46 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
understand its meaning and the lessons that may arise from that under-
standing. Data is the fuel that helps generate information, which in turn
creates ideas.
70
Alchemists, as the name implies, are people who generate ideas from
a myriad of sources. eir ability is mixing and matching material to
come up with new ideas. Alchemists’ fuel is connections because it is
through the manipulation of dierent components and the relation-
ships among them that new ideas come forth. Alchemists capitalize to
a large extent on what was done in the past; sometimes, this may not
seem original. Yet, history is replete with examples of people coming
from one eld to another and combining existing ideas, techniques, and
so on and inventing a wholly new way of doing business. ey have the
ability, therefore, to reinvent the present by creating new relationships.
To be an Alchemist requires having a broad background to avoid being
myopic.
71
Fools have the ability to see things that people oen do not think
about. ey have little or no desire to just sit by and accept something as
the truth. Instead, they have no problem looking at something consid-
ered inviolable and turning it upside down to generate a new idea. ey
capitalize on imperfections and see discrepancies as catalysts to generate
new ideas. Fools are rarely popular, despite the value of their creative ideas
because absurdity, even mockery, is their tool. ey capitalize on nding
a weakness and then push it until a new idea arises. Inversion is the fuel
that moves Fools forward. ey look at the opposite of what is construed
as truth to come up with a creative idea. Naturally, when Fools take on the
status quo or anything sacrosanct, resistance by others is strong and the
attacks unrelenting. anks to courage that accompanies perseverance,
Fools persist until they come up with a good idea.
72
Sages are the nal type of creators. ey have the ability to “cut to the
chase,” that is, take away the cha and simplify. Using simplication, they
come up with an idea that aer the fact seems so simple that others won-
der why they never thought about it. e primary tool for this simplica-
tion is the vision that they hold in their head and use to align everything
else to it. If something does not contribute to the vision, then it goes to the
wayside. eir fuel is the ability to discover or uncover the fundamental
issues and take that information and generate an idea. In other words,
simplicity leads to eloquence. History is a useful tool for Sages because
they can ascertain what is or is not relevant based upon that historical
experience.
73
Creative inking Abilities • 47
CONCLUSION
As stated earlier, everyone has the abilities to be creative—if they seek to
tap them. ese abilities, albeit not clearly divided between the le and
right brain, are oen seen as unconnected. e reality is that people need
both sides of the brain to create and innovate. When managing their
projects, project managers need to be aware of and to capitalize by tapping
the abilities of both sides of people.
Getting Started Checklist
Question Yes No
1. Which of the following abilities are best exhibited by most of the
members of your team?
Cross-domain thinking
Having fun
Listening to your own intuition
Shiing perspectives
Being an iconoclast, even a nihilist
Unlearning and relearning
Looking from the outside in
Reverse thinking
Conceptualizing
Embracing ambiguity
Seeing multiple answers
Dening the problem
Being observant
Tinkering
Determining the essence of something
Being self-aware
Competing and collaborating
Persevering
Shiing thinking
Suspending judgment
Communicating
2. Which of the following abilities need improvement for most of the
members of your team?
Cross-domain thinking
Having fun
Listening to your own intuition
Shiing perspectives
(Continued)
48 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
Getting Started Checklist
Question Yes No
Being an iconoclast, even a nihilist
Unlearning and relearning
Looking from the outside in
Reverse thinking
Conceptualizing
Embracing ambiguity
Seeing multiple answers
Dening the problem
Being observant
Tinkering
Determining the essence of something
Being self-aware
Competing and collaborating
Persevering
Shiing thinking
Suspending judgment
Communicating
3. List the ways in which you can best use the abilities identied in number
1 above?
Way(s):
4. List the actions you can take to improve the abilities listed in number 2
above?
Action(s):
5. Determine which models to use for assessing individual creativity:
Birkman Model
Hartman Color Code
Myers-Briggs
Enneagram
Multiple Intelligences
Von Oech’s Creative Roles
Moser-Wellman’s Mental Skills
Other:
ENDNOTES
1. Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006), p. 2.
2. Pink, A Whole New Mind, pp. 2–3.
3. Gerard Nierenberg, e Art of Creative inking (New York: Cornerstone Library,
1982), p. 85.
Creative inking Abilities • 49
4. James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, 2nd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton&
Company, 1979), p. 126.
5. Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman, and Michael Ray, e Creative Spirit (New York:
Dutton: 1992), pp. 47–48.
6. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 126.
7. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 42.
8. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, pp. 19–22.
9. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 3.
10. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, pp. 49–50.
11. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 68.
12. Kenneth A. Brown, Inventors at Work (Redmond, WA: Tempus Books, 1988), p. 190.
13. Nierenberg, e Art of Creative inking, pp. 40, 89.
14. Nierenberg, e Art of Creative inking, p. 90.
15. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, pp. 63–64.
16. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, pp. 104–105.
17. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 19.
18. Roger von Oech, A Whack in the Side of the Head (New York: Warner Books, Inc.,
1990), p. 64.
19. von Oech, A Whack in the Side of the Head, p. 29.
20. von Oech, A Whack in the Side of the Head, p. 92.
21. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 18.
22. Nierenberg, e Art of Creative inking, p. 26.
23. von Oech, A Whack in the Side of the Head, p. 36.
24. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 3.
25. von Oech. A Kick in the Seat of the Pants (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), p. 70.
26. von Oech, A Whack in the Side of the Head, p. 166.
27. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 81.
28. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 104.
29. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 227.
30. von Oech, A Whack in the Side of the Head, p. 7.
31. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 31.
32. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 68.
33. Dove Allen, Matt Kingdon, and Kris Murrin What If? (Oxford: Capstone Publishing
Limited, 1999), p. 218.
34. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 43.
35. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 35.
36. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 19.
37. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 126.
38. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 279.
39. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 285.
40. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 126.
41. Linda V. Williams, Teaching for the Two-Sided Mind (New York: Touchstone,
1983),p.26.
42. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 65.
43. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 44.
44. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 38.
45. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 149.
46. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 31.
47. Goleman, Kaufman, and Ray, e Creative Spirit, p. 68.
50 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
48. Brown, Inventors at Work, p. 360.
49. Roger Birkman, True Colors (Ontario: omas Nelson, Inc., 1997), pp. 37–49.
50. Taylor Hartman, e Color Code (New York: Fireside, 1998), pp. 43–51.
51. David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates, Please Understand Me (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus
Nemesis Book Company, 1984), pp. 27–66.
52. David Keirsey, Please Understand Me II (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis Book
Company, 1998), pp. 18–20.
53. Don R. Riso, Personality Types (Boston: Houghton Miin, 1990), p. 7.
54. Riso, Personality Types, p. 10.
55. Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, Discovering the Enneagram (New York: Crossroad
Publishing Company, 1997), pp. 25–28.
56. Riso, Personality Types, pp. 7–8.
57. Riso, Personality Types, pp. 28–29.
58. Riso, Personality Types, p. 42.
59. Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1983), p. 8–9.
60. Gardner, Frames of Mind, pp. 24–25.
61. Gardner, Frames of Mind, p. 33.
62. Gardner, Frames of Mind, p. 33.
63. Gardner, Frames of Mind, pp. 60–61.
64. omas Armstrong, 7 Kinds of Smarts (New York: Plume, 1993), pp. 192–194.
65. von Oech, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, pp. 23–54.
66. von Oech, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, pp. 55–87.
67. von Oech, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, pp. 89–111.
68. von Oech, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, pp. 113–135.
69. Annette Moser-Wellman, e Five Faces of Genius (New York: penguin, 2002),
pp.21–45.
70. Moser-Wellman, e Five Faces of Genius, pp. 46–69.
71. Moser-Wellman, e Five Faces of Genius, pp. 70–89.
72. Moser-Wellman, e Five Faces of Genius, pp. 90–114.
73. Moser-Wellman, e Five Faces of Genius, pp. 115–137.
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