Articles by Paul Plsek

Published Material By and About Paul Plsek

Read and download articles, book chapters, and working papers by Paul Plsek, the developer of DirectedCreativity.

Click here for a complete resume and list of publications by Paul Plsek.

Leaders and Success: DirectedCreativity. Investor's Business Daily.

Format: PDF file

An interview of Paul Plsek in the national financial newspaper, Investor's Business Daily. The column is part of the Leaders and Success page which appears daily in the paper highlighting techniques for staying ahead of the pack. Reviews the DirectedCreativity Cycle, tools for creative thinking, and the DirectedCreativity website.

Innovative Thinking for the Improvement of Medical Systems. Annals of Internal Medicine.

Format: PDF file

This article appeared in the September 21, 1999 issue of the prestigious medical journal, Annals of Internal Medicine. It is the first article on creative thinking ever to appear in a major medical journals. The article introduces key ideas from DirectedCreativity and illustrates these with examples from Paul Plsek's consulting work with a large managed care organization.

An Example of Directed Creativity: The Hospital Medication Errors Quality Improvement Team. Excerpt from Paul Plsek's book Creativity, Innovation, and Quality.

Format: Web page (Note: page will open in a new browser window, simply close that window to return to this page.)

This excerpt from paul Plsek's book describes an application of DirectedCreativity.

Quality Improvement in Clinical Medicine. The Journal of Pediatrics.

Format: PDF file

See another aspect of Paul Plsek's work as he explains a variety of approaches for making health care better. Paul's work in health care improvement is international in scope; his clients include health care organizations all across the US, as well as in Canada, UK, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, Malaysia, Australia, Kenya, Pakistan, and Israel.

DirectedCreativity: Creative Thinking for Serious People. Descriptive handout.

Format: Microsoft Word file

This 2-page document provides a quick overview of DirectedCreativity and is suitable as a meeting handout. Permission to use the file for educational purposes is granted, provided that the original copyright notice is retained.

Working Paper: Models for the Creative Process.

Format: Web page (Note: page will open in a new browser window, simply close that window to return to this page.)

Reviews several models for the process of creative thinking, dating back to 1908, and shows how these models can be summarized in the DirectedCreativity Cycle.

Working Paper: Some Emerging Principles for Managers of Complex Adaptive Systems.

Format: Web page (Note: page will open in a new browser window, simply close that window to return to this page.)

One of the "boxes" that managers need to break out of is the mental model of an organization as a machine. In this working paper, Paul Plsek describes new thinking from the science of complex adaptive systems that will revolutionize management thinking.