Born to Create: How Creativity Sparks Connection, Innovation, and Belonging in our New World of Work

by Anne Jacoby

Spark your personal creativity, fuel your creative leadership skills, and set your organizational culture ablaze

The employee experience has dramatically changed, catalyzed by emerging technology, remote-first and hybrid work structures, and rapidly changing business environments. Well-being at work has become an essential strategic priority, while the pressure and demands on teams to deliver results have never been greater. Leaders crave guidance to ignite more connection, innovation, and belonging at work to attract, develop, and retain top talent and discover deeper purpose at work. Creativity is the essential ingredient in today’s workplace to be more effective, joyful, and authentic.

Born to Create illustrates the power skills often developed by artists and applies them to corporate environments in a way that’s engaging, memorable, and high impact. Through highlighted stories of artists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, each scene delivers examples to build creative confidence and resilience, lead others in the creative process, and foster a thriving creativity culture to achieve business value and personal fulfillment. At the end of each scene, you’ll get practical exercises and assessment tools you can carry with you.

As we search for more meaning in our work and lives, Born to Create shines a light on the potential we each hold to imagine and realize the creative life we were destined to lead.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2024

Reviews

[Jessica Haider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born to Create is part pep talk, part playbook, and part campfire for the soul of every overworked professional who’s forgotten what imagination feels like. Anne Jacoby takes the fuzzy concept of “creativity at work” and makes it feel both actionable and alive—less about finger painting in the break room, more about leading with curiosity, courage, and humanity.

Through a mix of storytelling, research, and real-world examples from artists and business leaders, Jacoby shows how creativity isn’t a luxury—it’s a leadership muscle. The exercises at the end of each section are surprisingly effective (and mercifully brief), pushing you to reflect rather than roll your eyes.

A few chapters lean a little heavy on corporate jargon, but the heart of the message beats strong: we’re all born to create—it’s just a matter of remembering how. Thoughtful, energizing, and refreshingly unpretentious, this is the rare leadership book that might actually make you want to pick up a paintbrush and a performance metric.

[Sofi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Born to Create" by Anne Jacoby is a beacon of inspiration in our modern landscape. Jacoby seamlessly weaves together insights on creativity, connection, innovation, and belonging, illuminating the vital role creativity plays in our professional and personal lives. Her words resonate deeply, offering both practical guidance and profound reflections on nurturing our innate creative spirit. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to thrive in the evolving world of work, where creativity is not just a skill, but a fundamental force for progress and fulfillment. Jacoby's profound understanding and passion for the subject shine through every page, making "Born to Create" a truly transformative read.

[cad · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Creative Director, I found this very insightful.

I enjoyed the prompts especially throughout the book.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

All books devoted to creativity are creative and differ from each other. That should be the case! This book has its own approach towards creativity for an individual, team and as a part of organization's culture. First things first is to start with you! Being creative inspires others around to lean towards non standard and borderless ways of work. There is no right or wrong creativity and here you should build a confidence level. Moving towards team engagement in creative processes and decision making is all around arranging the environment of comfort and support working the team to open up creative ideas. Coming to culture within the whole organization after all: focus on diversity of people and ideas, embrace innovation and collaborative work towards common goals.

[Zazine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born to create by Anne Jacoby is a book for people who want to bring more creativity into their lives and, especially, into their work. The author has a background in performing arts and draws many parallels between showbiz and business, giving the book a lighthearted tone.

With lots of stories and anecdotes, actionable advice and creativity booster exercises, this book had me constantly pausing and taking notes. It starts small, with simple things anyone can do to spark creativity and grows into bigger concepts like creative leadership and corporate culture.

The author narrates the audiobook, and I loved how her passion and enthusiasm for the subject really shone through. I also have a background in the arts (though in visual, not performing arts) and I related to a lot of the issues and preconceptions about creativity that this book explores.
The key point of the book is that creativity is a skill, and it’s accessible to each of us, with practice. Being creative is not a state of fact, it’s a learning process.

The biggest problem to growing our creativity seems to be that people associate creative pursuits with shame and failure, based on early experiences when harsh feedback and judgements extinguished their passion. This is where creative confidence comes to the rescue, and the job of any good leader is to foster a safe environment where that confidence can flourish.

The second and third acts of the book focus more on creativity in the workplace and the myriad of shapes that it can take. You’ll learn how to reflect and give specific, helpful feedback; how to foster belonging at work; build collaborative processes and find the sweet spot of performance pressure (among other things).

My take-away from this book is that reflection is just as important as inspiration. It’s what helps us focus, grow, and recognize an impending burn out. Also, that discipline is not a creativity killer, but can be a useful tool. It made me face some bad habits – the time tracking exercise was particularly useful. And in the end, it reminded me that labors of love are what it’s all about.
If you’re feeling stuck and uncreative, if you’re starting something new and are scared of the challenge ahead, or if you’re looking to improve your workplace environment, you should definitely pick up this book.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the review copy of this audiobook.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

📚 2024 #41: “Born to Create” by Anne Jacoby

📕 This book is Jacoby's guide to including more creativity in the culture at your workplace. Companies are needing to quickly adapt to the ever-changing demands of employees, increased dependence on technology, and remote-first/hybrid work styles. Rather than fighting these changes, Jacoby helps leaders embrace the new to improve productivity, retention, and satisfaction -- both for employees and customers.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5: This started out strong, but honestly fell flat for me pretty fast. In the early chapters, Jacoby makes it sound like this book is applicable to anyone and everyone. Creativity is a universally-helpful skill after all, right? After that hopeful introduction, the book swerves pretty severely into corporate culture and never looks back. I felt like I was back at a company meeting talking about how we can incorporate more fun into Zoom calls or convince people to come back into the office with taco Tuesdays. There are a few pieces of decent information for management and higher roles in corp jobs, but this really didn't feel like a book the average person could use to spark more creativity. The focus really was on company culture.

🤓 You should read this if you fit the description above and are working on a "return to office" policy lol.

🥰 Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born to Create by Anne Jacoby was a slow start for me, but it had some great insights when it got going. Jacoby weaves stories from the arts alongside entrepreneurial endeavors and more staid businesses to draw out the creative process from each and show how they have applicable learnings for anyone. This book targets senior leaders but doesn’t leave behind any role in an organization — highlighting their value and encouraging micro and macro processes. It’s an easy read in the vein of any “business” book but a bit more entertaining and applicable than most. 
I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is so much better than I thought. I expected a basic book praising the importance of being creative, but the author was able to make creativity a relatable and practical topic, applicable to any path of life. I liked the exercises, that can be focused personally as well as for team building, and the many resources that accompany the book. I see myself using this book as a reference in the future and completing the exercises.

I received this book as a giveaway and from netgalley.

[Anne Jisca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love the title of this book. We were all born to create, in our own unique ways. The author does a good job of bringing out ways to foster creativity in the workplace.

The first part of the book was helpful for myself as an individual. The rest of the book is geared towards leaders in the workplace, and ways they can foster and embrace that creativity.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Jayla Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Born to Create" by Anne Jacoby is a compelling audio book that ignites the creative spark within. Jacoby's insights and exercises are truly inspiring, encouraging listeners to tap into their innate creativity. However, I found myself wishing for the physical copy to better follow along with the exercises. Nonetheless, this audio book is a must-listen for anyone looking to unleash their creative potential.

[Lecy Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Jacoby shares many helpful ideas and inspiration for bringing more creativity into your life and work. I listened to the audiobook but might need a physical or Kindle copy to go back through and take lots of notes. I connected with the book's first half, which seemed to be geared more toward individuals, while the second half was directed more toward leads in companies and organizations. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Jacoby brings her acting background and coaching experience to this useful workbook-style book on creativity. The book is in three parts: acknowledging your own creativity (because everyone is creative or can be); leading a team in being more open-minded and creative; and helping your company or organization fuel a creative culture. She sets the scene, dissects what works, and provides exercises to try.
The narration is clear and engaging, and there is an accompanying PDF for things like checklists. If you are wanting to add some creativity to your day, your job, or your company, this is a helpful place to start!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for the review copy of this audiobook.

[Cynthia Wylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how Anne Jacoby makes a case for the need to add more creativity to our lives. On a personal level, I think creation is one of the main reasons that human beings exist. The structure of the book is also compelling because she sets up the content as a play complete with director notes. I highly recommend for anyone and everyone to read.

[Nicci Obert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! Great overview of creativity and work. Important nuggets for cultivating individual creativity, adopting a posture of curiosity and collaboration, and how to be a part of co-creation more generally in a team or business.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

feeling inspired!

This book was eye opening in the importance of inspiring creativity within organizations and how it allows individuals, teams, and business to thrive. I’d recommend this book to any leaders within a business to help understand the importance of instilling creativity.

[L. J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I’ll admit that it is insightful, this wasn’t a book for me. It falls flat (for me) about midway through. I don’t know; it felt like those stereotypical business meetings that we see all the time on TV. That or commercials that are trying to sell you something. That’s the kind of vibe it gave out. It was okay, though; just maybe too formal for me.