Design firm IDEO has wowed the world with applied creativity for decades. The company explains its work like this: A global design consultancy; we create impact through innovation. Now IDEO founder David Kelley and his brother and partner Tom Kelley, have written a book called Creative Confidence to cheer the rest of us on in this mission to create impact through innovation.

Travelers will enjoy several case studies from within our circles:

• How Air New Zealand came up with the economy class “skycouch” (and why the idea of bunkbeds was rejected);
• How an Olympic athlete on JetBlue’s staff figured out what went wrong during the airline’s Valentine’s Day 2007 snowstorm PR crisis; and
• How Cisco invented the ultimate anti-travel technology, TelePresence.

The brothers Kelley are evangelists for travel and see it as a lens for viewing the world in a new way, thus spawning creativity.

We learn a lot when we travel not because we are any smarter on the road, but because we pay such close attention.

The Kelleys often take students from the d.school (the Stanford University design institute David Kelley founded) to the airport to observe passengers and talk with airline representatives. The students are surprised at what they notice for the first time.

For business travelers who can put on this beginner’s mind when they hit the road—and keep it on even when preoccupied with the upcoming meeting’s outcome or stressed from a delayed flight—travel can boost creativity like few other activities. A trio of personal essays from Chip Conley, Peter Shankman and Byron Reese about how travel stimulates their business thinking is one of my favorite Executive Travel editorial packages.

Keeping a beginner’s mind and staying present enough to really see when traveling is the road warrior’s version of meditation. And they don’t call meditation a practice for nothing: It requires much of that.