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Insights From the Road - Reinforcing the Process Welcome to Insights From The Road, the e-newsletter of creativity from "The Gold Standard of Creativity Training," Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. Enjoy! THE
GREAT HIDER* When my daughter Maria was five years old she loved to go to McDonalds. I'm not sure if it was the cuisine, the ambience, or the playland that drew her there; but it was clearly her restaurant of choice. One day, after finishing our delicacies of Chicken McNuggets and Filet-o-Fish sandwich, Maria set off to the playland. I sat back to enjoy watching pure joy and energy in action. For those of you who haven't had the privilege of going to a McDonald's playland recently, let me describe it to you. Usually there are several slides, a series of climbing areas, some large elevated connecting tunnels, and several platforms. The children make their way up though the tunnels and ladders and then slide down the slides. On this particular day, Maria met up with two new friends about her age, Zoe and Shawn. They decided to play hide and seek in the playland. For the first few rounds, the children hid in the obvious places - disappearing into a tunnel or wedging between a slide and a platform. On her third turn to hide, my daughter did something very different. Instead of hiding in the apparatus itself, she stood just off to the side, in plain sight, next to one of the large blue slides. Her new friends slid down the slide several times and were within about a foot of Maria, but they never saw her. The children searched all the regular hiding places four or five times looking for Maria, while my daughter stood patiently on the edge of the playland area. Eventually, she made enough noise that they had to notice her. While I was watching this (and taking credit for teaching Maria to be such an expert hide-and-seek player) a couple of creativity principles came into my mind. The first was the familiar definition of insanity that I use in my workshops and seminars: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Clearly Maria's young friends were exhibiting some "insane" behavior. They retraced their steps through the playland several times, and each time they ran faster, believing that they could somehow catch up to her. But Maria wasn't even in the playland. She was on the "periphery." Creativity researcher Dr. Stan Gryskiewicz argues that the solutions for tough business problems are rarely found by reviewing standard procedures; rather, creative ideas exist somewhere on the edge or the periphery of the problem. If we keep approaching the problem in the same way, we will get the same result. It is only when we begin to look to the periphery of the problem area that previously unseen solutions reveal themselves. Therefore, Stan advises us to shift our focus off the "central" point of the problem and look off to the edge. How do you look to the periphery? You can start with some simple exercises that change your focus and experience immediately. Read different material than you normally do. If your usual fare is non-fiction, read a novel instead. Involve yourself in new experiences. If you usually go to the movies on Saturday night, take in a modern dance recital or some bowling instead. Brainstorm some unusual ideas for solving a particular challenge, resisting the urge to focus on what appears to be the logical solution - like hiding in play land instead of beside it. Sometimes the most innovative ideas are not hidden in the problem area, but waiting patiently off to the side. So look to the edges, look to the periphery. YouÕre bound to encounter some creative breakthroughs. Sincerely, Roger Firestien *Title recommended by Maria. "Insights From the Road" (tm) is published irregularly by: Roger
L. Firestien, Ph.D. For a free subscription to Innovation Espresso, the print newsletter of creativity, e-mail your mailing address to roger@rogerfirestien.com. (c)
2003 Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. No part of this publication may be reproduced or electronically transmitted without this copyright line intact. |
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