Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius [Paperback]

Michael Michalko (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 26, 2001

In this trailblazing book, internationally renowned business creativity expert Michael Michalko shows how creative people think—and how to put their secrets to work for you. To create this book, Michalko researched and analyzed hundreds of history's greatest thinkers—from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso—and then brought their techniques into the modern home and workplace. The follow-up to the popular THINKERTOYS, which sold over 80,000 copies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Creative-thinking expert Michael Michalko offers a series of idea-inspiring resources and techniques. . . . CRACKING CREATIVITY is peppered with anecdotes and exercises to help push you to your creative limit." — How“Sometimes the craziest ideas are the most inspired. . . . "You don't have to score 1600 on the SATs or build your own computer to approach your craft with genius. . . .[this] book is filled with exercises that illustrate the benefits of looking at problems from different angles." — TheOrlando Sentinel"CRACKING CREATIVITY unveils the secrets of creative genius and brings life-changing creative techniques into everyone's reach. By comparing the thinking strategies of over 100 of history's most creative minds, the book shows readers how to approach problems with new vision and discover a world of innovative solutions to everyday challenges."—New Equipment Digest "CRACKING CREATIVITY delivers an arsenal of powerful creative thinking tools that can be used to tackle virtually any type of technical problem and create new ideas. The closest thing we have to a tactical instruction manual for thinking like a genius." —American Creativity Association

About the Author

MICHAEL MICHALKO is a leading creativity expert who specializes in leading creative thinking workshops, seminars on fostering creativity, and think tanks. His clients range from Fortune 500 corporations such as DuPont, Xerox, Kellogg's, General Electric, Kodak, Microsoft, Exxon, General Motors, Ford, AT&T, WalMart, and Hallmark to governmental agencies. As an officer in the U.S. Army, Michalko organized a team of NATO specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive thinking methods. After leaving military service, he was contracted by the CIA to facilitate think tanks and brainstorming sessions. Michalko currently works with clients worldwide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; First Edition, First Printing edition (June 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580083110
• ISBN-13: 978-1580083119
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Creativity & Genius
  • #71 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

More About the Author

Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world. As an officer in the U.S. Army, Michael organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods. His team applied the methods to various NATO military, political, and social problems and produced a variety of breakthrough ideas and creative solutions to new and old problems. Michael later applied these creative-thinking techniques to problems in the corporate world with outstanding successes. The companies he worked with were thrilled with the breakthrough results they achieved, and Michael has since been in the business of developing and teaching creative-thinking workshops and seminars for corporate clients around the world.
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He is the author of the best-seller THINKERTOYS: A HANDBOOK OF CREATIVE THINKING TECHNIQUES.

He is also the author of Thinkpak (A Brainstorming Card Set), which is a novel creative-thinking tool that is designed to facilitate brainstorming sessions, and Cracking Creativity (The Secrets of Creative Geniuses)which describes the common thinking strategies creative geniuses have used in the sciences, art, and industry throughout history and shows how we can apply them to become more creative in our business and personal lives.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 128 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I was taken aback. December 18, 2001

By J. Reich

Format:Hardcover

A book for inventors, craftsmen, artisans, scientists, businesses, teachers, and most of all us students.
Michael Michalko's book made many areas fall into place for me, not to mention assisting my individual creative landscape, exercising my field of study, and mobilizing my creative engine.

Over the past year, I have been heavily engaged in memory improvement. Busy in such areas as loci mnemonics, peg systems, hypnosis, and many other regions. Cracking Creativity showed how rigid my thinking had become.
For example, pg.42 there is an experiment where students were separated into two groups. The groups were asked to read a passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. One group was asked to simply learn the passage and the other group were asked to read from "multiple perspectives," example: an author's perspective, another person perspective, also including their own perspective. Which group learned more information? Of course, the group that used multiple perspectives outperformed the other group. Furthermore Michael elaborates on this process and places many ideas on the table. He called this subchapter "Da Vinci's Multiple Perspectives," further along the chapter he elaborates "Take on a Different Role," then "Imagine You Are the Problem" and many more areas further along that blend to create a vast pool of creative thinking. I found this particular area very useful. Michael does not simply show problems in creativity without a creative plan-of-action for facilitation. He brings creative solutions to mind and elaborates on them in detail. He gives many examples for looking at a problem or solution, in many different perspectives.

Strategy Six: Looking At The Other Side, is an outstanding section in which paradoxes are shown and analyzed.... A spectacular section of most importance, which I will not detail, one must read for themselves.

To my pleasure Michael thoroughly discusses, displays, and employs Mind Maps (Tony Buzan). Before Mind Maps are discussed, Michael shows a similar technique of Mind Mapping called "fishbone." Fishbone's are similar to Mind Maps and are an excellent idea organizer very similar to Mind Maps. Having read a number of books on Mind Mapping, I now recommend Cracking Creativity as "high priority Mind Map reading material." I rank this book second, only to be in favor of Tony Buzan's book "The Mind Map Book." This book offers many creative ideas that are shown for Mind Mapping.

There are many different techniques for creative insight located in this book, so many in fact, I only scratched the surface. Michael frequently comments on famous inventors, thinkers, and artists from science, mathematics, history, etc. in order to further his point of creative thought throughout this book.

For consideration: anyone reading this book should have a proactive mind and a healthy dose of perspiration otherwise an individual may not use the techniques provided. Many of the techniques provided require a pencil, notebook, and very little mental capacity. Group techniques are also extensively employed. Michael Michalko shows us the tools but they are useless if unused. More importantly this book showed MY OWN SELF how to think differently, analyze problems, create solutions, and even create more problems for which my mind now can easily produce solutions. In asking the right questions, Michael Michalko showed me perfectly.

I would like to recommend the hardcover edition of Cracking Creativity. Having not read the paperback edition, I found the hardcover edition of pleasurable type, large pages and diagrams nicely represented.

If I were to summarize this book, I would use the statement on pg. 158 under strategy five: Connecting the Unconnected
"Using this model, it is possible to see what can be done about randomly connecting unrelated subjects in thinking. The first step is to be aware that there is the possibility of this thinking strategy. The second step is to learn how to do it. The third step is to use this strategy as often as you can and to get rid of any inhibitions that interfere with your using it. " Read more ›

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is all you need for the subject! April 13, 2000

By Kelvin Y C Fung

Format:Hardcover

If you type in the word CREATIVITY in any search engine, you are likely to get a REALLY LONG list of relevant titles and information. How can you tell which title is better? For me the best title would be the one that prompts you to THINK and come up with something ACTIONABLE.

Packed with facinating stories, mind-stretching exercises, inspirating quotes, funny visuals, step-by-step guidelines and checklists, Michalko has successfully written two CLASSICS on the subject of Creativity. The two books give you ALL the powerful tools and techniques you need to generate creative ideas in split second. The tools are so useful that I have copies of the books, both at home and in my office.

I consider Thinkertoys as the ENCYCLOPAEDIA of creative thinking (TOOLS) while Cracking Creativity will definitely give you the MAGIC RECIPE (IDEA GENERATING PROCESS), which gaurantees creative output every time.

Get yourself a copy, I am sure you will find it ENTERTAINING and practical. I am looking forward to Michalko's third book on the subject. I am sure it will be another great hit!

48 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's In There Somewhere January 5, 2000

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

According to Michalko, what are the best strategies for "cracking" the barriers to human creativity?

o Knowing how to see
o Making a thought visible
o Thinking fluently
o Making novel combinations
o Connecting the unconnected
o Looking at the other side
o Looking in other worlds
o Finding what you are not looking for
o Awakening the collaborative spirit

The phrases "can activate" and "can enable" correctly suggest potentiality. However, if you are already convinced that you cannot think more creatively, you won't. Henry Ford once observed that those who think they can and those who think they can't are both right.

Cracking Creativity will help you to develop the skills needed to release from within all manner of ideas, perspectives, and insights which (until now) have been suppressed. When we face an especially complicated problem or especially difficult question, he suggests that we ask "What are the alternatives and options? How should each be evaluated? Where are there possible connections? Perhaps synergies?" Of course, after we think outside the box and come up with really cool stuff, we have to figure out how to get it back into the box. Perhaps that is another book Michalko will one day write.

On average, humans use only 15-17% of the cerebral cortex, that portion of the brain where the most important intellectual transactions occur. No guarantees, of course, but chances are that a careful reading of Cracking Creativity will increase the percentage you use. What are you waiting for?

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Together with 'Thinkertoys'...dynamic duo...consider them among the best in the genre! July 16, 2006

By Lee Say Keng

Format:Paperback

The first time I encountered 'Thinkertoys' it was actually the first edition released during the early 90's, when it was also about the time I began to explore the various options with regard to my mid-life transition. In fact, I had initially spotted an interesting review in the Entrepreneur magazine.

I managed to trace the publisher & had immediately ordered the first 100 copies for my debut bookstore. It became the best seller in my store for many years. Then came 'Cracking Creativity' a few years later as well as the accompanying brainstorming card deck, Thinkpak, to 'Thinkertoys'.

What impressed me most is not so much the creativity tools outlined in both books. In fact, the most productive learning experiences I got out of both books are a few very important things, which I would like to share with readers.

Let's take a look at Thinkertoys. In the Introduction, the author started off with a visual puzzle: 'Can you identify the figure below?'

Only by shifting your focus, you can then see the hidden word within the figure.

In the author's own words, "...by changing your perspectives, you can expand your possibilities..."

Let's move to 'Cracking Creativity'. In the Introduction, the author introduced a simple arithmetic equation: What is half of thirteen?

The subsequent passages as outlined in Part I: Seeing What No One else in Seeing, & Strategy I: Knowing How to See, by the author revealed the secrets to getting many possible answers (or perspectives) to the above equation....

No creativity tool outlined in the above two books (or elsewhere in the world, for that matter) can help you to become more creative until you fully understand - & appreciate - what the author is trying to drive home in his two books.

In a nut shell, it basically boils down to one important thing: Use - & enhance - your power of vision! or power of observation!

The author may not be the first person to postulate this crucial aspect of creativity.

I would consider Leonardo da Vinci to be the first person to have understood & practised it religiously. He said, among a few other things, LEARN TO SEE THE WORLD. In fact, he put a lot of emphasis on using your senses, especially your sense of sight.

Edward de Bono had also broached this valuable concept in his groundbreaking series of lateral thinking books, starting with 'Mechanism of Mind' in the 70's.

I have always believed that you can't do things differently until you can see things differently.

Learning to see the world anew & from different perspectives is imperative if one wants to be more creative.

According to de Bono, creativity starts at the perceptual stage of thinking. He terms it, First Order Thinking. He added very beautifully: "This is where our perceptions & concepts are formed, & this is where they have to be changed. Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic."

The creativity tools, whether they are from the author's books or elsewhere, will then automaticlaly fall into place & make more sense when you have first exercised your power of vision or observation.

Using any tool is a piece of cake, but changing one's perception - & maintaining fluidity of perception as well as having multiple perceptions - takes concerted efforts.

It is also important to take note that when things (or tactics) don't seem to work out as planned, always remember to check out your observations of the world first. Simply ask:

- what do you CHOOSE to see?
- where do you DIRECT your attention?

The second most productive learning experience I got from the above two books is realising that all thoughts are simply feats of association &/or juxtapositions - & the crux of creativity (in fact, also learning) are making associations &/or juxtapositions. [Tom Peters, in his wonderful book, Liberation Management, drives home with this insightful nugget: "The essence of creation - in all endeavours - is chance connections between ideas and facts that are previously segregated. Entrepreneurship is the direct by-product of chance, of convoluted connections among ideas, needs and people." According to Leonardo da vinci, everything is connected to everything else. My question: CAN YOU SEE IT?] The creativity tools outlined by the author are specifically designed for this purpose.

The third most productive learning experience for me is understanding the differential between productive & reproductive thinking. To paraphrase the author: "...in productive thinking, one generates as many alternative approaches as one can, considering the least as well as the most likely approaches...in contrast, reproductive thinking fosters rigidity of thought..." More relevant aspects about the significance of & more specific strategies to develop productive thinking are excellently covered by the author in 'Cracking Creativity'.

To end this review, & in the light of what I have written, I would consider the author's two books as the dynamic duo...to be among the best in the genre! Read more ›