Archive for the ‘Brainstorming’ Category

Creating Creativity!

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

BrickOverview of Article: Sharon Begley of Newsweek.com looks into the claim that simply do a 30 second eye movement exercise can make you more creative.

Thoughts on this article: Where to begin…I found this to be interesting based on the core understanding that Design Thinking utilizes both left and right brain approaches to create and solve.  usually, we are talking about different people with each of these traits, not individuals that have the ability to “shift” between the two.  However, there are still times that I work with a group that could use a boost of creativity in their thoughts…so maybe I will give this a try!

Original Article HERE at NewsWeek.com

newsweek-print-logoWhen Is a Brick Not a Brick?

When it’s a key to boosting creativity.

By Sharon Begley | Newsweek Web Exclusive

What can a brick be used for? Well, there’s building a house, breaking a window, holding down a pile of papers on a windy day, squashing a bug, paving a driveway, building a wall, as the legs of a small table … Now take a break and shift your eyes from left to right and back again for 30 seconds.

If psychologist Elizabeth Shobe of Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and her colleagues are right, that ocular exercise spurred creative thinking, enabling you to come up with yet more uses for a brick (perhaps putting in the toilet tank to reduce water usage? how about as a mock coffin at a Barbie funeral?). (Click here to follow Sharon Begley).

There is no shortage of self-appointed experts on creativity (a quick search for ways to increase it turns up “clear your workspace” and “act on your instincts“). The snake-oil approaches are unfortunate, because there is pretty decent neuroscientific research on the brain basis for creativity, as I wrote about a few years back. Above all, the studies show that creativity is not just a personality trait (and thus hard to change) but also a trainable skill. (more…)

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NY Times misses on Change By Design

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

journalismOverview of Article: This is a summery/review of Tim Brown’s new book “Change By Design” from the NY Times.
Thoughts on this Article: This is a simple overview of the book, but doesn’t really capture the heart of the book.  Tim Brown is arguably the most visible spokesperson on the topic, and often sets the tone for what will happen in that industry. The NY Times reporter presents Tim as a designer who now practices Design Thinking, when in reality – he is an industrial products person, who understood the importance of design in creating a marketable product.  That is a significant difference.

Original Article at NYTimes HERE September 28, 2009

Redefining a Profession

By ALICE RAWSTHORN

LONDON — The bet was for $50,000. It was offered by George Washington Hill, president of the American Tobacco Company, to the designer Raymond Loewy, in 1940. The challenge was to spruce up the packaging of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Loewy accepted the wager, and Hill asked when he expected to finish. “Oh, I don’t know,” drawled the designer. “Some nice spring morning I will feel like designing the Lucky package… I’ll call you then.”

Loewy won the bet, and claimed the credit for the subsequent increase in Lucky Strike’s sales. That was nearly 70 years ago, and design has changed dramatically since then, as the designer Tim Brown relates in his new book, “Change by Design.” “Few designers today would even touch this type of project,” he writes of Loewy’s assignment. “What excites the best (design) thinkers today is the challenge of applying their skills to problems that matter.”

He’s kind of right and kind of wrong. Much as I’d like to believe that designers are too altruistic to bother fiddling with the graphics on cigarette packets, many still do. But it is true that more and more designers are devoting their time to serious stuff, like repairing environmental damage or kindling economic recovery, and it is their work that concerns Mr. Brown. (more…)

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Building your Design Thinking Team

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Overview of Video: This is part of the Future of Fish series that gives an inside look at a non-product use of Design Thinking. In this video, the topic is about the team you assemble and what is important to consider in picking team members.

Thoughts on this Video: These guys are doing a very good job of documenting the process they are undertaking as they work to find a solution to the specific challenge they have taken on. I appreciate the desire to share HOW the process is working for them, and the quality of the information.

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Design Thinking for real results

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Overview of Video: This is an interview with Nadja Schnetzler of the BrainStore…an idea design firm located in Switzerland

Thoughts on this video: This is a solid company that is using the ideas of Design Thinking to make better products and services.  This video gives several good looks at tools and techniques used by the team.

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Eight Tips for Better Brainstorming

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

dominoeOverview of Article: Robert Sutton takes on the idea that group brainstorming is not an efficient way to generate ideas.  He references his time working with IDEO and makes very good points on what actually constitutes “efficient” brainstorming.

Thoughts on Article: I give this one to you as a classic on the ‘Brainstorming’ element of the Design Thing process.  Sutton makes very good points on the importance of having a team, but of making sure that you also have the right environment for that team to be productive.  This is a very good article.

Original Post HERE By Robert Sutton at BusinessWeekbw-logo

Should your team brainstorm as a group or as individuals? At creative companies, switching between the two modes can be seamless—and highly productive

A recent Wall Street Journal story took on the hot topic of brainstorming. Titled “Brainstorming Works Best if People Scramble For Ideas on Their Own,” the piece quoted research showing that people are “more creative” when they “brainstorm” alone rather than in meetings and offered supporting testimonials from managers.

This is a subject I am quite familiar with. Along with Andy Hargadon, I completed an 18-month ethnography in the 1990s on how the innovation consultants at IDEO do creative work, and we’ve both spent much of the past decade studying other innovative organizations. At the time, Andy was my PhD student, and now he is an associate professor at the University of California at Davis.

We agree that badly managed face-to-face brainstorms do stifle creativity and we agree that, even when brainstorming is done right, people probably can still generate ideas faster when they work alone. But it is total nonsense to conclude that if you want creativity, you ought to keep your people in solitary confinement where they can’t “waste time” listening to and building on the ideas of others.

Here’s the problem: Most studies of brainstorming are rigorous but irrelevant to the challenge of managing creative work. For starters, comparing whether creativity happens best in groups or alone is pretty silly when you look at how creative work is actually done. At creative companies, people switch between both modes so seamlessly that it is hard to notice where individual work ends and group work starts. (more…)

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