Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. This book helps you with the hard part."
-Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment

According to productivity expert Scott Belsky, no one is born with the ability to drive creative projects to completion. Execution is a skill that must be developed by building your organizational habits and harnessing the support of your colleagues.

As the founder and CEO of Behance, a company on a mission to empower and organize the creative world, Belsky has studied the habits of especially productive individuals and teams across industries. Now he has compiled the principles and techniques they share, and presents a systematic approach to creative organization and productivity.

While many of us focus on generating and searching for great ideas, Belsky shows why it's better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen-a capacity that endures over time.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Making Ideas Happen (p. 1)
• Making This Book Happen (p. 4)
• Why Most Ideas Never Happen (p. 8)
• The Forces That Make Ideas Happen (p. 14)
• A Final Note As We Begin (p. 18)
• 1 Organization and Execution (p. 21)
• The Competitive Advantage of Organization (p. 25)
• Your Approach to Organization and the Destiny of Your Ideas (p. 26)
• The Action Method: Work and Life with a Bias Toward Action (p. 30)
• Reconsider How You Manage Projects (p. 32)
• Breaking Projects into Primary Elements (p. 34)
• The Importance of Action Steps (p. 37)
• Maintaining a Backburner (p. 43)
• References are Worth Storing, Not Revering (p. 45)
• Practicing the Action Method (p. 49)
• Capture and Make Time for Processing (p. 51)
• Prioritization: Managing Your Energy Across Life's Projects (p. 58)
• Keep an Eye on Your Energy Line (p. 58)
• Reconciling Urgent vs. Important (p. 61)
• Darwinian Prioritization (p. 67)
• Execution: Always Moving the Ball Forward (p. 70)
• Act Without Conviction (p. 72)
• Kill Ideas Liberally (p. 75)
• Measure Meetings with Action (p. 78)
• The Biology and Psychology of Completion (p. 81)
• The Tao of the Follow-up (p. 84)
• Seek Constraints (p. 86)
• Have a Tempered Tolerance for Change (p. 89)
• Progress Begets Progress (p. 91)
• Visual Organization and Advertising Action to Yourself (p. 93)
• Mental Loyalty: Maintaining Attention and Resolve (p. 98)
• Rituals for Perspiration (p. 99)
• Reconsider Your Work Space (p. 102)
• Reduce Your Amount of "Insecurity Work" (p. 104)
• 2 The Forces of Community (p. 107)
• Harnessing the Forces Around You (p. 111)
• The Dreamers, the Doers, and the Incrementalists (p. 112)
• Seldom is Anything Accomplished Alone (p. 116)
• Share Ideas Liberally (p. 120)
• Capitalize on Feedback (p. 124)
• Transparency Boosts Communal Forces (p. 128)
• Communal Forces are Best Channeled in Circles (p. 131)
• Seek Competition (p. 135)
• Commit Yourself in Order to Commit Others (p. 138)
• Create Systems for Accountability (p. 139)
• The Pressure of the Spotlight (p. 140)
• The Power of the Network (p. 142)
• The Benefits of a Shared Work Space (p. 143)
• Seeking Stimulation from Serendipity (p. 145)
• Pushing Ideas Out to Your Community (p. 147)
• Overcome the Stigma of Self-Marketing (p. 148)
• Effective Self-Marketing Builds Respect (p. 151)
• Find Your Own Frequency, Then Tune in to Engage Others (p. 155)
• Ground Your Ideas Outside Your Community (p. 158)
• Recognize When You are No Longer a Solo Show (p. 159)
• 3 Leadership Capability (p. 163)
• The Rewards Overhaul (p. 167)
• Short-Circuiting the Rewards System (p. 168)
• The Motivational Reward of Play (p. 172)
• The Reward of Recognition (p. 175)
• The Chemistry of the Creative Team (p. 177)
• Engage Initiators in Your Creative Pursuits (p. 178)
• Cultivate Complementary Skill Sets (p. 179)
• Provide Flexibility for Productivity (p. 180)
• Foster an Immune System that Kills Ideas (p. 183)
• Fight Your Way to Breakthroughs (p. 184)
• Don't Become Burdened by Consensus (p. 186)
• Managing the Creative Team (p. 190)
• Share Ownership of Your Ideas (p. 191)
• Leaders Should Talk Last (p. 193)
• Judge and Be Judged Amidst Conflict (p. 194)
• Develop Others Through the Power of Appreciation (p. 195)
• Seek the Hot Spots (p. 199)
• Self-Leadership (p. 202)
• Find a Path to Self-Awareness (p. 203)
• Develop a Tolerance for Ambiguity (p. 204)
• Capture the Benefits of Failure (p. 206)
• Avoid the Trap of Visionary's Narcissism (p. 207)
• Combating Conventional Wisdom with Contrarianism (p. 209)
• Consider Yourself an Entrepreneur (p. 211)
• Be Willing to Be a Deviant (p. 213)
• Keep an Eye on the Backward Clock (p. 214)
• The Love Conundrum (p. 216)
• Afterword (p. 219)
• An Opportunity and a Responsibility (p. 223)
• Acknowledgments (p. 225)
• Appendix 1 Tips for Practicing the Action Method (p. 228)
• Appendix 2 The Purple Santa Experiment (p. 230)
• Appendix 3 Overview of the Behance Network (p. 233)
• Index (p. 234)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Though creation always begins with an idea, ideas don't always lead to creation; examining why that's so, online entrepreneur Belsky finds that, no matter how unique or radically different ideas may be, the individuals and teams who carry those ideas to fruition share a number of common traits, such as engaging peers and leveraging communal forces. In this guide to realizing ideas, Belsky examines those traits in detail. Chapters like "The Chemistry of the Creative Team" set forth an action-based plan that forgoes time-wasting meetings and other corporate culture standbys, citing studies, progressive thinkers and case studies of companies like Best Buy, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Modern-day successes, Belsky contends, have traded "the traditional butts-in-chairs mindset" for a "Results Only Work Environment," where employees are compensated based on achievement of specified goals, rather than work hours. Ultimately, Belsky insists, creative success is a matter of rethinking methods and increasing focus, while emphasizing and rewarding old-fashioned passion and perspiration. (Apr.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.