7 Whacks from Roger von Oech

1 – There is a Second Right Answer

This phrasing is wonderfully concrete and carries greater positive momentum than keeping in mind that there is no one right way. If I ask this question of myself it propels me forward past my first solution and maybe the second or third or seventh will be better.

2 – Map the Current Problem Onto Another Story

Think metaphorically. Relate what you’re thinking about to something you understand. Roger suggests how a car works, but that’s not my area of expertise. I might try relating a problem to embroidering a table runner or having a baby. One of my co-workers just the other day mentioned how she’d still connect some principles in our specialty of developing adhesives to her college training in biology.

3 – Great Ideas Come From Cutting Across Disciplines

Okay, I can’t really claim that hearing about the benefits of cross-fertilization was a whack, not with my interest in multiple perspectives, but it was really neat to read his examples and to think through parts of his exercise about what might happen if different people went to lunch together. I especially liked the pairing of what could a bull fighter and a gardener learn from each other?

4 – Going Contrary and Upside Down and Silly Can Work

If I ever needed an example of why to look at something backwards it was when Roger took the saying “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link” and pointed out how that is really beneficial when you’re considering a fuse box and the entire point is to blow out the five cent fuse instead of the $50,000 equipment. I find this unblocker difficult sometimes because it’s a flip, not a rearrangement, so it was great to see a way to remind myself to try the point of view of the fool.

5 – Different Steps of the Creative Process Require Different Perspectives

Am I looking for new raw material as an Explorer?

Am I rearranging and asking questions to come up with a new result as an Artist?

Am I considering the worth of that idea in my current context as a Judge?

Am I using my own courage and all the tools at my disposal to implement that idea as a Warrior?

Seeing this spelled out let me assess my own efforts in a different way. That last one really got to me, not so much for the familiar idea that implementation is necessary, but by the personification of the role.

6 – A 2500 year old Greek Talked About This Stuff

It amazes me how many pithy sayings can be attributed back to Heraclitus, one of Roger’s inspirations, such as “You can’t step into the same river twice.”

One that seemed particularly appropriate for this blog was “Expect the unexpected, or you won’t find it, because it doesn’t leave a trail.” When we’re trying to understand and pull solutions from complexity we look for patterns, but have to be open to seeing one that we didn’t expect, so that our minds don’t automatically filter it out.

The epigram that meant the most to me personally was “Knowing many things doesn’t teach insight.” As much as I want to look for interactions and create solutions sometimes I let myself just sit at that knowing many thngs stage, and that’s just not where I want to be.

7 – Sometimes Ideas are Just Waiting For You

Just finding the book was something of a whack for me. I’d started reading Roger’s blog and the art looked familiar. I remembered being a child poring over a workbook from a class my father went too that looked something like that. Then I was rearranging a few shelves of my books and blinked in surprise. There it was. A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech. Dad must have given it to me after his class and I’d forgotten.

There’s so much useful and readable stuff in this book that I couldn’t really review it, except to pull out a few pieces that meant the most to me. I am very tempted to buy the new and improved 25th anniversary edition and see how the updating and expansion went.

What parts made you feel Whacked?

If you’ve read it, either version, what did you think of the book? Was there anything that really stood out for you and made you feel that you’d been whacked on the side of the head?