University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Raise the Bar
Book

Raise the Bar

Creative Strategies to Take Your Business And Personal Life to the Next Level

Mike Vance and Diane Deacon
Career Press, 1999
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Editorial Rating

5

Qualities

  • Well Structured
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Mike Vance (who worked closely with Walt Disney, one of the world’s greatest innovators) and Diane Deacon clearly know their stuff when it comes to raising the bar, thinking outside the box and other somewhat clichéd approaches to business and personal performance. But, paradoxically, their book fails to raise its own bar. The writing is simplistic, lacks personality and reads like a formulaic presentation absent nuance, wit, intellect or style. Nonetheless, the book’s content is worthy of your attention, especially if you’re stuck in a rut, fearful of innovating or locked into a corporate climate that discourages creativity. getAbstract recommends this book’s message to those who need a reminder that unless they innovate and ratchet up their achievement level, they will stagnate. As for the authors - do as they say, not as they write.

Summary

A Master Stimulates Others

In everything he did, Walt Disney creatively moved himself and his company up to the "next level." He found ways to stimulate others by getting them to focus on new challenges and examine long-standing problems with fresh eyes. When his employees were working on a project, or making a presentation to him, he tossed in his thoughts, adding innovative twists that made their solutions better, prompting creative thinking from everyone around him. His employees often said, "If only we all could learn to stimulate others like Walt did."

Disney truly knew how to "raise the bar" for himself and everyone else. Raising the bar isn’t about getting everyone excited, or about prompting short-term positive changes. Raising the bar requires developing the habit of raising the level of performance on a regular basis and "in such a dramatic, exciting and powerful way that no one ever wants to go back to the old ways of doing things."

When you raise the bar, you take what’s being done now and make it better. Use innovation and creativity to enhance quality and uniqueness. Constantly create new standards for the way you do things, putting each standard...

About the Authors

Mike Vance, the former head of Disney University, lectures and consults on creative ideas and breakthrough solutions. Diane Deacon is president of the Creative Thinking Association of America and of Intellectual Equities, a products, seminar and consulting company providing creative services. She is an authority in idea development and innovative problem solving. Vance and Deacon also co-authored Think Out of the Box and Break Out of the Box.

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