Embracing Creativity or running a creative thinking session is not unlike running a theatrical performance – it needs both stage management and direction. Such activities can of course vary widely in scale. You may be working on your own; you may be chatting informally with one or two others; you may be running a classic small-group brainstorming session or even working with large groups. In all cases you must pay attention to the following components. People – the ‘cast’ of the drama If you have the luxury of choosing people to work with then this may present a dilemma. On
Asking The Right Questions
To get the right answer we need to ask the right question. Consider the scenario where your sales are falling. You ask the question ‘why are our sales falling?’ and get an answer like ‘because our sales people are rubbish’. Before we fire our sales force let us try a different and more in depth style of questioning. Why are sales falling? - Because customers don’t like our products Why don’t they like our products? – Because they are outdated, not as cool as this year’s model Why are our products outdated? – Because we have not developed any new
Getting To Grips With Metaphor
Keen followers of Agatha Christie’s fictional character Miss Marple will be familiar with her technique of mapping happenings of the wider world with things she could understand that occurred in her own village of St Mary Mead. So already we have a list of things that metaphors can help us with: Giving explanations to those unfamiliar with a concept Examining problem situations from an alternative perspective Reframing situations Communicating concepts to a wider audience Learning or making sense of a concept that we are not currently familiar with Another interesting use for metaphor is within stories and for use as
BBC NEWS | Magazine | The brilliance of creative chaos
Are we able to think clearly when surrounded by mess because chaos is inherent in all our minds, even those of the great writers and thinkers, asks Clive James. The great thing about this slot is that I can pontificate. But a wise pontificator should always remember that he won’t solve a global problem in 10 minutes, or even do much more than usefully touch on it in 10 hours. There are two main reasons for that. One reason is that the global problems are, by their nature, devilishly complicated. But everyone knows, or should know, that. The other reason
How to become a Jedi Master of Creativity
Have you ever wanted to be the person who has all the new ideas? Some people think that creativity is something that you either have, or you don’t. The fact is that everyone of us is creative and the creativity that we have can be boosted. Here’s how! Learning to think creatively is a lot easier than you think. The left and right hemispheres of your brain work together like a two man soccer team, and it’s natural for them to try out new tactics every now and them. With just a little bit of effort, you can be bending
Using Negativity Wisely
There is a lot of it about, negativity. Negativity is often seen as disruptive and something to be banned from organisations. Often we can spend far too much energy fighting it so why don’t we make use of it? In a previous article I described the use of Reverse (or Negative) Brainstorming as one of the ways we could do this. This was purely for generating ideas for new products and services but you could use it in many other ways too. Here is just one possibility. Do you have any ideas about the things that could wreck your business?
Creativity – why we must break with tradition
It’s time to deeply question the traditions of the past and focus on reinventing the future. It’s time to question, imagine and create What are you having for your Sunday lunch this week? If you live in the UK I would lay odds on the reply being a Sunday Roast with all of the trimmings. And if I asked you the same question in a month or two the answer would more than likely be the same. If I asked the question a third time you would wonder what type of idiot I was. “Of course I am having a
Creativity – hiring the right people
If you want to make you organisation more creative, you might be thinking of hiring some staff to help you with this. If these people are likely to be creative then you must keep a tight rein on them and make sure that their job descriptions are comprehensive, right? Wrong! If we hire people against a strict job description then we run a risk of several things happening: 1. We hire people who only do what it says in their job description 2. We are unable to be flexible about how we make use of these people 3. We will
