by John Brooker | Jan 7, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
How might you use naive thinking to aid creativity and innovation? “I know. It’s called a flatulator!” Andrew Brooker aged 6 ½ years. Do you consider it necessary to be an expert to generate creative ideas? The family and I were going through Waterloo station, travelling on a moving walkway. Eleanor, my daughter, asked, “If the moving steps going up are called an escalator, what do you call these flat ones?” I mumbled something about “moving walkways” when Andrew, my son, shouted, “I know, they’re called flatulators!” With visions of wind assisted pedestrians in my head I roared with laughter. What a great idea! Andrew had no idea of the potential alternative meaning when suggesting the name “Flatulator”, but he made a good guess. Often, naive people like him can offer us good insights and new trains of thought when we are struggling to create an original idea. They know little or nothing about the subject so are not limited by the conventional thinking that exists and can provide radically different input. As a Creative Leader you can use this device of naive thinking in three ways: 1. Bring in someone with no knowledge of your topic, give them a basic understanding of the issue / situation and then ask them for other ways to look at your situation or ideas (perhaps alone but more likely in a group of more knowledgeable people) 2. You can use a variation on the “What If” technique alone or in a group. Essentially this means asking yourself and / or others to imagine what a five year old would think of a...
