-end training to embed and then strengthen even more the skills taught. In fact, the word "training" has lost its meaning because it is now more commonly used to refer to information transfer rather than skill development. "Hurson prefers the word "entraining." Why? "In chemistry, to entrain means to trap suspended particles in a solution and carry them along. This concept is an apt metaphor for skill development...Entraining results in a new and different workflow. Keeping those new skill particles suspended in your workflow requires the forging of new synaptic connections, new neural pathways."
Hurson includes an especially apt quotation that I now use also when concluding this review:
"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." Yogi Berra
* * * * *
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Tom Kelley's discussion of how IDEO conducts brainstorming sessions in his two books, The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation. I also recommend two of Henry Chesbrough's books, Open Innovation and Open Business Models, as well as John Medina's Brain Rules, Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, and Creativity in Business co-authored by Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers. Those feeling especially frisky and convinced they are up to the intellectual challenge are encouraged to consider reading Gerald Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire and Albert Borgmann's Holding On to Reality. Most of these books are available in a paperback edition.
this book would be better if... 
2008-07-24 - what a fascinating book! unfortunately it is littered with typographical errors which are REALLY irritating. examples: "The stem brain or gator brain processes and teacts to sensory input(p. 21)"..."Nothing is perfect. The word is full of things we can do better(p.7)."..."As Nicholas Negoponte, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, has written...(p.43)"
such a shame. if there is ever a second printing, perhaps these and other unnecessary errors can be corrected.
Think Better - Yes please!
2008-06-18 - Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking
This book is based on the outstanding premise that how we think is more important than what we know. Tim explains why thinking skills are likely to be even more important in the rapidly changing future. The book then expands on exactly what productive thinking is and why we need to do it! Although initially based on the proven concepts of the Osborne Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model, Productive Thinking takes the ideas of divergent and convergent thinking, and together with an excellent choice of thinking tools and techniques, weaves them together in the 6 step Productive Thinking Model. Elegant in design, thoroughly researched and proven in practice. An easy to read and very informative piece of work. Well done Tim.
Ken Wall - Australia
People fear what they don't understand
2008-05-28 - Thinking is intuitive. Thinking is common sense. Thinking is hard wired into humans. If all this is true, more people would put common sense into common action. It's not the case, though is it?.
When one understands, one can make decisions more easily, more quickly and more correctly. Tim Hurson's book whacks it out of the park so well, we purchased 150 copies for clients and will follow up with them to make sure they read it and, well "Think Better" to dramatically improve their business.
As Tim writes on page 10 of his must read book, "The ability to think better will soon become the most significant competitive advantage companies and individuals can claims. Thinking better is what it's all about."
Our company trains insurance agents (Throw the eggs now) to help their employer clients better understand what they pay so dearly for. The word insurance seems to connote the worst images...an intangible concept that is difficult to understand, costs too much and does not perform when one needs it.
Page 88-Perceive a problem. Pick a solution. Do something. Finding the real problem to create broader solutions takes training. Tim shows one how to analyze properly, find the solution and implement. Not only is one step difficult for too many business people, but putting all three into action, is almost impossible for most. Isn't the goal to at least beat Paretto's 80-20 principle?
The insurance business is replete with "This is how it's always been done. This is the way to do it now." If readers will follow Tim's Productive Thinking Model framework, it will help them think better, think more effectively, and think more powerfully. We'll finally hear no more "This is how it's always been done."
Makes sense to us. It will to you also.
Creativity in Action
2008-04-04 - I was introduced to the book recently, with the author presenting at the local public library. Over 100 people showed up from all walks of life, and all seemed to have benefited from the approach he takes on creativity.
The book is an excellent guide on how to change your critical thinking processes into creative thinking processes.
His work even helps deal with stressful issues- you shortly find new ways to tackle problems - and sometimes even find new opportunities. I recommend this book to anyone who is ready to realize the importance of creative action in their lives.
