p.20 To build competitive advantage, organizations must help employees to cultivate qualities that have
never before been critical - among them... self-awareness, constant creativity, and internal sense of purpose, and, perhaps
above all, resilience in the face of relentless change.
p.23-24 We can't change what we don't notice... The failure to connect behavior to its
inevitable consequences shows up in our lives every day.
p.27 The limitation of many people we meet begins with a lack of awareness, a failure to
see the consequences of the choices they're making in their own lives... Seeing more deeply requires seeing in -
the willingness to observe ourselves with unflinching honesty... The more we're willing to see, the bigger our world becomes.
p.28 Certainty makes us feel safer, especially in times of anxiety and change. But the consequence is that
we create a narrow, more two-dimensional world for ourselves, even as the world around us grows ever more complex.
p.30 With the right kind of practice, we can develop nearly any skill.
p.31 We create the highest value not by focusing solely on our strengths or by ignoring our weaknesses,
but by being attentive to both.
p.63 Awareness is half the battle
p.109 Systematically investing in people's capacity, beginning at the physical level, is the key to fueling
sustainable high performance.
p.178 "Every one knows what attention is," William James wrote back in 1890. "It is the
taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or
trains of thought....It implies a withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others."
p.202 "...Control your attention, and you control your life. I truly believe that."
p.203 Once you are able to focus more effectively, the next challenge is where to focus.
p.211 As for creativity, [Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain author Betty] Edwards believes
it can be trained like any other skill.
p.213 "Solving a problem with insight," [researcher John] Kounios says, "is fundamentally different from
solving a problem analytically." ..."You want to quiet the noise in your head to solidify that fragile germ of an idea," says
[researcher Mark] Jung-Beeman. The broader implication in that intentionally setting aside time to quiet the mind
and activate the right hemisphere - through meditation or drawing, for example - is powerful way to
induce creative breakthroughs.
Artists understand intuitively how to move into this state, but the rest of us must learn
it.
p.216-217 The stages of creativity... The five-step process... looks like this:
First Insight > Saturation > Incubation > Illumination > Verification
p.220 Seeing more deeply and creatively is the capacity we build by training the right hemisphere of the
brain... the best ideas tend to emerge by extending, deepening, rethinking, and reframing what's already known.
p.227 Arie de Geus, a former head of planning at Royal Dutch Shell, conducted a study of companies that
have lasted the longest. "The ability to learn faster than competitors," he argued, "may be the only
sustainable competitive advantage."
p.290 Prioritization is critical in the face of urgent demands.
