An interesting link from the BBC this morning, the ‘Space for Ideas‘ site, something set up by a regional development agency. But don’t yawn and move on, because they’ve commissioned a chunk of short (8 page) essays on creativity and innovation by De Bono, Porritt and Robert Wiseman, among others,
Porritt’s is interesting from a green perspective, but also because he talks about realising how much more effective he is now that he’s eschewed ‘shouting’ (with the likes of Greenpeace) and now focuses on the positive efforts of companies and orgs. That’s a big deal, as he’s now allowed into boardrooms etc.
He makes people feel good about their efforts and pushes change from the *inside*, rather than admonishing them – and that’s a good parable for me, I think, as I’m often quite good at loudly criticising things in an effort to change them, which unsurprisingly, often has the reverse effect that I wished for :-)
The only other two I’ve read so far are De Bono’s essay, which is an interesting rift on the need to support creativity in companies, and to support practical ideas;
“That is why I invented the term crazytivity, where the only value of the new idea is that it is different. Wearing your hat upside down on your head may be different but has no real value unless you wanted to collect bird droppings.”
Robert Wiseman, a magician turned psychology professor, talks about pre-preparing for creative thinking, which via some nice examples, runs through the ‘absorb yourself, wander, do something creative and unrelated and bingo!” idea creation activities that James Young’s brilliant (and short) book also sets out.
Worth 30 minutes of my time this morning, now to spend the rest of the day putting these pragmatic creativity tools into practice…