Sources of Creative and Design Thinking

I do not know whether you know it, I'm a strong believer that well-wrought product either offline products or interactive products or or or, or what ever and Creative Thinking / Design Thinking in any way, shape or form can have a enormous impact on the world, the people and environment in terms of ... starting with utility, usability, and and ... (right) through to resources.

These are three different speeches of three very different people - since my last article "Walk a while in someone else's shoes: Exploring the Role of C...s" I thought about whether and how in which context I can show you the second speech. Dan Pink gives a brilliant presentation at TED about why rewards don’t work when it comes to generating creative solutions. Actually, rewards sometimes have the opposite effect: reducing creativity. It all comes down to autonomy, mastery and purpose. The first one is by John Cleese - I think we all know him as an great actor, comedian, writer and film produce. And the third one is a very inspiring video of Sir Ken Robinson talking about the way the nowadays education system undermines people’s creativity.

In advance I have to beg your pardon - each video is extreme "big" and it might take a little bit more of download time - Sorry for that - but on the other hand the sound and picture quality is of a high value. Enjoy the speeches.

1st __ Source of Creativity - John Cleese WCF __ (10:37min)

A more than a interesting and eye-opening speech on how to be more creative and more innovative. In summary ... use boundaries of space and time, create your own mood, your oasis of calm and zone of creativity.

What actual inspired me was to become aware once again of the fact that we have no predefined point where ideas come from. The only thing we can do to increase creativity is to create situations where creativity can ‘flow’.These are quality, gorgeous times and situations where you can think without break and or annoyance which are separate from your ordinary life. Interruptions are fatal to the creative thinking. And he stress that sometimes and all to often starting from scratch results in a better work product than the original. John Cleese's speech gives an inspiring valuable insight about the source of creativity at the World Creativity Forum in Belgium.I hope that more people will start to realize how important it is to create space in their lives. Switch off your phone. Go for a walk outside (Especially in the winter time nothing is better than cross-country skiing). Enjoy!

2nd __ Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation __ (18:37min)

Dan Pink explores the mystery of motivation. He starts with a fact that practitioner and social scientists know but most managers don’t: Common rewards aren’t always as effective as we think and expect.

3rd __ Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? __ (20:04min)

Sir Ken Robinson is a leading expert on innovation and human resources. In this talk, he makes an entertaining case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

In this context I like to quote a statement by Woody Allen:

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."

... And now ... I wish u all a nice, successful and creative day!