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about the author
robert gerlach

CREATIVITY COACH, ARTIST AND ENTREPRENEUR

Driven by the question: “Why am I creative in one company and not in another?”, Robert Gerlach founded the training academy iQudo® sport of ideas in 2006. Since then, the creativity coach has pioneered the invention of new methodologies to help facilitate creative knowledge to designers, employees and managers of numerous companies, such as Amway, BASF, Microsoft, Samsung and SAP. To stay on top of the creativity game, the German-born coach mentors theses at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT-EnTechnon).

Robert approaches the sport of ideas with a blend of academic knowledge, examples from his multifaceted career as an award-winning art director, fashion designer and actor, as well as insights from his multicultural experience in New York, Paris, Barcelona, Germany and Brazil. A perfect day to the traveller and lifelong learner with a penchant for wandering around in unknown areas is being able to express himself in six languages: English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French and dancing.

Innovator's High helps you
blast through mental road blocks

review from
sarah betz

illustrator, little-cube.com

Innovator's High is a new must-read for everyone thinking of himself as not being creative or seeking new ways to advance. It gives you interesting historical links and insights of Robert's inspiring lifestyle and heterogenous experience! Real life examples make it accessible to everyone and are easy to adapt. His idea to see creativity as a sport is a new way of achieving Innovator's High, pushing you forward, giving great ideas of how to maximize your creative outcome!

review from
christine armishaw

entrepreneur

“Stuck for ideas? Deadline looming? Boss on your case? ...if you need some real help to get some great ideas, then this is a book that will actually help! Thinking of great ideas and being creative is actually easier than you think, if you take a more ‘left-field’ approach. Robert gives real life examples of how to build your own creativity, get better ideas and best of all, reasons why his techniques work. For anyone in an industry that requires fresh ideas and creative genius of any kind, this book will guide you on how to unlock your creative potential and keep it flowing, even when deadlines are coming up fast. Focusing on both mental and physical influences, such as where you are based, e.g. in an office or outside; what you have surrounding you, e.g. blank walls or pictures; and even what you eat and how different foods can impact on creativity. A hands-on, fun and actionable look at how to be more creative and get better ideas, that you can actually take on board and put to use straight away. A must read.”

review from
jim docktor

learning designer

“Robert does an amazing job of reframing creativity as the sport of ideas. His use of stories tied in with compelling examples walk you through aspects of creativity brilliantly. You won’t have any other choice but to unlock how you think of it and apply it to what is important to you. This is a great read for artists, anyone creative, everyone who thinks they are not creative, employees, and especially managers. Innovator’s High is infectious and elevates you to a place you may not have been before. Don’t be scared, embrace it and once you are there – stay there. Read it, believe it, and experience Innovator’s High!"

review from
ethan anthony wade

founder of XResults

In life there are obstacles that prevent you from reaching your creative self. Innovator’s High is that bridge to cross the chasm to creativity. This book is badass. I sincerely felt the Innovator’s High.

key reasons for your creativity flying high

for managers

Innovator’s High helps you to foster an inspiring culture.

  • The true key for employees to have their best ideas on the job.
  • Why investing in stylish furniture won’t increase creativity and what actually will.
  • Why creative work is better measured by effectiveness and not by effciency.
  • Two leadership styles on how to manage, motivate and keep dissenters and out-of-the-box thinkers.
  • Why ideation isn’t a linear process.
  • Support others to deliver creative excellence.

for creatives

Innovator’s High helps you to build your creative muscle and tap into idea euphoria.

  • Why creativity is a sport.
  • Tight deadlines? Find your idea during crunch time and feel Innovator’s High.
  • How to get around mental blocks.
  • How to propel your creativity to ingenuity.
  • Why you do your inner voice a disservice, if you steal ideas.
  • How to embrace the chaotic creative process.

new insights on
business creativity

276 PAGES, 96 TIPS AND OVER 40 COLOURED GRAPHICS

In Innovator's High, Robert Gerlach, a global expert on business creativity, shares his biggest insights on creative thinking, such as:

  • The #1 reason why people have their best ideas on the job
  • An unknown secret behind the innovator’s Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs
  • How "coopetition" accelerates talent development
  • How to withstand fast decision-making and tolerate uncertainty
  • Why Mozart’s genius wouldn’t reach a high note in today’s open-plan offices
  • How to eat creativity
  • How to transform negative feelings into creative power
  • Why permissiveness – and not a creative space – stimulates the mind
  • How to Karate chop writer’s block
  • Why great artists never steal!

creative work in companies is like going fishing, but with a gun pointed to your head telling you to hurry up or you are out!

Robert Gerlach