216 THE CREATIVE INVESTMENT TEAM
sharpening it while the gold and peach colors were still fresh. If
you need any proof that our society crushes out creativity, just look
at the average executive’s pen: a gold Cross ballpoint with black
ink. One color. From 64 down to 1. Bo-o-o-ring!
This pen is for more than just the fun of different colors. There’s
a reason why advertisers pay for four-color artwork and why pre-
sentations use multicolored pie charts. Color enhances the effec-
tiveness of the message. Color helps the mind to organize informa-
tion. Sports teams wear different-colored jerseys so that the play-
ers (and referees) can quickly tell friend from foe. All streetlights
and stop signs use red to make their messages obvious and to con-
vey that message quickly. Phone books are printed on white and
yellow paper so that we can tell from 10 feet away if it’s the resi-
dential or business listings. Yellow highlighters show us the key
passages in articles. If you want a boost to your creativity, use the
four-color pen as part of your process. I am never without mine,
and I’ve noticed that many of my course graduates now carry their
four-color pens at all times.
How do I use this marvelous tool? First, the colors in the pen,
with one exception, correspond perfectly to the filters discussed in
Chapter 10. Remember the blue, red, and green filters, represent-
ing the investigator, the activator, and the evaluator? If you toss in
the black ink as the creator (ordinarily yellow), then you’ve got a
system for recording ideas based on the filter system. Write the
facts in blue ink, new ideas in black, critical comments in green,
and action steps in red.
Consider also the discussion of the inner critic in Chapter 15.
My suggestion was to use the Voice Dialogue technique to befriend
your critic and turn it into your inner ally, your inner mentor and
discipline coach. I use the journaling technique that the Stones
describe. (Another popular approach was developed by Ira Progroff,
a disciple of Carl Jung’s.) I chose the following colors to represent
each “part” of my psyche. The Aware Ego part of me, the part that
just observes and doesn’t get involved, is blue. Blue is a neutral14-25 ware 216 1/19/01, 1:16 PM