Using Life to Develop Creative Ideas

Life provides rich material to develop creative ideas. There is a story in the Bhagavatham about how Uddhava asks Krishna the question, “Who is a Teacher?” Krishna says: “Look at the sky; far, far away, you can see an eagle swift and strong and free. In a single instant, it can swoop down to earth and capture its prey. As far as vision and speed are concerned, that eagle is your guru. See the lion in the forest; see how majestic is his gait. As far as grace, is concerned that lion is your guru. Watch the sinuous serpent; he is not anxious about his prey. He waits and watches. That serpent will teach you confidence. All of life is designed to teach you. Those who love you, teach you something. Those who hate you, teach you more.” Sorrow and pain are sent into our lives for a reason so that we can empathize with others. Life is the ultimate text book, and graduating from the university of life is the final goal.

Free Fall

The capacity to let go is rare; most humans seek security. But to stand still is to risk even more. It is to risk being overtaken by change. It is to risk being “dragged, an unwilling victim, to be sacrificed on the alter of technology.” Free fall is like bungee jumping. You let go without knowing definitely what will happen. Creative ideas are a kind of free fall. You generate ideas that have never been suggested or heard before. You risk the contempt of your peers, their jeers and laughter. There is the old story of Columbus who discovered America. When he returned, his friends said, “Anyone could have done it. You just kept sailing west till you found America. We too could have done it.” Columbus brought out an egg and said, “Make it stand up straight.” No one could do it. They said, “It can’t be done.” Columbus tapped the egg lightly on the table, so that it cracked slightly, to form a stable surface and then made it stand. Everyone said, “That is cheating. You can’t break the egg.” Columbus said, “Who said you can’t break the egg. You are imagining limitations and boundaries that are not there and then saying it can’t be done. That is why you could not have discovered America.”

THINKING TOOLS: Turn it Upside Down (T U D)

1. Normal belief: A hospital is a place for sick people.

2. T U D: A hospital is a place for people who are healthy.

When we looked at a hospital as a place for people who are healthy,

1. Our base of customers increased to include a vast number of healthy people who come for positive health programs. The positive health theme included the “Well Woman” program, which involved a health and beauty focus: yoga experts, beauticians, and women’s health practitioners helped create a vastly successful program. Preventive health care became a positive activity. 15 check-ups including the heart check, the diabetic check and the child health check were part of the wellness check portfolio.

2. The relationship with customers, which traditionally started on a note of pain, anxiety, and death, began on a happy note. The focus was how to remain healthy and how to face problems. The lifetime relationship, which is the bedrock of direct marketing today, started on a happy, positive note, with wellness as the key.

Since then we realized that, thinkers from Plato onwards have developed hundreds of thinking tools which are as easy to learn as the 3R’s - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. The simplest tools include checklists ranging from Rudyard Kipling’s famous “Five good serving men” (The questions Why, Where, When, Who and How) to Alex Osborne’s 9 Word Checklist.

Metaphors - Origin and Significance

Ideas imported from other fields can totally transform your company. In a Creativity Lab conducted for an internationally acclaimed company dealing in printing of tea bags, the problem was maintenance of delicate machines. The expensive machines were often handled clumsily, resulting in damage, breakdowns and loss. To counteract this, the ‘Metaphor’ tool was used.

Metaphors can be applied to gain fresh perspectives on the situation under analysis. A metaphor is a term or phrase that is applied to another, unrelated term or phrase to create a non-traditional relationship. For example, “All the world’s a stage.”

Metaphors can be used to examine various situations. For example, an organizational environment might be the topic of analysis. One might ask, “How do people in my organization resemble animals in a jungle? How do different animals manage their interactions with each other and how do we translate them into the different leadership styles that are used?” Answering these queries might allow new insights into the situation.

Nothing Grows Under a Banyan Tree

There is a beautiful tree outside my gate. It is strangely human – it sleeps. As dusk approaches all its leaves droop and hang limp and drowsy. People here call it the ‘sleepy face’ tree.

After a long day at work I feel a special kinship with it. I’m frankly enchanted by its wide spreading branches which reach out umbrella like to provide an oasis of dappled shade; by the way its leaves are darkly outlined against the sky when I look up. Its furry pink flowers and even the dry leaves that crackle under my feet as I go up the cement walk before our house, please me.

I could find no fault with my tree until I saw what it was doing to my jasmine bush. The flowers of this particular plant are my favorite. They emanate a lush fragrance from their heavily petaled blooms.

The shrub always seems to flower with great reluctance – just one or two flowers a day, during the summer months.

This year the tree has grown mightily. Spreading its branches and embracing the ground beneath in cool shadow.

But now, the jasmine has stopped flowering. All my ministrations will not persuade it to throw out a single bloom.

So many great and overwhelming personalities are like my tree. They grow tall and powerful, providing shelter for the multitude. But they invariably destroy the sensitive, quiet soul from whom they cut off the sunlight.

Remember, nothing grows under a banyan tree.

The Mirror Image

Each of us develops an image of self, based on how significant others or those whose opinions we care about look at us. Cooley’s Mirror Image says “I am what I think, you think I am.” This is connected to the ancient Greek legend of Pygmalion, where a sculptor falls in love with a statue. The statue responds by becoming a beautiful girl. Each significant ‘other person’ calls for the best or worst in each of us. For within all of us dwell the highest and lowest. Those who are not significant in our lives may not have any impact on us.

Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s heads we need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so that we can see the world in a new way.
− J.S.Brown

How to Deal with Threats and Conflicts

Sometimes, the words of the other person immediately switch on the ‘danger button.’ The fight or flight response is triggered by verbal, tonal, non-verbal cues. If you intend building a long-term relationship with the person, imagine pouring soothing oil on the troubled waters. Through verbal cues, inject soothing, peaceful and supportive words into the field. Then soothe yourself, telling yourself that the negative field will not harm you up to a point. Go with the person’s ideas while soothing yourself. Springboard, Ping Pong and make yourself totally ‘available’ to the person.