Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It: A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus - Softcover

Roger Von Oech; George Willett

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1576752275 ISBN 13: 9781576752272

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002

Synopsis

Open your mind with the creative enigmas of Heraclitus. These innovation strategies--from "You Can't Step in the Same River Twice" to "Dogs Bark at What They Don't Understand"--are as relevant today as they were 2,500 years ago when this provocative Greek philosopher wrote them.

Roger von Oech breathes fresh life into these ancient ideas to produce a treasury of useful creativity insights including "Appreciate Turbulence," "Practice Forgetting," "Ask a Fool," "See the Obvious," "Connect the Unconnected," "Find a Pattern," "Use What's Not There," and "Reverse Assumptions."

Whether you read it from start to finish as a creativity workbook, or consult it as a daily oracle, Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It offers a welcome jolt to the imagination!

About this title

Review

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was the first "creativity teacher," says Roger von Oech, whose bestselling book A Whack on the Side of the Head set the standard for out-of-the-box thinking. In Expect the Unexpected, Von Oech uses 30 of Heraclitus's pithy and paradoxical epigrams to approach problems in a fresh manner. He explains his premise: "Creative thinking involves imagining familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected patterns, and finding connections among unrelated phenomena."

Von Oech uses the epigrams as creativity exercises--accompanied by mental puzzles, anecdotes, questions, and punchy footnotes--to demonstrate that Heraclitus's 2,500-year-old creative insights have aged well. With his whimsical wand, von Oech transforms the epigram "A Donkey prefers garbage to gold" into an exploration of values. He uses Heraclitus's observation that "A wonderful harmony is created when we join together the seemingly unconnected" to examine the use of metaphors in understanding problems. When Heraclitus observes that "Dogs bark at what they don't understand," Von Oech crafts a meditation about criticism. Executives, students, teachers, and parents will find an exciting and entertaining map for changing thought patterns, tolerating ambiguity, confounding expectations, and searching for hidden meanings. --Barbara Mackoff

About the Author

Roger von Oech is the president of Creative Think, a California-based consulting firm. He is an internationally recognized leader in stimulating creativity and his seminars and presentations have enriched the creativity of many millions around the world. He has worked with such organizations as: AT&T, Apple, CBS, Coca-Cola, GE, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, MTV, Mattell, Microsoft, NASA, National Geographic, Nestle, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, SONY, and the United States Olympic Swimming Team. He is the author of the best-selling creativity books A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, and the Creative Whack Pack card deck.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1576752275
• ISBN 13: 9781576752272
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208