Customer Reviews

Broken Crayons: Break Your Crayons and Draw Outside the Lines

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a rehash of well-known techniques in the field. Apparently, the author read much what was on the market and presented the techniques under different names. If you are a novice to the field, the book has value. If you have read much in the field, the book has no value.

This is a colorful, fun book to read, and it gives you a lot of ideas and exercises for increasing your own creativity and that of others. I think when a person gets more creative, and less judgmental, the others around him or her tend to loosen up as well. Using some of these ideas in my business environment has paid off. I also facilitate some sessions, and this book gives great ideas on how to structure such events and what some of the content might be. There are many books on enhancing creativity (and some excellent ones), but this one is unique in that it makes the information and how-to's very accessible

A fun book to use when organizing a presentation about creativity or when in need of a resource to stimulate creative ideas about a new project. Although the book is slim, the author's indepth knowledge of, and enthusiasm for the field of creativity is evident throughout the text.

Once in awhile, a book comes along that redefines those pesky negative self-perceptions from our past. Robert Alan Black's "Broken Crayons" did that for me. In reading his book I realized I've been a crayon breaker all my life: as a child I was called mischievous and naughty, but as an adult, people compliment me on my creativity. Read this book and maybe you, too will find that your troublesome behaviors of yesteryear helped pave your route to success. Here's to more crayon breaking for all of us!

This delightful little book is full of useful tips and aha! methodology to help the reader guide groups or individuals through new approaches to organizational problem solving -- or to life. The first 20 pages or so tend to be a rehash of ideas that have been printed and discussed in many other publications. However, those who are able and willing to continue further in the book will be richly rewarded. Black's typology of creative thinking styles is especially useful in figuring out why some of us meet with blockages in our attempts to get a group to buy into our ideas.

Alan Black is a real wizard in making the subject of creativity stimulating, useful and easy reading.His metaphor of broken crayons aptly describes the creative manner in which he treats the subject of creativity itself!

As a creativity trainer , I find the book adopts an innovative approach to helping readers to develop their own creativity, to equip readers to help others to develop their creativity and to provide means for readers to introduce creativity to their workplace. If you value creativity in your life and your work then this is the right book for you.

After dealing with Alan Black in internet creativity forums for some years, I have come to admire his infectious enthusiasm, his joviality, and his constructive and energetic approach to all things creative. I decided I had to get away from my myopic pursuit of better-known creativity gurus and traverse the lesser known works for their greater rewards.

Alan's book is rewarding and well-written, and is worth twice the cover price. Or you can simply buy two copies, like I did. A wonderful read, indeed, especially if you are too far away to benefit from his training first-hand!

Need to small book to jog your brain without getting you lost in theory. BROKEN CRAYONS by Robert Alan Black is right up your alley. The concepts are based on sound study and excution with easy to remember by-words for broad ideas.
Whether your are digging around to find a spark to change a drastic current business trend or looking for help with your own individual persuits there are specific ideas to try that will jump start creative thinking. Working outside the box, we all believe we do it, but when faced with an unfamiliar situation the walls are comfortable because they are familiar.
Just a little over a period of time will work wonders.
Nash Black, author of HAINTS and WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS.Writing as a Small BusinessHaints

Black has written an extremely useful book that's also a pleasure to read. One of the biggest problems I've encountered in my own innovation work with businesses and non profit organizations is the general unwillingness of people to take risks, or as Black puts it, to break their crayons and draw outside the lines. And yet, I've discovered that if you can get people to break these constraints and see beyond their own self-imposed borders, that's where the diamonds lie, where creative thinking can truly make a difference. Black delivers the goods by giving us the rationale and the tools to be the best we can be. This book has more useful information than books three times its size... and price!

This book continues to spark creativity in its readers. It has been translated into Turkish, Japanese and Slovakian. I highly recommend it for people seeking to expand and enrich their creativity and the creativity of others they work with or in their families.