Creativity & Creative Thinking: How to get The Big New IDEA

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CAPITAL magazine: The Business & Finance magazine of the middle east & North Africa

This well-received speech by Warren Edwardes has been adapted and delivered in numerous countries as a motivational speech.

Chief Executive of Delphi Creativity, the innovation arm of Delphi Risk Management Limited.

This article and speech forms the basis of chapter 2 of the book by Warren Edwardes

We imagine the edge of chaos as a place where there is enough innovation to keep a living system vibrant, and enough stability to keep it from collapsing into anarchy. It is a zone of conflict and upheaval, where the old and the new are constantly at war. Finding the balance point must be a delicate matter - if a living system drifts too close, it risks falling over into incoherence and dissolution; but if the system moves too far away from the edge, it becomes rigid, frozen, totalitarian. Both conditions lead to extinction. Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.

The Lost World, Michael Crichton.

It is established that creativity is key to establishing and maintaining an edge in today's business world. So how can a firm or individual best achieve creative thinking? What's the way to "The Big Idea"? We find clues in the word IDEA itself:

There's no use trying, one can't believe impossible things", said Alice. "I daresay you haven't had much practice. Why sometimes I've believed six impossible things before breakfast" said the Queen. - Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland

Picture a young girl in New England. It is her birthday party and her father is taking photographs. The girl wants to see the pictures NOW. The father thinks, "Well, why can't she have the pictures now?" That father was Edwin Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Think Impossible, like a child. You CAN have that picture now.

A job seeker posted a novel advertisement in an issue of Director magazine: "Court Jester. Ageing manager seeks appointment as court jester or fool to chief executive of large public company. Will provide own bladders and fool’s cap." Ridiculous? Absolutely not. The idea was that centuries ago, kings who were surrounded by yes-men and sycophants had fools who had licence to ridicule policies without fear of losing their heads. Present-day chief executives are also surrounded by yes-men. They need someone to give them an honest opinion. Someone has to tell the emperors of the boardrooms that they are not wearing any clothes before disasters strike.

Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach. -- Roger von Oech

Now let us move to a glue laboratory. The scientist is trying to produce super-glue. But he tries and tries and the glue just does not stick. The product is a complete disaster. Have you ever heard of glue that does not stick? Well you have it in every office in the world. That scientist at 3M had inadvertently invented the PostIt note. The PostIt note is everywhere and is the most profitable product at 3M. Disasters are sometimes opportunities.

Several years ago at Midland Bank's Treasury, we created, on the back of apparent customer demand, a tender-to-contract currency exposure contract. I did not really think it would fly for a number of reasons, but coined it the SCOUT - Shared Currency Option Under Contract. Midland gained considerable publicity and several news column inches after the launch. To this date, however, not a single SCOUT has been sold, but awareness of Midland's ingenuity and customer service was enhanced and plain-vanilla currency options were sold! The SCOUT is still featured in numerous dictionaries of finance. As it did not cost a penny to produce and no brochures were printed, in terms of public relations generated, the SCOUT may be the most profitable financial product ever launched!

And the next time you open a bottle of Champagne, think of its origins. It, too, was a disaster in its day: a still wine that over-fermented and went fizzy. But it proved popular and the rest is history. Disasters can provide sparkling results.

It is always at Perpignan station, when Gala is making arrangements for the paintings to follow us by train, that I have my most unique ideas. Salvador Dalí; in "Diary of a genius"

Let us now move across to a forest in the Jura Mountains in France. It is wartime 1941. A scientist is out hunting with his dog. When he gets home, he finds that burrs have stuck to his woollen jacket and trousers and to his dog's coat. He decides to examine them. Carefully inspecting the burrs under a microscope, he finds hundreds of little hooks engaging the loops in the material and fur. The scientist, George de Mestral, makes a machine to duplicate the hooks and loops in nylon. He calls his new product Velcro, from the French words velours and crochet. The rest is history. Today there are thousands of uses for Velcro fasteners, from rucksacks to clothing, all thanks to a man hunting with his dog in the mountains.

One of Honda's most original sports-car designs, the NSX supercar, is reputed to have been sketched by Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the president of Honda, whilst doodling during a tedious board meeting.

The point is to think Everywhere. Think when out walking. Think when in the shower. Think when listening to a boring speaker. Just switch off and think about that problem that has been bugging you. Don't bother with contrived brainstorming sessions and working parties! You cannot plan to create on demand. But you can organise your mind to be constantly receptive to new ideas wherever you happen to be.

It is unforgivable in the course of a meeting or conversation to let ideas float away un-captured, to be lost for all time, when so little effort and so simple a device (a notebook) can preserve them and bring them back to mind later. - Richard Branson – in a speech to an Institute of Directors annual conference

To enhance creativity, keep on your desk a simple IDEA Kit. It is no more than a bag with a LEGO block, a PostIt note, a strip of Velcro and a golf pencil.

The LEGO block represents Impossible: think like a child and ask stupid, foolish, innocent questions. Raw recruits to a firm should be encouraged to ask, "Why do we do it this way?" If management does not have a good answer other than "When I want your ideas I'll give them to you," or "We've always done it this way," then the process must be changed. New, fresh viewpoints should be utilised and newcomers should be encouraged to question everything and report on their findings to senior management.

The PostIt note was a Disaster: the non-sticking super glue! Sometimes the best products arise when solving another problem. A solution that does not work for today's problem may be just what you needed for yesterday's unsolved and shelved problem.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever - Chinese Proverb

To enhance creativity, keep on your desk a simple IDEA Kit. It is no more than a bag with a LEGO block, a PostIt note, a strip of Velcro and a golf pencil.

The LEGO block represents Impossible: think like a child and ask stupid, foolish, innocent questions. Raw recruits to a firm should be encouraged to ask, "Why do we do it this way?" If management does not have a good answer other than "When I want your ideas I'll give them to you," or "We've always done it this way," then the process must be changed. New, fresh viewpoints should be utilised and newcomers should be encouraged to question everything and report on their findings to senior management.

The PostIt note was a Disaster: the non-sticking super glue! Sometimes the best products arise when solving another problem. A solution that does not work for today's problem may be just what you needed for yesterday's unsolved and shelved problem.

However, coming up with a great idea and turning it into a successful product is not good enough. Polaroid was used as a case study into how to think like a child. But you have to keep on doing it; don't just rest on your laurels. A combination of one-hour photo labs and multi-megapixel digital cameras resulted in Polaroid’s demise. In 2001, Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection, sealing the fate of one of the best-recognised brands in the world. As the Financial Times wrote, "Polaroid, founded by one of the greatest inventors in US history, Edwin Land, proved incapable of making the transformation into a consumer products group. Products such as a Barbie camera, sunglasses and a flashlight fell flat. The popularity of the I-zone faded quickly, as adolescents turned to other fads."

Capturing the big idea is but the first part of innovation. Innovation involves more than creative thinking. Innovation involves the development of ideas into products and services, and those members of a team with creative minds are often not those best equipped to develop the thoughts into products, and vice-versa. So develop an ideas management methodology and system that utilises the best abilities of all in the workplace and win co-operation by giving credit where it is due. Leadership is not about grabbing glory. It is about encouraging creativity.

Warren Edwardes is CEO of Delphi Risk Management, the London-based financial product creativity, communication and control consultancy.

Warren was previously on the board of Charterhouse Bank and has worked in the treasury divisions of Barclays Bank, British Gas and Midland Bank. He first researched into what were later to be called "derivatives" in 1975 and was part of the team that executed one of the world's first currency swaps in 1981. Since then he has devised and transacted numerous structures that form part of the history of derivatives. Warren can be contacted via we@dc3.co.uk

Warren Edwardes <note spelling of edwardes> is author of best seller "Key financial instruments: understanding and innovating in the world of derivatives" which includes an appendix on Islamic Banking. see http://dc3.co.uk/kfi

Edwardes is a Board Governor of The Institute of Islamic Banking & Insurance

A variant of this speech was delivered in London on 10 December 1997 as one of a series of motivational speeches. Warren Edwardes was rated "Best Speaker" amongst five speakers. Comments from the audience included:

Delphi identifies ways companies create artificial innovation road blocks. Identifying these road blocks is the first step in clearing a path to enhancing product or service innovation in an organisation