Breaking through the barriers - creative thinking tools

Breaking through the barriers:creative thinking tools

David White, Reed Learning

A taster of Reed Learning

“Imagination is more important than knowledge”Albert Einstein

But on the other hand...

We need to be creative!• The world’s most successful modern organisations are proof that creative

ideas are more important than physical resources– Apple, Google, Twitter, Netflix, Samsung...

• Whatever we do for a living– We need to creative too

• Breaking through the barriers: creative thinking tools– Only have 1 hour

• Objectives– Know three key tools– Try them out in some exercises– Believe in your abilities

• 10,000,000,000 neurons

• It would take a CRAY supercomputer 100 years to accomplish what your brain can do in…

• 1 minute

• If you lost 10,000 cells per day by the age of 80 you would still have…

• 97%

Your brain - is it up to it?

Left and Right BrainLEFT• Speech• Calculation• Reading & Writing• Naming• Ordering• Analysis &

Evaluation• Logic• Fact-based• Hierarchy• Serious• Adult• Masculine• Detail

RIGHT• Art & Music• Emotion• Recognition• Comprehension• Facial expression• Imagery• Creativity• Intuition• Unstructured• Sense of humour• Child• Feminine• The Whole

Let’s have a quick brain test...

Topic One:The Power of the Positive

Born creative, born lucky?• Recent research on luck invited two groups of people to take part

– Those who thought themselves lucky - and those who did not

• Both were given the same exercise to do– Sorting cards

• Some of the cards had messages on them, such as ‘hand in this card for an immediate prize’

– Guess what?!

• Only the lucky group spotted and/or acted on the messages– So luck is just about being awake...

• Maybe creativity is the same!

If you tell a child:

“Don’t touch the wet paint”

What do they hear?

“Touch the wet paint”

Attitude is everything

The power of the positive“10 million children are starving to death: please help”

“£1 saves a starving child: please save a life today”

Were we more creative as children?

Children have:

• Fewer rules• Fewer maps• More energy• More curiosity

Goal focused thinking

‘Focus on the gap, not the obstacle’

Turn problem into a + goal

• Let’s pick a problem or two that we all know...– Getting home late– Excessive reliance on email

• How can we make them into positive goals?– Being home by six at least one night per

week and taking the kids swimming...– A conversation with each team member by

phone, or directly, at least once per day

Putting it another way

“I never look at the consequences of missing a big shot . . . when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.”

Michael Jordan

Topic Two:Creating a better map of the world

How accurately do we perceive reality?How accurately do we perceive reality?

Analogue vs Digital

WMarketing Comms Advertising

Range Digital

Products

Quality£

Style

DistributionStores

Digital

Location

Layout

Service

s

Customers

Age£

Sex

Educatio

n

Com

petit

ion

S’marke

ts£ shops

WWW

Topic Three:Reversing the Rules

Rule Reversal• Rules are the patterns that stifle

creativity• Lock us into old solutions that may

have been outmoded by changes in technology, wealth, social custom….

• Trick is to identify the pattern of rules, conventions, assumptions, traditions…

• Seek ways to contradict them• Explore uses and non-uses

Rule ReversalRule Reversal

Rule: we can’t say you won’t like our product

Rule ReversalRule Reversal

Rule: we can’t say you can’t buy our product

Breaking rules to make life interesting

Breaking rules to make life interesting

Seen on the doors in a design agency’s offices

Rule Reversal – a formula for jokes

“I want to go to heaven but if Jeffrey Archer’s there I’d rather go to Lewisham.”Spike Milligan

1918-2002

Rule reversalRule reversal

• Colour • Country lanes • Pretty people • Perfection….

What are the rules of car advertising?

Rule Reversal• How do you make people think again about

clothes made from animals?• Start point: how are leather clothes advertised?

The rules:• No pictures of the animal, or how it is processed, • Lovely colours, flattering the wearer

Rule Reversal applied

• ‘vacuum cleaners must have bags’

• ‘glues must set’

• ‘queues are no fun’

• ‘you can’t jump a red light’

Rule reversal exercise• You own a nightclub in a residential area

• Your patrons are keeping the neighbours awake when they leave in the early hours of the morning

• Apply rule reversal to this problem to generate ways of keeping your customers and your licence

• Identify rules & think of ways to break them

• Some ideas will be useful

Left or Right Brain?• Imagine a tennis tournament with 111 players

• What is the minimum number of matches that need to be played to find the winner?

• Singles, no tricks

• Work in pairs or small groups

• Everyone must have an answer!

• Imagine a tennis tournament with 111 players

• What is the minimum number of matches that need to be played to find the winner?

• Singles, no tricks

• Work in pairs or small groups

• Everyone must have an answer!

So how we can we improve our creativity?

• The Power of the Positive• Creating a map of the world• Reversing the Rules

reedlearning.com

0800 170 7777

David White

more.info@reedlearning.com

Thank you and good luck!