Roger von Oech Quotes

My favorite question is 'Why?' I think it can be really helpful - I also think it can be annoying to people at times; I'll admit that. But I really do try to understand why are we approaching it this way, does it makes sense, is this the right answer, why is it the right answer, are there other paths to getting there, could those be better.

Successful people engage that creative part of their minds and ask, "Well, I wonder how else I can look at this problem? I wonder how else I could deal with this decision? I wonder what other possibilities I have there?"

The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question.

Always remember, however, that there’s usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.

Sometimes you have to learn how to give the right answer to the wrong question.

I find it fascinating that you can look at the same problem from different perspectives and approach it using different methods.

Logic is a wonderful thing but doesn't always beat actual thought.

I need something, Wax. A place to look. You always did the thinking.” “Yes, having a brain helps with that, surprisingly.

In the course of your education you have always been taught to look for the right answer - but you must also know that in life, sometimes the right answer is that there isn't one.

Always find different ways to accomplish the mission. Then run a counter-analysis and list the advantages and disadvantages. When you have done that, you are ready to make a decision.

The best creative solutions don't come from finding good answers to the questions that are presented... They come from inventing new questions!

That's all managing is: just coming up with the right questions and getting the right answers.

Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.

Reasons come first. Answers come second

You can never discard too many bad ideas.

Even when I read a book, if the book leaves me the possibility of finding certain solutions or working on my own toward a solution, I prefer that much more than if the book fills me with the answers, gives them to me directly.

People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.

It is frequently more rewarding merely to ask pertinent questions. It may get someone to go and look for an answer.

If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.

I pretty much know that directing means that you have to answer about a thousand questions every day and you have to answer them quick.

There is no problem so complicated that you can't find a very simple answer to it if you look at it right.

The art of research [is] the art of making difficult problems soluble by devising means of getting at them.

Usually, I'm pretty good about sorting through the options and then making decisions that I'm confident are the best decisions in that moment, given the information we have. But there are times where I think I wish I could have imagined a different level of insight.

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical

And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer.