Archive for the ‘creative thinking’ Category

Don’t be original, just be good

As another way of making the arguments I made in Good beats innovative nearly every time, here’s design legend Paul Rand.

At about the 3:00 mark he says ‘don’t try to be original, just try to be good’

It’s also a fantastic introduction to visual design thinking: better than many textbooks I’ve seen.

Problem Solving & Kobayashi Maru

Over on my post Do constraints help problem solving, Aaron asked:

I’m currently completing a dissertation titled ‘Development in Product Design is driven by a response to changing constraints rather than innovation’ for my 3rd year BA Product Design course. You have stated that constraints can be ‘eliminated on purpose’, I can understand how they can be created but not eliminated? have you got any example of this in practice?

The best attitude to have when trying to solve problems is that everything is negotiable. Just because someone says the car they want you to design must be red and ten feet tall, or done by Friday doesn’t mean it actually needs to be those things. Most constraints people give us are soft and vague: they haven’t been rigorously tested, pushed or probed to find the real boundaries.

Maybe instead of being ten feet tall, what they really want is a car they can fit comfortably in, given that the client is Cleavland Cavalier’s Shaquille Oneal.

And perhaps it’s not a red car they want, but just a car that looks cooler than their neighbors car.

Or instead of it all being done Friday, only one important part needs to be done, but the rest can be done by Monday.

People confuse being specific with being accurate. Having details and numbers doesn’t mean you understand why those things are the right choices.

The trick in creative work, especially with clients, is how to explore their constraints in such a way that you do not annoy them, but that you understand the problem sufficiently well that you get at core of the problems they need to solve. And then get them to happily acknowledge these are the true problems, rather than assuming their description of their problems is sufficiently well formed to be the true target. The reason why so many projects fail is the lack of this skill on all  sides: clients, executives, designers, engineers and customers all stink at this process, and dismiss it as irrelevant.

The fancy word for this is requirements elicitation.  But it really just means thinking hard and carefully about requirements, understanding they are a kind of design unto themselves. Someone has to diligently sort through those that contradict, that are poorly formed as well as those that are unnecessary. Prototyping and sketching helps sort this out, but that’s just part of the process.

The best book I’ve ever seen on this is Exploring Requirements, By Weinberg. It should be required reading for anyone who solves problems for anyone else.

But the big problem is, of the few phrases more boring in this world than project management, requirements gathering is definitely one of them. It needs a slicker name. I hate jargon but I’d be all for something snazzy that gets them to care more about this kind of thinking. (Require-magic? Constraint-O-Rama? Hmmm).

Sometimes you can find a way to make two different constraints reduce down to one, making the problem simpler to solve. A constraint (e.g. requirement) might not be eliminated, but can be bent, shifted, twisted, rephrased, or entirely manipulated (See Kobyiash Maru) to serve your purposes.

A favorite example:  for decades the problem with bringing the internet into developing countries was the expense of digging tunnels to put in power, phone and cable lines. The advent of cell phones, where towers are built above ground and no wires are needed, eliminated the constraints around digging and cabling. For many people in the world today their first phones, and first web browsers, are cell phones.  A constraint was entirely eliminated by design.

Good ideas can sometimes eliminate seemingly immovable constraints.

How to create great work environments

(Note: In a series of posts, now called readers choice, I’ll write about whatever people submit and vote for.  If you dig this, let me know if the comments, and submit your ideas and votes).

The actual question submitted was:

How to create environments that encourage people to make mistakes and learn from them?

This is easy. It goes on every day in every decent classroom around the world.

What this question is really asking is how can the person in charge create an atmosphere where learning is rewarded.  Nearly every manager or leader talks about this, but rarely is it true.

There are four things people get wrong that makes this seem harder than it is.

  1. The person in power defines the culture through their behavior. If the bossman fires people for making a small mistake, people will hide mistakes and obsess about avoiding them, making creativity and innovation unlikely. If the bossman instead sees failures as learning moments, and takes time to teach solutions, or asks the mistake maker what they learned and how it can be avoided next time, people will feel there is room for them to learn. Many people in power are not self-aware enough to see the gap between what they say, and what they do, despite the fact people respond only to the later. Most managers are more punitive and risk-averse than they think they are.
  2. Everyone must understand the different kinds of mistakes.   The word mistake is loaded. We’re taught to believe mistakes are bad, and people who make them are evil and horrible. But if you are asked to solve a challenging problem you won’t solve it on the first try. Or second. Or maybe even your 50th. Your first few attempts will naturally fail. This is a kind of mistake, or failure, but a necessary one, and one no customer will see. This is useful failure. It represents an opportunity to learn, or eliminate a reasonable possibility others would eventually try. The person in power has to communicate the difference between interesting or necessary mistakes, and useless ones, and their responses have to be appropriate.
  3. The person in power has to care about employees long term.  If I expect to manage you for 30 years, I want you to learn. I want you to grow. I want you to be as potent as possible in the long run, and I’d be willing to make short term sacrifices to make that possible (Paying for training, for books, coaching you, pushing to get you interesting assignments with the VP, etc.) If I don’t expect you to work for me for long, or see zero potential for you, then I’d never be willing to make that sacrifice. I’d always think you were already at 100% of what you are capable of, and have ZERO new to learn. Part of what defines the culture around a leader is their answer to this question: how good do I think the people I manage can possibly be? And how much do I care about getting them there? If they behave with long term care, odds go up everyone will teach, and care for, each other as well.
  4. Everyone has to properly set expectations.  An easy question I ask as a consultant, when people tell me of a problem they’ve having with someone at work, is this: Have you talked to them about it? 60-70% of the time they say no. If you feel your boss doesn’t let you learn from your mistakes, it’s up to you to ask for more space, making the argument you’ll be more productive/smarter/creative or whatever he wants from you if he treats you differently. And promise to prove it. Perhaps you can negotiate for only certain tasks to be freer than others. But if you never give the feedback, or never explicitly state what you want, odds are slim you’ll ever get it. If your manager is unwilling to ever give you what you want, then accept it or move on.

If nothing else, remember back to the best learning experiences you had, in school or in work. What were those environments like, and what did the teachers or bosses do that others didn’t?  Leave it the comments  – I’d like to learn about them :)

Also see:

How to write a book, part 2

One of my most popular posts in history is how to write a book: the short honest truth.  It has over 300 comments and it’s the 2nd or 3rd link if you search various search engines for how to write.

I’ve gone through before to answer some entertaining questions, and recently found some more fun ones that are worth responding to in a separate post.

POPOOLA ABAYOMI asked:

PLAESE HELP ME KNOW HOW TO WRITE

Um, no. Not until you at least spell the first word correctly and turn the caps off.  (odds are 50/50 this post was written by my dog, Max, playing a practical joke on me).

Geraint wrote:

hey im 15 and im writing a book and i was wondering what you do when u get writers block because im getting it alot now im on my 1050th page of my book, its good so far i think and i was just wondering if you had any tips on how to get rid of writers block or on how to get inspiration?  great article by the way lots of help :D

If that’s not a typo, and you have 1050 pages, your problem is not writers block my friend.  You may even have writers anti-block. When you’re in the hundreds of pages it’s a good idea to stop for a few minutes and think about plot and structure. Or find an editor to read some of what you’re written.

Lynne wrote:

I am a surgical RN,,and I know nothing about writing a book,,but I want to write one related to things that are important and maybe useful to others (nothing to do with the medical field), my concerns is how to start the book, do i do a outline first or do I just jump in a start writing and organize later,,what program should I use on my pc???

There is no single way to do this and everyone works differently. Try writing an outline. If you don’t like that, try jumping in. Personally I like outlines. It helps me sort out my thinking and gives a rough structure to aim for, but I’m always willing to abandon the outline when it feels right. It’s also a good barometer for how clear my thinking is, since if I can’t list ten or twelve ideas, or points, or plot notes, it’s unlikely I’ll have enough for an entire chapter, much less a book. But many writers work the other way. The important thing is you try something, and if it doesn’t work, try something else. There are plenty of gimmicky books that offer other methods too.

Chris wrote:

That was great, I decided I will make a film instead.

Hmmm. I actually think making films is harder than writing books, but perhaps I should keep my mouth shut.

Art asked:

I have a wife and a son and while I think others would enjoy my stories would I even be able to get published on a low end well enough to pay the bills persay? I know it’s a question asked quite often and I’ll be doing a bit more searching and I may turn up some answers I just would like to hear it from someone who has been there.

Assume not. And for those story writers who do earn enough to pay the bills it takes years or decades to earn enough credibility and audience for that to happen.  It’s certainly possible, but the odds are against it, especially if you’re talking about short stories.  Write for other reasons, but do write.  You’ll learn much about yourself just by trying.

Ashley inquired:

thanks for the article. I love to “write” stories, that is in my head i do. I can imagine so many different places, situations, and stories. However, when I sit down to write them out or pick up paper and pen to write it out, I can’t seem to word it right. At least, not all of what i wanted to write. I have great openers, the first “chapter”, so to speak comes so naturally. I can do an outline of what I want to say, how I want the story to go, but, when it comes to actually writing the whole thing out I get stuck.

and Janet asked:

The problem i’m having is this , it’s all in my head, getting it on paper is the hard part. I started writing one evening about four months ago, and got bugged down with it. Telling the story is very easy ,but putting it in the form of a book i’m having struggles.

Ha! Welcome to the torture of being a creative. There are thousands of musicians who can hear songs in their heads, but can’t make it sound right on the piano or guitar. Painters who imagine canvases in their dreams they can never replicate in the day. The discipline of creative work is learning how to close that gap, over time, through the mastery of craft. There is no shortcut. It doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong, it feels that way for most creative people most of the time. The difference is those who fight through and keep working learn to close the gap. Or perhaps simply make excellent work others love, even if it never perfectly matches what the creator had in their mind.

Lis asked:

How do you get pass the fear? All I keep thinking is that I will be laughed at and think my “book” stupid.

Weren’t you afraid to leave this comment? You did write it after all, despite the fact I could call you stupid.  A book is just a collection of 8,000 or so sentences. If you can write one you can write 8000. When anyone laughs at your book, just say “ok, where is yours?” Then when they start to make up some excuse for not having one, hit them in the face (with your book).

Kim, who perhaps did not read the post, asked:

I know I can write; I live and breath to write. What completely douses my enthusiasm are the odds of getting published. That thought takes the wind right out of me!

To hell with publishers then. Go to kinkos. Go to lulu. If you are obsessed with someone else publishing your book your problem isn’t writing, it’s your ego.  Self publishing gives you control over the odds.

Tereai said:

If the truth be told writing is natural. It cannot be taught. Thats why there’s a word called TALENT. If its not in you no matter how you force yourself it wont be as good as the naturals.

Who cares? The coolness of writing is you can revise. If you are willing to put in effort writing gets better as you work with it. I’d agree with you perhaps for figure skating or opera, but the tools for writing are available to all. And besides, name a talented writer who didn’t work. Name a natural. I’d bet you they didn’t see their process, discipline or effort as natural. They’d describe it, much like I did in the original post, as work.

MJ quipped:

The first is write the beginning.
write the end and then fill in the blanks !

As silly as this sounds, the first question I ask people when they ask about writing books is this: Have you written a page? And when they say no, I suggest perhaps their problem isn’t with writing books, it’s with writing a page. If you can’t write a page, don’t worry about books, worry about paragraphs.

If you missed part1, this will all make more sense if you go back and read it.

The science of hunches?

Interesting article in the NYTimes about the significance of following hunches for U.S. Soldiers in Iraq. Among various stories of soldiers sensing danger and avoiding traps, are reports on various studies trying to understand how the better soldiers are able to detect these things, when ordinary soldiers do not.

But the kicker for me was this question, raised by one of the scientists regarding the ability for some to detect threats more accurately than others, near the end:

The big question is whether these differences perceiving threat are natural, or due to training, Dr. Paulus said.

This question is a much larger question than just for hunches – most things about behavior are vulnerable to the same nature vs. nurture debate and the answer is almost always both.

I wanted to ask this scientist how he decides what research to do, or how to design specific aspects of the study. Or even how did he decide that this was “the big question?” I’m sure he followed hunches to some degree in the decisions he made in doing his research. Most of what we do in life is hunch based, or at least not scientifically based. It’s uncommon we bother to do much more than follow what our gut feelings suggest we should do.

More interesting perhaps is there is evidence we often do things in opposite fashion. We have a feeling, mostly decide to follow it, and then our higher brains invent various seemingly logical reasons to support what is, essentially a hunch (note: there are studies suggesting this). In other words, we often trick ourselves into merely justifying our hunches, and claim we’ve thought rationally about our decision.

I’m not a brain science expert, but I’ve read much on the subject of decision making, and it seems something else missing from the article is discussion of false positives. We have hunches, certainly about danger, that are wrong all the time. It’s basic survival logic – if you have two creatures, one who is a little paranoid and worries about things that often don’t happen, and one that is totally carefree and fears nothing, the former has higher odds of survival.

I did agree with the article’s emphasis on the importance of emotion. But I’d go even further. Here’s a good quote from the article:

Not long ago people thought of emotions as old stuff, as just feelings, feelings that had little to do with rational decision making, or that got in the way of it,said Dr. Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. Now that position has reversed. We understand emotions as practical action programs that work to solve a problem, often before we’re conscious of it. These processes are at work continually, in pilots, leaders of expeditions, parents, all of us.

Emotions work faster than rational thought in the brain, and its reasonable to assume emotions are at the core of what the Army describes as good survival instincts.  There is definitely a perception ability aspect to all this (some people’s visual perception is better than oters), but some people have a much better sense of what they’re feeling and what it might mean and are more comfortable with those feelings and can sorting them out. Whereas many people repress or ignore many of their feelings as irrational. In Making Things happen there’s a long section about the importance of understanding your own emotions in managing well, which is an important realization to make for similiar reasons.

Richard Restak, author of The Secret Life of the Brain wrote:

“There is no such thing as a non-emotional moment”

And he’s right. There is always some emotion we’re feeling. And I suspect people who seem to have better hunches are, in part, people who have a better sense of their own emotional patterns and are better at reading them than others.

  • By Scott Berkun on July 7th, 2009
  • 1 Comment »
  • creative thinking

Don’t be precious

Creativity is best studied creatively, and for me this means studying what the masters actually did. Not what we think they did, or what we’re told they said, but how they lived and worked everyday. And while I’m not an artist, I’ve spent a lot of time studying them including the one I’m married to.

So when I got a chance to chat with Teresa Brazen, who runs a podcast called Tea with Teresa, it was a thrill since she’s an artist (painter and filmmaker) and agreed to watch one of the coolest, and most obscure, films about creativity I know of: Picasso’s documentary, The Mysteries of Picasso (trailer here).

In this lively 20 minute conversation we explore what we both got from watching this crazy, mind-numbing and mind-blowing film, the importance of failure in art and life, how to apply ideas from the art world to everywhere else, and the challenges of creative work in the world and the workplace.

You can listen or dl the mp3 here at  Don’t be precious – my chat with Teresa.

Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the film – I suspect you’ll track it down after though :)  All of the paintings Picasso make during the film were destroyed on purpose after the film was made.

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