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!

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.

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

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.

Secs sells. A great new twist on an old, old line.

I once took part in a conference about creativity and originality.

A couple of the speakers believed that any creative thought, if it is to be truly creative, must also be completely original.

No copying, I can understand. No pale imitations, and no "same old, same old" either.

But sometimes, you see a great idea, and realise it has influences. It might be a parody, or an homage, or simply something well known given a new twist.

A great one appeared on billboards last week. You may have seen it.

It's brilliant, just brilliant.

The line "Sex Sells" is one of the oldest in the book, particularly in car advertising. This ad takes the obvious line, turns it round, and subverts it. It even subverts the usual approach of talking about the speed of the car (which is now illegal) by talking about the speed of the roof!

It's funny, and it makes the viewer complicit in the gag - there's a payoff when you "get it".

OK, it might look more like a trade ad rather than a consumer one, but I still love it.

Taking the obvious, or the current paradigm, and turning it on its head is a great way to come up with new ideas.

Try it. It might just work for you, too.

Clive Gott left life as he lived life - with unbelievable impact.

On Sunday afternoon I opened my pages on Facebook, as I sat waiting in a car park.

The first posting I read was from a speaker friend. It didn't make much sense to me, as it seemed to be referring to another speaker - Clive Gott - in the past tense.

I scrolled down, and saw another. And another.

It gradually dawned on me that my great friend, mentor, encourager, raging bull, and inspirational genius Clive had died suddenly on Saturday night. I was stunned. I still am, to be honest.

Clive himself would not recognise any of the descriptions I've used about him above. He used to talk about how he hadn't won any medals, hadn't climbed any mountains, hadn't done much, really.

What nonsense.

I'll leave others to list his achievements (they can start with Fireman, Marathon runner (Actually, 99 mile marathons. In the desert.), Fellow of the PSA (he was very proud of that, although he fell out with the organisation regularly). He was also proud of the fact that he had seen Status Quo live every year for the last four decades or something. Ah well, nobody's perfect.

What he did achieve was an effect on people. He moved people. He touched their sense of self. He inspired them. And me.

His big thing was "pay it forward". So Elaine suggests that you buy flowers for yourself, or send them to someone else, to pay it forward from Clive.

If anyone took the Nike slogan and turned it into "Just F***ing do it", it was Clive.

My last communication from him was on Friday night, when he told me that he and Elaine were coming to see me speak in Leeds on Thursday night. Then he sent me a joke.

There's a line in the Rocky Horror Show which says "What a guy. Made you cry. And he did."

Clive made us cry with laughter throughout his life.

He made us cry this week too.

For ideas, look to your life.

I met one of my heroes recently - the brilliant writer, artist, playwright and all-round good guy, John Byrne.

He wrote "The Slab Boys" trilogy, he's a phenomenal artist and caricaturist, and co-wrote songs with Gerry Rafferty of Stealer's Wheel. And his design for the 1980 album "Beatles Ballads" was originally going to be the cover of the Beatles' "White Album"!

I'd love to say he came to me for advice on how to be even more creative, but he didn't.

I met him on a train.

As we stood in the corridor, I swallowed my nerves enough to say "You're John Byrne, aren't you? I'm a huge fan of your work".

"Oh really?", he said. "Anything in particular?"

That's lesson one. Never go up to someone and pretend you're a fan - you might just get found out.

However, I really am a fan.

Tutti Frutti, his TV series about a travelling rock and roll band, is one of my favourite ever dramas - real black comedy, and bittersweet.

So we had a laugh about my favourite scene, where Robbie Coltrane as Danny McGlone plays a beautiful version of "Love Hurts" to Miss Toner (Katy Murphy), only to get the loving response "Beat it, ya creep".

"And Slab Boys, of course" I said.

I first saw it in Edinburgh in the late seventies, and I've seen it, and the other two Slab boys plays, a few times since.

It's set in the dye-mixing room (the "slab room") of a carpet factory. I always thought it was based on Templeton's factory in Glasgow, an amazing building copied, believe or not, from the Doge's Palace in Venice!

Here's a picture - it's now an amazing looking business centre:

The plays were actually inspired by John's experiences in a different factory, in Paisley, where John grew up. He was a "slab boy", and later, a designer in that carpet factory.

"Always a good idea" John said, "to exploit your life for your art".

Absolutely - even if your 'art' is less fine art and more "I need an idea".

Look to your life. Your experiences, your connections, your inspirations.

What is there in your half-remembered past that could inspire new ideas, new approaches, new solutions?

Someone once said that every first book is autobiography.

More than that, your autobiography could be the source of your next big idea.