ARTICLES
& REPORTS
Professional
Development
About
Innovation Network
- P r o f e s s i o n a l _ D e v e l o p m e n t -
by Ken Coleman
Roger von Oech's Creative Whack Pack¨ is widely available and is perhaps one of the better known decks. It is a nicely designed deck of 64 cards divided into 4 categories that parallel the four stages of the creative process as von Oech describes them in his book A Kick In The Seat Of The Pants. Each card has a line drawing (the same style as the book), a paragraph of instruction or advice and a question that encourages the user to apply what is on the card and persist in the creative process. Card number 12 "Listen to Your Dreams" has a few lines about dreams from the philosopher Heraclitus; the well known example of Kekule and the benzine ring dream and ends with the question "How can you relate a recent dream to a current problem?" The deck includes a booklet with suggestions on how to use the cards.
Idea Sparkers are from Ebb Associates. It is a deck of 55 business card sized cards that comes in a card holder for your desk. There are no graphics on these standard white cards. The cards use techniques such as relational words, using a mail order catalog to stimulate ideas, and combining the first two objects you see on your desk to develop a new product. These cards are compact and the idea of keeping them on your desk or work table is attractive but the lack of color, graphics and their reliance what most practitioners would consider standard fare limit their appeal and perhaps their utility.
BOFF-O! stands for Brain On Fast Forward. BOFF-O! cards are from Marilyn Schoeman Dow. The cards are grouped into three different functions. There are 27 launcher, 27 booster and 8 target cards. The Facilitator's Notes contain several variations for using the cards. The basic idea is to use a launcher and a booster card together and sometimes a target card, too. Each card has a list of words. Words are selected from each card and grouped to function as a forced or distant relationship. Launcher cards have words like "suspender," and "newspaper." Booster cards use words and phrases such as "make resilient," "grow" and "hold." Target cards list "cut crime," "arts," and "economics" among many others. The cards are color coded and colorful bullets set off the words. You could use the colored bullets as a basis for matching words, using, say, the word with the red bullet from each card. This seems to be a very usable deck although it takes a little time to figure out.
Michael Michalko, author of Thinkertoys, uses the SCAMMPERR acronym for the basis of his Thinkpak deck. There is a set of cards for each idea generation technique represented in the acronym. Each set is color coded. The substitute cards, for example, prompt the user to consider another ingredient or material or someone else's perspective. And so on through the combine, adapt, etc. cards. Forty-five cards deal with the techniques while the last nine cards present ways to help evaluate ideas.
There are games, a booklet and cards in Edward deBono's Mind Pack. The cards are called Thinkards. Each chapter in the booklet is accompanied by at least one card game. The chapters deal with issues such as perception, design and judgment among others. One of the Thinkard games that accompanies the chapter on judgment states that, "Twenty cards are laid face up on the table. The task is to pick out three pairs. Each pair must be based on usefulness." The text continues to talk about the relationship of judgment and the synergy of the pairs. Actually, there are two decks of cards in Mind Pack. One deck is a numbered deck and is used only with one particular game. The other, more versatile deck uses illustrations of objects such as a spoon, tape dispenser and roller skates. It is this deck that is used in games accompanying each chapter. Each game has its own rules and procedures for using the cards.
Advancement Strategies makes several card decks that are available through Pfeiffer & Company. None of the decks deal directly with creativity or problem solving. They are marketed as learning tools that present techniques, strategies or concepts for professional growth. I looked at three decks: Performance Improvement, Leadership Development and Survival Pack. The Survival Pack is subtitled "strategies for thriving on constant change." Using a short paragraph and illustration, each card presents an individual concept such as "think positively about change," and "try new and different things." Although it is difficult to argue with the inspirational tone of the content, the questionable quality of the illustrations could make their use inappropriate in some situations.
The next product is strictly speaking not a card deck but functions in much the same way and deserves a mention. It is the Pocket Innovator from Creative Learning International. Instead of cards, it is more like a swatch-book consisting of about 120 1" x 4" slips of paper. Reading through one way it takes the user through a seven step creative problem solving process. Read through the other way (from back to front) it is an ideas library containing words and phrases designed to trigger new combinations and relationships.
Although they are not designed specifically for creativity training or idea generation, Q-cards made by Zolo, Inc. is a beautifully designed set of decision making or forecasting cards that certainly falls in the category of oracles. The use of color and graphics is contemporary and light-hearted. The 52 card deck uses quirky, words and phrases like, "whoa-nelly," "passion" and "pack your bags." The first rule is "there are no rules" (kind of like Calvin Ball of Calvin and Hobbes fame -- the only rule is you can't play the game the same way twice.) but there are a couple of suggestions for use.
The cards reviewed here (and there may be others) cover a wide range of approaches and design quality. Some decks act like coaches and lead the user through the idea generation process, while others offer less process coaching and function more directly as a tool. Each has its place and there is probably room for another well thought out deck. If the members of the Innovation Network were to design an INDeck, I would like to see it incorporate the functionality of BOFF-O! (about 2 parts BOFF-O!); with the coaching function of the Whack Pack® (maybe 1 part) and the humor and design quality of Q-Cards (another 1 part). What a deal that deck would be.
Ken Coleman can be reached at 718-636-3712 or 72722.3272@compuserve.com.