Creative Think

"I'm mad as hell . . . "

Recently, Paul McEneny had a post in which he decried the "displaced reality" of today's marketing tools. In my comment to him, I said that he sounded like the Howard Beale character in the 1976 film Network. Beale is a wisely deranged TV newscaster who wants to wake up America. He tells his audience, "I want all of you to get out of your chairs and go to the window and yell, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.'"

This me got to thinking, "I haven't seen "Network" in a long time. Let's see how well it holds up 30 years later." And so through the miracle of Netflix I rented it. And I can report that "Network" holds up quite well. It was nominated for 14 Oscars and won 4 -- including one for Peter Finch who played Howard Beale. The movie's got it all: New York big media, office romance, terrorist groups who become media darlings, corporate power, lots of 70s facial hair, and four buckets of cynicism. I heartily recommend it. Also with Faye Dunaway, William Holden, and Robert Duvall.

After watching Network, I thought to myself: "What things bug me?"

Well, here's something. And maybe it bugs you too. I went to the movies on Saturday. I don't mind sitting through a couple of previews before a movie, but lately it seems as though there are just too many previews. Three previews and I think, "Okay, let's watch the movie." Four previews and I think, "This is crazy -- don't they respect the audience here?" Before yesterday's movie I sat through a 2-minute Coke commercial and SIX previews for a total of 22 minutes of stuff before my movie came on (all of this AFTER the posted start time). This had clearly crossed the line.

So this is what I did after the movie. With Howard Beale's words ("I mad as hell . . . ) still fresh in my mind, I asked to see the cineplex manager. He came out and I introduced myself to him as one of his customers. I told him that, in my opinion, six previews was excessive -- you're stealing time from me." He said, "No one else complains." And I said, "Maybe they're not here. You ever wonder why film attendance is flat? People realize that they can wait three months and watch the DVD at home without having to be bombarded with 22 minutes of ads." "Good point -- I'll look into it," he said. And he gave me a free ticket for an upcoming movie.

What bugs you?

Crawling in the Cu Chi Tunnels

Earlier this year I toured Vietnam (I had been in China on business). I was accompanied by my 21 year old son Alex (who was an exchange student in Hong Kong). It's interesting to note that when I was 21 in 1969, Vietnam was just about the last place I wanted to go. We spent all our time in and around Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This photo shows us in the Mekong Delta -- "ground zero" of last year's bird flu.

If I were to describe my impressions of Vietnam in one word, I'd choose: BUSTLING! There is a tremendous amount of energy in the air. I'm guessing that 7 years ago, most people were on bicycles. Today, they're on mopeds. And, in 7 years, they'll all be in cars (like Shanghai). Many companies are rushing to invest in Vietnam. While we were there, Intel chairman Craig Barrett announced that Intel would be building a $305 million chip factory near Saigon. Quite a vote of confidence. We met a young research analyst from Goldman Sachs, and she said that her firm advises that "Vietnam has very good prospects in the medium term."

One of the highlights of the trip was traveling to the Cu Chi Guerrilla Tunnels (located about 60 miles northwest of Saigon). They were used from 1960 to 1975 by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. The tunnels are built on many levels and create a giant cobweb of nearly 130 miles. They included sections for living, dining, meeting, and fighting. The adjacent photo shows a model of one section of the tunnels. It looks like an ant farm.

The tunnel entrances are very narrow. Here Alex is getting into the tunnel.

We crawled through one section for about 35 meters. It is quite an experience. It is VERY DARK (except when a photo flash goes on), VERY HOT, and VERY CRAMPED. I would not want to be down there without a guide (or 40 years ago with bombs shaking the earth).

Here I am with our Cu Chi tunnel guide (second from left) along with some models of Cu Chi tunnel guerrillas. His name was Mr. Phong. A lot of people would like to be a guide there, but Mr. Phong was helped by the fact that his parents were real Cu Chi tunnel guerrillas from the 60s. (Kind of like being a legacy case to get into a good college.) Nearby was a huge crater caused by a bomb dropped from a B-52 in 1967. In 1967 at age 19, I worked in a defense factory in Los Angeles operating a drill press making holes in bomb triggers. It made me wonder if . . .

Do the Unexpected

Time for a little inspiration. Let's take a card from the Creative Whack Pack. Okay, here goes. It's #59 which is "Do the Unexpected." As you read it, ask yourself how it applies to a current problem or issue.

In 1334, Hochosterwitz Castle was besieged by the Duchess of Tyrol. As time wore on, the defenders became desperate: their last food was an ox. The Duchess's situation also was severe: her troops had become unruly, and she had urgent matters elsewhere.

Then, the castle's commander had an idea that must have seemed utter folly to his men. He had the last ox slaughtered and thrown over the wall in front of the enemy. The Duchess interpreted this scornful message to mean that the defenders had so much food that they could waste it.

At this, the discouraged Duchess quit her siege. Because the commander did the opposite of what the Duchess expected, he made her believe that her siege wasn't working. What are the two most unexpected things you can do in your issue?

Some years back I went to an advertising conference. For two days, I listened to speaker after speaker share their theories on how to improve product. But the only speaker whose words I still remember today is adman Tom Yobaggy who succinctly stated:

"When everyone else zigs, zag."

No matter whether you're in politics, sports, product development, warfare, marketing, fiction writing, film making, or looking for a job, doing the unexpected is not a bad strategy for creative action. It may not always lead to success (the Duchess in the above story might have continued her siege, after all), but at least it's a step away from doing the same old thing.

Technorati tags: Creativity, Reverse, Creative Whack Pack

A Creative Think Tip o' the Hat

It's time to share some appreciation: I'm giving the follow people a "Creative Think Tip o' the Hat."

Thanks to Ann Handley of Marketing Profs who encouraged me to turn my recent "Innovation in Industry" post into an expanded article for them where it has just been published as "Innovation In Industry: Why 1981 Lessons Are Still Relevant."

Special Texas-size thanks to Paul McEnany for his delicious (lip-smacking) posts about the Ball of Whacks (available from Amazon) in Hee-Haw Marketing and Beyond Madison Avenue.

I also appreciate the nice reviews of the Ball by Matthew Jaunich in Shark Ride, and Steve Hardy in his Creative Generalist site.

I'm glad to hear that Nedra Kline Weinrich at Spare Change has had some fun with the Ball of Whacks and I appreciate her ruminations -- especially hearing that the BOW has made her more "relaxed and open." Well, there you go!

And, of course, I'm very grateful to David Armano for his thoughts about the Ball of Whacks in his cleverly-written and amusingly titled "Quack, Quack, Whack" post in Logic+Emotion.

Finally, I appreciate Mark McGuiness's kind reviews of my books in the "creative resources" section in Wishful Thinking. I appreciate the company.

A "Creative Think Top o' the Hat" to All!

Recognize this Symbol?

You've seen this symbol many times (especially on airplanes). Do you know what it means?

One of my favorite ways to get into a creative frame of mind is to adopt what I call an "Ambiguous Attitude." That's when I'll look at something and imagine what else it could be or mean.

This is a really fun exercise to do with signs that have pictographs on them (and no words).

For example, for most people, the above sign means: "Here's a baby changing table."

But when I look at it with an ambiguous attitude, I think:

Let's Go Bowling!

If you look carefully, you can see the bowler has taken the bowling ball out of the bag, and it's resting in the ball return area. And he's got his hand over the air blower to remove moisture so the ball doesn't slip out of his fingers. And you know he's ready to throw a strike.

What does this symbol look like to you?

The Zen Innovation Interview

Daniel Scocco, a Brazilian-Italian telecommunications consultant in Italy, is the force behind "Innovation Zen," a blog that explores the "paradigm shift from optimization to innovation." Recently, he interviewed me for my ideas on creativity, and you can read all about it HERE.

Technorati Tags: Roger von Oech, Creativity

Ignore the "Sun" of Your Problem

It can happen to all of us: we get in the middle of a problem and our thinking gets stuck. That's when I turn to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. His enigmatic epigrams jostle my thinking and force me out of my habitual thought patterns. When I'm done figuring out what Heraclitus is saying, I've usually got a new slant on my problem. The following is Creative Insight #13 (from the Innovative Whack Pack):

Here's one interpretation of this insight.

In this wonderful metaphor, the "sun" represents the dominant feature of a situation. Here are a few examples:

• A player who consistently outshines his teammates;
• A strong spice that overwhelms the other flavors in a food dish;
• A loud sound that drowns out other sounds; or,
• An activity that leaves no time to do anything else.

The "evening stars" represent the less obvious aspects of a situation. We don't see them because the "sun" is so bright. But when there is no sun, these "stars" are visible. To say this in another way: discovery often means the uncovering of something that was always there but was obscured by something else.

The following apocryphal story is an example of "seeing the stars." One day in the fourth century BC, a young Greek librarian had the task of storing away a large number of manuscripts. He asked himself, "What simple ordering system can devise so that I -- or anyone else -- can easily retrieve them later?" After playing with the issue for awhile, he thought of the Greek alphabet -- but not as it was usually conceived. His contemporaries typically considered the alphabet to be a series of phonetic symbols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, . . .) that were used primarily to form words or less often to represent numbers.

The librarian decided to de-emphasize the alphabet's linguistic and numerical functions. By doing so, he was able to focus on a less apparent feature: each letter's relationship to the others in the alphabet. He thought, "If I place those manuscripts whose titles begin with beta before those beginning with gamma but after those beginning with alpha, and use that same logic throughout, I'll create a storage and retrieval system that's simple and efficient." And that's what he did. By consciously ignoring the alphabet's "sun" (its linguistic function), the librarian was able to discover the "stars" of alphabetization.

What's the most dominant feature of your situation? What "new stars" come into view when you ignore (or get away from) this feature? Do you have one typical way you solve problems? Can you try a different way? Is your ego the "sun" that outshines other possibilities?

Technorati Tags: Creative Thinking, Heraclitus, Creativity

Flex Your Risk Muscle

I'm in need of a little inspiration for a project I'm working on. What direction should I go? Time to reach into the Creative Whack Pack. It's card # 53: "Flex Your Risk Muscle." This is one that always demands some action. It reads:

Bull's-eye every time? If so, you're standing too close to the target. If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Everyone has a "risk muscle." You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies and you're no longer able to take chances. How can you exercise your risk muscle? What kinds of risk can you take while pursuing your issue? What's the biggest, most sensible risk you can take?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, but two ideas come immediately to mind: 1) to call a person I'd been putting off for fear of not getting through or looking stupid; and 2) being a little more adventuresome in my design.

I'm sure I'll think of other interpretations as the day goes by.

Offbeat Ball of Whacks Promos

We'll be exhibiting the Ball of Whacks later in the week at a major trade show in New York. For fun, we had the noted illustrator Jody Boginski paint some pictures of the Ball of Whacks in some offbeat situations. These were then turned into handout promo cards for the product. (Click on the pictures to see larger versions.)

I think they're a kick!

Technorati Tags: Creativity, Ball of Whacks

Doing A "T.O." in Dallas

Earlier this week in Dallas, I did a session for Frito/Lay (as part of EggStrategy's week long event for FL's Innovation Team) at a luxury suite at Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

It was a lot of fun. The place still had a game buzz: the Cowboys had defeated the Houston Texans the day before. Some of the breakouts were in the locker rooms (yes, the Cowboys' locker was much nicer than the visitor's locker room, and yes, both still smelled).  There were signs from the NFL Commissioner warning against betting, and for proper game attire.

Afterwards, I went on to the field. What a kick! It's a "crowned" field (rises in the center and slopes off at the side lines). And, of course, I had to do a "T.O" (Terrell Owens), that is, stand on the Cowboy Star at mid-field with my trusty Ball of Whacks (turned into a Star shape for the occasion). It was a kick looking up through the top (the place "where God looks in").

Over the years, I've worked some unusual seminar venues (e.g., abandoned lighthouses and parking garages), but this was one near the top of the "more unusual." I know the participants enjoyed the locale. (Photo credits: Nick Kapke)

Technorati Tags: Creativity, Ball of Whacks