We always recommend the use of creativity techniques to help generate new ideas and solve problems, but there's something more you can do - it's possible to exercise your mental muscles so that it becomes easier and easier to generate new ideas and think flexibly.

A simple way to do this is take a regular dose of creative problem solving, and this book is packed with puzzles and problems, often requiring a bit of lateral thinking to come to a solution. There are also two creative thinking tests to assess your level of creativity. This is the best source we've come across for such puzzles and should be on the shelf of anyone who wants to improve their personal creativity.

The only proviso is that the book doesn't bring out one essential for creativity - that every real problem has many solutions. All too often what you end up doing is not looking for a creative solution, but looking for the answer the author intended - the result is constrained thinking an analysis, not open thinking and creativity. However, once armed with this awareness, it's not a problem. Just make sure you try to come up with at least 2 solutions to each problem. Where it's a 'spot the odd one out' in a list of words or similar, you can go even further and try to find a solution that fits every answer. That way, when you check the answer in the back you can be smugly aware you did even better than the author!