RE-PLAY when thinking goes lateral ppt

RE-PLAY when thinking goes lateral
M Spies and VDS Brink
Published by Data Solve at Smashwords
Copyright 2013 VDS Brink
e-ISBN: 9781301194797
www.corvus.co.za
www.datasolve.co.za
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RE-PLAY
when thinking goes
lateral
Data Solve
Data Solve group work chronicles
Compiled by Muriétte Spies and VDS Brink
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
The need for creativity
The human mind
Principles of creativity

The role of the environment, people and place
Creativity alone
Creativity in groups
Metaphors and stories
Communicating one-on-one
Communicating one-to-many
It is all about personal change
Managing creativity
Data Solve: the road ahead
Epilogue
References and further reading
The compilers
Preface
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more
intelligently - Henry Ford
This book is the result of delightful work with the Hiscox group of Data
Solve in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Many hours of sharing and
application led to the content.
Six years of MBA lecturing on Innovation and Creativity for
the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK gave the valuable theoretical
background.
The trust of Herman Kriel, Hugo Snyman, Muriétte Spies to
steer it to completion is priceless.
Elaine Botha with advice from Thilo Otterpohl for the cover
design and Elana Ehlers on editing and proofreading made all the
difference.
VDS Brink
Pretoria, South Africa.
Introduction
It is not the strongest that survive, nor the smartest; it is those

that are the quickest to change. - Charles Darwin
We live in turbulent times: the world is slowly emerging from the worst
economic decline in 80 years and it will take years to recover from the
damage. A new generation with a new outlook on life is also currently
gaining prominence.
The impact of the internet and the shadows that lifted in 1989
with the fall of the Berlin wall changed the world. The current way of
doing things will simply not work in the future.
We can soar in life if we know that lots of data and information
mean very little. Greatness and victory is ours if we can turn data into
knowledge, then into insight and ultimately into wisdom. To do this, it
is necessary to drown the mind with facts, discuss it with diverse
people, test the water, burn some scars, emerge with humility and only
then follow your head.
All industries are in turmoil and stretching the abilities of their
employees to the limit. Newcomers bring new challenges and the
existing ones try to stay ahead. To be winners, we need to excel as
creative thinkers and, most importantly, be able to work with people.
Creativity is born into us all, but school wiped out 30% of it,
our parents another 30% and the rest we did ourselves. The challenge is
to make it resurface and this is done by understanding and following
age-old processes.
The Data Solve process follows the AIDA route: “A” stands for
Awareness and Attention, “I” for Interest, “D” for a Desire to go further
in life with the concepts and “A” for concrete Action.
With this, we conveyed the concept that creativity is not on the
screen and it is seldom to be found in the office. We emphasize the fact
that there are several ways to enhance it individually, yet that the
ultimate goal is how to work creatively as a group and get the very best
from each of the members.

In this book, we address the concepts of creativity and how to
apply it in practice in the information technology environment.
The need for creativity
The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody
else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.
Whitney Young
The world is changing faster than ever. Thirty years ago there were no
personal computers, mobile phones, satellite television, cloned animals
or instant written communication.
To survive in this new world, organizations need to react
quickly and add value to their services through innovation. Creativity
exists within the human mind, in how it thinks and reacts and especially
in how we interact with other people, the environment and the climate
where creative thinking happens.
Creativity is more than a means to produce a mere product:
creativity especially lies in the way we think and do things differently
from yesterday. To be a winner in the new millennium, we need
interpersonal skills and also the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of
others, more than ever before.
In a few years from now, no more than ten, just about
everything we know will change and organizations not on a creative
path now will be swept aside.
The world faces several challenges, such as food, lodging and
clean drinking water for everyone, and the massive overpopulation
experienced in metropolises around the world. Energy is at its negative
tipping point with carbon-based systems nearing their end.
In this changing world, information technology is the bread and
butter, the grease that oils the road ahead, and it is faced by the overall
and rapid changes of technology that are trying to balance the new and
the existing. Every person in IT will need as much creativity as possible

to be successful.
The industry is riddled with fallout as the result of changing
technology, for example, the demise of mainframes in the late twentieth
century, with COBOL at the heart of it, left many professionals jobless
and desperate.
This kind of history will repeat itself over and over again,
which means we need to be prepared.
The human mind
How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned
it. - Mark Twain
The human mind consists of several brains. The reptile brain, which is
the size of a pea, does only two things: decides between fight and flight.
It generates the chemicals adrenaline, which tells the mind to fight, and
noradrenalin, which tells the mind to flee. These chemicals stay in the
blood for hours.
The mammal brain understands sound and images. It is the
source of body language and the part of the mind that reacts to the body
language of others.
In the brain the left cortex sees the trees (the facts). The right
cortex sees the wood (the bigger picture).
The different brains interact through synapses and are fuelled
by chemicals. The most critical of these is dopamine, closely related to
morphine. High levels of dopamine are vital to the happiness of the
audience and how they will experience the presentation.
Drugs like morphine or bexadrine cause your brain to secrete
dopamine, as does physical exercise and laughter.
We as humans differ in how we accept a message and what our
minds do with it. We each have a preference as to how we see facts and
images: some of us prefer to hear it in a compelling way and some of us
will build some form of emotion around it.

This is demonstrated by the following examples of sentences:
“Look what we have here”, “I hear you say” or “I feel we should do the
following”.
We also differ in the way we think about things. Some are left
brain analytical, some are right brain visionary and some are people-
orientated. To work with people while ignoring their preferences might
lead to loss of impact. We all have general needs and some form of
addressing that holds the key to creative success:
I do not want to be hurt, nor need physical comfort. I am part
of the group, I am worth something, I do worthwhile things. I want to
learn new things. I want beauty around me, order, discipline. I want to
share, give away, mean something, I want you to care for me. I believe
in a higher power. I want to accomplish greatness, I am angry against,
yet want to forgive. I am better than others. I am bored and need
excitement, I am afraid of […] and need to resolve it. I love to laugh,
play and have fun.
Sadly, 99% of our work focuses on the facts only. This
approach assumes that everybody is left brain, visually-orientated
people and this approach ignores the richness of the mind.
The female and male minds differ. Women have many more
connections between the brain segments and their eyes than men. Men
focus early and make quick decisions.
Ladies take in more detail through their senses and build a
broader picture than men.
The mind is affected by music, whether this is positive or
negative. Load pulsating music stimulates the cerebellum that controls
movement. This leads to foot tapping and head nodding.
Some music influences the synapses and boosts the interaction
of the left and right brains.
For pure creativity, slow, slower than one second waves, music

with flutes or violins will stimulate the right brain. An example of this
is the “Largo” type music typically composed by Bach, Handel or
Vivaldi.
Physical exercise can be done in different forms, amongst
others aerobic (running, swimming, cycling), power (weightlifting),
balance or relaxation (spa, sauna, stretching, meditation). When done in
moderation, it is an important creative stimulator.
Meditation is as simple as closing our eyes while breathing
deeply and repeating a single word for a few minutes.
Principles of creativity
Keep a diary and one day it will keep you Mae West
Creativity begins with a challenge, a problem or a blockage. We are at
our best when we are painted into a corner, as history has proved time
and again that times of distress lead to great leaps forward. This is also
referred to as the “Beethoven Syndrome”. Beethoven, perhaps the
greatest musician of all time was deaf by the age of 27. Years later he
composed and conducted the 9th Symphony. A standing applause
followed, the chief violinist stood up, turner Beethoven towards the
audience as he did not hear the applause.
We need to split the thinking and look at the forest and the trees
separately. De Bono’s six hats illustrate this principle: the left brain
looks for meaning, while the right brain looks for connections and
feelings. Keep different thinking separate, never mix.
Metaphors are critical. The right brain works at its best with
stories, pictures and poems. The right brain dies when it looks at a
screen and rather finds its success in a park, at a party or especially in
being alone.
Lateral thinking happens when the mind is prepared and
drowned with facts. Do this by reading whole books on different topics
and by surrounding ourself with people who are different from you.

Find the place for insight. Almost always be alone. Physical
exercise releases dopamine, as does laughter. Slow music – like Bach
largo type music – boosts the right brain. Pulsating music undermines it.
Take time out. Great innovating companies (such as 3M and
Google) follow the 15% bootlegging concept to great effect. Learn to
relax: yoga and meditation stimulates the Alpha waves in the mind that
are conductive of ideas. Have a “yes, and ” stance for everything in
life, never a “no, but ” attitude.
Creativity can almost always be found on the boundaries, not in
the middle of the playing field.
Break with the norm and adopt at least one creative activity.
Woodwork, poetry, story writing, drawing, gardening, keeping a
diary Mix with people, debate, criticize, meet people in person, meet
strangers and strange ideas and avoid explicit instructions.
The climate we work in is critical. How we interact with and
build upon what we create makes or breaks an organization’s creativity.
Creativity is seldom found at the desk or in front of the
computer screen. It is found by breaking out of this rut, in the park, the
shower, or the gym.
In general creative thinking depends on:
• The willingness to be open to new ideas and experiences. It is a
choice. If we dare to do venture into the unknown, we will win!
• Variety is the spice of life. Comfort zones, doing things as done
before, routine, relating to people as ourselves, listening to my type
of music it kills the mind and dampening renewal.
• Creativity only possible when the unknown and strange are
pursued. A lazy, self satisfied person will never be creative. To
know that we do not know is critical.
• Do not fear failure. Learning and new horizons depend on valuable
failure lessons.

• Laugh! David Ogilvy, “Make your thinking as funny as possible”
and Edward de Bono, “Humour is the most significant activity of
the human mind”. To laugh at ourselves, look at life from a
different angle is music for the soul and the utmost of creative
stimulation. An airport can be hilarious or people pushing trolleys
in a shop.
• Create sharp visual images. Sketch, draw with paint on real paper.
Design like it was done ages ago.
• Drain the mind with facts, read whole books to build mind
patterns, avoid over scattering with loos facts as it disrupts mind
neurons.
• Mix with people different form ourselves. Age, culture, profession.
• Be prepared to jump from bridges, else we will never if we can
fly ?
• Put a sheet of paper on the compute screen and just write and
write. Be amazed where the story will go.
• A diary does it all. It cleans the soul, gives perspective. End every
day with “Dear Diary ” use a pencil and rubber, experience
yourself as much greater as we ever thought we can be.
The role of the environment, people and place
“Stay humble, stay foolish, else life will humblify you and know that
you know so little” – Steve Jobs
The environment, the office and the way we talk and meet has a major
role on the mind.
Everybody in the office should work hard to make the kick-off
of each day enjoyable. Avoid serious matters for the first hour of the
day to prevent the release of noradrenalin (fight or flight) hormones in
employees’ blood.
Even the colour of the walls in the office has an impact. Red
has a long wavelength and will focus behind the retina. We therefore

stand away from it, because it frightens. Blue is the opposite. Colours
on the blue to green spectrum work miracles.
It is critical to break out of the office frequently. Walk around
the block. Sit in a church, an art gallery, feed the pigeons and sit on a
bench in a park or any silent place.
With early judgement, we can dramatically influence creative
thinking for the worst.
We are just human and sharing an open office has its limitations
with personal irritators topping the list. We are reluctant to talk about
things that bother us, therefore a good method to combat this would be
to install a comment box and ask all to write suggestions, note down
irritations and anything that can help and post them. It can be
anonymous. Discuss the contents of this box frequently with all to
eliminate the problems without needing to humiliate a person.
Destructive negative behaviour includes:
• Acting tyrannical. A tyrant will sit in a corner office and bark
commands, being overly critical on everything, which makes
others afraid and causes them hide mistakes.
• Acting as doormats. A doormat will manipulate others by
moaning. “After all I did for you, you repay me like this!” “If it
wasn’t for me nothing would happen in this place.” The doormat
blames others, her past, everything possible, but never takes
responsibility. They undermine creativity.
• Bullying others. Bullies appear at their worst in restaurants,
barking at poor waitresses. They shout at people that cannot defend
themselves.
• Acting as wise-asses. A wise-ass will shoot down every idea, view
or contribution in flames. “We did that long ago.” “Now what is
new about it?”
Ideal behaviour should be:

• The King. The King should show the way and stay out of the way,
but be there when needed. Walk the corridors, listen and laugh.
• The Lover. “How may I help you?”
• The Fighter. The Fighter fights not for herself, but fights for others
and against bad things.
• The Wizard. The Wizard should listen carefully and put things
together in a brilliant way while giving credit to the whole team.
The most important personal stance of all should be,
“I know that I do not know.”
Creativity alone
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark
on the things you have long taken for granted.
- Bertrand Russell
The different parts of the brain need to work together to achieve
optimum results. Due to the differences between them, they also need to
work on their own to optimize their own strengths.
If we only work on logical material, the left cortex does all the
work and potential of others remain neglected. Edward de Bono coined
the “six hats concept” to help us separate our thinking.
It is important to note that when we work in groups, the
attacking of members’ ideas might lead to a “fight or flight” reaction in
them and that the person might then withdraw from the group. From
this, the Creative Solving Process grew to turn it into practice. It places
emphasis on understanding the problem clearly before jumping to
conclusions.
Always follow it, even if just five minutes are available.
• What is going on? List all aspects relating to the challenge. Draw it
in full colour. Make a wish list: “I wish that and ” Go overboard:
you can have your wildest dreams come true in this list. Make a bug
list. List and draw all the irritations.

• Turn the focus to asking: “What does it all mean?” “What are those
sub challenges that we need to solve?” Classify them in terms of
difficulty and impact.
• Gather missing information focused on understanding it better. Draw
a full colour picture. What does it tell you? Ask Why, What, Who,
When and How?
• Create new solutions. Draw a full colour picture. What does it tell
you? Fill a large sheet of paper with concepts. Sleep over it. Take
note of the dreams that you have while doing this.
• Focus on a few workable action steps. Classify them in terms of
easy/difficult, low/high impact, etc.
• If possible, schedule it to do tasks in quadrants: 1 first, followed by
2, 3 and then 4.
Avoid mixing the challenges with the solutions. The, “What is going
on?” and “Create” stages should ideally be done away from the day-to-
day desk. Doing it in the garden or coffee shop will always give better
results, as this dampens the left brain. The other phases are logical and
you should ideally do it with the tools at hand.
Some techniques for individual creativity:
• Bug listing; list all the evils facing us to give perspective.
• Analogies: what is similar to our challenge?
• Cartoon it. The picture and fun gives new insight.
• Painting.
• In out listening: Exploit the wandering of the mind while listening
to a lecture, presentation or even a music concert. What do I hear?
What does it mean? What other things do I think about while
listening? What does this mean?
• Dream diary. Note down dreams first thing in the morning.
• Mind mapping. The Buzan method of drawing critical
relationships. It is also a great way to summarize information.

• Relaxation: Stretching, sauna, massage or yoga. Meditation by
simply relaxing while breathing deeply en d repeat one word over
en over for some ten minutes.
• Write a story. Let animals talk, wild things happen. Have a victim,
a hero, a baddie. Get to a happy ending.
• Wish: Dream your wildest dreams.
Creativity in groups
When you want to go fast, go alone, when you want to go far go
together – Old African proverb
When we meet we will behave as a herd of wild deer. Even at
Grandma’s birthday we will act in five phases:
1. “I have no opinion.” The body language accompanying this phase
is characteristic too: crossed arms, hands in the pockets and
eventually withdrawal.
2. “I have an opinion and it differs from yours.” This iterates arguing.
3. “It is nice out here!”
4. “I have an opinion, but the group’s opinion is greater than mine.”
This is accompanied by exuberance and hard work.
5. Regret that it is all over.
When working with people in groups, always keep this in mind and take
note of which phase they are in. When they are in phases 1-3, focus on
doing anonymous work as real collaboration is only possible in phase 4.
Never just stop. We all need a good ending. A group photo, a
group hug and it will be remembered.
A great technique to explore the topic and create solutions is
Brain Drawing and Brain Writing. Simply draw or write an aspect and
pass it on to the next person. A group of ten people generating ten ideas
or views each can do 60 new viewpoints in less than a minute!
The CPS in practice avoids direct attacks and differences of
opinion. It follows the De Bono “Deferred Judgement” concept.

In group work we need to understand the challenges, focus on
the necessities, get more information and always see the positive first,
especially in individual contributions.
Then we need to discuss it critically as a group, organize
ourselves and execute the group’s decisions. A great process follows,
even in less than 30 minutes it will look like this:
• Asking “who are we?”, “how are we all doing?”
• Getting all the facts on the table. Brain Writing is a great
technique.
• Clustering the facts to generate concepts and challenges.
• Getting focused information on it.
• Creating solutions.
• Group.
• Screen.
• Prioritize.
• Focusing on workable action steps.