Rethink the Way You Think
In hindsight, every great idea seems obvious. But how can you be the person who comes up with those ideas?
In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys, creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventional ways. Through fun and thought-provoking exercises, you'll learn how to create original ideas that will improve your personal life and your business life. Michalko's techniques show you how to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different.
With hundreds of hints, tricks, tips, tales, and puzzles, Thinkertoys will open your mind to a world of innovative solutions to everyday and not-so-everyday problems.
Thinkertoys : A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
Description
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface to the New Edition xi
The Barking Cat (Introduction) xvii
initiation 1
Chapter One: Original Spin 3
Chapter Two: Mind Pumping 11
Chapter Three: Challenges 22
Chapter Four: Thinkertoys 35
Part One: Linear Thinkertoys 41
Group A
Chapter Five: False Faces (reversal) 43
Chapter Six: Slice and Dice (attribute listing) 53
Chapter Seven: Cherry Split (fractionation) 60
Chapter Eight: Think Bubbles (mind mapping) 66
Chapter Nine: SCAMPER (questions) 72
Group B
Chapter Ten: Tug-of-War (force-field analysis) 111
Chapter Eleven: Idea Box (morphological analysis) 117
Chapter Twelve: Idea Grid (FCB grid) 126
Chapter Thirteen: Lotus Blossom (diagramming) 132
Chapter Fourteen: Phoenix (questions) 137
Chapter Fifteen: The great Transpacific Airline and Storm Door Company (matrix) 144
Chapter Sixteen: Future Fruit (future scenarios) 150
Group C
Chapter Seventeen: Brutethink (random stimulation) 157
Chapter Eighteen: Hall of Fame (forced connection) 170
Chapter Nineteen: Circle of Opportunity (forced connection) 179
Chapter Twenty: Ideatoons (pattern language) 184
Chapter Twenty-One: Clever Trevor (talk to a stranger) 190
Part Two: Intuitive Thinkertoys 199
Chapter Twenty-Two: Chilling Out (relaxation) 203
Chapter Twenty-Three: Blue Roses (intuition) 210
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Three B’s (incubation) 218
Chapter Twenty-Five: rattlesnakes and Roses (analogies) 223
Chapter Twenty-Six: Stone Soup (fantasy questions) 239
Chapter Twenty-Seven: True and False (janusian thinking) 248
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dreamscape (dreams) 256
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Da Vinci’s Technique (drawing) 261
Chapter Thirty: Dali’s Technique (hypnogogic imagery) 268
Chapter Thirty-One: Not Kansas (imagery) 273
Chapter Thirty-Two: The Shadow (psychosynthesis) 281
Chapter Thirty-Three: The Book of the Dead (hieroglyphics) 287
Part Three: The Spirit of Koinonia 293
Chapter Thirty-Four: Warming Up 299
Chapter Thirty-Five: Brainstorming 311
Chapter Thirty-Six: Orthodox Brainstorming 323
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Raw Creativity 341
Part Four: Endtoys 363
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Murder Board 365
Chapter Thirty-Nine: You Are Not a Field of Grass 374
Index 381
About the Author 395
Author Description
Review Text
A guide designed to encourage creative thinking in business offers techniques, hints, and tricks for generating ideas and offers dozens of success stories.