What Every Manager Should Know About How to Think Creatively

You may have heard of Roger von Oech's book, A Whack on the Side of the Head: How to Unlock Your Mind for Innovation. It's as much fun to read as its title suggests. It covers the ten common obstacles to creative thinking. It's about ways in which you can unlock your mind for innovation, for change, for more interest, or even for a career change.

Mr. Von Oech writes about the time when his English teacher in high school put a small chalk dot on the blackboard and asked the class to tell him what it was. A few seconds passed, and then someone said, "It's a chalk dot on the board." The rest of the class seemed relieved that the obvious had been stated, and no one else had anything more to say.

"I'm surprised at you," replied the teacher, "Yesterday I did the same exercise with a group of kindergartners, and they thought of fifty different things the chalk mark could be:

* a cat's eye,
* a cigar butt,
* a star,
* a pebble,
* a squashed bug,
* a rotten egg,
* a head,
* and so on.

The lesson that I wish to share with you is the importance of looking for more than one right answer. When you look, you will be surprised to learn how many answers are available.

We have been trained in school to look only for the first right answer to every problem. The average person does this; the creative person looks for many.

Looking beyond the first solution to a problem can result in a whole new set of serendipitous solutions - solutions that can be a hundred times better than the first one.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, everyone wins. When you don't, we all lose.

© Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in ezines, newsletters, and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required. Contact him at: executiveandgroup-consulting@yahoo.com< /b> when you use this article.

Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts lectures, seminars, webinars, and writes articles on his theme: "... helping you maximize your potential." He offers management, marketing, and parenting resources at hisMaximizing Y our Potential blog.

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U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington in this July 21, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsAP - The White House says President Bush has called stricken Attorney General Michael Mukasey to see how he was feeling after his collapse during a speech Thursday night.



In a Jun 27, 2008 file photo  Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., takes the stage with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., at a campaign event in Unity, N.H.,    President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate  Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, an aide to his transition said Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola/file)AP - President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for the former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who fought hard for the presidency.



A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, November 20, 2008. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)AP - With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush is about to ensure that millions of laid-off workers won't see their unemployment checks disappear as the year-end holidays approach.



An employee uses her mobile phone in front of an electronic stock board at the Korea Stock Exchange Market in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index jumped 55.04 points, or 5.8 percent, to close 1,003.73. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)AP - European and Asian stock markets rebounded Friday as expectations of a recovery on Wall Street prompted investors to scoop up battered financial and energy shares.



In this  Monday, Nov. 17, 2008 file photo, Lavennia Coover of Decatur, Neb., who gave up her 11 year-old son under Nebraska's safe haven law on Sept. 24, 2008, testifies before the Judiciary Committee, during a public hearing in Lincoln, Neb., on bills that would amend Nebraska's safe-haven law.  Friday, Nov. 21 will likely be the last day parents can abandon troubled teens at Nebraska hospitals, but lawmakers aren't patting themselves on the back. Instead, they're vowing to make sure families can get help in a crisis. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)AP - Lawmakers are poised to close a loophole that led to troubled teens being abandoned at Nebraska hospitals, but they aren't stopping there. Instead, they're vowing to make sure families can get help in a crisis.



AP - With the United States reevaluating strategy in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is telling allies that additional U.S. forces planned for the war must be shared across the region taking the brunt of the fighting.

Authorities inspect the wreckage of a Cessna plane after it was  raised from the Amazon River in Huanta, in the Peruvian state of Iquitos, on April 26, 2001. A Peruvian air force jet which mistook it for a drug flight gunned it from the skies Friday. American missionary Veronica 'Roni' Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity were killed in the April 20, 2001 attack. A classified CIA report on the 2001 shoot down of a small plane carrying American missionaries by the Peruvian air force suggests U.S. officials may have misled Congress and withheld information from the Justice Department.   (AP Photo/Silvia izquierdo, file)AP - The CIA withheld information from the White House, Justice Department and Congress about the 2001 shooting down of a plane over Peru carrying an American missionary family, part of a yearslong cover-up of lethal violations in U.S. drug-interdiction procedures, according to a classified internal CIA report.



Madonna performs during her 'Sticky & Sweet Tour' at the Wachovia Center, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, in Philadelphia. The pop star and husband Guy Ritchie will likely be granted an  initial divorce decree on Friday, according to the schedule for London's High Court. (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)AP - Madonna and Guy Ritchie were granted a preliminary decree of divorce Friday.



AP - R.J. Richard says he doesn't normally put his cell phone in his chest pocket. But he says it saved his life the one time he did.

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, right, is grabbed by Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver T. J. Houshmendzadeh after intercepting a pass intended for Houshmendzadeh in the fourth quarter of the NFL  football game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. The Steelers won 27-10.(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)AP - Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers know exactly how to beat the Cincinnati Bengals — with or without Chad Ocho Cinco.



A trader takes a moment's rest on the floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange which closed down 4.15 percent in today's trading in Makati City, Manila November 21, 2008. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)Reuters - Euro zone demand is plunging and price pressures vanishing, business surveys showed on Friday, while central bankers weighed the bleak prospect of deflation.



President-elect Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton attend a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida, October 20, 2008. (Jim Young/Reuters)Reuters - Retired Marine Gen. James Jones emerged as a leading contender for White House national security adviser as President-elect Barack Obama worked on Thursday to assemble his foreign policy team.



President George W. Bush sits with Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont (not in picture) during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit leaders' retreat at the Sydney Opera House September 8, 2007. (Barbara Walton/Pool/Reuters)Reuters - George W. Bush makes his last scheduled trip abroad as U.S. president on Friday, heading to an Asia-Pacific summit where he will seek support for global financial reform and hold talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.



Demonstrators chant slogans during a rally at Firdos square in Baghdad November 21, 2008. (Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters)Reuters - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.



Pedestrians walk past a Citibank branch in Singapore November 18, 2008. (Vivek Prakash/Reuters)Reuters - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.



The sign for the Verizon Wireless store is seen in Lakewood, Colorado September 11, 2007. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)Reuters - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that some employees had gained unauthorized access and viewed a personal cell phone account held by President-elect Barack Obama that is now inactive.



The crew of the Belize-flagged cargo ship MV Faina stand on the deck after a U.S. Navy request to check on their health and welfare off the coast of Somalia, November 9, 2008. (U.S. Navy/Mass communication Specialist 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky/Handout/Reuters)Reuters - Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents entered a port on Friday in search of the pirate group behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said.



U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey addresses the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California in this March 27, 2008 file photo. (Robert Galbraith/Files/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was "conscious, conversant and alert" at a local Washington hospital after collapsing while delivering a national security speech at a hotel, the U.S. Justice Department said late on Thursday.



US soldier searches for insurgents during a patrol of Afghanistan's Kandahar province in 2007. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) report is vague about the outcome of current conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.(AFP/File/Nicolas Asfouri)AFP - The use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely by 2025, according to a bleak US intelligence report that warns that US global dominance is likely to weaken over the next two decades.



Iraqi Shiites protest in central Baghdad. Thousands of Shiite followers of the firebrand anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad to protest a security accord that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until 2011.(AFP/Ali al-Saadi)AFP - Thousands of Shiite followers of the firebrand anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad on Friday to protest a security accord that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until 2011.




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