Regular readers of Wishful Thinking will know that I hold the work of Roger von Oech in high esteem. Roger was one of the original sparks behind the creative revolution in business; his books and card decks, and more recently his blog and Ball of Whacks, have brought inspiration to thousands of people worldwide.

Roger’s classic A Whack on the Side of the Head is always the first book on creative thinking I recommend to clients. So when he e-mailed me a few weeks ago to let me know he had prepared a revised 25th Anniversary Edition of A Whack on the Side of the Head, I couldn’t resist asking him for an interview. Roger kindly agreed - you can read his answers to my questions below.

Regarding the book itself - if you haven’t yet read Whack, this is definitely one you should have on your creative bookshelf. It’s a thoroughly good read - funny, challenging, useful, unsettling and inspiring. If you already own a copy, then you’ll be pleased to know the new edition is still recognisably the same book, with all the old favourites still in place - but with new ideas, techniques and ‘Whacks’ added for good measure. My experience of reading the new edition was an enjoyable combination of familiarity and surprise. I was also delighted to see that I make a cameo appearance in the book - in a footnote on p.115 (I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what it’s about).

1. A Whack on the Side of the Head is a classic. Why is that?

Roger von Oech: Whack is about the ten “Mental Locks” that prevent most people from being more creative. These locks include such beliefs as: “There’s one right answer,” “To err is wrong,” “Don’t be foolish,” Avoid Ambiguity,” and “That’s not my area.” These ideas make sense for a lot of what we do, but when we’re trying to be creative they can get in the way. Most people have an intuitive understanding of these ideas, and so it’s easy for them to think about them.

Whack has a lot of unusual and off-beat stories and anecdotes. It’s got weird drawings that capture our imagination. Also, Whack is an accessible and interactive book. People seem to like that. There are a number of exercises in it. I think that we improve our ability to be creative by using our creativity, not by being lectured at. Whack is also fun. I guess people respond to all of these things.

2. Why change a classic book?

I’ve always considered Whack to be a living book, that is, one I could update and revise over time. This 25th Anniversary Edition is actually the fourth edition I’ve done since it first came out in 1983. The last previous edition, however, was in 1998, and there were a number of insights, exercises, and stories I wanted to add and I’ve gone ahead and done so. I hope that it reaches a new generation of creative people!

In addition, my last book was Expect the Unexpected, which came out in 2001. This was a true labor of love and dealt with the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus whom I consider to be the “world’s first creativity teacher.” This book was well-reviewed but unfortunately it was published a few days before September 11, 2001 and thus, got lost in the strangeness of the post 9/11 period. (What a cosmic irony considering this book’s title!) As a consequence, I’ve taken some of my favorite Heraclitus insights and incorporated them in the new Whack. I’m very happy with the results.

3. How are you different from twenty-five years ago?


At age 60 (me today), I’d like to believe that I have a little more perspective than I did when I was 35. In the intervening years, I’ve (helped) raise a family, had a successful business, and have had a few more life experiences. I think all of that enters into my tone. But, I’ve tried to keep it fun. For example, I’ve added a “Breaktime” chapter between chapters five and six. This allows the reader to “Pause for A Bit,” which is always a good thing.

4. Whack was one of the catalysts of a creative revolution in business. These days the Creative Economy and Creative Industries are all the rage, and the most admired companies are often those that excel at creativity and innovation. Was this what you had in mind?

I think that the “most admired companies” of just about any age have excelled at creativity and innovation. What’s changed though is that today there’s an expectation that a higher percentage of a company’s employees should be creative than was the case twenty-five or thirty years ago. It’s gone from maybe 3% up to 25%. This is a very good thing.

When I started doing “creativity consulting” in 1977, there were probably only four or five other people I was aware of who were doing it. It was a difficult sell to companies. Now, there are thousands (if not more) creative consultants, and business certainly seems receptive to the idea of innovation. I’d like to think that my seminars, workshops, books, and other products have played a small role in this changing creative landscape.

5. A while ago you wrote a funny post in the voice of your books, who complained that you were neglecting them in favour of blogging. How’s your relationship with your books these days? Did your experience of blogging change the way you approached re-writing Whack?

I have a “love-hate” relationship with blogging and some of the other social media (such as Twitter). I felt that blogging was a big help during the 8 months I was re-doing the new “Whack.” I could test out my ideas by writing posts about them. This helped me think them through. It also allowed me to meet new people from around the world (you, for example!).

On the other hand, social media take time. For example, I have a good blogger friend who is well respected in the design and marketing communities because of his social media involvement. But the downside is that he has read only one novel in the past year.

Perhaps I’m old school, but I believe that “reading paper” — as opposed to “reading screen” — is still a worthwhile activity.

6. In an interview for the launch of the new edition of Whack you say that you’ve ‘come to appreciate more the value and importance of constraints and limits in stimulating the creative process’. What prompted this appreciation?

Probably working with companies with limited budgets — as opposed to those who could just throw lots of money and resources at a problem. I think it’s better to have a policy to “out-think” the competition than to “outspend” them.

I’ve also had this experience with my own entrepreneurial activities. This has been true whether I’ve been producing conferences or creating new products that are manufactured in China. When I have a tight constraint, it forces to think more deeply about the problem and look for alternatives.

7. Can you give me a specific example in one of your products?
The “Creative Whack Pack” card deck is a good one (the same applies to the “Innovative Whack Pack” as well). Each card in the deck contains a creativity strategy, an illustration, a story that exemplifies that strategy, and finally a question for the reader to apply the strategy to a problem.

When I’m writing a book, I can take multiple paragraphs to develop and expound on a particular point. But when I was writing copy for a card’s story, and there was only room for eight or nine lines (that’s the constraint), I had to boil my thoughts down to just the basic points. The constraint forced me cut through the story’s clutter to get to the essentials. As a result, I came to understand the basic idea in a fresh way. Of course, if you cut too much, you lose the point of the story, so you have to be aware of that extreme as well. But I’ve found that adding a constraint makes me think.

8. Whack has been rightly praised as an inspiring book. I also find it quite disturbing – there’s something deeply unsettling about the way it undermines all our assumptions and replaces them with ambiguity and paradox. A bit like meeting the Sphinx. George Willet’s illustrations capture that spirit perfectly – charming, playful and slightly macabre. Do you recognise this disturbing quality in Whack, or is it just me?

I agree with you. The creative process can be incredibly messy. It’s a place where there’s no “one right answer,” and paradox and ambiguity prevail. I think one has to appreciate this when he or she enters into their own creative place. Once you’ve done it, it’s a lot easier to get your bearings.

9. Do you think the challenges facing creative people have changed significantly over the past 25 years, or are they fundamentally the same?

I guess the glib answer would be, “Oh, these are the most challenging of times.” But I think it’s always challenging. Creative people of every era have had to deal with their own personal demons, and also deal with negative people, and constraints of all types (time, money, resources). And no matter who you are, you still have to be able to sell your ideas to other people. So, a lot of stuff hasn’t changed. The main limits are usually in our own heads. And that’s why a “good whack” can be beneficial to your thinking!

10. If you had to reduce the advice in the book to a single ‘Whack’ which one would you pick - and why?

I guess if I had a motto or a mantra, it would be: “Look for the Second Right Answer.” This has been my guiding principle for over thirty years.

I find that looking for the second right answer is an incredibly easy way to open my mind. For example, When I’m looking for information, this mantra tells me to go beyond the right answers that have worked in the past and look for others. When I’m trying to be creative, it playfully advises me to put my ideas in unusual contexts to give them new meanings.

When I’m evaluating concepts, it implores me not to get stuck in the negative, and not to fall in love with one particular approach. And, when I’m implementing ideas, it reminds me that if one idea doesn’t work, a different one just might, and to act accordingly.

Thanks for your interest, and best wishes to your readers.

Thank you Roger!

=================================================

If you enjoyed the interview, there’s plenty more inspiration on Roger’s blog and of course in the 25th Anniversary A Whack on the Side of the Head.

UK readers - get your copy here.

If you are responsible for getting the best out of a team of creative professionals, my new e-book on Creative Management for Creative Teams is for you. Feel free to download and share it (here are the terms of the Creative Commons licence).

The e-book is a compilation and revision of my blog series on business coaching.

Introduction to the E-book - Why Coaching?

As a creative director, business owner or manager of a creative team, the chances are you already coach your people to an extent - and you may be better at it than you realise. But there’s also a fair chance that you have received little support in developing your people management skills.

In the creative industries, so much attention is lavished on creative ‘talent’ and the products of creativity that vital aspects of the creative process are often overlooked. Such as the massive influence (positive and negative) managers and creative directors have on the creativity of their teams. While many individual managers are doing an excellent job of managing and developing their teams, there is little wider recognition of people management in the creative sector.

It’s hard to develop a skill that goes unrecognised. And you don’t need me to tell you that managing temperamental creatives can be one of the most challenging jobs going. Read the rest of this entry »

Image © Dave Gray, reproduced by kind permission

If creativity is your livelihood, is it a good idea to pursue multiple interests and develop a range of skills, or should you focus on one or two key talents and become the best around in your specialism?

I’m asking the question because two of my favourite blogs take completely opposite positions on this issue. In the red corner, Steve Hardy devotes his entire blog to the concept of the Creative Generalist, and recently wrote an excellent post about What Specifically Do Generalists Do?. In the blue corner, advertising copywriter Scamp has this to say about creative generalism:

the idea enrages me so much that every time it pops up I feel the need to reach for a hammer, like I’m playing a blogging version of whack-a-mole.

At the risk of getting whacked by Scamp’s hammer (and of mixing metaphors) I’m going to look at both sides of the question and see if I can referee the fight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Having looked at The Business Impact of Coaching, I’m now going to focus specifically on companies in the creative industries - such as advertising agencies, design studios, TV broadcasters, computer games developers - and explain why I believe coaching is vitally important to their success.

In this context I should really refer to coaching as ‘coaching’ or even coaching - creative people are often suspicious of ‘management speak’ and my research showed me that many of them put the word ‘coaching’ in that category. No problem. I’m not a huge fan of the word myself. I’m more interested in what people do than in what label we use for it.

And what I’ve noticed are lots of managers, creative directors and other leaders of creative teams using skills that are very similar to classic coaching behaviours - i.e. lots of listening, asking questions, observational feedback, defining the goal/brief and then stepping back and allowing people to find their own way of achieving it. It’s as if these managers, many of whom have never read a book on coaching, using a coaching-style approach intuitively, because they find it the most effective way to get the best out of creative people.

So why are these coaching behaviours effective at facilitating high-level creative work?

Questions

We have already seen, in Key Coaching Skills, that questions are one of the hallmarks of the coaching style of management. They are also key drivers of creative endeavour. Many great creative discoveries and inventions have begun with questions - What if we did things differently? What if we could travel to the moon? What happens if we start connecting up all these computers?

Looking and listening

In his classic book on creative thinking, A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger von Oech quoted Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who said: ‘Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different’. We all spend a lot of time looking at each other - yet it is surprising how little we often see. Much of the time we are too preoccupied with our own ideas and needs to really focus on the other person. Coaches spend a lot of time looking at people and listening to them carefully - and noticing little clues in the way they speak or act. These clues can be the difference between success and failure in a working relationship - particularly when dealing with notoriously complex and sensitive creative types.

Read the rest of this entry »

Having spent most of this series outlining the What and How of coaching, it’s time to consider the Why - the key benefits to a business where coaching is an integral part of managing performance and developing people’s talents.

I’ve left this till late in this guide because until we’re clear about what coaching is and how it works, it’s hard to consider its impact on an organisation. With all complex ‘people skills’, it is hard to draw a straight line between particular skills and practices and business results. This is particularly true of coaching, as it is essentially a facilitative approach. Whether managers or consultants, coaches act as catalysts for various processes within an organisation, so it’s often hard to separate the different elements that contribute to success.

However we can identify factors that coaching seeks to influence, and consider how it does this. In each case, note how the personal benefits (to both coaches and coachees) are intimately linked to the business benefits. Ideally a company should be looking for a dynamic balance between the two, especially in the context of a creative business.

Commitment

It’s impossible to create commitment - but you can encourage it by giving people an opportunity to (a) work towards goals they find personally meaningful as well as delivering business results, and (b) use their creativity and initiative to do the job in their own way. Coaching offers a wealth of options for doing both of these. In fact, the coaching approach is founded on the assumption that the coach’s role is to act as a facilitator, while the coachee has the biggest emotional investment in the goal and the responsibility for committing to action.

Creativity

Following on from Commitment, because the coach is a facilitator, asking questions, listening and giving feedback in order to stimulate the coachee’s thinking, it is a highly creative process. Not in an abstract, fuzzy way, but in challenging people to come up with ideas that are new, useful and practical - and then to put them into action and see them through. For more on coaching and creativity see How coaching creates creative flow and my next post on Why coaching is vital to creative companies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by judepics: Planet Greenwich (home of Wishful Thinking)

Thank you for reading Wishful Thinking in 2007. It’s been great fun writing it and connecting with so many interesting and creative people - online and in person.

Here’s my personal selection of the best of Wishful Thinking in 2007, based partly on my own judgment, partly on the amount of visitors, comments and links they attracted.

I hope you (re)discover something to inspire you. Have a great New Year, see you on the other side…

January

How to Maintain Your Enthusiasm When Things Get Tough

7 Ways to Stop Worrying When You’re Under Pressure

February

7 Ways to Tap into Enthusiasm

Interview with David Amor, Creative Director, Relentless Software

March

David Armano on Management

An Introduction to Business Coaching

April

Chris Ritke Interviews Me at 49Sparks.com

The Manager as Coach

May

A Blog Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas - British Library Talk

Getting in Touch with Creativity - Roger von Oech’s Ball of Whacks

Brian Eno - 77 Million Paintings Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re in London you may like to bookmark the latest Creative Business Club event from CIDA, on 14th November. I’ve blogged about the Creative Business Club before - I’ve always found it an inspiring evening and a good opportunity to meet interesting creative professionals.

This time the theme is Making Workspace Work, looking at the effect of your physical environment on your business and your creativity. This is a topic I’ve previously looked at on this blog, when I considered The Thinkubator and Other Creative Environments. I’ve also written about the Creative Space Agency who are among the speakers, and who are building their business on a brilliantly simple idea about creative use of space in London.

Making Workspace Work

The Creative Business Club offers knowledge through networking and the perfect opportunity to get together with other creative professionals. Each event features lively panel discussions with leading experts followed by networking and drinks.

When: Wednesday 14 Nov, 6 – 9pm

Where: Barbican Centre (Barbican)

Who: Freelancers, businesses and cultural organisations

Cost: FREE to all (supported by Creative London – London Development Agency and Arts Council England)

Facilitator: Lucy Kyle, CIDA’s Creative Industries Business Adviser

Has your business outgrown your home, or are you renting a space that just isn’t working for you? The next Creative Business Club – Making Workspace Work – explores how to find a space that will help your business grow. Having a professional address and a meeting room for clients are just some of the benefits, but the right space can also help you build a profitable referral network and inspire creativity.

The expert panel including Cani Ash - Founding Partner Ash Sakula Architects, John Burton - Director of the Creative Space Agency, Paul Allen, journalist and author of the Ethical Business Book and Helen Johannessen of Yoyo Ceramics will discuss what to consider when selecting a workspace, where to look and how your physical environment can affect your profile, productivity and creativity.

Join us afterwards for drinks and a chance to chat to exhibitors who will be on hand to provide expert advice on finding the right creative space for you.

Making Workspace Work is supported by the Creative Space Agency

The World Intellectual Property Organization got in touch to let me know about this conference:

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is organizing an International Conference on Intellectual Property and the Creative Industries, which will be held at WIPO headquarters in Geneva on October 29th and 30th, 2007.

The Conference is being organized to provide a forum for discussion on the concept and application of creativity in the creative industries with a clear focus on their intellectual property component. More information is available on the WIPO website.

It sounds like an interesting event, especially as it’s free. When I did the MA in Creative and Media Enterprises at Warwick University one of the key modules was on Managing Intellectual Property, which turned out to be surprisingly interesting. If you’re running any kind of creative business, then it’s essential to have some grasp of the key principles of intellectual property law, and particularly the issues raised by digital technology and the internet. (I mean the real issues, not the tub-thumping scare-mongering by certain Content Kings.)

For some useful IP resources you might like to have a look at my Books and links: Intellectual Property page.

I’ve discovered an excellent blog called New Music Strategies, which has a lively and well-argued point of view on the new realities of the music business. A good introduction is author Andrew Dubber’s e-book 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online, which is also available as a free printed booklet.

Daniel Schutzsmith has a new issue of Graphic Define online, with a great selection of guest authors writing about ‘the business of running a design studio’ (most of which will apply to any creative business). On a similar theme the Creative Review blog has a great piece called Running A Design Studio: The Boring Stuff, by Build partner Nicky Place.

I’m finding The Ideafeed an excellent source of new stories and publications about the creative industries. Maybe you will too.

Andrew at Northern Planner shares some tips on Using research and information to write a great creative brief - worth reading for anyone on the giving or receiving end of a creative brief.

Steve Roesler has an insightful series on Fear of Success, which in my experience is surprisingly common among creative professionals (and also applies to Organizations).

If you’re wondering what could possibly be scary about success, have a read of Marcus Brown’s unforgettable post The Show Off. I’m pleased to say Marcus retains his creative enthusiasm, in a mind-boggling new project The Ides of March. If you have a business problem, send it to Marcus and he’ll come up with an idea to help you solve it - if you like the idea, you pay what you think it’s worth (yes, really), if not he posts it on the Ides of March. I had the pleasure of meeting Marcus at the Interesting conference in June - he’s charming and obviously very bright, so I’m looking forward to following his creative thinking high wire act.

Juliana Frasson Xavier is a Brazilian planner who’s been making the most of her time in London by interviewing some of the luminaries of the UK advertising scene and posting her findings on John Grant’s Brand Tarot blog. She asked her interviewees about the thought processes they use to approach creative and business challenges - a fascinating topic, especially considering her interviewees include Phil Teer, Creative Director of St Luke’s, Richard Huntingdon of Adliterate, and Russell Davies of Russell Davies.

Finally thanks to Steve at Creative Generalist for this sighting of the rare species of Poet Managers:

Poetry speaks to many C.E.O.’s. “I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers,” says Sidney Harman, founder of Harman Industries, a $3 billion producer of sound systems for luxury cars, theaters and airports. Mr. Harman maintains a library in each of his three homes, in Washington, Los Angeles and Aspen, Colo. “Poets are our original systems thinkers,” he said. “They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.”

Thanks to D’log for highlighting Demos’ publication of a free PDF of The Independents by Charles Leadbeater and Kate Oakley. I read the printed version a while ago and was impressed by the way it captures both the spirit of creative freelancers and microbusinesses and their larger economic significance within the UK creative industries.

As D’log points out the book came out in 1999 so it’s a little dated, but still well worth reading for anyone with an interest in the creative industries. It also makes a good companion to the recent pamphlet (also from Demos) So What Do You Do? which I blogged about last month.