Messenger - Vol. 3, No. 3, Page 3 Spring 1994 Knocking out killer phrases Charles "Chic" Thompson's promotional brochure features him jumping up in the air as he breaks out of an eggshell. There's also a picture of him juggling. And another of him holding a box of baking soda above his head. It's a glitzy, glossy, highly effective promotion for a well-known author and motivational speaker whose client list is a who's who of major corporations and organizations. In 1984, Thompson, Delaware '70, '73, founded Creative Management Group, the Charlottesville, Va., consulting business that helps others achieve professional and personal success, while developing new products and new markets. Thompson's operating philosophy and advice are consistent: Creativity opens doors you never knew existed. Bell Atlantic, Corning, DuPont, General Electric, Hewlett- Packard, IBM, Price Waterhouse, the CIA and the FBI (and that's just to name a few) all pay Thompson to integrate creativity into their workplaces. He teaches managers to rid themselves and their departments of "killer phrases," the term he's coined for statements that stifle creativity. He encourages looking at opposite extremes ("What would you never do?") to uncover solutions to problems, and he touts stream-of-consciousness "idea mapping" as a successful way to brainstorm. His first book, What A Great Idea!, is an energetic presentation of those techniques. His latest book, Yes, But...The Top 40 Killer Phrases, is a guide to identifying and eliminating your killer phrases (such as, "That's the way we've always done it") and encouraging creativity in those around you. Thompson's creative approach to problem-solving-and life, for that matter-was born partly by necessity. He has dyslexia, a learning disability that impairs his ability to read. Dyslexics, he says, look at problems or words from a different point of view than the normal learner, coming up with different definitions to reach the same conclusion. "For me, now, dyslexia has become the backbone of all of my work. I've taken the tools that we use with children who have dyslexia, and I've turned them into techniques for adults, to help them look at business challenges and life challenges from another perspective," Thompson says. Thompson was 30 when he discovered he had dyslexia. At Delaware, he did well in math and chemistry, his major, but he had trouble with foreign languages and liberal arts classes that required reading and writing. He says his curiosity- not his grade point average-prompted Wilbert (Bill) Gore, of W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., to hire him as a chemist responsible for developing new products. It was nine years later that Thompson would have his dyslexia diagnosed. "When I was tested and they started giving me some techniques to help improve my reading, it was like night and day. I didn't feel stupid anymore," he says. Today, his clients give him high marks, not only for his creative techniques, but also for his innovative presentations. He asks executives to write down three killer phrases they hear most and then to share that list with the person next to them. That person is asked to crush the paper into a ball. He then encourages people to throw the paper balls at the first person who utters a killer phrase. Walt Sirene, a supervisory special agent with the FBI, says the organization is adding questions about creativity to the written reviews that peers and subordinates fill out about their managers. The addition reflects the increasing importance the FBI places on creativity, an attitude for which Thompson can be partially credited, Sirene says. "He developed a unique knowledge of being creative, and he has the ability to engage people in dialogue about creativity so they too realize the value of it. There are no airs about Chic Thompson. He's just a good person," Sirene says. Thompson's former employers include Johnson & Johnson and Walt Disney. He left Walt Disney to form Creative Cartoon Co., which produced the first posters and video on the Heimlich maneuver and the country's first video about the AIDS virus. He sold the rights to his videos to distributors and formed Creative Management Group, after receiving many requests to conduct motivational workshops. Thompson's greatest triumph over killer phrases was a few years ago after he and his brother bought their 80-year-old parents a computer. (They decided on that gift after Thompson asked, "What would we never buy Mom and Dad for Christmas?") His parents said the computer was nice, but that they'd never find time to use it. They were talking about the computer with friends when a child overheard their remarks and asked if he could use it. In three months time, he taught them how to use it, and just before his father died of cancer, Thompson received a letter his father had written on the computer. "I took that letter, framed it and put it on my wall. I took my diplomas down and put that in their place. Creativity is most important with your family and at the dining room table. That's what's challenging, not your GPA or your BS or your MED. It's the continual curiosity about life that matters," he says. When his mother entered a retirement home, she took the computer with her. Thompson instituted a program there in which high school students taught computer classes to senior citizens. When she died this past winter, Thompson donated the computer to the home. He tells her story in his seminars, and already it has sparked Hewlett-Packard to donate computers to senior centers. Thompson peppers his conversation with statistics. We're most creative at age 5; least creative at age 44. Children hear 438 "no's" per day as opposed to 37 "yes's." The average child asks 65 questions a day; the average 40-year-old, five. Creativity is stifled at an early age, yet adults, their children and their businesses best thrive when creativity is part of everyday life, he says. His strongest trait, Thompson says, is optimism. From it flows persistence, which keeps him focused and helps him achieve his goals. He always wears a smile, which "helps other people deal with my persistence." When asked what scares him most about life, he says it's the discrepancy he sees between social classes. On business trips, he's picked up in a cab or limousine at his 5-star hotel and, enroute to the airport, he's driven past inner-city neighborhoods where people's lives are filled with despair. "I feel a tremendous dissonance. Here, I have just been paid $5,000 or more for a talk, and I'm being driven past people who don't even make $5,000 in a year," he says. "I never have enough time, and I get driven past people who have too much time. My life is changing every day. Their lives never change. Einstein said, 'In a world with no change, every day is the last day of your life.'" Through that dissonance emerged the "What A Great Idea Scholarship," which he initiated this year to help improve literacy in inner-city Charlottesville schools. He has pledged $100,000 ($10,000 a year for the next 10 years) toward the program. The young scholarship board, composed of fifth and sixth graders who are "educationally challenged and learn differently," decides how the money is spent. Thompson meets with the students to teach them how to generate, collect and evaluate ideas. The group now is collecting ideas on how to incorporate reading, videos and pictures to help kids who struggle with the written text. "The kids are unbelievable. After every meeting, I have tears in my eyes. We meet after school, every other week for an hour. We have no rules. They are allowed to throw out any ideas at all. As they say at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, 'the weirder, the better.' If they buy comic books or ice cream, that's OK with me. I know they will be self- correcting and will come up with ideas better than anyone else," he says, adding that it was the kids' idea to put a $1,000 limit on any one purchase. Thompson has a challenge for Delaware and its graduates. "Look at the system of evaluating success-the idea that the better your grade point average, the better the job you'll get, the more money you'll make. The GPA doesn't determine success; it's more curiosity and persistence," he says. And he urges all families to use creativity at their dining room tables. "Ask, 'What would we never want to do this weekend?' Then, challenge your list of never-do's and see if there's anything there that could create a weekend like you've never had before." -Marylee Sauder, Delaware '83