New Resource: A Whack on the Side of the Head (How You Can Be More Creative)

  Here's a new title that has been added to our professional library: A Whack on the Side of the Head (How You Can Be More Creative) – Roger von Oech (Author)  – Paperback

This is the 25th anniversary edition of this book. Over the years, A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD has been praised by business people, educators, scientists, homemakers, artists, youth leaders, and many more. The book has been stimulating creativity in millions of readers, translated into eleven languages, and used in seminars around the world.

Now Roger von Oech's fully illustrated and updated volume is filled with even more provocative puzzles, anecdotes, exercises, metaphors, cartoons, questions, quotations, stories, and tips designed to systematically break through your mental blocks and unlock your mind for creative thinking. This new edition will attract an entire new generation of readers with updated and mind-stretching material.

Von Oech demonstrates in his thinking and in his writing the same principles he advocates so eloquently. In Whack, first published in 1983, he identifies ten "locks" which limit (if not preclude) creative thinking:

1. The Right Answer
2. That's Not Logical
3. Follow the Rules
4. Be Practical
5. Play Is Frivolous
6. That's Not My Area
7. Avoid Ambiguity
8. Don't Be Foolish
9. To Err Is Wrong
10. I'm Not Creative

 

How does each limit (if not preclude) creative thinking? How can each be "unlocked"? To what extent are these barriers interdependent? Von Oech devotes a separate chapter to each of the ten, answering these and other questions while providing various exercises in support of his explanations.

(Source: Amazon Books)

Please check out this and other professional development resources at the Learning Commons, and  staff reviews (good, bad or ugly) are welcome in the comments if you've read the book!