![\"list-820967_1280\"](\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/files\/2015\/08\/list-820967_1280.jpg\")
<\/a>A whole lot of post it notes or a journey through the three thirds of your mind<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a scholar on creativity.\u00a0 However, whether I\u2019m in the lab or managing collaborations or learning a new music score, I use creativity every day to solve problems.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always done so and we all do it without thinking about it.\u00a0 There are loads of books on creativity and ways to harness our creative potentials so I\u2019m not going to discuss creativity.\u00a0 Instead, I\u2019m going back to a recent creativity facilitation workshop training I attended.\u00a0 It was given by knowinnovation.com<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0 It was aimed at managers who support innovation so we can facilitate creativity workshops.\u00a0 This time, I was not a sceptic; I knew I would get tricks to facilitate the flow of my own creativity and that of others.\u00a0 I agree, as my colleague Simon pointed out, it can generate a lot of useless post it notes.\u00a0 However, if it is done well, it is a journey through the three thirds of your mind; a way to unlock truly innovative solutions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the first phase of creative facilitation, we have to defer our judgment.\u00a0 Be divergent: it\u2019s time to let your thoughts go where your dreams are made.\u00a0 As an artist, I have no problem pushing my thoughts to the limits of the absurd (judgment here) but, as a scientist, I have to find solutions that have a solid base in reality.\u00a0 However, by leaving judgement out of the room, thoughts can flow freely without the constraint of criticism. \u00a0\u00a0The more ideas you come up with in this part of the process, the better.\u00a0 Don\u2019t restrain yourself, write everything.\u00a0 The ideas will go beyond expectations but let them roam; you never know what kernel of genius might come out of the weirdest ones.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first phase is useless without the second one. Like the ying and the yang, divergence will only be useful if the ideas converge again into clusters.\u00a0 We can criticise every idea, however, we need to make it constructive, especially when faced with something outside our expertise.\u00a0 Outside our expertise\u2026 That brings me to another process to help creative flow: inter-disciplinarily.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No longer can we solve problems in silos of expertise.\u00a0 Experts are great at understanding every little known facts but to generate new ideas, we need to look outside the box, seek different perspectives.\u00a0 A scientist questioning the engineering or a philosopher asking to explain a concept differently may challenge the most patient amongst us but it is part of the process.\u00a0 I agree, most of the ideas will be wild or unpractical (no judgment here) but going through the creative facilitation process allows the identification of potential kernels in the most ludicrous ideas.\u00a0 Besides, we\u2019re good at inter-disciplinary at the University of Southampton:\u00a0\u00a0 we must be good at listening without judging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n That\u2019s the trick.\u00a0 Patience whilst listening will bring fruit.\u00a0 I mentioned leaving your judgement outside; to truly reap reward from a facilitation session you also have to leave your ego outside the door.\u00a0 Everyone has expertise in something.\u00a0 It may not be academic but there is wisdom in life experiences that should not be discarded.\u00a0 A lay person will have a perspective that may not be the first idea of the academic but it will inevitably question the core of the idea.\u00a0 The trick is to listen, not to judge and, going back to convergence, instead of giving the negative comment (e.g. this is rubbish), turn it into a question (e.g. how can we make this \u2018less rubbish\u2019).<\/p>\n Education takes us from free creative thinkers that question everything to the Cartesian and logical academics who will decompose and criticise every idea.\u00a0 Our insatiable curiosity to understand the world around us has taken us into academic research; our training has taken us to a whole new level of scepticism.\u00a0 In our busy lives, we don\u2019t have time to waste pursuing every idea coming into our heads but we are good at say: \u2018why do that? \u00a0It won\u2019t work\u2019.\u00a0 Instead of discarding the idea, we should be constructive and ask \u2018why not?\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n First third: diverge then converge to group the ideas.\u00a0 These ideas will be the obvious ones.\u00a0 You\u2019re just warming up.<\/p>\n Second third: diverge on one group of ideas then converge to new clusters.\u00a0 Ah!\u00a0 There is some more potential in the ideas that come out of this exercise.\u00a0 You\u2019re getting there; the spark of genius is just around the corner but not quite there yet.<\/p>\n Third third:\u00a0 one more time to diverge on a selected cluster then converge.\u00a0 Hum\u2026 the ideas are weird and wacky maybe we have gone too far but, then again, question the ideas constructively.\u00a0 And if you discard the idea because you say \u2018we can\u2019t do it\u2019… ask \u2018why not?\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What I got out of the creative facilitation workshop is that, until you have gone through the three thirds, you have not completed the process and will be left with no truly new ideas.\u00a0 Then, yes, I agree, you have wasted your time.\u00a0 That is why it\u2019s worth spending enough time in the workshop to complete the process.\u00a0 A good facilitator will allow this to happen and you won\u2019t even realise it.<\/p>\n Next time you\u2019re invited to join a creative facilitation workshop, a sandpit or any kind of brainstorming session, ask yourself why not!\u00a0 It might still be a whole lot of post it notes but then you never know which kernel of genius will come out of any of these sticky notes.\u00a0 Step outside the box and see the potential.<\/p>\n All images (except ‘why not?’) can be found at pixabay.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A whole lot of post it notes or a journey through the three thirds of your mind I\u2019m not a scholar on creativity.\u00a0 However, whether I\u2019m in the lab or managing collaborations or learning a new music score, I use creativity every day to solve problems.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always done so and we all do it without thinking about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","column","twocol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/healthpharma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Leave your judgment at the door: diverge
<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/a>Be constructively critical: converge <\/strong><\/h2>\nMix things up: inter-disciplinarily
<\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/a>Listen, don\u2019t judge<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
WHY?\u00a0 WHY?\u00a0 WHY?
<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/a>The three thirds of your mind<\/strong><\/h1>\nTo wrap up
<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n