Page 82 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

Tools with Strong Handles 73

ment to the known holds most people back from finding better ideas.
When you use the simple tools explained in this book, with little effort
you will be able to circumvent, or lobotomize, the area of your mind
that knows the answer.
Only when you ask a better question will you get a better answer.
When you speed through many ideas using 100 MPH Thinking, you
will have more fresh ideas. When you use Intergalactic Thinking, by
definition, you will bring your thoughts to a different place. When you
take the 180° Thinking route, well... nah, I don’t want to spoil it all
for you. I want you to experience 180° Thinking for yourself in that
chapter ahead.

TOOLS WITH STRONG HANDLES

Part of the reason these tools are so effective is the kind of names I’ve
given them. Descriptive, memorable, and fairly short names such as
100 MPH Thinking, Intergalactic Thinking, Ask a Better Question,
and 180° Thinking simply make the tools they represent easier to use.
I was using each of these thinking methods long before I started
naming them. And you know what? They weren’t quite as effective,
neither for individuals nor, particularly, for groups. People understood
the concepts, but they often had a hard time communicating what the
tools meant to others, which also affected how they used the thinking
methods themselves.
The names help you quickly get your mind around the basic func-
tions of the tools. For groupthink, these mnemonic handles facilitate
quicker, easier communication, to be sure. Imagine hearing a team of
carpenters talking about their tools if they didn’t have names for them:
“Hey, Bob, can you pass me that long, flat, tapered piece of sheet metal
with the sharp teeth and the wooden handle?” I don’t think so.
A number of years ago the head of AT&T new media told me he had
a bunch of creative geniuses working for him. When I asked if they
could speak to each other in the same language he looked at me side-
ways, as if to say, “There’s a language?”
Yes, there is a language. It’s the names of these tools. When teams
use these methods for groupthink, it’s like a football team calling a play.
Someone says, “Let’s throw some 180° Thinking at this opportunity,”
and everyone else knows the drill. Imagine even the best football play-
ers in the world going out on a field with no set plays. They’d all be
running into each other.