I ran a conference recently with a session focused on innovative and creative problem solving. This is a huge topic these days, with organisations looking to drive efficiency, productivity and ultimately the bottom line and having to find different ways to achieve that because existing patterns of thought have been exhausted.
To shift our patterns of thought, in order to drive different ideas to better solve an issue, its important that people have the right mindset and that the environment (including the social aspects of that environment) allow them to 'just go with it' without fear. The great thing is that both can be worked upon.
I ran a game of word association with two willing volunteers, in front of an audience of 150, with penalties for 'failure' (remember Mallet's Mallet?). The point to make was that it becomes very difficult to shift those patterns of thought with that kind of 'pressure'. For the record, other types of pressure may actually help the process...
Somehow, one of the competitors (interesting word given the competitive pressure we added) managed to bring the game back to one particular word 4 times out of 7 games. The word was 'hard' (Cue immature giggling from the audience each time). He just couldn't get his mind away from that word and any opportunity to associate back to it, no matter how spurious the connection, was taken. His mind was locked into a certain pattern and a big part of that was down to the ' social pressure' of the situation.
Release the social pressure on people to always be 'right' and then, with other tools to hand, creative solutions can start to flow. After the 4th time, he finally stood up and said - "OK point proven".
"I love it when a plan comes together." Hannibal - The A Team.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.