Preface to the Second Edition
"To promote a more creative society"
Much has changed in
the fifteen years since the DuPont Company's former Oz Creative
Thinking Network published 20,000 copies of Are We Creative Yet?
Nevertheless the work's timeless wisdom communicated humorously
through 60 essays paired with 105 of Bob Thaves' Frank and
Ernest cartoons, remains as useful today as it did then.
Created to communicate the basic concepts of creativity and
innovation, Are We Creative Yet? was the result of hundreds
of DuPont employees contributing brief essays that pair their
personal experiences with Thaves’ cartoons. In so doing, Oz Network
achieved its founding purpose of building on the DuPont tradition of
creativity and innovation.
The American Creativity Association
is a nonprofit organization that shares a similar vision: to promote
a more creative society. In republishing this work, the ACA seeks to
share its fundamental wisdom with thousands of people who share our
concern for promoting and applying creativity in our daily lives and
in all of our society's institutions.
We are grateful to the DuPont Company and cartoonist Bob Thaves for
permitting us to republish and further disseminate Are We
Creative Yet?
David Tanner
Past Director, DuPont Center for Creativity & Innovation
Past President, American Creativity Association
& Barry Silverberg
Executive Director, American Creativity Association (www.amcreativityassoc.org)
Director, Center for Community-Based & Nonprofit Organizations
at Austin Community College
Why This Book?
The purpose of this book is to introduce or to reinforce those
aspects of creativity which the authors believe are important to
enhancing the creation and implementation of useful ideas. Though
these aspects are expressed from the perspective of DuPont personnel
primarily for other DuPont personnel, we hope (and believe) that
much of what you see and read is applicable to fostering and
enhancing creativity in other work environments and in personal
situations as well.
We could have elected to present our message with words alone, but
we wanted to engage the artistic (right) as well as the analytical
(left) side of your brain by using drawings—and we wanted you to
have some fun! We don’t think we could have found a better source of
visual material than the genius of Bob Thaves as expressed through
his creations “Frank” and his friend “Ernest.” ... |