Page 15 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

6 INTRODUCTION

Creative ForceField Analysis, page 251. (Or for a more interactive
version go to www.Do-It-YourselfLobotomy.com/book.) This
self-diagnostic tool will help you identify factors that encourage
creativeness in your life on the positive side of your “Creative
ForceField” and those that prevent or limit creativity on the
negative side. In my years as a consultant, I have used this tool
often to assess individuals and organizations. We almost always
use it as a road map to help us identify the stuck places before
doing our work together. We sometimes use the exact same tool
after the professional development work to identify the positive
shifts that were made. Again, I suggest you use this tool to cre-
ate a benchmark of sorts before you get too far along in the
book. I suggest you do it again, or just edit your original version,
after you’ve read the book. You’ll be amazed at how much
awareness alone can help increase your creative forcefield. You
can do it as an individual or to assess your organization’s Cre-
ative ForceField.

KNOWLEDGE IS ⁄ POWER

This book is about empowerment. But not in the touchy-feely 1980s
sense of giving yourself permission to be your best self, although you
certainly had better be doing that. True empowerment means giving
yourself the understanding and resources to make major contributions
to your industry, your company, and your self-worth.

The great irony of the information age is that knowledge is not as
powerful as it used to be.

There was a time on this planet when only a few people had knowl-
edge, and they held the power. The monarchy, the church, the aristoc-
racy—those few who had the knowledge and education had the power.
Today we are a more educated society. And what we don’t know we
can often find out with the click of a mouse. Just a few short years ago
in the halls of business we often heard the term proprietary information.
What’s proprietary today? And for how long? All companies have
access to the same information.