Break, burn or ban the Box

Break,
Burn
or
Ban the Box
@CyrielKortleven

Menu of Today
• What’s inside the Box - the Curse of Knowledge
• From Best to Next practices
• Skills to give yourself a creative boost
– Y es and – suspend your judgement
– E xplore - discover the world with different eyes
– S uppose ... – imagination + art of questions
– A ssociate – create flexible connections
– N ext idea - divergence
– D o it NOW – make it happen

What’s inside the Box?
The Curse of Knowledge

Atetniton ... Dnager!
 
Tihs sesosin can dmaage yuor eixsting
thiknnig patetrns. Tihs cnhage can casue an
uncfomrtoable fenelig and smoe ressitance.
If you suvivre tihs porcess tehn you wlil get
acecss to an abunadnce of iedas, an oepn
atitutde and a new wolrd of psosibiilites.
And taht is jsut the bengining. You hvae
been wraned.

Our daily lives exist of 95% of logical thinking

The human brain is a powerful
pattern maker, a good pattern user
but a poor pattern breaker.

Thinking patterns
are the highways
of the brain

Expiration date
for rules
!
!
!
!
!
Review every
rule at least
once / 5 years

“Out of the Box or
Out of Business.”
!
— Cyriel Kortleven

Start
diverge
converge
action
The creative process

ideas
time
Best
practices
Next practices
Craziness!
relevant
ideas

A creative mindset
6 skills to boost your creativity

« Now look what you’ve done !! »

Look out for the idea killers
www.ideakillers.net

The YES BUT chair @ Studio Roosegaarde

Pillowfight in central station
Ibis hotel vouchers

Tip #1 - the 3 minutes rule.
Invite your colleagues in the next meeting to
experiment with 3 minutes ‘Yes and’. During 3
minutes, nobody can use an ideakiller and you have
to say Yes and ... and add to that idea.  
After 3 minutes, you will have a lot of ideas and then
make a selection of the top-ideas (or part of an
idea). Another advantage is that the 3-minute-rule
have increased the chance of implementation
because more people have contributed. The
biggest risk is that you might have lost 3 minutes.

Explore [discover the world with different eyes]

Seven things you didn’t see before …
… in this room.

Busstop for Alzheimer-patients 
 
(Benrath Senior Centre in Düsseldorf)

Tip #2 - How would ... solve the problem?
By exploring the problem or challenge from a different
perspective, a lot of new approaches might become
clear. Ask the question: How would ‘a child of 7 years old’
solve the problem? What would ‘Steve Jobs’ do to find
solutions? What would ‘Google’ do if they where in this
situation? ... Be inspired by the new views and make sure
that you ‘translate’ those ideas again in your own context.

Suppose ... [use your imagination]

The impossible
is only
temporary
[Cassius Clay]

Tip #3 - Use random pictures to get ideas
Stimulate your imagination by taking a magazine (that
has nothing to do with the problem that your tackling)
and open the magazine at a random page. Use the first
picture that is on that page or that’s on the next or
previous page and use it as stimulation to find new
ideas. How can this picture help us to find new ideas for
our challenge?

Associate – create flexible connectionsAssociate [create new connections]

Associate – create flexible connectionsCreate a connection between:
- X - Y - Z -
- X - Y -

Tip #4 - Create a flower association
Take one of the key-words from the challenge
and form a flower association around that word.
Try to come up with at least 25 associations. Then
pick the ‘weirdest’ association and use it to
generate more ideas for the original challenge.

What doesn’t belong here?
!
!
A E I F U

Tip #5 - Look for more alternatives
A very quick method to generate a lot of ideas is
the brainwriting-method. Give everybody a piece
of paper and ask the participants to write down as
many ideas as possible. After 3 minutes, ask the
people to give their paper to their neighbour at
the right. Be inspired by the ideas on the paper
and continue. During the diverging, quantity is
more important than quality.

Do it NOW [making ideas happen]

“Failure is not an option. It’s a privilege for
those who try.”

“ A nearling is a
positive word for
something that
you did with the
right intentions,  
which has not
(yet) led to the
right result. ”

Be proud!
You can be proud of nearlings because:
1. You started an initiative
2. You may have moved others
3. Maybe it led you to something that was successful
4. You need many nearlings, for a few successes
5. You learned from it
6. ...

Do you really ... really ... want to go for it?
Then make a first step within 24 hours
and make sure you fail and learn fast.

Tip #6 - Ready, Fire, Aim 
Quote from Paul McCarthy - Australian Rockstar-marketeer 
!
If you really ... really ... want to go for an idea,
sometimes it’s good to skip the business plans,
committees, meetings and building a perfect case-
study before you get into action. Having a bigger
goal is very good and it’s good to take some very
small steps very quickly so you can fail and learn

When you always do what you’ve 
always done, you‘ll always get  
what you’ve always got.

Handout slides
Link to all youtube movies
PDF with ideakillers
Stay in touch with Cyriel
!
cyriel@cyrielkortleven.com
Looking for more inspiration?

Break, burn or ban the Box

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