Making Ideas Happen is the new book from Scott Belsky – the founder of Behance, an online platform and community for visual creators, and the 99% conference an annual event that brings together creative thinkers to discuss their effectiveness and productivity.  Scott is passionate about helping creative people realise their ideas and has been researching the area since his MBA.

Making Ideas Happen – an essential read for anyone who generates ideas – takes readers through a series of suggestions, based on case studies from successful creative organisations known for “overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality” (the book’s tagline).  This ranges from practical tips on managing projects (including Behance’s own “Action Method”, thinking about how your workspace can help you become more action-orientated, and overcoming the stigma of self-promotion.  It also nods to some of the current trends driving our working practices such as the freelance culture, flexibility, digital developments and co-working, as elements that should be capitalised to support ideas execution.

A considerable amount of the book is dedicated to the “Forces of Community” using networks and contacts to get ideas through to completion.   Making Ideas Happen acknowledges the value of collaboration (“ideas don’t happen in isolation”) but identifies the challenges that can arise throughout the process for creative people, such as sharing ideas, transparency and tolerating feedback, whilst looking at processes for overcoming these.

Overall, Making Ideas Happen is an accessible read that encourages you to reflect on and re-evaluate the way you work creatively.  Belsky has been careful to focus on thought-provoking techniques for putting ideas into practice (99% of the work) rather than ideas generation which is well within the comfort zone of most creative people (the other 1%).  It’s one of those books that, when you find your brilliant projects aren’t leaving the sketchbook, you should dip into for actionable suggestions for getting them going.

For more information visit http://the99percent.com/book or pre-order the book on Amazon.