Get Creative

On the 2^nd of October our first Mini-Conference Get Creative by Nigel Newman took place in the Helix.

Representing the Edward de Bono Foundation, a global organization which operates in over 40 countries and has 7.5 million “Bono Drug” users worldwide, our guest speaker came from the UK to get us creative. Nigel, himself, has a background in business management. From his point of view, he got into his current job by accident as he got experienced in psychometric assessment by recruiting employees.

Nigel structured his presentation into two parts. The first one was about how our brain copes with problems and getting our minds ready to think creatively. In the second half we were introduced into different methods to become creative and then using our upcoming ideas.

Mr. Newman started his speech by promising us that the presented methods are designed for everyone and that they will lead to new ideas, to manage and implement them. To say it with Dr Edward de Bono’s words: “Intelligence is a potential. Thinking is the skill with which we use that potential.”

Firstly, he demonstrated to us that our brain likes to use certain patterns by asking us to fold our arms one over another. After a few seconds, he asked us to switch the position of our arms. Since we felt uncomfortable in having the arms folded the other way around, we checked if we did the exercise wrong. He moved on by explaining us that these routines can prevent us from being creative since we prefer to stick to our habits. In a positive way these patterns allow us to have certain continuity in our lives. On the other hand, they also form our perceptions which are used for finding ideas and making decisions. Perception plays a significant role in thinking because “up to 90% of errors in thinking are in perception not judgement” (Prof. David Perkins, Harvard University). Therefore, leaving this patterns and routines will make it possible for us to see new things. The help that we need for thinking outside of the box will be provided by the presented methods.

Nigel used a second example – The Chinese Horse Puzzle – to show us how lazy our brain is in finding a solution when it is confronted with a rather easy problem.

 → Task: How can you place the jockeys on the horses? Have in mind you are not allowed to cut the picture!

Check the picture at the end of this post to find out if your answer is right. 

After The Chinese Horse Puzzle exercise I was impressed to recognize how unable I have been to look past my own perceptions.

All human beings make choices by using two different systems of thinking. Either the decision is made by a “fast, intuitive and automatic thinking”, or by a “slow, rational and calculating thinking”. Being aware of these two ways of thinking we can increase our thinking abilities by e.g. taking more time to think about a problem. Now we understand “why intelligence increases when thinking less” (Guy Claxton). Since all of us want to be creative, I think that we all should have this in mind whenever we try to come up with an idea.

Nigel moved on by introducing the P.M.I. method. With this tool we can direct our attention while approaching a problem, a situation or a new idea. The P stands for positive, the M for minus and the I for interesting. Whereas the interesting questions are the ones that get us creative these maybe/perhaps- questions are the more difficult ones to come up with. We tried it out by imagine that “all cars must be painted yellow by law”. As the positive and negative aspects of this law have been obvious, we came up with unusual and highly creative ideas when approaching the interesting aspects. I thought it is very impressive to see the effectiveness of this tool. For the development of our app I think this method will be very useful to find out if our ideas are beneficial.

Furthermore, Nigel pointed out the importance of the OPV (Other Peoples’ Views) which make you put yourself in the position of persons who will be affected by implementing the idea. I believe that the OPV will be very helpful for further projects since it allows you to see your idea from a different perspective.

The Six Thinking Hats, a method of parallel thinking developed by Edward de Bono, was Nigel’s next step to get us creative. Each of the six hats stands for a category and makes it therefore possible for us to approach a situation/problem/idea by thinking about its different facets separately.

Nigel focused on the green hat by stressing the positive points of thinking creatively. Looking for possibilities and alternatives encourage problem solving which leads to improvement and finally ends up in fresh thinking. How successful fresh thinking can be was highlighted by examples such as how Baileys and Post-it notes came up. Seeming useless at first, the glue that does not stick is now used worldwide.

“Expect the unexpected” (Heraclitus) and do not take things the way they are, was one of the final points mentioned by our guest speaker. Through combination thinking and continual development of existing ideas we can come up with powerful ideas.

Overall, I found it challenging to think outside of the box and therefore Nigel’s presentation has been a really good experience for me. Being an enthusiastic speaker Nigel kept the presentation interactive, interesting and enjoyable.  At all time it was easy to follow him as he underlined the methods by giving examples that made us participate. The first presentation out of the Get Series has been effective as I feel now prepared to get creative.

→ Did you get it right?

Person one, front part of the first horse and back of the second horse create the first image. Can you see it now?