John Cleese on Creativity In Management

Summary

该视频脚本探讨了创造力的本质和如何培养创造力。演讲者通过幽默和心理学研究，阐述了创造力并非天赋，而是一种可以通过特定心态和环境来培养的能力。他强调了进入“开放模式”的重要性，以及空间、时间、信心和幽默感对于激发创造力的作用。同时，他也提出了一些阻碍创造力的管理行为，如压制幽默、批评和过度要求效率，这些行为可能会限制员工的思考时间和创新能力。

Takeaways

• 🎨 创造力不是天赋，而是一种运作方式。
• 🧠 创造力与智商无关，只要智商达到一定水平即可。
• 🕰️ 创造力需要在‘开放模式’中才能发生，而非‘封闭模式’。
• 🚫 创造力不是通过快速决策来实现的，而是需要时间来孕育。
• 🤔 创造力需要自信，不害怕犯错，保持好奇心。
• 🎈 创造力与玩耍密切相关，玩耍是探索和享受过程，而非为了实际目的。
• 🤣 幽默感是促进创造力的重要因素，它帮助我们从封闭模式快速切换到开放模式。
• 🌟 创造力往往在不经意间出现，需要持续的思考和对问题的深入探讨。
• 👥 与他人一起玩耍和交流想法可以激发更多的创造力。
• 🥇 最有创造力的人往往是那些愿意花费更长时间与问题相处的人。
• 🚫 避免在组织中压制创造力，应鼓励开放的思维和创新。

Q & A

演讲者在谈论创造力时，提到的第一个观点是什么？

演讲者提到的第一个观点是告诉人们如何变得有创造力是容易的，但实际上变得有创造力是困难的。

演讲者为什么认为自己研究创造力是容易的？

演讲者认为自己研究创造力是容易的，因为他在过去25年里观察了各种创意人士如何创作，并试图找出包括他自己在内的人们更具创造力的原因。

演讲者提到的Brian Bates是谁？

Brian Bates是演讲者的朋友，他在萨塞克斯大学经营心理学系，并向演讲者展示了一些关于创造力的研究成果。

演讲者提到的Donald McKinnon的研究有哪些发现？

Donald McKinnon的研究显示，被同行认为最有创造力的人在智商上并不比他们的不那么有创造力的同事高，但他们已经获得了一种能力，即进入一种特定的心境，这种心境允许他们的自然创造力发挥作用。

演讲者认为创造力与什么无关？

演讲者认为创造力与智商无关，只要你的智力达到一定的最低水平。

演讲者如何描述创造力？

演讲者描述创造力不是一种才能，而是一种运作方式。

演讲者提到了哪两种心理模式？

演讲者提到了开放模式和封闭模式这两种心理状态。

演讲者为什么认为幽默是创造力的一个重要因素？

演讲者认为幽默是创造力的一个重要因素，因为它能让我们从封闭模式快速转换到开放模式，带来放松和游戏性，这是创造力所需的。

演讲者提到的五个有助于创造力的因素是什么？

演讲者提到的五个有助于创造力的因素是：空间、时间、时间（再次强调）、信心和幽默。

演讲者为什么说在解决问题时，我们应该在开放模式和封闭模式之间来回切换？

演讲者认为，在思考问题时我们应该处于开放模式，以便让自然创造力浮现；但一旦我们找到解决方案，就应该切换到封闭模式来实施这个解决方案，因为只有专注和果断地执行决策，我们才能高效。

演讲者如何描述创意过程中的“玩”？

演讲者描述创意过程中的“玩”是指能够自由地探索想法，不是为了立即的实用目的，而是出于享受探索本身的乐趣。

Outlines

00:00

🎨 创造力的探讨与幽默

该段落讲述了演讲者被邀请谈论创造力的经历。他提到，尽管告诉人们如何变得有创造力很容易，但实际上做到这一点却很困难。演讲者通过观察各种创意人士的工作，试图理解是什么让人们变得更有创造力。他还提到了一位心理学家唐纳德·麦金农的研究，这些研究似乎证实了他多年来的观察和直觉。然而，演讲者最终认为，谈论如何提升创造力是徒劳的，他决定通过讲笑话来代替这个话题。

05:02

🧠 创造力并非天赋，而是一种运作方式

在这一段中，演讲者深入探讨了创造力的本质。他指出，创造力不是一个人拥有或不拥有的能力，而是与智商无关的一种运作方式。他引用了麦金农的研究，表明最有创造力的人并不是智商最高的，而是那些能够进入特定心境、像孩子一样玩耍的人。演讲者还介绍了开放和封闭两种心理模式，并强调创造力只能在开放模式中产生。

10:03

🕒 创造空间与时间以培养创造力

演讲者在这一段中讨论了如何创造有利于创造力发展的环境。他提到，为了进入开放模式，人们需要为自己创造空间和时间。这意味着要找到一个安静的空间，并为自己设定一个具体的时间，不受日常压力的干扰。他还提到，一旦进入这个空间和时间，人们应该保持对主题的关注，就像冥想一样，最终会从潜意识中获得回报。

15:05

🎭 幽默与创造力的关联

这一部分中，演讲者强调了幽默在创造力中的重要性。他认为，幽默是将人们从封闭模式快速转换到开放模式的关键。他解释说，幽默使我们放松并变得更有玩性，这是创造力所需要的。演讲者还警告说，过于严肃的讨论往往忽视了幽默的重要性，而这正是我们解决问题所需要的。

20:05

🚫 阻碍他人创造力的策略

在最后一段中，演讲者以讽刺的方式讨论了如何阻止下属发展创造力。他建议通过禁止幽默、批评工作、要求不断的忙碌和制造紧迫感来扼杀创造力。演讲者通过这种讽刺的方式，实际上是在强调一个组织应该鼓励创造力，而不是压制它。

Keywords

💡创造力

创造力是指产生新想法、发现新解决方案的能力。在视频中，创造力被描述为一种无法简单教授的技能，而是与个人如何运作、如何进入特定心态有关。例如，视频中提到通过玩耍和探索来培养创造力，而不是为了立即的实用目的。

💡开放心态

开放心态是指一种放松、不设限的心态，它允许人们自由探索和玩耍，从而激发创造力。在视频中，开放心态与封闭心态相对，是创造性思维发生的前提条件。

💡封闭心态

封闭心态是指一种紧张、目的性强、缺乏幽默感的心态，这种心态下人们往往专注于完成任务，难以产生创造性的想法。

💡玩耍

玩耍是一种探索性活动，它不是为了立即的实用目的，而是为了享受过程本身。在视频中，玩耍被视为培养创造力的重要方式，因为它允许人们自由地与想法互动。

💡幽默

幽默是一种轻松愉快的情绪表达，它能够缓解紧张和压力，促进开放心态的形成。在视频中，幽默被认为是帮助人们从封闭心态转换到开放心态的重要工具。

💡自信

自信是指个人对自己能力的信任和确信，它有助于人们在探索新想法时不惧怕犯错。在视频中，自信被认为是进入开放心态和发挥创造力的关键因素之一。

💡时间

时间是指为了深入思考和探索问题而专门预留的时间段。在视频中，给予自己充足的时间是激发创造力的重要条件，因为它允许人们在没有压力的情况下自由思考。

💡空间

空间是指为了促进创造性思考而创造的物理或心理环境。在视频中，空间是帮助人们从日常生活的压力中抽离出来，进入开放心态的一个关键因素。

💡决策

决策是指在面对问题时做出选择的过程。在视频中，作者强调在做出决策之前应该给予自己足够的时间来思考，以便产生更有创造性的解决方案。

💡随机连接

随机连接是指将两个或多个原本无关的概念或想法结合起来，以产生新的意义或解决方案。在视频中，这种方法被用来激发创造力，通过故意创造看似荒谬的连接来寻找可能有价值的想法。

💡反馈

反馈是指对某项行动或想法的回应或评价。在视频中，反馈被视为评估创造性行动是否成功的重要手段，通过审视反馈来决定是否继续当前计划或制定新计划。

Highlights

讲述者认为教导他人如何创新是容易的，但真正实现创新却很困难。

讲述者通过观察各种创新人士的工作方式，试图理解是什么让人们变得更具创造力。

Brian Bates 向讲述者展示了 70 年代在伯克利进行的关于创造力的研究，这些研究以科学的方式证实了讲述者多年的观察和直觉。

讲述者认为，尽管研究创造力的成果在 60 年代和 70 年代达到高峰，但之后数量急剧下降，可能是因为研究者感到科学在这一领域的发现已经达到了极限。

研究表明，最具创造力的人并不是因为他们的智商更高，而是因为他们掌握了一种特殊的能力——进入一种特定的心境，使他们的自然创造力得以发挥。

创造力并非一种才能，而是一种运作方式。

最具创造力的人能够像孩子一样玩耍，他们能够出于乐趣而非立即的实际目的去探索想法。

讲述者提出了两种心理模式：开放模式和封闭模式，并指出创造力在封闭模式下是不可能的。

在开放模式中，人们更加放松、开放，好奇心得以运作，从而允许自然创造力的涌现。

讲述者通过亚历山大·弗莱明发现青霉素的例子说明了开放模式的重要性。

讲述者强调，一旦我们找到了解决方案，就需要切换到封闭模式来实施它，因为只有果断地执行决策，我们才能高效。

讲述者提出了五个有助于进入开放模式的因素：空间、时间、时间、信心和幽默。

讲述者建议，为了进入开放模式，需要为自己创造一个安静的空间，并设定一个具体的时间期限。

讲述者通过自己的经验强调了在解决问题之前花费更多时间的重要性，因为这样可以得到更有创造性的解决方案。

讲述者认为，自信是进入开放模式的关键因素之一，因为玩耍的本质是对可能发生的事情的开放性。

幽默是进入开放模式的最后一个因素，讲述者认为幽默是快速从封闭模式转换到开放模式的最佳途径。

讲述者提出，通过生成随机连接并允许直觉告诉你哪些连接可能有意义，可以有意识地尝试发明新的随机连接。

讲述者以幽默的方式提出了如何阻止下属变得太有创造力，强调了在组织中保持控制的重要性。

Transcripts

[Music]

oh

you know when video arts asked me if i'd

like to

talk about creativity i said no problem

no problem because telling people how to

be creative is easy

it's only being it that's difficult and

i knew it would be particularly easy for

me because i spent the last 25 years

watching how various creative people

produce their stuff

and being fascinated to see if i could

figure out what makes folk including me

more creative

what is more a couple of years ago

i got very excited because a friend of

mine who runs the psychology department

at sussex university brian bates

showed me some research on creativity

done at berkeley in the 70s

by a brilliant psychologist called

donald mckinnon

which seemed to confirm in the most

impressively scientific way

all the vague observations and

intuitions that i'd had over the years

so the prospect of settling down to a

quite serious study of creativity for

the purpose of tonight's gossip

was delightful and having spent several

weeks on it i can state categorically

that what i have to tell you tonight

about what how you can all become

more creative is a complete waste of

time

so i think it would be much better if i

just told jokes instead

you know the light bulb jokes you know

how many poles does it

take to screw in the light bulb one to

hold the bulb before to turn the table

um how many folk singers does it take to

change a light bulb answer

five one to change the bulb and four to

sing about how much better the old one

was

how many socialists does it take to

change a light bulb answer

we're not going to change it we think it

works

how many creative art

you see the reason why it is futile

for me to talk about creativity is that

it simply cannot be explained it's like

mozart's music or

van gogh's painting or saddam hussein's

propaganda it is literally

inexplicable freud who

analyzed practically everything else

repeatedly denied

that psychoanalysis could shed any light

whatsoever on the mysteries of

creativity

and brian bates wrote to me recently

most of the best research on creativity

was done in the 60s and 70s

with a quite dramatic drop off in

quantity after then

largely i suspect because researchers

began to feel

that they had reached the limits of what

science could discover about it

in fact the only thing from the research

that i could tell you about how to be

creative

is the sort of childhood that you should

have had which is of limited help to you

at this point of your lives

however there is one negative thing that

i can say

and it's negative because it's easier to

say what creativity

isn't a bit like the sculptor who when

asked how he had sculpted a very fine

elephant

explained that he'd taken a big block of

marble and then

knocked away all the bits that didn't

look like an elephant

now here's the negative thing creativity

is not a talent it is not

a talent it is a way of operating

so how many actors does it take to screw

in a light bulb

answer thousands only one to do it but

thousands to say

i could have done that how many jewish

mothers does it take to screw in a light

bulb answer

don't mind me i'll just sit here in the

dark nobody cares about

how many surgeons you see when i say a

way of operating what i mean is this

creativity is not an ability that you

either have

or do not have it is for example and

this may surprise you

absolutely unrelated to iq

provided you're intelligent above a

certain minimal level that is but

mckinnon showed in investigating

scientists

architects engineers and writers

that those regarded by their peers as

most creative were in no way whatsoever

different in iq from their less creative

colleagues

so in what way were they different

well mckinnon showed that the

most creative had simply acquired a

facility

for getting themselves into a particular

mood

a way of operating which allowed their

natural

creativity to function in fact ken and

mckinnon describe this particular

facility as

an ability to play

indeed he described the most creative

when in this mood

as being childlike for they were able to

play with ideas

to explore them not for any immediate

practical purpose but

just for enjoyment play for its own sake

now about this mood i'm working at the

moment with dr robin skinner on our

successor to our psychiatry book

families and how to survive them we're

comparing the ways in which

psychologically healthy families

function and then

the ways in which such families function

with the ways in which the most

successful corporations and

organizations function and we become

fascinated by the fact that we can

usefully

describe the way in which people

function at work in terms of two modes

open and close

so what i can just add now is that

creativity

is not possible in the closed mode

okay so how many american

network tv executives does it take to

screw in a light bulb answer

does it have to be a light bulb

how many doorkeep well let me explain a

little bit

by the close mode i mean the mode that

we are in

most of the time when we're at work we

have inside us a feeling that there's

lots to be done and we have to get on

with it if we're going to get through it

all it's an

active probably slightly anxious mode

although the anxiety can be exciting and

pleasurable

it's a mode in which we're probably a

little impatient if only with ourselves

it has a little tension in it not much

humor

it's a mode in which we're very

purposeful and

it's a mode in which we can get very

stressed

and even a bit manic but not

created by contrast the open mode is a

relaxed

expansive less purposeful mode

in which we're probably more

contemplative

uh more inclined to humor which always

accompanies a wider perspective and

consequently more playful

it's a mood in which curiosity for its

own sake can operate

because we're not under pressure to get

a specific thing done

quickly we can play and that

is what allows our natural creativity to

surface

now let me give you an example of what i

mean

when alexander fleming had the thought

that led to the discovery of penicillin

he must have been in the open mode the

previous day he'd arranged a number of

dishes

so that culture would grow upon them

on the day in question he glanced at the

dishes and he discovered that on one of

them

no culture had appeared now if he'd been

in the closed mode

he would have been so focused upon his

need for dishes with cultures grown upon

them

that when he saw that one dish was of no

use to him for that purpose he would

quite simply have thrown it away

thank goodness he was in the open mode

so he became curious about

why the culture had not grown on this

particular dish and that curiosity as

the world knows

led him to the nightbot i'm sorry to to

penises

now in the closed mode an

uncultured dish is an irrelevance

in the open mode it's a clue

now one more example

one of alfred hitchcock's regular

co-writers

has described working with him on

screenplays he says

when we came up against a block and our

discussions became very heated and

intense

hitchcock would suddenly stop and tell a

story that had nothing to do with the

work at hand at first

i was almost outraged and then i

discovered that he did this

intentionally

he mistrusted working under pressure he

would say we're pressing

we're pressing we're working too hard

relax

it will come and says the writer

of course it finally always did but

let me make one thing quite clear we

need to be

in the open mode when we're pondering a

problem but

once we come up with a solution we must

then switch to the close mode to

implement it because once we've made a

decision

we are efficient only if we go through

with it

decisively undistracted by doubts

about its correctness for example if you

decide to leap a ravine

the moment just before takeoff is a bad

time to start reviewing alternative

strategies

when you're attacking a machine gun post

you should not make a particular effort

to see the funny side of what you're

doing

humor is a natural concomitant of the

open mode but it's a luxury

in the closed one no once we've taken a

decision

we should narrow our focus while we're

implementing it and then

after it's been carried out we should

once again switch back to the open mode

to review the feedback arising from our

action

in order to decide whether the course

that we have taken is successful or

whether we should continue with the next

stage of our plan

whether we should create an alternative

plan to correct any an

error we perceive and then

back into the close mode again to

implement that next stage and so on

in other words to be at our most

efficient we need to be able to switch

backwards and forwards between the two

rows

but here's the problem

we too often get stuck in the closed

mode

under the pressures which are all too

familiar to us we tend to maintain

tunnel vision at times when we really

need

to step back and contemplate the wider

view

this is particularly true for example

politicians the main

complaint about them from their

non-political colleagues

is that they become so addicted to the

adrenaline

that they get from reacting to events on

an hour-by-hour basis

that they almost completely lose the

desire

or the ability to ponder problems in the

open mode

so as i say creativity

is not possible in the closed mode

and that's it

well 20 minutes to go so how many

women's livers does it take to change a

light bulb

answer 37 one to screw it in

and 36 to make a documentary about it

how many psychiatrists does it take to

change a light bulb the answer only one

but the light bulb has really got to

want to change

oh there is one just one

other thing that i can say about

creativity there are

certain conditions which do make it

more likely that you'll get into the

open mode

and that something creative will occur

more likely you can't guarantee anything

will occur you might sit around for

hours as i did last tuesday and nothing

zilch butt kiss not

a sausage nevertheless i i can at least

tell you how to get yourselves into the

open mode

you need five things one

space two time

three time four confidence

and five a 22-inch waist

sorry my mind was wondering

getting into the open mode too quickly

server

instead of a 22-inch waist read humor i

do beg your pardon okay let's take space

first

you can't become playful and therefore

creative

if you're under your usual pressures

because to cope with them you've got to

be in the closed mode right

so you have to create some space for

yourself

away from those demands and that means

sealing yourself off

you must make a quiet space for yourself

where you will be undisturbed

next time it's not enough to create

space

you have to create your space for a

specific

period of time you have to know that

your space will last until

exactly say 3 30 and that at that moment

your normal life

will start again and it's only by having

a specific moment when your space starts

and an equally specific moment when your

space stops

that you can seal yourself off from the

everyday closed mode in which we all

habitually operate

and i'd never realized how vital this

was until i read a historical study of

play

by a dutch historian called johann

heisinger

and in it he says play is distinct

from ordinary life both as to locality

and duration this is its main

characteristic

it's secludedness it's limitedness

play begins and then at a certain moment

it is over otherwise it's not

play so combining the first two factors

we create an oasis

of quiet for ourselves

by setting boundaries of space and

of time

now creativity can happen

because play is possible when we're

separate from everyday life so

you've arranged to take no calls you've

closed

your door you've sat down somewhere

comfortable you take a couple of deep

breaths and if you're anything like me

after you've pondered some problem that

you want to turn into an opportunity for

about 90 seconds

you find yourself thinking oh i forgot

i've i've got to call jim

and i must tell tina that i need the

report on wednesday and

not thursday which means i must move my

lunch with joe and damn

i haven't called paul's about getting

joe's daughter an interview and i must

pop out this afternoon to get will's

birthday present and those plants need

watering and none of my pencils are

sharpened and right i've got too much to

do

so i'm going to start by sorting out my

paper clips and then i shall make 27

phone calls

and i'll do some thinking tomorrow when

i've got everything out of the way

because as we all know it's easier to do

trivial things that are urgent

than it is to do important things that

are not urgent

like thinking and it's also easier to do

little things we know we can do

than to start on big things that we're

not so

sure about so

when i say create an oasis of quiet

know that when you have your mind will

pretty soon

start racing again but you're not going

to take that very seriously

you just sit there for a bit tolerating

the racing and the slight anxiety that

comes with that

and after a time your mind will quieten

down again

now because it takes some time

for your mind to quieten down it's

absolutely no use

arranging a space-time oasis

lasting 30 minutes because just as

you're getting quieter and getting into

the open mode

you have to stop and that is very deeply

frustrating so you must allow yourself a

good chunk of time i'd suggest about an

hour and a half

then after you've gotten to the open

mode you'll have about an

hour left for something to happen if

you're lucky

but don't put a whole morning aside

my experience after about an hour and a

half you need a break

so it's far better to do an hour and a

half now and then an hour and a half

next thursday and maybe an hour and a

half week after that

than to fix one four and a half hour

session now

and there's another reason for that and

that's factor number three

time yes i know we've just done time but

that was half of creating

our oasis now i'm going to tell you

about how to use

the oasis that you've created why do you

still

need time well let me tell you a story

i was always intrigued

that one of my monty python colleagues

who seemed to be

to me more talented than i was did never

produce scripts as original as mine

and i watched for some time and then i

began to see why

if he was faced with a problem and

fairly soon saw a solution

he was inclined to take it even though

i think he knew the solution was not

very original

whereas if i was in the same situation

although i was sorely tempted to take

the easy way out and finish by five

o'clock

i just couldn't i'd sit there

with the problem for another hour and a

quarter and by sticking at it

would in the end almost always come up

with something

more original it was that simple my work

was more creative than his

simply because i was prepared to stick

with the problem longer

so imagine my excitement when i found

that this was exactly what mckinnon

found

in his research he discovered that the

most creative professionals always

played with the problem

for much longer before they tried to

resolve it

because they were prepared to tolerate

that slight discomfort and anxiety

that we all experience when we haven't

solved a problem you know what i mean

if we have a problem and we we need to

solve it until we do

we feel it inside us a kind of internal

agitation attention or uncertainty

that makes us just plain uncomfortable

and we want to get rid of that

discomfort so in order to do so we take

a decision

not because we're sure it's the best

decision but because taking it

will make us feel better well

the most creative people have learned to

tolerate that discomfort for much longer

and so just because they put in more

pondering time

their solutions are more creative

now the people i find it hardest to be

creative with the people who need

all the time to project an image of

themselves

as decisive and who feel that

to create this image they need to decide

everything very quickly and with a great

show of confidence

well this behavior i suggest sincerely

is the most

effective way of strangling creativity

at birth

but please note i'm not arguing against

real decisiveness i'm a hundred percent

in favor of taking a decision

when it has to be taken and then

sticking to it while it's being

implemented

what i'm suggesting to you is that

before you take a decision

you should always ask yourself the

question when does this decision have to

be taken

and having answered that you defer

the decision until then in order to give

yourself

maximum pondering time

which will lead you to the most creative

solution

and if while you're pondering somebody

accuses you

of indecision say look baby cakes

i don't have to decide till tuesday

and i'm not chickening out of my

creative discomfort by taking a snap

decision before then that's too easy

so to summarize the third factor that

facilitates creativity is time

giving your mind as long as possible to

come up

with something original now

the next factor number four is

confidence when you're in your

space-time oasis getting into the open

mode

nothing will stop you being creative so

effectively

as the fear of making a mistake

now if you think about play you'll see

why to play

is experiment what happens if i do this

what would happen if we did that what if

the very essence of playfulness is an

openness to anything that may happen a

feeling

that whatever happens it's okay

so you cannot be playful if you're

frightened

that moving in some direction will be

wrong

something you shouldn't have done when

you're either

free to play or you're not

as alan watts puts it you can't be

spontaneous within reason

so you've got to risk saying things that

are silly

and illogical and wrong and the best way

to get the confidence to do that is to

know

that while you're being creative nothing

is wrong

there's no such thing as a mistake and

any drivel

may lead to the breakthrough and now

the last factor the fifth humor

well i happen to think the main

evolutionary significance of humor is

that it gets us from the closed mode

to the open mode quicker than anything

else

i think we all know that laughter brings

relaxation and that humor makes us

playful yet how many times have

important discussions been held

where really original and creative ideas

were desperately needed to solve

important problems but where humor was

taboo because the subject being

discussed was

so serious this

attitude seems to me to stem from a very

basic misunderstanding of the difference

between

serious and solemn

now i suggest to you that a a group of

us could be sitting around

after dinner discussing matters that

were extremely serious like the

education of our children or our

marriages or the meaning of life and i'm

not talking about the film

and we could be laughing and that would

not make

what we were discussing one bit less

serious

solemnity on the other hand i mean i

don't know what it's

for i mean what is the point of it

the two most beautiful memorial services

that i've ever attended

both had a lot of humor and it somehow

freed us all

and made the services inspiring and

cathartic

but solemnity it serves pomposity

and the self-important always know at

some

some level of their consciousness that

their egotism

is going to be punctured by humor that's

why they

see it as a threat and so

dishonestly pretend that their

deficiency

makes their views more substantial

when it only makes them feel bigger

no humor is an essential part of

spontaneity an essential part of

playfulness

an essential part of the creativity that

we

need to solve problems no matter how

serious

they may be so

when you set up a space-time oasis

giggle all you want and there

ladies and gentlemen are the five

factors

which you can arrange to make your lives

more creative

space time time confidence

and lord jeffrey archer

so now you know how to get into the open

mode the only other requirement

is that you keep your mind gently

round the subject your pondering

your daydream of course but you just

keep bringing your mind back

just like with meditation because and

this is the extraordinary thing about

creativity if you just

keep your mind resting against the

subject in a friendly

but persistent way sooner or later

you will get a reward from your

unconscious probably in the shower later

or at breakfast the next morning but

suddenly you are

rewarded out of the blue a new thought

mysteriously

appears if

you've put in the pondering time first

so how many cecil parkinsons does it

take to change a light bulb answer two

want to screw it in one to screw it up

how many

how many account executives does it take

to screw in a light bulb answer can i

get back to you on that

how many norwegian oh sorry how many

yugoslav

how many mult how many dutch

i'm out of jokes oh one thing

looking at you all reminds me i think

it's

easy to be creative if you've got other

people to play with

i always find that if two or more of us

throw ideas backwards and forwards

i get more interesting and original

places than i could ever have got to on

my own but there is a danger

a real danger if there's one person

around you

who makes you feel defensive you

lose the confidence to play at its

goodbye creativity so always make sure

your play friends are people that you

like

and trust and never say anything to

squash them either never say no

or wrong or i don't like that always be

positive and build on what's been said

would it be even better if i don't quite

understand that can you just explain it

again go on

what if let's pretend try to establish

as free atmosphere as possible and you

know sometimes i wonder

if the success of the japanese isn't

partly due to their instinctive

understanding of how to use groups

creatively you know westerners are often

amazed

at the unstructured nature of japanese

meetings

but maybe it's just that very lack of

structure

that absence of time pressure that frees

them

to solve problems so creatively and how

clever of the japanese sometimes to plan

that

unstructuredness by for example

insisting that the first

people to give their views are the most

junior

so that they can speak freely without

the possibility of contradicting what's

already been said by somebody more

important

four minutes left ah how many irish

oh sorry sorry sorry well

look the very last thing that i can say

about creativity is this it's like humor

in a joke the last comes

at a moment when you connect

two different frameworks of reference in

a new way example

there's the old story about um a woman

doing a survey into sexual attitudes who

stops an airline pilot and asks him

amongst other things

when he last had sexual intercourse he

replies

1958 now knowing airline pilots

the researcher is surprised and queries

this well says the pilot

it's only 21.10 now

we laugh eventually at the moment

the moment of contact between two

frameworks of reference the way we

express what euro it is in the 24-hour

clock now having an idea a new idea is

exactly the same thing

it's connecting two hitherto separate

ideas

in a way that generates new meaning now

connecting different ideas isn't

difficult you can connect cheese with

motorcycles or moral

courage with light green or bananas with

international cooperation

you can get any computer to make a

billion random connections for you

but these new connections or

juxtapositions are significant only

if they generate new meaning right so as

you play you can

deliberately try inventing these random

juxtapositions and then

use your intuition to tell you whether

any of them

seem to have significance for you that's

the bit the computer can't do

it can produce millions of new

connections but it can't tell which one

of them

smells interesting and of course

you'll produce some juxtapositions which

are absolutely ridiculous

absurd good for you

because edward de bono who invented the

notion of lateral thinking

specifically suggests in his book

poe beyond yes and no that you can try

loosening up your assumptions

by playing with deliberately crazy

connections he

calls such absurd ideas

intermediate impossibles

and he points out that the use of an

intermediate impossible

is completely contrary to ordinary

logical thinking in which you have to be

right

at each stage it doesn't matter

if the intermediate impossible is right

or absurd it can nevertheless be used as

a stepping stone

to another idea that is right another

example of how

when you're playing nothing is wrong

so to summarize if you really don't know

how to start or if you've got stuck

start generating random connections and

allow your intuition to tell you

if one might lead somewhere interesting

well that

really is all i can tell you

that won't help you to be creative

everything

and now in the two minutes left i can

come to the important part and that is

how to stop your subordinates becoming

creative too which is the real threat

because believe me no one appreciates

better than i do

what trouble creative people are and how

they stop

decisive hard-nosed bastards like us

from running businesses efficiently i

mean

we all know we encourage someone to be

creative

the next thing is they're rocking the

boat coming up with ideas and asking us

questions now if we don't nip this kind

of thing in the bud

we'll have to start justifying our

decisions by reasoned

argument and sharing information the

concealment of which gives us

considerable advantages in our power

struggles so

here's how to stamp out creativity in

the rest of the organization and get a

bit of respect going

one allow subordinates no humor it

threatens your self-importance

especially your omniscience

treat all humor as frivolous or

subversive

because subversive is of course what

humor will be in your setup

as it's the only way that people can

express their opposition

since if they express it openly you're

down on them like a ton of bricks

so let's get this clear blame humor for

the resistance that your way of working

creates

then you don't have to blame your way of

working this is important

and i mean that solemnly your dignity is

no

laughing matter second

keeping ourselves feeling irreplaceable

involves cutting everybody else down to

size so don't miss an opportunity to

undermine your employees confidence

a perfect opportunity comes when you're

reviewing

work that they've done use your

authority

to zero in immediately on all the things

you can find

wrong never never balance the negatives

with positives only criticize just

as your school teachers did always

remember

praise makes people uppity

third demand that people should always

be actively doing things if you catch

anybody pondering

accuse them of laziness and or

indecision

this is to starve employees of thinking

time because that leads to

creativity and insurrection so

demand urgency at all time use lots of

fighting talk

and war analogies and establish a

permanent atmosphere of stress

of breathless anxiety and crisis in a

phrase

keep that mode closed

now in this way we no nonsense types can

be sure that the

tiny tiny microscopic

quantity of creativity in our

organization will all be

ours but

let your vigilance slip for one moment

and you could find yourself

surrounded by happy enthusiastic and

creative people whom you might never be

able

completely to control ever again so be

careful

thank you and good night

you