How a 'whack' and a 'kick' changed my thinking

I picked up Roger Von Oech's first book "A whack on the side of the head" in 1992. The promise was how you can be more creative.

In Whack he identified what he called mental locks - ten of them. He explains that most of us have certain mental attitudes that lock our thinking into the status quo and keep us thinking "more of the same". He says that the following ten responses to a new idea are hazardous to our thinking.

1. "(Insisting on) The Right Answer"
2. "That is not logical" (response to a new idea)
3. "Follow the rules"
4. "Be practical"
5. "Play is frivolous."
6. "That is not my area"
7. "Avoid Ambiguity"
8. "Don't be foolish"
9. "To err is wrong"
10. "I am not creative"

He takes each of these 10 responses and shows how to tackle them.

In the book A Kick In The Seat Of Your Pants" he talks about the concept of the Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior.

I quote the introduction to the book "The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Some times people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need "A Kick The Seat Of Their Pants"

Here is how he explains the roles.

The Explorer: Adopt an insight outlook. Know what your objective is. Find ideas you already have. Look for fun things.

The Artist: Do something. Adapt. Change. Connect. Compare. Eliminate. Break rules. Fool Around. Incubate.

The Judge: Is the idea an "Aha! Idea"? What is right about this? What is wrong about it? What assumptions am I making? Are my assumptions correct?What is clouding my thinking? Do I have a cultural bias?

The Warrior: Moving from "What if " to "What is" Put plans together. Get rid of excuses. Sell. Be persistent.

Roger Von Oech also introduced the "Creative Whack Pack" - a pack of cards. It has a set of cards - The Explorer, The Artist, The Judge, and The Warrior. You can use the cards to run your own creative workshop. The pack works well even if you are working alone.

The cards seem like fun. But they are not as simple as playing a card game. Each card provides a provocation. I found shuffling the card and picking up random cards works very well.

PS: Roger von Oech has since introduced an "Innovative Whack Pack" with 60 creative strategies. The provocative questions here are more strategic in nature. The kind of questions a decision maker has to address.