Four ways of understanding the world better — Roger von Oech’s CREATIVE WHACK PACK roles

I’ve designed an interactive, fun, insightful workshop. Next Tuesday I’ll be running it for a company in the pensions industry.

The workshop is my take on Osterwalder’s VALUE PROPOSITION DESIGN. (http://amzn.to/1Ro15Zw.)

One of the tools we’ll be using throughout the three-hour event is to understand things through one of four different lenses…

The Explorer, The Artist, The Judge, and The Warrior. These are categories that Roger von Oech created for his wonderful tool, THE CREATIVE WHACK PACK. (http://amzn.to/1Ro1b33.)

I’m borrowing the lenses to use as literal thinking hats”, a bit like de Bono’s SIX THINKING HATS. (http://amzn.to/1TvBx4h.) I prefer von Oech’s four categories to de Bono’s. Which is why we’re going with these.

You’ll notice that I’ve given the icons their own unique shapes. (Unique within the set of four, that is. Not unique in the world.)

We start with a blue circle. The Explorer gathers and examines all information pertinent to an issue. It’s the beginning of the journey into a topic.

The Artist gets an orange triangle. This lens is all about using resources to make new stuff. Or to modify stuff. Or to transform one thing into another.

The green square is The Judge. This is all about evaluating what The Artist has come up with, in light of the information gathered by The Explorer. The Judge uses critical thinking and thought hygiene to make decisions.

The red pentacle is The Warrior’s shape. The Warrior does stuff. Makes things happen. Fearlessly implements everything the other three characters have planned. This is all about action.

The four colours are also von Oech’s. And I like them waaaaay more than de Bono’s colours. The connotations just work better for me.

Lastly, I’ll share how we’ll be using these four lenses…

I’ll be leading the group into making newspaper hats. Here’s a link to my Slideshare presentation on how to make the hats yourself… http://www.slideshare.net/royblumenthal/make-a-hat.

We’ll be cutting blue cardboard into circles. Orange cardboard into triangles. Green cardboard into squares. And red cardboard into pentacles. (Or are they pentagrams? Probably pentagrams, now that I think about it.)

We’ll wear our newspaper hats. And when we want to adopt a particular lens, we’ll pop the relevant cardboard shape into the brim, and everyone in the room will know what role we’re playing. Our decision to play that role will be a mindful one.

The beauty of a system like this is that it allows us to play roles we mostly don’t play. And it allows us to shift from whatever perceived roles we are normally seen to play.

This system will also feature in the way I do my coaching.

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If you want to book me to run a VALUE PROPOSITION DESIGN WORKSHOP for your company, hit me up on Whatsapp on +27741046386, or email on royblumenthal@gmail.com.

In the workhop, you’ll refine your understanding of what you’re offering clients, what problems you solve for them, and what benefits you give them. You’ll work out what your clients need from you, what problems they want solved, and what benefits they need. And then you’ll go into reinvention mode, to make the fit between you and your client more compelling. Powerful stuff. All with my unique twist on things. Hire me today. Go on… book me. +27741046386.