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| How to think
for great ideas |
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nylon in 1935. Today we can define the ideal garment, and then produce
the fibers and mixtures to create it. Families became tired of darning socks, so science
created a blend of nylon and wool to give us the benefit of both: a new mixture of old
elements.
Iron-weary mothers wanted shirts that would drip-dry
without creases. So science created polyester fibres: a new combination of old elements.
Fashion-conscious women liked the easy-care properties
of nylon but pined for the fluffiness of wool. So science created acrylics - by
recombining the elements of natural gas. Peter Drucker, in The Age of Discontinuity,
has crystallized the new innovative technique in a graphic way. He calls it "a
systematic organized leap into the unknown". Unlike the science of yesterday, he
says, "it is not based on organizing our knowledge, it is based on organizing our
ignorance".
But amazingly these techniques are not taught in
most schools, yet in many ways they are the key to the future.
Even worse: school tests are based on the principle
that every question has one correct answer. The great breakthroughs in life come from
entirely new answers. They come from challenging the status quo, not accepting it.
Courses in thinking should be a top priority in every
school. Otherwise, as American educator Neil Postman has suggested in Teaching As A
Subversive Activity: children may "enter school as question marks but leave as
periods".
California creative consultant Roger von Oech says, in A
Whack On The Side Of The Head: "By the time the average person finishes college
he or she will have taken over 2,600 tests, quizzes and exams. The 'right answer' approach
becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems,
where there is in fact only one right answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn't
that way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers - all depending on what you are
looking for. But if you think there is only one right answer, then you'll stop looking as
soon as you find one." So how do you use your own brainpower to make Drucker's
systematic organized leap into the unknown? These are the steps we've found most useful:
1. Define your problem
One first step is to define in advance your problem -
specifically but not restrictively.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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