Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How To Think Like Da Vinci PDF
How To Think Like Da Vinci PDF
How To Think Like Da Vinci PDF
How
to
Think like
Leonardo da Vinci
M i c h a e l J. G e l b
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 2
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Welcome to How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. This presentation is based on the
best-selling book How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius
Every Day, by Michael Gelb, founder and president of The High Performance
Learning© Center.
While viewing the presentation, follow along and take notes in this participant guide. It
cues you to key learning points and includes numerous activities and specified
"homework" to enable your learning. Be prepared to have your customary ways of
thinking challenged.
Today's organizations desperately need people who have both analytical skills and bold
imagination, who can create innovative products and new businesses. Michael Gelb's
presentation - and the tools it contains - can help you and your organization achieve
new levels of performance.
Of course, Leonardo Da Vinci did not develop his genius overnight, nor did Michael
Gelb learn how to understand that genius and apply his methods in just a couple of
hours. Simply watching today's program will not transform you into an instant genius.
It requires rigorous self-development and learning through practice. To facilitate this
learning, activities for before, during and after the seminar have been designed to
accompany the presentation.
SCENE SELECTION
Pre-Presentation Activities
• Open yourself to new ideas. It is often helpful to relax both mind and
body through simple breathing exercises. Begin by sitting erect with
your back straight and your head centered above the torso. Let your
arms dangle loosely. Rest your hands on your thighs or knees with
your elbows close to your body.
Post-Presentation Activities
• Complete any unfinished activities. These are important skill-builders that will
help you internalize the Da Vinci principles.
• Share what you have learned with other members of your organization.
• Read Michael Gelb's books, How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven
Steps to Genius Every Day (Delacorte Press, New York, 1998), and do The
How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci WORKBOOK (Dell Publishing, New
York, 1999).
• Consider using the resources listed at the end of the participant's guide to
learn more, and to develop one or more new skills that will expand your
brain's capability. The "recommended reading" list begins on page 45.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 7
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Introduction
For more than five centuries Western civilization has viewed with admiration and
awe the life and works of a great genius of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci.
The phrase "Renaissance man", which is used to describe anyone with a multitude
of talents and skills, might have been coined to describe Leonardo Da Vinci. He
was a painter whose masterpieces still influence artists today and delight all who
see them. He was an astronomer, a musician, a scientist, an inventor, and a
profound philosopher, who kept meticulous notes and sketches of all he thought
and observed.
How did he achieve all this? Da Vinci himself has recorded his methods and has
described how to think, how to develop and use our inherent capabilities, how to
integrate everything we learn into one harmonious whole.
Five centuries later, as people search for new ways to improve the performance of
their organizations, Da Vinci's ideas have re-emerged as the buzzwords of
management theory. When we speak of:
"continuous learning",
"whole-brain thinking",
"mind-body connection"
"brainstorming",
"systems thinking",
"thriving on chaos",
we are simply using new language to describe concepts set down long ago by
Leonardo Da Vinci.
In today's global marketplace, all organizations are searching for ways to revitalize
themselves. Corporations, government entities and non-profits all need to find new
methods of working, new ways to organize themselves, new products and services
in a rapidly changing world. People in organizations are being called upon to
develop competencies that will enlarge their own scope and will yield innovation
and productivity for their organizations. For these people, Leonardo Da Vinci has a
message: If you are willing to apply yourself, you can learn how to think like a
genius!
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 8
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Notes:
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 9
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
♦ CURIOSITÀ:
Approaching life with insatiable curiosity and an unrelenting quest for
continuous learning
♦ DIMOSTRAZIONE:
Committing to test knowledge through experience, persistence and a
willingness to learn from mistakes
♦ SENSAZIONE:
Continually refining the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven
experience
♦ SFUMATO:
Embracing ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty
♦ ARTE/SCIENZA:
Balancing science and art, logic and imagination - 'whole-brain thinking'
♦ CORPORALITA:
Cultivating grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise
♦ CONNESSIONE:
Recognizing and appreciating the interconnectedness of all things -
'systems thinking'
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 10
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
ACTIVITY 1:
Your desire to learn and develop your natural abilities is the fountain from
which all Da Vincian practices will flow. Begin by contemplating the
statements below. Your reflections will help you understand how well you
are already using your curiosità, and where there is room for improvement.
• I am a voracious reader.
• I love learning.
Notes - 1. Curiosita: Approaching life with insatiable curiosity and an unrelenting quest
for continuous learning:
ACTIVITY 2:
Think of a real problem or question that you are concerned with in your work or within
your organization. Write your question or problem statement below, and then fill in
answers to "what, when, who, how, where, and why". Some cues have been provided to
stimulate your thinking.
Once the problem has been explored, set the problem aside for a while, and then, when
you return to it, propose as many "what if scenarios as you can think of. Enlist the help of
colleagues and associates. Record all scenarios, no matter how outrageous they seem at
first. Then select one or more scenarios, and subject them to the six-question treatment.
QUESTION/PROBLEM STATEMENT:
What...
is the problem? are the underlying issues? preconceptions, prejudices, or paradigms may
be influencing my perception ? will happen if I ignore it? problems may be caused by
solving this problem? metaphors from nature can I use to illuminate it?
When...
did it start? does it happen? doesn't it happen? will the consequences of it be felt? must it
be resolved?
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 12
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Who...
cares about it? is affected by it? created it? perpetuates it? can help solve it?
How...
does it happen? can I get more objective information? can I look at it from unfamiliar
perspectives? can it be changed? will I know that it has been solved?
Where...
does it happen? did it begin? haven't I looked? else has this happened?
Why...
(Ask Why... Why... Why... Why... Why . . . to get to the bottom of an issue.)
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 13
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
What have you learned about your question or problem from asking these questions?
Summarize your insights below.
What if...
ACTIVITY 3:
Rate yourself with these questions, answering "mostly yes" or "mostly no". For each
question, jot down an instance in your experience when the answer was "yes" and an
instance when the answer was "no":
• Now, select a problem and ask, "How would I handle it differently if I weren't afraid of
making mistakes"?
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 16
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Notes - 3. Sensazione: Continually refining the senses, especially sight, as the means
to enliven experience:
ACTIVITY 4:
Assessing Sfumato
In this activity you will be assessing the degree to which you embrace ambiguity,
paradox and uncertainty. In the following list, quickly rate yourself on a scale of 1-5,
where 1 represents a need for certainty at all times, and 5 represents a well-developed
capacity for ambiguity and comfort with uncertainty and paradox. Then, go back and
write down an example from recent experience which illustrates your self-rating.
Finally, add up your "score". A total less than 30 indicates a strong need to develop
your ability to embrace ambiguity if you want to think like Leonardo Da Vinci.
SCORE:
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 18
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
ACTIVITY 5:
Sfumato: Skill Building
Here are two activities aimed at strengthening your Sfumato skills. Select one of them to
get started on during the seminar, and plan to come back afterward to complete the
other.
Activity 1:
Cultivate Confusion Endurance: The Sfumato principle asks us to sharpen our senses in
the face of paradox and embrace creative tension. It is useful to explore the paradoxes in
our everyday lives. For example:
• List at least three of your personal weaknesses.
• Then list three or more of your personal strengths.
Strengths Weaknesses
• Goals and process. Write down an important goal you accomplished. Describe the
process you followed. How do goal and process relate?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 21
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
In your personal experience does the end justify the means? Why, or why not?
You can continue this exercise indefinitely by examining other paradox pairs in
your life: Joy and sorrow, good and evil, change and constancy, humility and
pride, etc.
Activity 2:
Making space for incubation: When do you get your best ideas? Think of a
moment of creative breakthrough. Trace the process. Were you alone? What
kind of input preceded the breakthrough? Did you have to take a break? How
long a break? Do you have a strong faith in your creative process? Give
examples of success.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 22
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
In Part Two, we will continue learning from Leonardo by taking a closer look
at the last three of the seven steps:
• ARTE/SCIENZA
Balancing science and art, logic and imagination - 'whole-brain thinking'
• CORPORALITA
Cultivating grace, ambidexterity, fitness and poise
• CONNESSIONE
Recognizing and appreciating the interconnectedness of all things -
'systems thinking'
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 23
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Notes - 5. Arte/Scienza: Balancing science and art, logic and imagination: 'whole-brain
thinking':
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 24
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
ACTIVITY 6:
This self-assessment is designed to help you get a rough idea as to whether you tend
to be "left-brained" or "right-brained". Circle a value from 1 to 5 for each statement,
where 5 is "very much so" and 1 is "not at all".
I like details. 1 2 3 4 5
I am skilled at math. 1 2 3 4 5
I rely on logic. 1 2 3 4 5
I write clearly. 1 2 3 4 5
l Iike lists. 1 2 3 4 5
I am highly imaginative 1 2 3 4 5
I am good at brainstorming. 1 2 3 4 5
I love to doodle. 1 2 3 4 5
I rely on intuition. 1 2 3 4 5
Most people have a proclivity toward one hemisphere or the other of the brain. Was
that your result? Of course, all people have a "left-brain" and a "right-brain". Looking at
your own answers, you can see that you have some characteristics of each. But
having a proclivity toward one hemisphere points at the opportunity to bring the brain
in balance - balancing Arte and Scienza - by developing the less prominent capabilities
of the brain.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 26
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Mind Mapping
(Mind mapping was originated by Michael Gelb's friend and colleague Tony Buzan.
Buzan, author of The Mind Map Book, was inspired to create Mind Mapping partly
through his studies of the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci!)
The Rules
1. Begin your mind map with a symbol or a picture (representing your topic) at
the center of your page.
Starting at the center opens your mind to a full 360 degrees of association. Pictures
and symbols are much easier to remember than words. Drawing a picture or symbol
stimulates your right hemisphere and strengthens your ability to think creatively
about your subject.
3. Connect the key words with lines radiating from your central image.
By linking words with lines ("branches"), you'll show clearly how one key word
relates to another.
6. Print your key words on the lines and make the length of the word the same
as the line it is on.
This maximizes clarity of association and encourages economy of space.
7. Use colors, pictures, dimension, and codes for greater association and
emphasis
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 27
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Mind Mapping:
Highlight important points and illustrate relationships between different branches of your
mind map. You might, for instance, prioritize your main points through color-coding,
highlighting in yellow the most important points, using blue for secondary points, and so
forth. Pictures and images, preferably in vivid color, should be used wherever possible;
they stimulate your creative association and greatly enhance your memory.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 28
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
ACTIVITY 7:
Arte/Scienza Skill Builder
Mind mapping activates both Arte and Scienza - your whole brain. Mind maps let you
organize your material logically and even sequentially, while encouraging imagination
and spontaneity. Mind maps record in detail where you've been, while suggesting a
multitude of potential next steps.
Practice this important skill. Begin by creating a mind map in the space below of what
you have learned so far in this seminar:
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Plan to mind map this problem and brainstorm solutions later. Share the mind mapping
technique with colleagues and associates and enlist their help in using a mind map to
define and solve this problem. You will find a valuable mind-mapping post-presentation
activity on page 41.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 29
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Notes - 6. Corporalita: Cultivating grace, ambidexterity, fitness and poise:
never always
ACTIVITY 9:
Connessione Skill Builder
Metaphors and analogies are useful ways to make connections that are not otherwise
apparent. You can practice making connections by using the body metaphor to explore
the dynamics of your organization, department or work unit:
Which organization are you exploring?
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?
Are we ambidextrous?
What is the state of our health? Chronic maladies? Growing pains? Life
threatening disease?
Notes:
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 33
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Review
You have unlimited potential to liberate your creativity and ignite innovation in your
organization. We learned that some of the most modern ideas about creativity and high
performance were actually formulated centuries ago by a great genius, Leonardo Da
Vinci.
• CURIOSITÀ:
Approaching life with insatiable curiosity and an unrelenting quest for
continuous learning
• DIMOSTRAZIONE:
Committing to test knowledge through experience, persistence and a
willingness to learn from mistakes
• SENSAZIONE:
Continually refining the senses, especially sight, as the means to
enliven experience
• SFUMATO:
Embracing ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty
• ARTE/SCIENZA:
Balancing science and art, logic and imagination - 'whole-brain
thinking'
• CORPORALITA:
Cultivating grace, ambidexterity, fitness and poise
• CONNESSIONE:
Recognizing and appreciating the interconnectedness of all things -
'systems thinking'
In his presentation, Michael Gelb explained the method for using these seven principles.
A wealth of exercises has been provided for your use both during the presentation and
afterward, offering opportunities to learn and develop the skills embodied in this method.
Anyone can learn how to think like a genius. With this knowledge and these tools at
your disposal, you and your organization can begin a new period of increased creativity
and innovation.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 34
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Post-Presentation Activities
Beginning on the next page, you will find a series of activities that will augment the
work you did during the seminar. Before starting these, be sure to go back and
complete the activities you began during the seminar. You will note that some of those
also have post-presentation components.
POST-PRESENTATION ACTIVITY:
Assessing Sensazione
Think of the time in the past year when you felt most alive. Chances are that you can
conjure up all the images and sensations associated with that event, because at such
times your senses tend to be heightened and focused. By refining your Sensazione,
you will be able to bring the sensory aliveness of your peak experiences to your life
every day.
In the pages that follow you will find some suggestions for activities and exercises
designed to develop your Sensazione. As before, it is helpful to assess the current
state of your Sensazione. Begin by ticking off the checklists to help identify where your
senses are most developed and which senses need more work.
For more detailed activities like these, please see The How To Think Like Leonardo
da Vinci WORKBOOK.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 35
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
VISION: LOOKING AND SEEING
Self-Assessment: Vision
When different colors and hues are side by side, I am sensitive as to whether
they harmonize or clash.
I look out into the far horizon and up to the sky at least once a day.
Self-Assessment: Hearing
Friends describe me as a good listener.
I am sensitive to noise.
I can tell when someone is singing off-key.
I can sing on key.
I listen to jazz or classical music regularly.
I can distinguish the melody from the bass line in a piece of music.
I know what all the controls on my stereo system are for and can hear the
difference when I adjust them.
I enjoy silence.
I am attuned to subtle changes in a speaker's voice tone, volume, and
inflection.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 36
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Self-Assessment: Touch
I am aware of the "feel" of the surfaces that surround me daily, i.e., the chairs,
sofas, and car seats I sit on.
AROMATIC AWARENESS
Every day, all day, we are confronted with a smorgasbord of smells. Our five million
olfactory cells can sniff out one molecule of an odor-causing substance in one part per
trillion of air. And we take about 23,000 breaths per day, processing about 440 cubic
feet of scent-laden air, But most people have a very limited vocabulary for describing
aromatic experience: "It stinks," or "That smells good," are the most common
references. Aim to increase your discrimination and appreciation for smell by expanding
your olfactory vocabulary. Perfumers categorize smells as floral (roses), minty
(peppermint), musky (musk), ethereal (pears), resinous (camphor), foul (rotten eggs),
and acrid (vinegar). Use these terms and make up your own descriptors as you explore
the following exercises.
Self-Assessment: Smell
I have a favorite scent (What is it? Why do I like it? What does it remind me
of?)
When I see fresh flowers, I usually take a few moments to breathe in their
aroma.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 38
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
GOOD TASTE
For most of us, the opportunity to taste presents itself at least three times a day. But in
the rush of our lives, it is often difficult to pay attention. It is all too easy to "grab a bite
on the run," and to consume an entire meal without really tasting anything. Instead,
pause for a few moments before every meal. Reflect on the origins of the meal you are
about to enjoy. Aim to be 100 percent present as you taste the first bite of your food.
Self-Assessment: Taste
I can discern the flavor contributions of different herbs and spices in a complex
dish.
I am a good cook.
Notes:
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 40
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Notes:
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 41
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
POST-PRESENTATION ACTIVITY:
Practice Your Mind-Mapping Skills
Mind mapping is an invaluable tool for simplifying complex tasks. You can use it to
improve your performance in a wide range of areas including strategic planning,
presentation preparation, meeting management, test preparation, and systems analysis.
It's best to make your first few mind maps on relatively simple, lighthearted subjects.
Choose one of the following topics to practice your mind-mapping skills. Take about
twenty minutes for this first practice map.
Mind Map Your Favorite Movie. Begin with a simple drawing that represents your
favorite movie's title. Print key words and draw images that express the characters, plot,
and themes. Remember to put key words and images on lines radiating out from your
central symbol.
Mind Map Your Dream House. Explore the delightful fantasy of a dream house using a
mind map. Start with a symbol of your paradise in the center and then branch out with
key words and images that represent the elements of your ideal living environment.
Remember, let your mind work by association instead of trying to put things down in
order. Just generate ideas for your ideal environment. Then after you have come up
with a multitude of possibilities, you can go back and put them in order.
After you've made one or two practice mind maps, tackle the problem you wrote down
at the seminar.
Instructions:
• Use a large piece of paper.
• Think of the idea you would like to explore or the problem you would like to solve.
• In the center draw an abstract image of your topic.
• Free associate branches of the map - use keywords, color, pictures
• Take a break and then generate another wave of branches.
• Take another break - review - look for connections and emerging themes connect
related parts of your mind map with arrows, codes, colors, etc.
• Now, find relationships that can help you integrate and organize the most cogent ideas
and then reorder them to reflect new possibilities or solutions.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 42
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
POST-PRESENTATION ACTIVITY:
Assessing Corporalita
The idea that a robust mind and a healthy body are linked was one of the concepts from
ancient Greece that was revived during the Renaissance. Leonardo offered a
prescription for the health of mind and body when wrote:
POST-PRESENTATION ACTIVITY:
Corporalita - check each statement that describes you
I am aerobically fit.
I am getting stronger.
My flexibility is improving.
I know when my body is tense or relaxed.
I am knowledgeable about diet and nutrition.
Friends would describe me as graceful.
I am aware of the ways in which my physical state affects my attitude.
I am aware of the ways in which my attitude affect my physical state.
I love to move.
Corporalita Exercises
Mirror Observation. Stand in front of a full-length mirror. Avoid judging or evaluating
your appearance, just observe your reflection objectively, and record your answers
below:
Does your head tend to tilt to one side or the other?____________________________
Is one shoulder higher than the other? ______________________________________
Does your pelvis rock forward or is it held back? ______________________________
Is your weight distributed evenly on your feet or do you depend on one leg more than
the other for support? ___________________________________________________
What parts of your body appear to be overly tense? ____________________________
Are your pelvis, torso, and head in a balanced alignment? _______________________
Review your responses. Are you surprised by these results?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 44
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Notes:
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 45
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
CURIOSITÀ
• Adams, Kathleen. Journal to the Self. New York: Warner Books, 1990. Filled with
marvelous exercises for increasing self-knowledge.
• Goldberg, Merrilee. The Art of the Question: A Guide to Short-Term Question Centered
Therapy. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. A therapist's masterful application of
Curiosita.
• Gross, Ron. Peak Learning. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, I 991. A handbook for
lifelong learners.
• Progoff, Ira. At a Journal Workshop. New York: Dialogue House, 1975. Progoff is the
modern pioneer in the use of journaling as a tool for personal growth.
DIMOSTRAZIONE
• Alexander, F. M. The Use of the Self. New York: Dutton, 1932. An inspiring story of
learning from experience.
• Gelb, Michael J. Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System for Breakthrough
Business Success. New York, Penguin Group, 2007. Learn from the genius who
brought us 1,093 United States patents.
• McCormack, Mark. What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School. New
York: Bantam, 1984. Dimostrazione in the business world.
• Seligman, Martin. Learned Optimism. New York: Knopf, 1991. How to learn resilience
in the face of adversity.
SENSAZIONE
• Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
The Chicago Tribune called it "an aphrodisiac for the sense receptors.”
• Campbell, Don. The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body,
Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. New York: Avon Books' 1997.
• Collins, Terah Kathryn. The Western Guide to Feng Shui. Carlsbad, Calif.: Hay House,
Inc. 1996.
• Cytowic, Richard. The Man Who Tasted Shapes. New York: Putnam, 1993. A
neurologist's creative investigation of synesthesia.
• Gelb, Michael J. Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking: Uncork Your Creative
Juices. Philadelphia, Running Press, 2010. How to DRINK like Leonardo da Vinci!
SFUMATO
• Agor, Weston. The Logic of Intuitive Decision Making. Westport, Conm: Greenwood
Press, 1986. Agor makes a strong case for the use of intuition in managing complexity.
• Gelb, Michael J. Thinking for a Change: Discovering the Power to Create,
Communicate, and Lead. New York: Harmony Books, 1996. Introduces the
concept of "Synvergent Thinking," an approach to thriving with Sfumato.
• May, Rollo. The Courage to Create. New York: Bantam, 1976. A seminal exposition of
the central role of creative tension in a creative life.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 46
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
ARTE/SCIENZA
• Buzan, Tony. Use Both Sides of Your Brain (third edition). New York: Penguin, 1989.
Buzan's classic work, originally published in 1971, established him as the father of
"whole-brain" education. An invaluable guide for anyone interested in balancing Arte
and Scienza.
• Wonder, Jacqueline. Whole Brain Thinking. New York: Ballantine, 1985. Are you more
Arte or Scienza? Wonder offers the opportunity to test your brain dominance.
CORPORALITA
• Gelb, Michael J., The Five Keys to High Performance. New York, Gildan Media
Group, 2009. This audio program will guide you to improve your learning ability
as you age, embrace change, and discover resilience in the face of adversity as
you learn how to juggle!
CONNESSIONE
• Gelb, Michel J. Discover Your Genius: How To Think Like History’s Ten Most
Revolutionary Minds. New York, HarperCollins, 2002. Ten more geniuses!
• Kodish, Susan and Bruce. Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of
General Semantics. Englewood, N.J.: Institute of General Semantics, 1993. An
approachable work on systems thinking and general semantics.
• Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, with forward and notes by Stephen
Mitchell. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Taoism mirrors many of the Maestro's insights.
• Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization.
New York: Doubleday, 1990. Guides the reader to see and understand patterns,
relationships, and systems in business and everyday life.
• Wheatley, Margaret. Leadership and the New Science. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler
Publishers, 1992. Applications of the new physics to understanding organizations.
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci 47
Liberating Your Creativity and Innovation
Other titles include Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System for
Breakthrough Business Success, The 5 Keys to High Performance:
Juggling Your Way to Success, Samurai Chess: Mastering Strategic
Thinking Through the Martial Art of the Mind, Body Learning: An
Introduction to the Alexander Technique, Present Yourself! Captivate
Your Audience with Great Presentation Skills, Discover Your Genius:
How To Think Like History’s Ten Most Revolutionary Minds. His latest
book, Wine Drinking For Inspired Thinking: Uncork Your Creative
Juices, offers a unique, original and very enjoyable approach to team
building.