by John Brooker | Apr 10, 2015 | Collaborate, Develop Opportunities, Facilitate meetings, Free Articles, Innovate, Overcome Challenges, Tools
And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic. Will never find it. ROALD DAHL – THE MINPINS Everyone can be creative; with the right process, techniques and a little magic … Footballer scores 99 goals but stalls before the hundred. Cricketer hits 99 runs and stalls before the hundred. Brooker writes 99 articles and stalls… After the 99th article, I decided to write something “special” for the 100th. I thought I would review all 99 articles, identify the themes and write about them. I didn’t realise how busy I would be and how long it would take to review 99 articles. And, when I had done it, I had no enthusiasm for it! So tonight in my hotel room I gave up on the idea. My 100th goal would not be a thirty metre volley in to the top corner of the net. My 100th run would not be a six in to the crowd. Instead, I would scramble the ball over the line, sneak a quick run, write on any topic and… Just write it…! And a question arrived. In the three months since writing the 99th article, what was the stand out moment about creativity that has stuck in my mind? Here it is. I was running a residential weekend on creativity with MBA students. Two of the students were, I suspect (I didn’t measure it), adaptive rather than innovative in their style and they were both more introvert than extrovert. They were great people...
by John Brooker | Aug 9, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Overcome Challenges, Solution Focus, Tools
Need a creative tool to explore issues? During our holiday last July we spent three days horse riding. After two days I had seen enough of horses and my back ached terribly. I was a “groucho” not a gaucho. I decided that I would sit out the third day, but my son loved riding and really wanted to go. So I said I would go with him. Bad decision. On the way back, the leaders galloped, my back seized up and I was in agony. To cut a long story short, after four months of osteopathy and pills I was better, but still had a chronic pain across the middle of my back. One night in December I went to sleep and had a dream. In the dream I saw a woman appear and slowly walk towards me. She reached out her hand and gently touched a finger to my spine on the centre of the pain; there was a loud click and the pain disappeared. I woke up and the pain had gone. I got up and was pain free for the first time in months. How did that happen? If it were just my spine clicking back in to place, why did I see the woman walking towards me and touching my back before it clicked? The power of the subconscious?. So Recalling that dream recently (please see the closing story) I thought it might be an opportunity to discuss an interesting technique I have tried occasionally, known as Image Manipulation. In this tool you explore an issue with a client without you knowing what the issue...
by John Brooker | Mar 1, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 61 There’s always a stimulus for creativity, random connection can help find it “For every living creature that succeeds in getting a footing in life there are thousands or millions that perish. There is an enormous random scattering for every seed that comes to life. This does not remind us of intelligent human design. “If a man in order to shoot a hare, were to discharge thousands of guns on a great moor in all possible directions; if in order to get into a locked room, he were to buy ten thousand casual keys, and try them all; if, in order to have a house, he were to build a town, and leave all the other houses to wind and weather – assuredly no one would call such proceedings purposeful and still less would anyone conjecture behind these proceedings a higher wisdom, unrevealed reasons, and superior prudence.” John W.N. Sullivan Science Writer (d 1937) “Just as well you won’t read this article John.” John Brooker Are you stuck for an idea? I sat having a beer and a toasted cheese sandwich in the bar of my hotel in Luanda, Angola, earlier this month. It was a slightly surreal experience as I was eating in the dark, breached only by the dim glow of the myriad oil industry PC screens on battery power. Luanda had suffered another power cut and we waited for the emergency generator to kick in. The pianist played gamely on and I mused that sight reading of music is obviously not the principal qualification for a pianist in Angola. As he...
by John Brooker | Jan 22, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
YES! AND… Facilitate. Innovate. Transform – Creative Gorilla # 22 “Random connections” is a useful technique when stuck for ideas. “I have an idea!” “Twas he that ranged the words at random flung pierced the fair pearls and them together strung.” Bidpai Pilpay If called on to run a creative session RIGHT NOW could you deliver? Imagine you are waiting to meet with a colleague or client. Suddenly the door flies open and they appear. “Sam, (or whatever), we’re trying to come up with a name for our new service and thought you could give us some ideas”. You enter and four expectant faces (and a remote worker on the speaker ‘phone) look up. Do you: Panic? Start thinking of ideas for a name? Search your mind for a handy creative technique and facilitate an idea generation session? This scenario happened to me last week at a client’s office. I opted for choice “C”. Oh OK, I admit I went through option “A” for a split second because I normally prepare thoroughly before a creative session. I facilitated using “Random Connection” (click here and search on our site for details on the technique). This is a great technique to use when you have a blank sheet of paper, blank minds and little time. We used random words and random objects as a catalyst between the information in the group’s head and the issue in hand and produced about seventy ideas. Some facilitation tips are: Not all ideas are realistic so challenge the group to find a practical idea from these “springboards” (this is essential if you are to avoid cynicism from those who believe...
