Last Word: Sticky Wisdom Freshness December 01, 2008
By Alexandra Haake
In their book, Sticky Wisdom, the members of London-based consultancy ?WhatIf! offer several practical solutions to fostering creativity in the workplace. Throughout the book they stress the need for the creative "raw materials" that ultimately provide the right conditions for creativity to flourish. The first chapter, excerpted below, focuses on "freshness," and how to "break out of conventional thinking," with four techniques. — Alexandra Haake
There is a very simple law in operation here, the first law of creativity—the quality and uniqueness of stimulus in has a direct impact on the quality and uniqueness of ideas out.
This is the basis of freshness, and it's why creative people and organizations do not rely on the same data their competitors have access to. They source a wider diet, seeking out new experiences and ways of thinking about their market, products and internal processes. This provides the critical stimulus that allows them to see and think about issues in a different way. The new perspectives they gain provoke them into making creative connections that others won't have made.
The brain is not set up to make creativity easy. That's because the brain is hard wired to use an automatic and subconscious classification system based on past experiences. When it takes in a new piece of information it simply classifies and interprets it according to what it has experienced or seen like it before.
This system is highly effective and allows human beings to process huge amounts of information very quickly. But it also keeps us locked into current and past realities.
To break out of this limiting mode of thinking, we have to distract the brain from its current rules using stimulus. By focusing on a piece of stimulus, we can then find a connection back to the original problem, which allows us to see it in a fresh way.
There are four river-jumping techniques.
Re-expression: finding an alternative way of describing or experiencing the issue.
Related words: finding an alternative but similar issue or benefit in another field.
Revolution: identifying then deliberately challenging the rules and assumptions.
Random links: using a deliberate connection with a random item.
In the longer term, deeper freshness can be achieved by building up a personal, "freshness store-cupboard." This begins when we deliberately break out of the patterns in our lives and fill our minds with varied and unusual experiences.
Finally, remember freshness and stimulus won't give you the idea itself, they are simply the raw material for a new connection.
Sticky Wisdom offers an interesting example of how one specific company fosters freshness:
UK hi-fi retailer Richer Sounds has realized the benefits of getting employees out of the office. Each branch or department is expected to meet once a month. The company does not pay for their time, but each person receives about $8.50 to purchase a liquid refreshment. The company's founder, Julian Richer, has observed that employees have primarily one thing in common: their work. He finds that when they go out together for a drink they end up talking about their jobs, but in the relaxing setting of the bar they come up with all kinds of "fresh" and "innovative" ideas, which Richer then collects in a simple ideas suggestion method.
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