Thought Revolution - Updated with New Stories: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius

by William A. Donius

Overview

Discover your hidden brainpower with this newly expanded guide to the simple but powerful technique that unlocks potential in all areas of your life.

Former banker and ​CEO Bill Donius drove his bank’s eightfold growth over twelve years. And the surprising secret to his success is something we all have access to, right in our own two hands.

The methodology described in Thought Revolution is simple and revolutionary—so simple, it begins by moving your pen from one hand to the other. Whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, a whole world of change is possible. Writing with your non-dominant hand opens you up to creative solutions, giving you the ability to see new ways through problems in your business, career, relationships, health, and spiritual life.

In Thought Revolution, Donius explains the science behind non-dominant handwriting and teaches you how to incorporate the technique into your business and your life.

New stories from Donius’s extensive seminars illuminate how employees and managers can unite in a new vision for their company’s growth and culture, increase employee and customer satisfaction, and improve profits. Thought-provoking, easy-to-do exercises and prompts show how to connect more fully with your subconscious right brain to help you reduce stress, discover your hidden talents, heal from trauma, and come to a deeper spiritual awareness.

Thought Revolution shows how your non-dominant hand serves as a direct pipeline to the right brain’s wisdom. Incorporate this simple practice into your career and your life, and you’ll find insights that lead to lasting change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476751559
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

William A. Donius, former banker and CEO, teaches his creative method of problem solving to a wide range of corporations and employees and also blogs at Huffington Post. With thirty years of experience in the corporate world, Donius was chairman and CEO of Pulaski Bank in St. Louis, where he oversaw the bank’s eightfold growth over twelve years. For more information, please visit WilliamAlanDonius.com.

Read an Excerpt

Thought Revolution

WITH THE INITIAL publication of Thought Revolution, I felt as if I’d lit a match. Just as this methodology illuminated a new path for my life, it has revealed a new way of thinking for others. Since that time, I’ve used this revolutionary approach to help companies improve their business decisions, business systems, functioning, and morale.

Thought Revolution describes a simple way to learn to think differently, by activating the right brain. It relates how I developed the techniques and applied them to bring about the successes my colleagues and I enjoyed at the business I ran from 1997 to 2008. I have come to call these techniques “Ideation” and I believe them to be a reinvention of traditional brainstorming. Ideation is a reflective brainstorming technique that uses the right and left sides of the brain to allow you to break through entrenched habits of thought and difficult problems. It also helps you to avoid the circular thinking or channeling of ideas along a constrained path that can frequently occur when a group of people brainstorm together.

This new edition of Thought Revolution also explores surprising insights uncovered by seven people who generously allowed me to guide them through the Ideation process of working with the right brain and now to share their personal stories. I hope when you learn the techniques in this book, you’ll discover your own truths that will improve your personal and work life.

Without the breakthroughs that Thought Revolution enabled me to make, it might have taken me decades more to gain self-understanding and happiness, so I hope that this book will help you shorten that process. Along the way, I discovered that the path to happiness is not necessarily lined with gold in the financial sense. Life is not just about getting to your destination or achieving your goals. It’s also about the quality of your journey. Using the techniques in Thought Revolution to make you more aware and intentional about your life will make you happier. This book is your map to buried treasure inside your own mind.

The Ideation process can be equally effective in personal life or at work. I recommend that you begin by focusing on personal questions or challenges. Once you’ve seen how well the exercises work, you’ll have the confidence to use them to make contributions at work.

In public and private interviews since the publication of Thought Revolution, I’ve taken this work to a wide variety of people, from top executives and entrepreneurs to the chronically unemployed, from professional athletes to artists and musicians, from creative advertising types to actuaries. I’ve witnessed astonishing results from applying this technique to organizations from diverse American industries—Big Oil, financial firms, shipping companies, retailers, educational institutions, the world’s largest trade group, and nonprofit organizations. Even when I’ve wondered whether in a new business situation the technique will work, it has carried us through. This makes me very committed to helping others unlock and discover their “inner genius.”

This edition of Thought Revolution includes my experiences in conducting Ideation sessions with employees of corporations. In a new section, I tell stories of a self-employed artist and six companies that dared to explore uncharted territories with me. They had different reasons for taking the journey, but I think it’s safe to say that none of them foresaw fully how much they would learn along the way. These respected businesspeople and organizations allowed me to explore with them the rich creativity and problem solving skills inherent in the right brain. We uncovered extraordinary gifts.

Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition xi

Foreword Lucia Capacchione, PHD, ATR xiii

Part 1 Stop Lying, Start Living

Chapter 1 Taking Better Advantage of the Whole Mind 3

Chapter 2 Of Two Minds: A Relatively Recent Discovery 12

Chapter 3 A Conversation with Your Right Brain 22

Chapter 4 Mapping the Labyrinth 27

Chapter 5 Injecting Truth Serum 32

Chapter 6 Let's Draw a Picture 41

Part 2 Lifting the Eight Lies

Chapter 7 Liberation from Lies 47

Chapter 8 Lie Number 1: "Everything will work out eventually" aka "Whatever will he will be." 50

Chapter 9 Lie Number 2 "I'll get to it later." 57

Chapter 10 Lie Number 3: "Sooner or later my ship will come in," or "Good things come to those who wait." 63

Chapter 11 Lie Number 4: "I'm not the one who needs to apologize." 70

Chapter 12 Lie Number 5: "My life is as good as it gets." 78

Chapter 13 Lie Number 6 "Everything will be okay." 86

Chapter 14 Lie Number 7: "I won't make the same mistakes as my parents." 93

Chapter 15 Lie Number 8: "There's no such thing as true love." 98

Part 3 Right-Brain Thinking in the Workplace

Chapter 16 Ready to Go to Work? 109

Chapter 17 Creative Breakthrough: Artist Finds a New Path 116

Chapter 18 Management Insight: High-Powered Exec Discovers Different Approach 120

Chapter 19 A New Company Vision: Guinea Pig Gets the Gold 124

Chapter 20 A Creative Company Breakthrough 131

Chapter 21 Fortune 50: Finding Needles and Pitchforks in the Haystack 139

Chapter 22 Gathering a Global Team to Go After a Problem 147

Chapter 23 A Breakthrough for a Million Members 153

Chapter 24 Onward: What's Next? 158

Thought Revolution Journal 165

Acknowledgments 191

Index 195

About the Author 205

Editorial Reviews

Bill's technique can provide unanticipated answers and stunning insights that were hidden deep in your right brain. Take an unbiased trip to your right brain and you may find startling revelations that can allow you to resolve perplexing issues.

Timothy Conlon

"Many times in my life I’ve thought, “Oh I could never do that because of this.” So, when Bill Donius began talking to me about brain function and the employment of exercises involving the non dominant hand and the engagement of the right brain, I regarded it as well-intentioned baloney. However, as my left hand writing became more legible and liberated, I began to have the strength and the grit to clear obstacles to a creative enterprise I’d avoided starting all my adult life. Although the obstacles put in place by the this remain, it is because of the ideas and exercises offered in Thought Revolution that I nowadays have the gumption to work to clear them. To any reader ridden with the what ifs and the I cannots, I recommend Thought Revolution without a doubt. With stars."

Robert W. Duffy

Thought Revolution is a revolution in how we think about, allowing us to train our brains to remove old obstacles and achieve our potential. Bill Donius’s work will be a staple for individuals and organizations wishing to be truly innovative in the years ahead.

Mark Lombardi

"Over the years, I have known Bill Donius as an artist, bank president, activist, and now as an extremely fine writer. Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius is a brilliant new exploration of the power of the right brain and how it could change your life forever. Donius is a renaissance man and this book is just another piece of remarkable evidence of his genius."

David Mixner

"I can attest that Bill’s book delivers on its promise: You can change the way you think and find your truth in whatever challenges you. Whether you are recovering from a trauma, grappling with a life-altering decision, fighting to lose weight, or searching for a romantic relationship, Thought Revolution will take you on a journey that will set you free."

Lucia Capacchione

"Thought Revolution is different from virtually any of business book's? I've read as it truly lives up to its title. If you read it, you will indeed learn how to see your world through a different lens—not through the author's but through the lens of your intuitive right brain. Give yourself this gift."

Chip Conley

"Are you leaning too heavily on left-brained thinking? The verbal, analytical side of our brains is a genius at solving certain types of problems, but the left brain tends to spin its wheels when faced with problems requiring empathy and creativity. Thought Revolution will give you a fresh way of thinking, one that we can't, in all rationality, neglect."

Daniel Pink

"I can attest that Bill's book delivers on its promise: You can change the way you think and find your truth in whatever challenges you. Whether you are recovering from a trauma, grappling with a life-altering decision, fighting to lose weight, or searching for a romantic relationship, Thought Revolution will take you on a journey that will set you free."--Lucia Capacchione, Ph.D., ATR, author of Recovery of Your Inner Child and The Power of the Other Hand

"Many times in my life I've thought, "Oh I could never do that because of this." So, when Bill Donius began talking to me about brain function and the employment of exercises involving the non dominant hand and the engagement of the right brain, I regarded it as well-intentioned baloney. However, as my left hand writing became more legible and liberated, I began to have the strength and the grit to clear obstacles to a creative enterprise I'd avoided starting all my adult life. Although the obstacles put in place by the this remain, it is because of the ideas and exercises offered in Thought Revolution that I nowadays have the gumption to work to clear them. To any reader ridden with the what ifs and the I cannots, I recommend Thought Revolution without a doubt. With stars."--Robert W. Duffy, Associate Editor, St. Louis Beacon

"Over the years, I have known Bill Donius as an artist, bank president, activist, and now as an extremely fine writer. Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius is a brilliant new exploration of the power of the right brain and how it could change your life forever. Donius is a renaissance man and this book is just another piece of remarkable evidence of his genius."--David Mixner, author of Stranger Among Friends

"Thought Revolution is a revolution in how we think about, allowing us to train our brains to remove old obstacles and achieve our potential. Bill Donius's work will be a staple for individuals and organizations wishing to be truly innovative in the years ahead."--Mark Lombardi, President of Maryville University

"Thought Revolution is different from virtually any of business book?s? I've read as it truly lives up to its title. If you read it, you will indeed learn how to see your world through a different lens--not through the author's but through the lens of your intuitive right brain. Give yourself this gift."--Chip Conley, author of Peak and Emotional Equations, and Founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality

"Are you leaning too heavily on left-brained thinking? The verbal, analytical side of our brains is a genius at solving certain types of problems, but the left brain tends to spin its wheels when faced with problems requiring empathy and creativity. Thought Revolution will give you a fresh way of thinking, one that we can't, in all rationality, neglect."--Daniel Pink, author of TO SELL IS HUMAN and DRIVE

"Bill's technique can provide unanticipated answers and stunning insights that were hidden deep in your right brain. Take an unbiased trip to your right brain and you may find startling revelations that can allow you to resolve perplexing issues."--Timothy Conlon, President and COO, Viasystems Technology Company, LLC

From the Publisher