To implement creative solutions to problems we must create white rabbits, anomalies so curiosity-piquing people are desperate to follow them down the rabbit hole.
What is knowledge is a question that has exercised philosophers for millennia, and is one I'm not likely to solve in a 600 word blog post. On the other hand, at a less fundamental and practical level, you can go a long way to transforming your potential to be creative by changing the way you … Continue reading What Is Knowledge?
George had loved his working life. For 30 years he had been the chair of one of the leading research councils, providing the money that made wonderful things happen. Now he was finally hanging up his hat but he would have a contented retirement ahead of him, happy in the knowledge he had made the … Continue reading What’s a Wonderful Life? The impact of what we do not do
One of the fascinating things about being part of the Futures Thinking Network has been trying to answer what should be the simplest question of all: why am I interested in the future? I mean, of course I am – it’s the future! It’s possibility, excitement, discovery, a treasure map of life and so on and … Continue reading The Future
The one secret for building creative teams that almost all organizations miss.
Whenever we start to learn something new our most instinctive question is "how do I understand this?" That's exactly the right question, of course, but too often what we mean when we ask it is "where do I put this?" We think of our knowledge as some kind of architectural blueprint, and what we want … Continue reading What Is This? The Secret to Learning More Creatively
I often say creativity is broken down into two very simple parts. 1. Know lots of things about lots of things And 2. Be able to join those things together Taken together these two elements harness the real power of what it means to say that knowledge is not the sum of what you know … Continue reading Take an Idea for a Walk
It can seem on the surface that a lot of what I teach is very similar to the hardly innovative technique of brainstorming. That’s because most techniques for idea generation are, let’s face it, trying to do the same thing – generate better ideas. And yes, if you have ever been through a creative thinking … Continue reading Why most brainstorming doesn’t work
The final piece about my "Can Blue Planets Find Space for Rainbows?" project is the book outline. Expect the following 9 chapters, largely in manifesto form, then detailed papers based on each. 1: A Tale of Two Scientists Using responses to the broadcast of Blue Planet 2 to illustrate the way that much-needed activism in … Continue reading The City and The City and the city, and
This is the transcript of the introductory talk I gave at the 2019 Oxford Humanities Innovation Challenge. I want to start by telling one of my favourite stories about innovation. Aaron Swartz committed suicide at the age of 26 while facing 30 years in jail for downloading too many journal articles because he believed that … Continue reading “Wait Till You’re Ready”
