death. This has been widely taken up in North America, and is called 'Living Needs Benefits'. It has changed a concept that had been around for 123 years.
The person in question was Rob Barbaro, who subsequently became chief executive of Prudential Insurance (USA). This example shows that, even within traditional industry, it is possible to create a powerful new idea that opens up new opportunities. There was no need for Ron Barbaro to design a new idea. There was not a real problem to solve. But he is driven by creativity to develop new concepts and so open up opportunities.
MOVEMENT
Provocation is a basic way of getting movement. This does not exclude other techniques, all of which are discussed in more detail, for example, in my book Serious Creativity:
Extract the Concept: What concept do we see operating here? Can we extract this concept and seek to use it where we need the new idea? So you can ignore the rest of the provocation, and proceed with the rest of the idea you have 'extracted'.
Focus on the Difference: What are the points of difference between the provocation and the usual idea? Can we spell out, pursue and build on those points of difference? Even if the provocation appears to be very similar to the present way of doing things, can we make a conscious effort to explore that difference?
Positive Aspects: Are there any directly positive aspects of the provocation? What values are immediately present? Can we use these where we want the new idea? In other words, when a value is turned up by the provocation, we consider ways of achieving the value but in a more practical fashion.
Moment to Moment: We imagine the provocation put into action, even if this involves fantasy. We watch moment to moment. It is like watching a DVD frame by frame to watch what is going on. What do we see happening? From that we develop new ideas. This is how we work through the interesting concepts that come from 'Po, planes land upside down'.
Special Circumstances: Are there any special circumstances where the provocation would have direct value? The square wheels might have value if the ground was corrugated. Or 'Po, drinking glasses should have rounded bottoms' could have value if there were special holders for the glasses. Because everyone would need to use the special holders, polished furniture would not get white rings.
Movement remains a basic operation that can be used anywhere in creativity.
Random entry and movement
Let's say, with our original example, that when you leave home you always take the usual route into town. One day,
on the outskirts of the town, your car breaks down and you have to walk home. You ask around for the best walking route and find yourself arriving home by a road you would never have taken on leaving home.
In a patterning system of thinking, if you start at the periphery and move towards the centre, you will arrive there by a route different from the one you might have taken if you had started at the centre. There is no mystery about it at all.
To use this random entry, you can never select the starting point, because any selection would relate to your current thinking. You have to use a random starting point. The simplest to use is a random word (nouns work best) – see Chapter 1 for the random word tool and exercise. You work backwards from this point and develop new ideas. This was the technique that generated 21,000 new ideas for a workshop in South Africa.
On a television programme in Holland, I was asked to use this technique there and then to generate new ideas for a sofa. By way of a random word the presenter opened a magazine. There was a picture of the Queen so I was given the random word 'queen'. Immediately my thoughts went to a queen-sized bed. From this came the idea of a large sofa with a rail running along each side. The back of the sofa could slide along these rails. If the back of the sofa was in the rear position, the sofa could be used as a bed. If the back was moved
The person in question was Rob Barbaro, who subsequently became chief executive of Prudential Insurance (USA). This example shows that, even within traditional industry, it is possible to create a powerful new idea that opens up new opportunities. There was no need for Ron Barbaro to design a new idea. There was not a real problem to solve. But he is driven by creativity to develop new concepts and so open up opportunities.
MOVEMENT
Provocation is a basic way of getting movement. This does not exclude other techniques, all of which are discussed in more detail, for example, in my book Serious Creativity:
Extract the Concept: What concept do we see operating here? Can we extract this concept and seek to use it where we need the new idea? So you can ignore the rest of the provocation, and proceed with the rest of the idea you have 'extracted'.
Focus on the Difference: What are the points of difference between the provocation and the usual idea? Can we spell out, pursue and build on those points of difference? Even if the provocation appears to be very similar to the present way of doing things, can we make a conscious effort to explore that difference?
Positive Aspects: Are there any directly positive aspects of the provocation? What values are immediately present? Can we use these where we want the new idea? In other words, when a value is turned up by the provocation, we consider ways of achieving the value but in a more practical fashion.
Moment to Moment: We imagine the provocation put into action, even if this involves fantasy. We watch moment to moment. It is like watching a DVD frame by frame to watch what is going on. What do we see happening? From that we develop new ideas. This is how we work through the interesting concepts that come from 'Po, planes land upside down'.
Special Circumstances: Are there any special circumstances where the provocation would have direct value? The square wheels might have value if the ground was corrugated. Or 'Po, drinking glasses should have rounded bottoms' could have value if there were special holders for the glasses. Because everyone would need to use the special holders, polished furniture would not get white rings.
Movement remains a basic operation that can be used anywhere in creativity.
Random entry and movement
Let's say, with our original example, that when you leave home you always take the usual route into town. One day,
on the outskirts of the town, your car breaks down and you have to walk home. You ask around for the best walking route and find yourself arriving home by a road you would never have taken on leaving home.
In a patterning system of thinking, if you start at the periphery and move towards the centre, you will arrive there by a route different from the one you might have taken if you had started at the centre. There is no mystery about it at all.
To use this random entry, you can never select the starting point, because any selection would relate to your current thinking. You have to use a random starting point. The simplest to use is a random word (nouns work best) – see Chapter 1 for the random word tool and exercise. You work backwards from this point and develop new ideas. This was the technique that generated 21,000 new ideas for a workshop in South Africa.
On a television programme in Holland, I was asked to use this technique there and then to generate new ideas for a sofa. By way of a random word the presenter opened a magazine. There was a picture of the Queen so I was given the random word 'queen'. Immediately my thoughts went to a queen-sized bed. From this came the idea of a large sofa with a rail running along each side. The back of the sofa could slide along these rails. If the back of the sofa was in the rear position, the sofa could be used as a bed. If the back was moved
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