Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques

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More About This Book

Overview

This is an updated and expanded edition of the best-selling Thinkertoys, which is considered by many to be the classic book of creative thinking techniques. The original ground-breaking first edition was widely acclaimed by readers and reviewers. The Wall Street Journal reported 'this book will change the way you think." Women In Business lauded it as "one of the most important business titles of the decade," Success magazine described it as a "fun-to-read book which helps you to create and act on ideas," USA said "believe it or not, this wonderful book will have you challenging the seemingly impossible every day," Executive Book Summaries praised it by saying, "What we need is a compendium of ways to solve problems. And that's exactly what you get in Thinkertoys" Entrepreneur acclaimed it as "required reading for anyone in business," the Futurist said "Thinkertoys" shows you how to do what you think can't be done," and the AMA called it "the most significant book on creativity published in the last twenty years."

This new edition contains updated examples, three new Thinkertoys and an entirely new group brainstorming section with five new chapters. Michael is also the author of Thinkpak (A Brainstorming Card Set), which is a novel creative-thinking tool that is designed to facilitate brainstorming sessions and Cracking Creativity (The Secrets of Creative Geniuses) which describes the common thinking strategies creative geniuses have used in the sciences, art, and industry throughout history and shows how we can apply them to become more creative in our business and personal lives.

From the Author
Most people of average intelligence, given data or some problem, can figure out the expected conventional response. When confronted with problems, we fixate on something in our past that has worked before. We ask, "What have I been taught in life, education or work on how to solve the problem?" Then we analytically select the most promising approach based on past experiences, excluding all other approaches, and work within a clearly defined direction towards the solution of the problem. Because of the soundness of the steps based on past experiences, we become arrogantly certain of the correctness of our conclusion. Typically, we think reproductively, that is on the basis of similar problems encountered in the past. This is why we so often fail when confronted with a new problem that is similar to past experiences only in superficial ways, or on the surface, and is different from previously encountered problems in its deep structure. Interpreting such a problem through the prism of past experience will, by definition, lead the thinker astray. Reproductive thinking leads us to the usual ideas and not to original ones. If you always think the way you've always thought, you'll always get what you've always got--the same old, same old ideas. My "Thinkertoys" are creative-thinking techniques that will change the way you think. Each "Thinkertoy" contains specific instructions and an explanation of why and how it works including anecdotes, stories, and examples of how others have implemented the technique to produce their breakthrough ideas.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781580087735
  • Publisher: Ten Speed Press
  • Publication date: 6/28/2006
  • Edition number: 2
  • Pages: 416
  • Sales rank: 92,029
  • Product dimensions: 7.44 (w) x 9.15 (h) x 0.87 (d)

Meet the Author

Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods. His team applied these methods to various NATO military, political, and economic problems and produced a variety of breakthrough ideas and creative solutions to new and old problems. After leaving military service, he was contracted by the CIA to facilitate think tanks using his creative-thinking techniques. He specializes in providing creativity workshops, seminars, and think tanks for clients who range from individuals to Fortune 500 companies.

Read an Excerpt

Thinkertoys

A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
By Michael Michalko

Ten Speed Press

Copyright © 2006 Michael Michalko
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781580087735
Introduction
THE BARKING CAT
 
What would you think of someone who said, “I would like to have a cat, provided it barked”? The common desire to be creative, provided it’s something that can be easily willed or wished, is precisely equivalent. The thinking techniques that lead to creativity are no less rigid than the biological principles that determine the characteristics of cats. Creativity is not an accident, not something that is genetically determined. It is not a result of some easily learned magic trick or secret, but a consequence of your intention
 
to be creative and your determination to learn and use creative-thinking strategies.
 
The illustration below shows the word “FLOP,” which we all know and understand. Look at it again. Can you see anything else?
 
Once we see the word “FLOP,” we tend to exclude all other possibilities, despite the strange shapes of the letters. Yet if you look at the “O” in flop, you can see a white “I.” Now if you read the white outlines as letters with the “I,” you will see the word “FLIP.” Flip-flop is the complete message. Once found, it seems so obvious that you wonder why you were, atfirst, blind to it.
 
By changing your perspective, you expand your possibilities until you see something that you were unable to see before. This is what you will experience when you use Thinkertoys. You will find yourself looking at the same information everyone else is looking at yet seeing something different. This new and different way of seeing things will lead you to new ideas and unique insights.
 
Thinkertoys train you how to get ideas. They are specific hands-on techniques that enable you to come up with big or small ideas; ideas that make money, solve problems, beat the competition, and further your career; ideas for new products and new ways of doing things.
 
The techniques were selected for their practicality and range from the classic to the most modern. They are divided into linear techniques, which allow you to manipulate information in ways that will generate new ideas, and intuitive techniques, which show you how to find ideas by using your intuition and imagination.
 
A popular children’s puzzle shows six fishermen whose lines are tangled together to form a sort of maze. One of the lines has caught a fish; the problem is to find which fisherman it belongs to. You are supposed to do this by following each line through the maze, which may take up to six tries, depending on your luck. It is obviously easier to start at the other end and trace the line from the fish to the fisherman, as you have only one possible starting place, not six.
 
This is how I researched and developed Thinkertoys. Instead of presenting a catalog of all known creative techniques and abandoning you to
 
puzzle out which ones actually work, I started with the ideas (fish) and worked backwards to each creator (fisherman). Then I identified the technique that caught the idea.
 
Some readers will feel that they profit more from the linear techniques and will discount the intuitive ones. Others will prefer the intuitive and discount the linear. You can produce ideas using both the linear and intuitive techniques, and should not limit yourself to one or the other--the more ideas you generate the better.
 
This book will change how you perceive your own creativity, while stripping creativity itself of its mystique. You will, perhaps for the first time, see endless possibilities stretching before you. You will learn how to:
 
 
 
•     Generate ideas at will.
 
•     Find new ways to make money.
 
•     Create new business opportunities.
 
•     Manipulate and modify ideas until you come up with the most innovative and powerful ideas possible.
 
•     Create new products, services, and processes.
 
•     Improve old products, services, and processes.
 
•     Develop solutions to complex business problems.
 
•     Revitalize markets.
 
•     See problems as opportunities.
 
•     Become more productive.
 
•     Be the “idea person” in your organization.
 
•      Know where to look for the “breakthrough idea.”
 
•     Become indispensable to your organization.
 
Thinkertoys do not render the creative experience, they suggest it. To illustrate, let us imagine me drawing a rabbit on a blackboard. You say “Yes, that’s a rabbit,” although in reality there is nothing on the blackboard but a simple chalk line. The rabbit appears because you have accepted my motion that the space within the line suggests a rabbit. The line limits the content by suggesting a significant form.
 
I must stress that it is not enough to read the book--to create your own ideas, you have to use the techniques. Try to explain the joy of skiing to a bushman who has never left the desert. You can show him some skis and a picture of a snowy mountain, and perhaps get some of the idea across. However, to fully realize the concept of skiing our bushman must put on the skis and head down a mountain. If you merely read these techniques, you will have no more than a suggestion of how to get ideas. You’ll be like the bushman standing in the desert, staring at a pair of skis and a photo of the Matterhorn, with a small notion of what skiing might be.
 
Each Thinkertoy is a specific technique for getting ideas to solve your challenges. Each chapter contains a blueprint that gives precise instructions for using the technique and an explanation of why it works--including anecdotes, stories, and examples of how real heroes used each technique to produce ideas and breakthroughs. I call them heroes because they left behind a mark, a sign, an idea, an enterprise, a product, or a service that reminds us of their innovation.
 
I also use illustrations, puzzles, charts, and hypothetical examples to demonstrate how various techniques work. Some of these hypothetical examples present usable ideas for new businesses, products, and services. These ideas are the gold beneath the river of words continually rushing past.
 
Each chapter begins with an inspirational quote from The Art of War by the legendary master, Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu wrote his extraordinary book in China more than 2,400 years ago, but his principles are as applicable to
 
creativity in business as in warfare. Long a classic for Japanese businesspeople, his book is now required reading at many leading international business schools. From Tokyo to Wall Street, business leaders quote and apply the principles of Sun Tzu.
 
This new edition contains new Thinkertoys “Lotus Blossom,” and “True and False,” updated examples, and an entirely new group-brainstorming section with several new techniques.
 
A friend of mine, Hank Zeller (an executive, entrepreneur, inventor, and poet), once described creativity this way: “When you realize that you just came up with an idea that betters anything that has been done, well, your hair stands up on end, you feel an incredible sense of awe; it’s almost as if you heard a whisper from God.”

Continues...
Excerpted from Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko Copyright © 2006 by Michael Michalko. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
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Sort by: Showing all of 18 Customer Reviews

  • Posted June 26, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    9781430311720 9781847287311

    This book breaks down any road blocks to thinking

    Do you need any new ideas for practical designs? How about when something is wrong with your business and you cannot put your finger on it? Did you ever need to brainstorm but not have anyone else around? Have you ever been stuck with writer's block and for the life of you could not get back to work? In other words, have you ever been stuck with any mental problem that you felt that you cannot solve? If this is the case I think you should have a look at Michael Michalko's latest book, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques.

    Thinkertoys is a great play on words - anyone who grew up in the United States playing with Tinker Toys would not have a hard time remembering the name of this book. But beyond the title, Michael Michalko has done better than a yeoman's job of cataloguing tried and true techniques and exercises that work individually and for groups. Not a left brained person you say? You don't need to be. Not a right brained person? Again, you don't need to be. These tools that Michael Michalko provides puts you in a position that the outcome will be the product of great creative thinking as long as you actually do the thinker work that goes along with the exercise. The entire book pushes the reader to think outside of his or her comfort zone when solving problems, creating ideas, etc. Some of these tools I have already been working on and implementing myself. Let me give you an example.

    In addition to my other work I recently have become a monthly columnist with a magazine where I give advice based upon my knowledge and experience. But to be a columnist is very difficult in a way because you have to remain fresh - the material much be both focused and new every issue. Many regular columnists (and bloggers) use different methods to do this. For instance, Jack Welch actually goes on Twitter and asks followers to send him interesting questions or problems. As such I turned to Michalko's book and found an exercise that really helped to generate ideas for the column. (If you want to know specifically which tool this was contact me through my website and I will give a full explanation). Because of this tool though I not only found enough ideas, but rather more than enough ideas. I have now written several columns in advance for the magazine and am pretty much finished with the entire year's work. This is the kind of result you can get from sitting down and working with Thinkertoys - I can personally attest!

    Also, Michael Michalko has a related product called Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck. I went out to my local bookstore and bought this card set. It is a great companion to Thinkertoys because each card is directly related to a principle or tool in Thinkertoys. So I carry this card deck with me now along with a list of issues I need to resolve when I travel. Sometimes I pull this book or these cards out because I have work to do and sometimes I do it because, dammit, it is just a good workout for the old noggin!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 3, 2008

    Most useful book

    If a significant portion of your life requires creativity that is attached to solving real-world problems, this book is tremendous. It offers tons of techniques with great details on how to get the ideas you need. It's a wonderful and useful read. In fact, it is, without a doubt, the most useful book I have ever read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 27, 2008

    Highly recommended

    I facilitate creative thinking workshops and provide each participant a copy of this book. The chapter on SCAMPER is worth the price alone. You will find each tool well explained with examples. The "Ideabox" is one of the best tools you can use which also has a section with good examples. The author's second book Cracking Creativity repeats most of the tools with less examples and more theory. I highly recommend this book as a reference for innovation tools.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 26, 2008

    Has changed the way I look at things

    This is a tremendous book that has changed my whole perspective toward creativity. It's a collection of well-researched and documented creative-thinking techniques that has helped me produce tons of new ideas, thoughts and insights. I bought a copy for my my supervisor at work and she bought copies for everyone in our department. We now meet for brainstorming sessions on a regular basis using the techniques from the book.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 14, 2007

    Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques

    This book is a must for anyone in business who is in need of fresh, limitless ways to create the ideas and creative strategies businesses need these days of uncertainty and complexity. I got my copy from my manager who gives one to all new employees.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 29, 2007

    Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques

    Creative-thinking expert Michael Michalko has applied his talents to the service of the U.S. Army, the NATO military, and the CIA now, he offers the updated second edition of Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques, a jam-packed wealth of brain-twisting visual and verbal puzzles and exercises designed to stimulate new ways of solving problems and looking at situations. Exercises designed to stimulate logic and reason, intuition, brainstorming skills and much more are offered in accessible and adaptable terms, for self-study or use in a larger creative thinking workshop. Sure to captivate the reader with its thinking-out-of-the-box puzzles and even more important, advice for reexamining old problems with a fresh perspective, Thinkertoys is enthusiastically recommended for anyone striving to expand their creative mindset. As Michael says 'Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 25, 2006

    Better than ever

    There are lots of good books on different aspects of creativity out in the world, but there really aren't many that you can regard as a book to buy if you really want to change the way you think to become generally more creative. One is Thinkertoys now in its second edition. One of the great things about a good creativity book is that it gets better with age, rather that dating. Creativity doesn't change - and neither do the effectiveness of good techniques. In fact in this case I'd say it has got better. It's partly because this an expanded and revised version, but also because it's more obvious that Thinkertoys really stands out from the crowd. Practically from page one, this book leads you into the fundamental challenge of creativity - tackling the assumptions we make all the time, and that's an experience you will find repeated time and time again.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 10, 2009

    If you are into creative thinking, you need to get this book

    This book presents a lot of useful tools for thinking. This is an excellent resource for creative thinkers -- I don't know how else to describe the book.

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