Someone sent me this link on Facebook. After one look at it I knew I just had to share it here as well. This dad is so creative at capturing and framing his kids in a whimsical way. I enjoyed his work. In the interview in the article, he also said he got his inspiration from… who else? His kids!
Check out all his photos here.
Having more perspectives is an excellent way to widen your knowledge, view and attitude towards a subject. Its about taking the effort to see what others see, view a subject from different angles, accepting other people’s accounts or views of it.
If anyone is serious about being more creative, then having this attitude should be intrinsic and automatic. It may require shedding off habits acquired from years of conformity, rigid thinking there’s only one view or one way to “do it right”, and accept that there’s “more than meets the eye” (…read on here).
Awesome products, will bring a smile on some faces. See here.
The catalyst to creative ideas is divergent thinking. This is opposite of linear thinking, which is our usual habit when facing a problem and thinking up solutions. By linear I mean thinking that A leads to B and to C and so on. Like thinking there is only one use for a paper clip for example, and we don’t consider other possibilities. Did you know how a paper clip could help one man obtain a new house? (More of this story here).
Divergent thinking makes you think up several possibilities from a single idea. To do this you need to broaden your view and hold back logic and assumptions. You need to consider ALL possibilities, no matter how remote, weird, wacky or crazy they may sound. This is the essence of what lateral thinking is all about, as coined by Ed De Bono.
“Thinking” is not a monopoly of a few: anyone can do it. Yeah it sounds like a cliché, but this is the only tool you need to start being more creative. Continue reading
You might be thinking, what could be more absurd than adding on an incompetent person to the team to boost their performance.
I’m sure you’ve heard the story of how a tall, heavy truck enter a tunnel but got stuck, because it got wedged inside the tunnel. Engineers came along and cracked their heads over how to solve this issue. They considered blasting off a part of the tunnel wall, dissecting the truck and other technical methods. A little boy walking along, with no knowledge of engineering or driving simply said, “why don’t you let the air out of the tires?”, which they did and the problem was solved.
The answer lies in ‘distance’: the more remote a person is from the work you and what your team does, the better the chances of him coming up with creative and original ideas to boost your team’s performance.
World-renowned expert in education and creativity Sir Ken Robinson gave this very illuminating talk about why we need to change the paradigm of education. One very key point made is how education kills the ability to see possibilities out of one idea or concept, due to forcing upon students the desire for conformity. Its like there’s only one answer to any question, and nothing else can be considered. This kills any hopes to see beyond and consider numerous other answers, any of which can provide new insight and directions for new ideas.
I found it very educational (forgive the pun) and it hits the problem right on the head: why many people think they are not creative today.
I just love this idea! Have you had an experience shopping for grocery, where you can’t find more information about the product, its price, make comparisons, and more? You just need more information, and worse, there’s no staff to be found. Here’s a nifty way to get round that. (click here)
6 ways to find out if your idea is good enough to succeed. Find out here.
Reward bad ideas? How’s that for a way to think in reverse? 🙂
This is one of the most common questions I receive from participants at my workshops and also from companies.
Let’s face it: bad ideas are a dime a dozen and there’s so many of them. Let’s just say, “anyone can make them”. But is it useful to continue encouraging them? Well I think we should!
The simple reason is that it takes the creation of many new ideas before we hit upon that one great or brilliant one. And not rewarding staff for coming up with new ideas, is to kill off their enthusiasm at the early stage.
I came across this article that delves more into this subject and provides a few reasons we should reward bad ideas. After reading, feel free to share what you think.
Creativity Workshop 