The Creativity Leap, Second Edition

Master creative thinking in the AI age with practical tools that blend imagination and discipline for better innovation in this updated, award-winning business bestseller.

Now updated with 20 percent new content, this Porchlight Business Book of the Year returns with all-new case studies and a groundbreaking chapter on creative partnerships with AI and emerging technologies. Natalie Nixon demonstrates that humans are hardwired for creativity—a competency anyone can develop by balancing wonder (awe, audacity, and curiosity) with rigor (discipline, skill-building, and attention to detail).

Drawing on interviews with professionals across diverse industries—from farming to medicine to technology—Nixon reveals how inquiry, improvisation, and intuition enhance creative capacity in every kind of work. This second edition features fresh success stories from resourceful businesses that have mastered the delicate dance between human imagination and artificial intelligence in a rapidly changing world.

Combining practical creativity tools with illuminating stories of innovative people and organizations, this book serves as a provocation, an inspiration, and an invitation to unleash the innate creativity within each of us. Nixon offers a dynamic approach to adaptation and innovation that allows the freedom to access our full human potential—even as technology continues to reshape how we work. This essential guide helps anyone cultivate the creative thinking needed to thrive in today’s complex business landscape.

Author Biography

Natalie Nixon is a creativity strategist and president of Figure 8 Thinking. She advises and emboldens leaders to transform their businesses through creativity and foresight. She is a regular contributor to Inc., Fast Company, Katie Couric Media, and SHE Media and the editor of the book Strategic Design Thinking. Nixon’s global speaking roster includes TEDxPhilly, the Fast Company Innovation Festival, and the Mayo Clinic’s Transform conference, and her corporate clients include Kraft Heinz and Paycor. She holds a doctorate in design management, a master’s in global textile marketing, and a bachelor’s (cum laude) in anthropology and Africana studies. In 2024, she received the Architecture of Innovation award and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar.