A key insight I have gained from spending a long time studying problem solving is this: it’s not always about just one point of reference.  We have all heard the terms ad-nausem about “thinking outside the box”.  Instead of reiterating that here I want to present five ways to gain new insights in sticky situations.

Technique # 1: Go ask someone outside the situation

Russell Ackoff says that in messy problems most of the answers come from outside the situation.   The situation often limits our ability to perceive new information about where we are at and where we are going.   If you are really stuck I would recommend going to talk to someone else outside the situation who doesn’t have an emotional investment.  They will show you some key things you may have missed.

Technique #2: Deliberately argue with yourself and others

Okay, so this won’t exactly present you with a trophy on “how to win friends and influence people.”  But what it will do is give you the ability to see the issue from multiple angles.  You know, life is not a novel, movie or play.  There are no narratives in life so to speak.  When you are faced with a mess you need to synthesise the available perspectives you have and understand their viewpoints.  There is no better way to do this than to debate and argue about them.  It should be noted here that I do not mean fight or squabble.  Wasting time on that kind of thing is just plain stupid.  I mean by reasoning through the alternatives through common sense talking.

Technique #3: Find the idea and present it’s enemy

C. West Churchman spoke about the “systems” approach and it’s enemies in the 1970′s.  Now, I don’t wish to give you an academic treatise on that, but consider what an enemy of a theory would be?  It’s the opposite idea.  Every idea you have is only as good as it is defended.  That is, evolutions’ enemy is creationism for example.  What’s your idea?  Create it’s enemy and that will soon show you new perspectives that will help you gain insights.

Technique #4: Make an intuitive leap

Horst Rittell said that a plan is only as good as the variables around it.  As soon as you try something, you change the environment and you change the variables.  So why not make an intuitive leap and try something.  You’re stuck on a problem?  Act!  Don’t get stuck in the paralysis of analysis.  It will create a platform for failure.  Try something and see what happens.  Only failure awaits and given where you are now… surely it can’t be all that bad?

Technique #5: Lateral Thinking

A well established method for seeing new patterns in messy situations is to invoke lateral thinking.  This is moving sideways within established thought patterns by introducing new ideas.  You can learn the basics of it by attempting it.  In my way of thinking Lateral thinking takes a core idea and adds another idea to that core idea creating a synthesis.   I have seen things like people making a new chocolate bar and thinking about how a tyre might relate to it.  From that we think black, chocolate… licorice… chocolate covered licorice!  De Bono himself says that lateral thinking in “systems” terms requires a sideways shift in our thinking.  So we stop picking the problem apart, we start using different ideas in conjunction with the problem to give ourselves a new insights.  At first it seems illogical.  However, after a while of doing it you will find your mind will automatically create the bridge between the core idea and the lateral idea.

Bonus Technique: Synthesis (concept shifting) – the act of creating new ideas

Okay, so I have sort of made the bonus point here swallow all the others.  It is the most powerful of all of them and for this reason I would recommend it.   I refer to synthesis as concept shifting.  It’s differs from lateral thinking in that causes us to create a series of new ideas to engage into the problem situation.  It abandons the idea that anything other than facts about a perception can be gained from analysis and instead creates new ideas out of the inherent tension in the situation and routinely shifts between them.  Sounds very academic doesn’t it?  It isn’t.  It’s simply the decision to follow ideas as they flow out of tension and shed light on new situations.  Don’t worry I am writing a book on it .

If I was to say that blogging was the best way to communicate deep information then I would be a liar on two counts.  Firstly, the count that blogging communicates shallow layers of information and secondly it does so in small parts.  What I want you to take out of this post is the idea that there are more than what I have said above… these however have served me well.  Try them out!

Well some things go your way and some things don’t.  My forum idea sounded alright but then reality set in… I have no time!  One thing lead to another and two months later I just didn’t have time.  I have considered what I can do with it and I am planning to develop another towards the end of the year… I hope.   One of the cool things I made for the forum was a flash video about creativity.  You can watch and enjoy by clicking the link below.

Luke’s amazing Creativity Video

Let me know if you like it!

*Image Credit:Gilberto Santa Rosa

Inside all of us is the desire to be something. That something is the air you breathe… it’s your inner self. You may be wondering… I don’t even know what my natural talent is? Well hopefully this post will help you out.

I often hear people saying things like, “I don’t know what to do”. The question should be better phrased as: I don’t know what I am. The reality is for most of us we have never be trained to access our spiritual faculties because of the over-educated minds we receive from ages 5 and up. Our ability to create, be human and do other things is largely taught out of us through a variety of means. One of the side effects of this is that we only ever reason through things rather than knowing things. So what’s the difference?

Reasoning through…

Reasoning is really analysis. It’s looking at something by thinking about it from different related (or possibly) non-related points of view. I think we over hype and over rate the mind in western society to the extent that we have given it the status of a God. Your mind is what I like to call a perceptual framing device that makes stories for you to believe in (another post for another day!). We all make sense of things and through our experience of the world… build perceptions of it. These perceptions are not static… they are evolving as we evolve and grow. However, you never change. The real you… the essence of you never changes. You have certain traits, abilities (latent or otherwise) that you have never developed. If you know yourself… then you will know what you can do and what you can’t do.

Unfortunately for me I am only coming to understand and accept myself now. I am realising my traits, what I was made to do and what I can’t do. I know me better everyday. That sounds pretty stupid… right? However, I meet people all the time who have no idea what they are like and what they are capable of. Plenty of people never surface their natural talents. We spend too much time reasoning and working through the day and never listening to the inside where we really are. The mind is not to be trusted!

Knowing…

I am not talking only of intuition here. I am speaking of a sense of knowledge… knowing something without knowing how you know it. I can imagine people saying… Luke has lost it. But it’s like this: there is head knowledge (reasoning) and there is heart knowledge (knowing). You shouldn’t have to figure out who you are… but we do. Why? Perceptions in our mind of what we think we are. You however, were created by God for a purpose… and only you can find out what that is… it’s in you. It’s unconscious information sure enough… but it’s there. Here’s the frustrating thing I am learning at the moment. It always seems to come at time when you don’t want it to!

So what can I do?

The first thing you can do is make the commitment to find yourself. Here’s the newsflash: you are already there you don’t have to go far! What comes next is incredibly difficult and here is where I usually have people yelling at me: society is not a reflection of you. If people say you should be doing something… chances are it’s a hint. However, it could be another perception to map on top of existing ones that you need to work through. Pay attention to these things.

Secondly, once you are determined to find the answer begin thinking about what you can do all day long without ever getting tired or sick of it. Now, take that activity and ask yourself this question: what is it about this activity that makes me so interested? Why do I love it so much? Why do I want to do it all the time and why do I never get sick of it?

The last thing you can do is like the first two but is somewhat more practical. Write down what you find. Start a catalogue of your activities and work out what you do that gives you joy. If you find nothing then ask yourself why? Still no answer… then ask why not? Remember… you already know the answer. That’s the thing… it’s in there. It may not want to come out right now… but it’s in there! To surface your natural talent you need to be aware of it. Awareness of these things comes from paying attention, collecting information and reflecting on it. If you are deliberately not looking for it then it won’t come out… start paying attention and after a while you will notice little things about yourself that you already knew … but were too scared to notice!

This limited space prohibits me from going into detail about other things I have learned when it comes to finding one’s natural talent. As a parting shot however, let me leave you with two more thoughts. If you could do anything at all… what would it look like? Secondly, why would you do that? Why? The answer you are looking for is in you. It may take others to point it out or find it… but you should know when you see it. Be courageous. Make a commitment to find it today.

I recently got my PhD. It was a horrible experience and unless you are passionate about a subject I would recommend that you think twice about doing it. I can say that the title “Dr.” is nice to have … but the price is really high. That aside, there is something I learned about self-worth when I was doing it.

People have a certain idea of what you should be… ignore them

I can’t count the amount of times people spoke down to me, called me names or put me down because of my rank. This is silly because the worth of somebody is not described by their personal monetary value or rank in some stupid ladder. It’s determined by you. The problem is only you can say what you worth and you exude it by your actions.

Under the guise of helping you… people often make themselves feel better by putting you down

In this strange arrangement called society we have all kinds of ranks and files. There are literally plagues of people getting their sense of self-worth from their position or their rank. You will hear all kinds of abusive nonsense from people who are in power above you but don’t let it get to you. I handle it by venting, relaxing and refocusing. So they put you down? You really have two choices… stand up to them and tell them what’s what or walk away. Option 2 works best for me though I don’t always follow it. Hey I am as human as they come. Sometimes I will yell and scream… but more often than not I walk away. It’s easier and makes the other person responsible for what happens next.

People who hug their rank and steal your joy are really soulless life sucking vampires from hell

The title says it all. People who think they can dominate you through overpowering you with their rank are very insecure. Their is a flipside or two to this subject as well… they are dangerous. People that have no clue as to leadership and how to be a cool person will almost always slam you down to the ground just to do it. Your choice is to be a person that people remark about in a positive way. You don’t want to be in the same group as people who are bootlickers of the machine empire of doom. No, you want to be a person who is a creative light unto the world, bringing joy and peace with you. Not some sense of worth derived from wealth, money, rank or something artificial like that. Robots are robots… never forget that. They will always do what the machine wants. See my post about ants if you need more info there.

So what is a bastard?

A bastard in my dictionary (you won’t find that on the internet) is someone who dominates someone else for the sheer joy of keeping the ‘status quo’ or dominating people. Don’t you ever just want to wake up and see what’s going on around you? Dammit! Break out of your machine-like cubes and run for justice. There is a door that leads to freedom here somewhere I just have to find it. But I digress.

If you are in situation with a bastard who is dominating you can I suggest the following: you are the victim of a sick relationship. If life is about career, performance and such things then you are only looking at ‘material’ things to adjust to your self-worth. Eventually, these things will come to let you down and you will be left wondering (as you sip your chi-latte) exactly where did I go wrong? Here’s something cool I gained from my time in church:

Treat others as you want to be treated and love others as you learn to love yourself

This never works for me because most people I meet (including myself) are filled with a sense of anger and frustration at where their life is heading. How many people (bastards) have you met that are using you to vent their anger on you? Lots. The choice is yours… you can let them get you down or walk away. Here are some cool techniques I use to cope. Hey, I am an emo-right brained person who feels it when he is slammed so zip it and read the list sweetheart:

Be like Flanders

Look them square in the eye and put a positive spin on it. Say things like, “I am glad you think I am an BLEEP now I know who not to ask for advice. THANKS!” By diffusing the situation and being positive you remain in control of reality.  There are many things you can do here.  Smile and nod is my choice.  It’s funny how irritated people get when you do that!

Use your imagination

Switching frames (perspectives) is a really good way to get over this. I would say this has helped me the most. When a moron is in your face with their blah blah blah do this: Imagine their face blowing up like a balloon. What I often do is wait until they have finished then go into my room, shut the door and imagine them falling over or watching their face twist out of shape. It takes the seriousness out of the situation and makes you get your peace back. Life without a sense of peace is horrible.

Agree with them

When they are on the rant stand up and agree. It will confuse the crap out of them and then they will have nowhere to go. So if they say, “you are lazy” say… “you got my number!” Then they have no way of venting their anger towards you. What you can do then is have the upper hand by walking away because they have nowhere to go except to crawl up the corporate anus!

Make random noise while they speak

This has only worked for me once. Usually people who hear it wonder what the hell is wrong with me and walk away. Here’s the key: people who pick on you have a low sense of self-worth and they are looking to give you the same disease. Stuff that! I would rather sit at home in my glorious mansion (okay so it’s 89 square metre dump… I am dreaming!) and be content then listen to some old BS about productivity or efficiency. Michael Porter can kiss my ass!

Run away

This is an option you can take when your the victim of a bastard. Run. Yeah the tank is empty this is the last one. I have used this and it works.

Don’t let some jerk steal your self-worth. You are worth it.  A really good friend of mine told me not to let people steal my self-esteem.  You can take it and look gracious or get revenge (not a good idea – it only ends up making you like the evil machine of doom I call “work”).   Let me encourage you saying you are worth it… you are a person who has integrity, dignity and self-respect.  A job is not part of your identity … it’s something you do because you have kids to feed or cats to feed or a habit [sic] to feed.  Work steals the soul along with the heart of people who take it too seriously.  There is something good about working… if you love it and your spirit is being fed.  Look up the day is getting brighter all the time because you are a person who is a winner.

In my country (Australia) we very rarely encourage each other.  We are hard workers.  It’s just not in the Aussie culture to go up to someone at work and say, ‘you are doing a great job… keep it up’… or to pat some one on the back and go, “well done”.  I can count on my fingers the amount of times this has happened to me.  Why don’t you buck the trend if this is the case for you in your workplace.  Encourage people, be kind and if you are a boss (like I am more often than I would like the responsibility to be totally honest) treat your people like they mean something.  Don’t be a jerk like your boss is to you.  The final thing I want to say today is this: if you let the bastards get you down then the machine of doom wins.  It can’t win unless you let it.  Remember, it may steal your soul but it can’t steal your spirit.  Thats you in that meatsuit.    I hope that you learn to cope with difficult people who are bastards.  I am getting there… each day more strength and more ability to cope is coming my way.  It’s my hope that it’s coming to you too.

Recently I was at work and put the students to the test on a problem: fix the traffic crisis. I showed them the above video and they came up with some interesting answers. Think about these:

1. airlifting
2. underground train station
3. tunnel
4. eliminate the need for travel – complex for everything
5. encourage other alternatives
6. changing the way we work

My personal favourite with the complex for everything. This idea was that work/home/everything else should be centralised to local community. Sure it’s a bit Orwellian but I really like the idea of working near home. So what does this have to do with lateral thinking?

Lateral Thinking

The most common definition for lateral thinking is ‘thinking outside the box’. What precisely does that mean? Well I think to think about it this way. There is a logical box in which we contain all maps of the world. When we come to solve problems we often look at the issue through out preconceptions of the world. These issues prevent us from seeing non-linear solutions to a problem that lies outside the area we are focusing on.

To that end the word ‘lateral’ really means ‘sideways’. So for me I like to think about lateral thinking as ‘sideways’ thinking. It requires a mental shift to a sideways issue that isn’t immediately obvious. It means moving outside the ‘logic box’ and into a new way of thinking that at first seems unrelated. As you move sideways you begin to see the ‘lateral’ pattern emerge and you make better judgements from this new perspective. Once you are there you can see the connection but you have to move llaterally in order to achieve this.

How does lateral thinking actually work?

It works by you moving sideways in your thought. It means moving outside the system of your thought to a position that is presently unrelated. In the traffic crisis example, if you kept building bigger roads it would mean not picking a solution that is NOT related to roads specifically. It might be something like: staggering work hours, changing where people work or rewarding employees for working from home (for example). That’s lateral because it asks the question: what’s the cause of the problem… and how can we change that so that the problem no longer occurs. That’s lateral thinking.

One of the key things to remember when you engage in this form of thinking is to be aware of what you think the problem is. Whatever you take the problem to be… you take the solution to be… the two are inseparable. In lateral thinking you have the power to ask: what could we do if we could do anything and begin to explore ‘outside the logic box’ solutions. Sadly, I don’t see enough of this in places I venture. It’s much the same crap remulched over and over and over again. Why not dare to be different and begin to think creatively?

Why don’t you give it a go?

I have heard many people say that they don’t think they are creative. Rubbish! You are creative. You have creativity inside of you for something. Most of us live our lives without ever using the creative ability that we have been given. Here’s a little test you can take to see what your creativity lies in.

Keeping an ideas book

Ideas are like gold to those that capture them. Consider this quote from eclectic film director David Lynch:

“The ideas dictate everything, you have to be true to that or you’re dead.” courtesy of: Think Exist.

What do you have ideas about? I didn’t realise that I had so many ideas about various things until I started writing them down. As I began to study the ideas, I noticed how I could use them in my work. Some of them helped me to understand issues I was having with other people and so on. You may really like gardening. There will be moments throughout the day when your ideas about gardening will come to you. Do yourself a favour and write down that idea. You will forget it if you don’t!

What to do with your ideas once you write them down

Make a commitment to follow them through. Even if you can’t do it right now make plans to do it soon. The ideas you follow through on you probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t of written them down! I know, it sounds stupid but keeping an ideas book helped me to gain an edge in my life and I know if you do it in yours it will help you too.

Imagine with me for a moment you are George Lucas. You are leaning back on your expensive black executive chair staring at a picture of yourself holding a light saber wondering, ‘How can I make something that good again.’ You notice a picture of a duck on your desk and it hits you. THAT’S IT! You need a duck that’s a superhero. And so the world was forced to endure Howard the Duck. Are your ideas like these? When I wrote recently on 4 ways to come up with cool ideas I thought how do we know if we have suckful ideas?

How to know your ideas suck

The main way you can tell is not because they don’t work… ignore that. Many good ideas don’t work. That’s another post for another day. There are two things I think that can give you a clue. The first thing is you have no critical voice. I love my wife because she is 100% pessimistic. You would never meet someone who is more negative that she is. Whenever I am about to do something I ask her: What’s wrong with this? She usually answers with something I didn’t think of because I am very optimistic (utopia nutters). I only see what’s good in most things I am doing. If you have no critic there is no way of telling how much your ideas suck. Find a critic. They are worth their weight in gold.

This may confuse you but you really know your ideas suck if nobody is willing to criticise them. I think most people don’t like hurting other people. If you have written a book and people look at it and say ‘that’s good’. Keep searching. Ask why is it good? Why is it bad? Why does it work so well? I have to call out blogs on this one. I don’t know how many times I have read a blog post and there are 75 comments of people saying ,’wow what a great post.’ Not one (if you’re lucky) voice that is looking for what’s wrong. You need that. I have had it on this blog and it always makes me think. Sure, I don’t like it at first but after I have taken out my frustration on the Wii I feel better.

What you can do to stop your ideas from sucking

There are many ideas you can use to stop sucking. The first that comes to mind is to create a mastermind group. They say iron sharpens iron. If you can find two others or more than I recommend using them as a bouncing board. I have three people in my life that I run things past before I do anything. I learned this from failing in business… I suggest you implement this as well. Another thing you can do is walk into the bathroom, look into the mirror and say, ‘you are smart as you are handsome but you don’t know everything.’ It will do you the world of good.

In closing this I want to say that stopping your ideas from sucking means that you get feedback, critique and other points of view involved. You can become so excited about something that you don’t even realise that you are getting emotional with it and thus clouding your judgment. Remember, if your ideas suck it’s because you don’t have enough perspective. Get some.

I was reading about the death of philosopher Richard Rorty recently when I noticed the following quote after his was asked to write a poem:

“I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts?—?just as I would have if I had made more close friends.”

Professor Rorty died shortly after saying that.  It got me thinking about something I had heard a while ago about dieing with the music in you.  So, as you can see here someone as imminent as this professor was still unsatisfied that he hadn’t spent more time creatively expressing himself.  Don’t wait to do it I say… get it out.

The creative project of the week has been on haitus while I have been busy with work. But now it has returned with something I did a long time ago… yes! This is a song called nature of the beast which I made using stock sounds and a program called Fruity loops (now called FL Studio). You can download it by clicking the link below.

The Nature of the Beast

and yet another song… somewhat more electronica or ecclectic if you will:

Punctuated Equilibrium

There is another one I made around here somewhere.  I just can’t remember where I put them.  Ok now to plan the next creative project.

As the great former leader singer of House of Pain once uttered, ‘I am fed up.’ The latest in mind numbing lack of creativity from the publishing monolith is yet another technological solution to a social problem. Presenting Kindle. I am using this to demonstrate with I think is a discernable lack in creativity of an industry that is increasing going up it’s own pipes. So why is this so uncreative?

This is not the problem it’s part of the problem

A few years ago the great Stephen King attempted to sell his Plant novella (still unfinished I might add) online through what many thought was a clever system at the time. The problem? The honor system. Apparently it wasn’t worthwhile to write something for online audiences. In plain English, you can’t take what people expect to be free and sell it to them. The problem: the publishing and writing world is notoriously unfair. It’s dog eat dog eat publisher eat author eat audience. We needed a different way of doing things.

Authors are no different

I recently read about the Sobol prize being cancelled for a lack of interest. Even more evidence of a lack of creativity. Sure, there are probably other reasons for the prize being canned. But for a lack of interest? Where are the next generation of writers? Blogging, reading their ‘e-novel’ on their ‘Kindles’… I doubt it. Whatever happened to writing a few good short stories and having them accepted and moving on from their. Hardly none of the publishing industry have done anything about the way it operates (including the authors who are a part of the system) for over 100 years. I haven’t seen one single non-technical innovation from the publishing industry. So now we have Kindle… great we can read the latest novels on an e-reader that feels like a book. Wow. How’s that going to sustain a failing industry? How’s it going to feed forward to the next generation of creative writers? It’s not.

What we can do about it

I have no idea. I am guessing that the majority of the 1/10 of 1% of authors that write books make money and don’t want things to change. The creative thinker says: ‘what can we do differently that we haven’t done before that would attract new talent to take the torch forward.’ How can we address the imbalance so that people who are considered to be unpublishable, at least have a shot at making it. The same goes for the film, art and other creative industries as well.

The non-creative plague

Think of the countless movies, television shows, books and the like that are the same old same old. Whatever happened to making new things that were interesting or being innovative. See, this is what happens when you put the dollar ahead of the art. You wind up with an imbalance that gives precedence to formula and spits on creative endeavour.

What to do about it?

I am not sure anything can be done. Have we gone too far in the wrong direction? I can shoulder the blame at the university level and say… yes we should be teaching the next generation of creative people instead of feeding them into the meat grinder. I am still amazed at the amount of movies that are released last year that you can predict point by point. I think I am well and truly alone on this. Never mind… that’s why I took up blogging!

Start being creative today.  Burn your CUBE!  Get out there and create.  If your boss stops you… do it anyway.  You must do something.  The world is in a very non-creative state of affairs.  For the love of God… do it!