Page 31 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

22 HOW THIS BOOK WORKS

To that end, those are the kinds of thought processes that the think-
ing tools I’ve developed will bring out.

THE PROCESS TO THE CHAOS

There’s some semblance of order to learning the tools covered in this
book and the concepts behind the tools. It’s an order that will help you
grasp them and use them more readily. This book covers some founda-
tional elements first, in Parts I and II primarily, before we get into the
tools themselves in Part III. We save what I cleverly categorize as
“Dimensionalizing Your New Creative Tools” for Part IV.
As valuable as this order of presentation has been for the more than
100,000 people I’ve trained over the years (fundamentals of creativity,
followed by Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy tools, Ask a Better Question,
etc.), I must admit that it’s far from perfect. I mean, how can anything
related to creativity ever be perfect?

DIFFERENT PEOPLE PROCESS INFORMATION
DIFFERENTLY

In my reading of business theory and professional development books
over the years, I’ve often found myself skipping this section or that,
jumping around from B to Z and A to L, rereading something I had
covered earlier, and so on. I have done this in order to take in the infor-
mation as I needed it at the various times I picked up the book, with all
due respect to how the author intended it to be read.
I have often wondered whether others read (or should I say
“process information”) in this random, custom-tailored way. It isn’t
always a strict reading of a book—sometimes it’s scanning or rescan-
ning, being reminded by headlines, subheads, and illustrations, or
going back to charts or diagrams for reference. It’s also using the index
as a site map, or skipping ahead to the information you need more
urgently, or even reinventing the book in your own form sticking notes
in pages, tearing out or copying pages, sticking related articles in the
gutter, and so on.
Before writing this book, I did a little “granny survey” of a couple
of dozen friends and acquaintances to see how they read professional
development books. And guess what? I’m not alone in my reading(?)
habits.