The Creative Contrarian

Tackle your thorniest problems using the Wise Fool’s savvy Strategies!  The Wise Fool is the archetypal contrarian known for his creativity, irreverence, and humor. He looks at life in unorthodox ways and pushes back against the status quo. Throughout history, powerful decision-makers (Egyptian pharaohs, Chinese emperors, Persian sultans, and European kings) consulted Wise Fools to question the assumptions that kept them mired in stale and obsolete solutions.   In The Creative Contrarian, best-selling author (A Whack on the Side of the Head), speaker, and toy designer (Ball of Whacks) Dr. Roger von Oech provides readers with a fully-illustrated “Wise Fool Guide” to challenge established procedures and engage in creative thinking.   Roger shows how to gain the confidence to speak up in “groupthink” situations — and boldly present a different perspective. From laughing at your most beloved ideas to test their validity to adding constraints to problems to reveal new solutions, he offers a framework for creativity that works in business, design, education, and anywhere new ideas are required — and appreciated!  Employing a wealth of stories and examples, The Creative Contrarian presents 20 Wise Fool Strategies:   Some offer ideas to enhance your creativity (“Reverse Your Perspective,” “Look for Ambiguity,” and “Kiss a Favorite Idea Goodbye”)   Some provide tips on how to break away from the herd (“Buck the Crowd,” “Flex Your Risk Muscle,” and “Seek Other Right Answers”)  And still others convey prudent warnings in an unpredictable world (“Exercise Humility,” “Imagine Unintended Outcomes,” and “Develop a Thick Skin”)  Together, these jewels of insight will help you see things from the Wise Fool’s perspective! As the Wise Fool puts it: “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only one you have”; and “Every ‘right’ idea eventually becomes the ‘wrong’ one.”  The Creative Contrarian: 20 “Wise Fool” Strategies to Boost Creativity and Curb Group think is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking fresh solutions to common problems at the office, in the classroom, or at home.

Introduction 1 Part I: Meet the Wise Fool 9 Part II: The Wise Fool Strategies 23 1 Buck the Crowd 25 2 Flex Your Risk Muscle 37 3 Laugh at It 49 4 Seek Other Right Answers 59 5 Keep Playing with It 69 6 Reverse Your Perspective 81 7 Fool Around with the Constraints 91 8 Build on an Odd Idea 99 9 Look for Ambiguity 103 10 See the Obvious 111 11 Use Your Forgettery 117 12 Drop What’s Obsolete 125 13 Kiss a Favorite Idea Goodbye 131 14 Revisit a Discarded Idea 135 15 Find What’s out of Whack 139 16 Stop Fooling Yourself 145 17 Exercise Humility 153 18 Imagine the Unintended 159 19 Develop a Thick Skin 169 20 Shed an Illusion 173 Part III: Use Your Wise Fool Know-How 177 Selected Bibliography 193 Index of Proper Names 196 Acknowledgments 199 About the Author 200