I was thinking about the C word earlier- Creativity - and how it can transform a boring idea into an energising concept that transforms into the cool thing that people want lots of!
I have no idea where ideas come from. I remember presenting a technique that I had put together using a framework from one book and some advice from another.. it turns out the sources are rubbish! I went back to both books to find neither had the material. But, they had ideas that I remixed to create my technique but only in hindsight! Nicholas Negroponte put it like this
“Where do good ideas come from? That’s simple! From differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions. The best way to maximises differences is to mix ages, cultures, and disciplines.”
So I have decided not to worry about it, and accept that creative ideas bubble up when the conditions are right, so the thing to do is to be in the right condition more often! Then the ideas will come more often.
So what is a creative idea?
“A creative idea is just an idea until something is done with it. You must do something or you are not creative.”
So its an idea enables someone to act. So what are the conditions for creativity?
Steve Jobs stated in a Wired interview:
“Creativity is just connecting things. You ask creative people how they do something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. “It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.
And the reason why they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they thought more about their experiences than other people”
See also this link
So back to my technique.... Many years ago I managed a stress analysis group... We had three or four hundred percent work overload of analyses that had to be done... so the timeframe was getting ridiculous! I had the bright idea of going to the chief designer who was responsible for most of the jobs and asked for clarification on the order of execution of the top 10 priority requests. I emerged with a list of 13 priority jobs!
How did we prioritise in the group? Well, I auctioned them off by asking for who was interested in having a go at job 1, 2,3...etc.
Fast forward ten years and I unveiled by iceberg technique:
picture link.... the story is a webmyth, by the way!
What I did was to take a story by someone at A. L. Gore about having many things to do but only time to do three tasks a day: a story about what we can actually tackle within the day and what is a long-term project and needs to be drip fed. I made all my Things To Do visible with post-its stuck on an iceberg poster-sized print (as I thought I had read in one of these articles). At the start of each day I took a look at the post-its stuck below the waterline and moved three up to become tasks-of-the-day. If somebody senior came in with a request I showed them the poster and asked what could be put below the waterline to accommodate the new job, or could it wait. The picture engaged their attention and changed the conversation, as it was not the routine Gantt chart conversation they were used to!
So Stephen Bayley's definition still holds good:
Nothing defines creativity better than “the ability to defeat habit by originality.”
One hundred cities met to discuss creativity and created the Memphis Manifesto on creative clusters. The principles below are from that document.
Principles:
The Creative 100 are dedicated to helping communities realize the full potential of creative ideas by encouraging these principles:
1) Cultivate and reward creativity. Everyone is part of the value chain of creativity. Creativity can happen at anytime, anywhere, and it’s happening in your community right now. Pay attention.
2) Invest in the creative ecosystem. The creative ecosystem can include arts and culture, nightlife, the music scene, restaurants, artists and designers, innovators, entrepreneurs, affordable spaces, lively neighbourhoods, spirituality, education, density, public spaces and third places.
3) Embrace diversity. It gives birth to creativity, innovation and positive economic impact. People of different backgrounds and experiences contribute a diversity of ideas, expressions, talents and perspectives that enrich communities. This is how ideas flourish and build vital communities.
4) Nurture the creatives. Support the connectors. Collaborate to compete in a new way and get everyone in the game.
5) Value risk-taking. Convert a “no” climate into a “yes” climate. Invest in opportunity making, not just problem-solving. Tap into the creative talent, technology and energy for your community. Challenge conventional wisdom.
6) Be authentic. Identify the value you add and focus on those assets where you can be unique. Dare to be different, not simply the look-alike of another community. Resist monoculture and homogeneity. Every community can be the right community.
7) Invest in and build on quality of place. While inherited features such as climate, natural resources and population are important, other critical features such as arts and culture, open and green spaces, vibrant downtowns, and centres of learning can be built and strengthened. This will make communities more competitive than ever because it will create more opportunities than ever for ideas to have an impact.
8) Remove barriers to creativity, such as mediocrity, intolerance, disconnectedness, sprawl, poverty, bad schools, exclusivity, and social and environmental degradation.
9) Take responsibility for change in your community. Improvise. Make things happen. Development is a “do it yourself” enterprise.
10) Ensure that every person, especially children, has the right to creativity. The highest quality lifelong education is critical to developing and retaining creative individuals as a resource for communities. We accept the responsibility to be the stewards of creativity in our communities. We understand the ideas and principles in this document may be adapted to reflect our community’s unique needs and assets.
It is worthwhile remembering your organisation is a community too.
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