Kevin Carroll Katalyst

Books

Anyone who has attended a talk by Kevin Carroll knows that he loves to recommend inspiring books. Here is the ever-expanding list which includes his core favorites like Orbiting the Giant Hairball, The Alchemist, Roadtrip Nation and, of course, The Velveteen Rabbit.

Click on any book to purchase via Barnes & Noble. Feel good about buying any of these titles because Katalyst Consultancy donates a portion of each book sale to Right To Play.

• The Dot By Peter H. Reynolds A delightful, children’s book about the value of being an artist. It's an affirmation that everyone possesses an “artist” inside of them, they just have to look deep enough for it.
• Creativity By Mihaly Csikszentmihaly Tremendously insightful, this book focuses on the science of creativity and maximizing human potential. The book-author pulls from a variety of disciplines and industries and science to share this knowledge with the reader.
• Love is the Killer App By Tim Sanders An interesting book about identifying and understanding your consumer on a deeper level. I like this approach on how your business or brand can take that information and use it more thoughtfully.
• Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands By Kevin Roberts This book is about excelling in your industry and trying to create relationships rather than just having transactions. It’s contains ideas about moving from behaving simply as a business or a brand and building relationships with your consumers that are enduring and everlasting.
• Orbiting the Giant Hairball By Gordon Mackenzie It’s a captivating read from the content to the design of the book. An insightful book, that provides much needed information about “surviving” in a business setting. A must-read for all who work in a creative capacity for an organization.
• Primal Leadership By Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee This book has all you need to know about being a leader in the 21st century - inspire your people and move them to action. This is a fantastic book! (note: the first paragraph sums up the entire book.)
• Purple Cow By Seth Godin This is a great marketing book about how to stand out and be unique.
• The Art of Innovation By Tom Kelley IDEO Design very generously shares their process with the reader. It’s a wonderful opportunity for people to see how one of the best design firms in the world does their work.
• The Power of the Tale By Julie Allan, Gerard Fairtlough, and Barbara Heinzen The book takes a look at storytelling’s critical role in all of our learning and how great organizations rely on narrative to communicate ideas.
• The Story Factor By Anette Simmons The book takes a look at storytelling’s critical role in all of our learning and how great organizations rely on narrative to communicate ideas.
• The Precious Present By Spencer Johnson A quick, powerful, thought-provoking read that will remind you of what really matters.
• The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell Big ideas and great design concepts must come together to create the defining “Aha” moment. The book identifies key items to aid your ideation process.
• Life at the Extremes Frances M. Ashcroft It’s a series of stories about ways people have overcome adversity. There are creative metaphors about competition, scaling mountains and playing not to lose.
• The True Believer By Eric Hoffer The role and power of social movements is explained in this book. It helps the reader understand how social networks and movements operate and how they can be tremendous influencers.
• The Wisdom of Crowds By James Surowiecki The ability of the masses to influence, impact, and make a difference is explained in this literary effort – the “many” truly can be more powerful than the “few”.
• The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho The Alchemist, This book is the pinnacle of parables. It’s full of lessons we can all use in our professional and personal pursuits.
• The Velveteen Rabbit By Margery Williams It’s the greatest leadership-development book ever written!
• Roadtrip Nation By Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard This book talks about finding your “open road” or following your passion and pursuing it. The book-authors share empowering stories about people who have found and defined success on their own terms.
• Cool To Be Kind By Val Litwin, Chris Bratseh, Brad Stokes, and Erik Hanson Performing random acts of kindness can truly impact lives as told by these four unconditional givers of kindness. Join them as they chronicle their trek across Canada providing many people a much needed injection of unconditional joy.
• The Big Moo: Stop Trying to be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable By The Group of 33 and Seth Godin Thirty-three thought leaders (Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, Guy Kawasaki, etc.) share short essays on what they think is important to in business. Readers will have extra fun trying to decipher who wrote each essay because the by-line is purposely omitted.
• Peak Performance: Business Lessons from the World's Top Sports By Clive Gilson, Mike Pratt, Kevin Roberts, Ed Weymesn This organizational leadership book is about the value of getting an organization to buy into an idea and turn it into a reality. It uses empirical research to look at how to position a “dream” as the goal for the organization rather than a “mission” and why a dream creates more personal investment from employees.
• Not A Box By Antoinette Portis A delightful children's book about seeing opportunities like a child does - open to all things and always viewing each day with a fresh perspective.

All of the following thought-provoking books are great tools that focus on creativity and innovation. They are wonderful literary efforts around the necessity of capturing creative ideas and innovation. Each book provides ways for everyone to contribute and actively participate in the creative process – ENJOY!

• Bang! By Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval
• The Visionary's Handbook By Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker
• The Art of Business By Stan Davis and David McIntosh
• Discover your Genius By Michael J. Gelb
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience By Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
• Jamming By John Kao
• How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci By Michael J. Gelb
• Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors By Evan I. Schwartz
• The Five Faces of Genius By Annette Moser-Wellman
• The Map of Innovation By Kevin O'Connor
• Unstuck By Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro
• Why Not? By Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres
• The Starfish and the Spider Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
• What A Great Idea Charles "Chick" Thompson
• Made to Stick Chip and Dan Heath
• The Power of Cult Branding By Matthew W. Ragas and Bolvar J. Bueno

Auditory Offerings - stimulating & relaxing these auditory gems will enhance your creative capacity and personal focus. Dr. Jeffrey Thompson does unique clinical work coupling auditory science and the ambient sounds. Each CD has beautiful melodies and music along with a wonderful blend of science, ambient sound to create an opportunity for your brain to be stimulated and strengthened. Sound therapy is really one of the breakthrough ways to release creativity, relax the mind/body and unleash inspiration.

• Brainwave Suite By Dr Jeffrey Thompson The Center for Neuroacoustic Research
• Creative Mind System By Dr Jeffrey Thompson The Center for Neuroacoustic Research
• Music for Brainwave Massage 2.0 By Dr Jeffrey Thompson The Center for Neuroacoustic Research