How You Can Be More Creative torrent

1&2 Why Be Creative?
Exploring the creative process. Why you need new ideas every day. Creative thinking defined. One successful method for thinking creatively. How to put it to work for you. Examples of creative thinking in action.

The Discontinuity Principle
Why discontinuity is good. Examples of discontinuity and its benefits. The magical and marvelous manipulation verbs. Why much of your creative thinking doesn't have to be "productive." Putting manipulation verbs into action.

3&4 The Creative Process
The first two parts of the seven-part creative process. The desire to be creative. A passion for your work. Dissatisfaction as a motivator. The information-gathering phase. Cultivating an "insight outlook." Selective attention.

The Creative Process (cont'd)
The remaining five parts of the creative process. Manipulating ideas and stepping around your assumptions. Walking away from problems and letting them percolate. The "Aha!" or "Eureka!" experience. Your "high creativity" zone. The most important thing to do in evaluating an idea. Eleven evaluative questions.

5&6 "Follow the Rules" and "Everything Is Fine"
Why routine activities are indispensable. The 10 mental locks to innovative thinking. How creative thinking is both constructive and destructive. The "Aslan phenomenon.” Four ways to overcome the firs! mental lock. The second mental lock.

"Be Practical" and "The Right Answer"
The third and fourth mental locks. Exercising the special ability humans have. Probing the possible, the impossible, and the impractical for ideas Using “what if" thinking to uncover stepping-stones. The danger in premature evaluation. A way to come up with multiple right answers .

7&8 "That's Not Logical"
Overcoming the fifth mental lock. What hard and soft thinking are, and how they work. When you should use one or the other. The law of non-contradiction. The many ways to model the mind. The key to metaphorical thinking. The role of logic.

"To Err Is Wrong" and "Avoid Ambiguity"
Tips on overcoming the sixth and seventh mental locks. How to see success and failure as products of the same process. Errors as stepping- stones to success. An important lesson from Charles Kettering. What negative feedback tells you. Taking advantage of ambiguity. Looking for more than one meaning.

9&10 "Play Is Frivolous" and "That's Not My Area"
The eighth and ninth mental locks and why they prevail. Meet the "father" of invention. The "play-is-frivolous” mental lock, and why you should circumvent it. The dangers in specialization. Crossing disciplinary boundaries and learning from other specialties.

"Don't Be Foolish"
The tenth mental lock. The benefits of conformity. How Alfred Sloan did away with "group think” at GM. Playing the fool. Lessons from Allen Funt's "Candid Camera." Following the advice the bishop gave to St. Augustine. Metaphors as corporate portraits. More ideas.

11&12 Creative Action
Five of the eight basic steps to take to turn your ideas into realities. What you need first and why. Questions to ask yourself. What Harry Gray, chairman of United Technologies, said about getting started.

Creative Action (cont'd)
The last three basic steps. The product of the product— what it is and what it means to you. The role of persistence. The most important thing you must do to be more creative. Can-do attitudes. Visualization. A surprise ending.

Roger von Oech Helps You Get More and Better Ideas

The San Francisco Examiner said that "Roger von Oech runs laps around everyone else in the creativity-consulting business." Top corporations are in agreement with that assessment —companies such as Apple Computer, Arco, CBS Records, Coca-Cola, Du Pont, Hallmark, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, 3M, NASA, NBC, Nabisco Brands, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Sears and Xerox.

All these firms are clients of Roger von Oech’s Menlo Park, California-based company, Creative Think, which specializes in stimulating innovation and creativity in business. Creative Think provides consulting, seminars, conferences and publications to innovators and entrepreneurs.

Prior to founding Creative Think in 1977, Roger was employed by IBM in the areas of data base and data communications.

Roger is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio State University, where he received both the President’s Scholarship Award and the Scholar-Athlete Award. He earned his doctorate from Stanford University in a self-conceived program in the history of ideas.

He’s the author of two highly acclaimed books on creative thinking: A Whack on the Side of the Head (Warner Books), of which more than 600,000 copies have been sold around the world; and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants (Harper & Row).