If the focus of yesterday's orientation was all about the RAK, then today's is all about the Whack. Newcomers, welcome to our third Highlowaha tradition to be shared this week - Whack On The Side of The Head Wednesdays.
Background. There has been a belief, from the inception of Highlowaha, that if we are to be a blog powered by creativity then we must do our part to actually develop the very resource on which we rely so heavily. To assist me in this weekly commitment of personal development, I invite Roger von Oech to join us at the table. Roger (I feel like we should be on a first name basis by now) developed a deck of 50+ cards called a Creative Whack Pack. Each card outlines a creative principle and then poses a follow up question to assist you in applying the principle.
Each week we use Roger's creative principle by applying the question to a dilemma or to a Highlowaha project. Each reader is invited...encouraged to take a crack at whacking the idea of the day. It's like doing a 20-minute fitness video for you mind. Overachievers, anxious to earn extra fitness points, might also apply the weekly principle to something going on in his/her own personal life.
I dare say, it works!!! Over the course of the past year many a good idea has come out of our weekly Whack on the Side of the Head ritual, including things such as Spirit of #218; Taste of USA; the infamous Altoid table project - more on that later; Birthday Eve; and the Reaching for 5,000 campaign, to name a few. I have high hopes for this year and don't want to waste another minute before jumping right in.
I should keep today simple, since it's orientation for some of you and the very idea of whacking yourself on the side of the head is new enough. But, I can't. I will introduce von Oech's creative principle in a minute, but first some more food for thought (consider it the appetizer).
Seth Godin, another creative marketing guy who I follow, recently made this this statement as part of a daily blog post. "Too often, I hear about businesses that just might be a dream come true for their owners, but hardly for the people they seek to recruit or the customers they hope to snare. What do your prospects dream of? What would get them to wait in line?"
Godin's notion is what I would like to whack today. Katie, Heather, Cheryl, and I aspire to create a blog community you might have only dreamed about - something for which you would,"wait in line." Having said that, let's introduce von Oech's creative principle for today - the creative whack that will assist us in having break through ideas...
Combine Ideas: "The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages - and kings. Combining unusual ideas is at the heart of creative thinking. The ancients mixed soft copper and even softer tin to create hard bronze. Gutenberg combined the wine press and the coin punch to create moveable type and the printing press. What different ideas can you combine?
The goal? Use von Oech's creative principle of combining ideas to whack Godin's challenge of creating something (in our case a blog) so "dreamy" it would get you to, "stand in line." In other words... What different ideas can Highlowaha combine to develop a blog so dreamy, you might actually, "stand in line" to have access?
Note: Does anyone else think it's funny that I pulled a card titled, "Combine Ideas" on a week that I combined two ideas to develop the whack? Weird.
Announcements:
- E*X*T*R*A*O*R*D*I*N*A*R*Y: Your incredibly generous response (over $500.00 already) has officially been matched by your willingness to nominate families deserving of our mission - providing experiences that, without our support, might otherwise never happen. Thanks to all of you, we not only have enough money to grant two gifts, but we also have the lead on a deserving family. The principle of Six Degrees of Separation requires us to be a little covert about granting this first gift. Want to know more now? Check out Highlowaha on your Facebook.
- Patchwork: Tonight at 5:00 EST is the last day to get Katie a photo of you in your Patchwork Denim. Don't miss out on the fun... and the chance to earn another patch!!!
Signing off until tomorrow...
