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ThinkCube: A Professional Innovation Tool | 
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| Author: Kes Sampanthar
Publisher: MetaMemes LLC
This item is no longer available
Media: Cards
Edition: 1st
Pages: 200
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 8 x 8
ISBN: 097920500X
EAN: 9780979205002
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
ThinkCube proves there is more to creativity and innovation than just brainstorming. Use ThinkCube individually or in groups to discover a whole new world of ideas. ThinkCube is part game, part methodology, and full of inspiration. Each ThinkCube contains: The Idea Library (A collection of 200 ideas, creative techniques, and words from eclectic sources), The Idea Handbook (A guide explaining our ThinkCubation process step-by-step), and The Idea Notepad (A place for you to collect and save your best ideas).
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| Customer Reviews:
 ThinkCube turbocharges your combinatory play & random juxtaposition to the next level! November 18, 2007
Lee Say Keng (Singapore)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wow! I am very impressed by Kes Sampanthar's latest invention, ThinkCube!
Having played with a wide variety of tools, like Pocket Innovator (precursor to the Knowbrainer, both from Gerard Haman), Thinkpak (from Michael Michalko), Whackpack & Innovative Whackpak (both from Roger von Oech), plus a host of minor others, for more than a decade in real world business settings, ThinkCube is a zesty, refreshing change.
I recently experimented with it in a small group business setting.
Despite the short orientation with it (luckily the author/inventor has an excellent corporate website, Metamemes, to equip me with valuable prior knowledge), the group has been truly amazed by the practical results.
In a nut shell, ThinkCube turbocharges my group's combinatory play & randomm juxtaposition to the next level. The permutation of forced associations from seemingly irrelevant connections has been really unbelievable.
In fact, after generating all the crazy ideas, the same thinking or brainstorming process has been repeated to produce the next steps in putting those wild ideas to work immediately. These steps eventually culminate into my group's SMART Game Plan. (SMART stands for Specific Objectives, Metrics, Accountability, Resources, Timing for Implementation & Completion).
As I am most familiar with the application of the famed Synectics process, especially in making the strange familiar & the familiar strange, the metaphorical connections arising from the ThinkCube process intervention add an extra punch to the whole thinking or brainstorming process.
At this juncture, I wish to share with readers a wonderful insight from Tom Peters, who in his wonderful book, `Liberation Management', drives home with this really great observation:
"The essence of creation - in all endeavours - is chance connections between ideas & facts that are previously segregated. Entrepreneurship is the direct by-product of chance, of convoluted connections among ideas, needs & people."
Likewise, Jay Abraham, a high-powered marketing whiz kid, once shares these very interesting observations in his book, 'Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got':
- ice cream was invented in 2000BC. Yet it was 3900 years later before someone figured out the ice cream cone;
- meat was on this planet before humans. Bread was baked in 2600 BC. Nevertheless it took another 4900 years for somebody to put together & create the sandwich;
- The modern flush toilet was invented in 1775, but it wasn't until 1857 that somebody thought up toilet paper;
According to him, "once these obvious connections have been made, they seem so obvious. So evident. We can't believe we didn't see them sooner. The endless number of these unmade connections exist to this day, especially in the business world."
He adds further:
"You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically uncover your income, power, influence, & success, the problem is you just don't see them."
Leonardo da vinci, whom I had met - in the form of a marble statute in the Vatican Museums, Rome as well as in Milan - during my recent holidays in Italy, once said,
"Everything is connected to everything else".
Well, let me put it this way, ThinkCube definitely empowers you to see more connections &/or juxtapositions in your work, your business & your life!
My only complaint about ThinkCube is that it's quite bulky to carry around, but I must say, the packaging, with its bright colours, visually appealing design & clean-cut style, is eye catching.
Best of all, the whole product works very well together to make my day!
Many thanks to you, Kes, for coming up & for sharing your wonderful invention with the world!
ThinkCube Delivers Innovation Results November 8, 2007
Evan Rosen (San Francisco, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
True innovation, like collaboration, requires a cultural shift. Inventor, computer scientist and self-proclaimed idea addict, Kes Sampanthar, recognizes this reality and has developed an awesome product to jump start innovation culture. That product is ThinkCube, an innovation system that enables a sort of orderly chaos. Kes and his wife, mechanical engineer Sue Sampanthar, collaborated on this breakthrough product.
"Infusion of innovation shouldn't hinge on a company mandate. It can organically emerge from the bottom up through changes in individual behavior," according to the ThinkCube Idea Handbook. I believe it's important that senior leaders set the stage, but innovation absolutely must happen organically--and ThinkCube gets the ball rolling. The system is designed for either individuals or groups of 4-7. The process Sampanthar has developed is called ThinkCubating, which begins with goal definition. As the process continues, the goal becomes better defined.
The ThinkCube is divided into 4 sections:
1) Idea Library
2) Word cards
3) Mutation
4) ThinkCubate
During the process, users draw idea cards from the Idea Library. Ideas range from inventions like electronic ink to trends and concepts like "swarm intelligence," an artificial intelligence technique based on the scientific observation of bee hives and ant colonies. Combining two or more cards, the user develops new ideas. This technique stems from Einstein's notion of "combinatory play" as the "essential feature in productive thought." As noted in the ThinkCube Idea Handbook, an example of combinatory play is Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in which he combined a wine press, coin punch and die stamps.
Just reading ThinkCube cards makes you think, and combining the cards to create or advance ideas is especially powerful. Each Word card includes groups of related words and definitions. Each mutation card includes groups of related verbs and definitions. Word and Mutation cards can be combined with each other or with Idea Library cards to create a new idea. So, a mutation card for "Update" could be combined with an Idea Library card for "Pavlovian Response." The goal may then shift to update Ivan Pavlov's Nobel Prize-winning psychological concept of "conditioned response." If an idea needs to simmer longer, the user can park it in ThinkCubate.
I'm using ThinkCube with colleagues to turn random bits of insight into breakthrough ideas. ThinkCube is an express ride around innovation roadblocks and is the most cost-effective investment in innovation a person or organization can make. I highly recommend this innovation system.
Well-executed product... July 29, 2007
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm familiar with the idea of combining random ideas and concepts to come up with new insights to problems. But Kes Sampanthar has put that process into a system that makes it much easier to go down that path... ThinkCube: A Professional Innovation Tool.
The process is easy to follow... 1) Define your goal for your brainstorming session. 2) Stimulate your mind by drawing six random cards from the Idea pack. 3) Think about your problem by combining two or more of the cards you drew in order to come up with new ideas. 4) Evaluate your ideas once you've come up with a number of them. 5) Elaborate on the idea if you think it has merit or is a winner. 6) Incubate those ideas that show potential but have some sticking points. Incubating is more along the lines of just letting the ideas percolate in the back of your mind while you're going about doing other things.
You may be thinking "well, I can do this on my own without any tools". That's true, but it might be hard to come up with a number of ideas and words that you can use to randomly combine. Because you have your own preconceived notions and mindsets, you're limited in your "random" references. Taking the material from another source like this can force you down mental paths you'd be unable to find on your own. The packaging of the system is pretty cool, too. The idea and word cards are packaged in a large orange cube, hence the name "ThinkCube". The coloring, style, and design all work well together to get your mind into a creative groove.
As a software developer, I'm always on the hunt for new ideas and designs that I can use to build quality software applications. After using ThinkCube a couple times, I can see how this will be a great aid for my job. Definitely a great idea and a product well-executed.
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