On Saturday I attended a TEDx event in Edinburgh.
If you don't know TED, you should. Drop what you're doing, and head to ted.com.
Billed as "Ideas worth spreading", TED is a series of conferences and events where the world's leading thinkers do short presentations on a truly remarkable variety of subjects.
The name comes from "Technology, Education, Design", but the speakers cover much, much more than that.
TEDx events are those run not by the TED Organisation, but by local supporters. Saturday's, live in London and simulcast to Edinburgh, Brighton, Liverpool and other cities, was set up and sponsored by the Observer newspaper.
I expected to be a 'sometime' attendee - to dip in and out as the whim took me, based on whether I thought the speaker was going to be interesting or not. That didn't happen. I sat transfixed, enjoying ALL the speakers. They engaged and involved us on subjects ranging from losing children in Israeli attacks (Izzeldin Abuelaish on "I shall not hate") to Climate Change, Ecology and Modern Art (the incomparable Vivienne Westwood). The unbelievably brave Katie Piper (turning her suffering sustained in an acid attack on her face into support and charity) and Martine Wright (who lost both legs in the 7/7 terrorist attacks and is now aiming to compete in the 2012 Special Olympics) showed us the strength of the human spirit in adversity - true adversity.
I did the hand-jive (all in the name of neurological research, of course) and joined in with people across the UK singing Zadoc the Priest in four part harmony. Honest.
I left the event with a notebook full of ideas, and a mind full of energy and inspiration.
Attending an event like this might be the most creative act you could ever do. It will inspire you, re-energise you - and most of all, fill your mind with possibility, with new ideas, and completely new ways of looking at the world.
It's like a turbo-charge for your imagination.
Thursday 24 March 2011
Monday 21 March 2011
Creativity tip: Laughter equals ideas equals laughter
In every group I've worked with, when people are having ideas there tends to be a lot of laughter around.
And conversely, when people are laughing and enjoying themselves, the ideas tend to flow.
If you think about it, humour is very like creativity.
There’s a set-up (two men walk into a pub…), and then a punch line. The punchline is an "answer" to the set up. It's something we don’t expect, but which makes some sort of sense.
Great ideas are similar – there’s a challenge (or problem, or brief). And then an "answer".
If the "answer" we come up with is the obvious one, the one that immediately makes sense, it’s like a punchline you’ve heard before. It’s boring, unimaginative, the same old same old.
A new idea - like an unexpected punchline - surprises us. It's new - but it makes sense when checked against the problem or brief.
And having a laugh helps us have ideas. The centres of the brain which process humour, and come up with ideas, are so close that one helps the other.
Bring humour into your ideas sessions, by putting up cartoons, sharing jokes, or turning the problem into a limerick.
Have a laugh, and have an idea!
And conversely, when people are laughing and enjoying themselves, the ideas tend to flow.
If you think about it, humour is very like creativity.
There’s a set-up (two men walk into a pub…), and then a punch line. The punchline is an "answer" to the set up. It's something we don’t expect, but which makes some sort of sense.
Great ideas are similar – there’s a challenge (or problem, or brief). And then an "answer".
If the "answer" we come up with is the obvious one, the one that immediately makes sense, it’s like a punchline you’ve heard before. It’s boring, unimaginative, the same old same old.
A new idea - like an unexpected punchline - surprises us. It's new - but it makes sense when checked against the problem or brief.
And having a laugh helps us have ideas. The centres of the brain which process humour, and come up with ideas, are so close that one helps the other.
Bring humour into your ideas sessions, by putting up cartoons, sharing jokes, or turning the problem into a limerick.
Have a laugh, and have an idea!
Presentation tip - put some humour in your presentations
Ask a professional speaker (like me) if you should use humour in a presentation and they’ll say “Only if you want to get paid”.
People whose income depends on speaking at conferences – and getting asked back – know the truth of the Victor Borge line “The shortest distance between two people is a smile”.
Humour engages an audience with what you are saying. It helps them relax, builds rapport and sets you apart from other presenters.
I don’t mean you should turn into Jimmy Carr, with a 20 minute set of one-liners. For most business presentations, actual jokes may be inappropriate.
But self-deprecating humour, taking an alternative view of the issue – or even sharing a funny moment that the team had while coming up with the solution – all help you build a relationship with the people listening to your presentation.
With this in mind, think about how you can improve your ‘take’ on humour.
I was doing some presentation coaching for a senior exec recently, and he asked me to help put more humour into his speeches. “What kind of humour do you enjoy?” I asked. “I don’t, really”, he said. "I tend to spend my time watching and reading more serious stuff".
I suggested he might spend more time reading PG Wodehouse and Christopher Brookmyre and less on Chekhov and Tolstoy.
People whose income depends on speaking at conferences – and getting asked back – know the truth of the Victor Borge line “The shortest distance between two people is a smile”.
Humour engages an audience with what you are saying. It helps them relax, builds rapport and sets you apart from other presenters.
I don’t mean you should turn into Jimmy Carr, with a 20 minute set of one-liners. For most business presentations, actual jokes may be inappropriate.
But self-deprecating humour, taking an alternative view of the issue – or even sharing a funny moment that the team had while coming up with the solution – all help you build a relationship with the people listening to your presentation.
With this in mind, think about how you can improve your ‘take’ on humour.
I was doing some presentation coaching for a senior exec recently, and he asked me to help put more humour into his speeches. “What kind of humour do you enjoy?” I asked. “I don’t, really”, he said. "I tend to spend my time watching and reading more serious stuff".
I suggested he might spend more time reading PG Wodehouse and Christopher Brookmyre and less on Chekhov and Tolstoy.
Some gags, one-liners and motivational quotes
“A grown man should wear white trousers on only two occasions. One, when selling ice cream. Two, never”.
Greg Proops
“People often ask me how I come upon the idea… seeing, observing and thinking – that is the answer”.
August Sander
“I asked for an ice cream. He said ‘hundreds and thousands?’ I said we’ll start with just one”.
Tim Vine
“Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend”.
Albert Camus
“He said ‘Knickerbocker Glory?’ I said ‘I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes”.
Tim Vine, again
Greg Proops
“People often ask me how I come upon the idea… seeing, observing and thinking – that is the answer”.
August Sander
“I asked for an ice cream. He said ‘hundreds and thousands?’ I said we’ll start with just one”.
Tim Vine
“Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend”.
Albert Camus
“He said ‘Knickerbocker Glory?’ I said ‘I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes”.
Tim Vine, again
Monday 7 March 2011
Meerkats are right. Simples is better.
I watched two football matches recently, one immediately after the other.
One was a schools match, and the other was between teams from the Youth Development programmes of two Premiership clubs.
Each game was exciting, and there were great players on all four sides.
However, something slowly dawned on me as I watched the second match.
The boys in the Youth Development teams - boys who may be very close to becoming professional footballers - played a much more simple game.
These boys are, for their age, among the best football players in the country. They are all 16 and 17, and their respective clubs will currently be looking closely at their skills, their stamina, their attitude, with a view to signing them as professionals - or letting them go.
The difference between these boys, and those that were just a little less successful as footballers, was obvious. The almost-professionals did the really simple things, brilliantly.
Their first touch control was superb. They played the one-two (or give-and-go, as it seems to be called now) brilliantly. They chose to make the simple pass - getting the ball to another player in space, playing to feet, running on to the ball.
And they did it at speed, and with strength and agility.
It might seem a bit of a stretch to make an analogy between these possible stars of the future and business, but I don't think so.
Simplicity may well be the single biggest factor in success in our work, our organisations, our careers.
What can you remove? What can you strip out? What can you simplify?
Albert Einstein said "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler".
As usual, he was right.
One was a schools match, and the other was between teams from the Youth Development programmes of two Premiership clubs.
Each game was exciting, and there were great players on all four sides.
However, something slowly dawned on me as I watched the second match.
The boys in the Youth Development teams - boys who may be very close to becoming professional footballers - played a much more simple game.
These boys are, for their age, among the best football players in the country. They are all 16 and 17, and their respective clubs will currently be looking closely at their skills, their stamina, their attitude, with a view to signing them as professionals - or letting them go.
The difference between these boys, and those that were just a little less successful as footballers, was obvious. The almost-professionals did the really simple things, brilliantly.
Their first touch control was superb. They played the one-two (or give-and-go, as it seems to be called now) brilliantly. They chose to make the simple pass - getting the ball to another player in space, playing to feet, running on to the ball.
And they did it at speed, and with strength and agility.
It might seem a bit of a stretch to make an analogy between these possible stars of the future and business, but I don't think so.
Simplicity may well be the single biggest factor in success in our work, our organisations, our careers.
What can you remove? What can you strip out? What can you simplify?
Albert Einstein said "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler".
As usual, he was right.
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