Thinkertoys

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, at first, 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

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

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.

Shows you how to expand your imagination. --Newsweek
 
A special find. Period. --Executive Edge
 
A must-have book in any business setting. --Women in Business