Segmentation in 21 day Creativity Challenge
A Whack on the side of the Head: How you can be more creative. Roger VonOech (2011)
Roger Von Oech has been a Creative consultant for large and small companies as well as individuals. This edition is the 25th year edition of this book. Creative thinking is a vital survival skill in this changing world. It is even more important to look at things in a fresh and different way. This book contains stories, anecdotes, insights and ideas from many different sources of how you can become more creative.
“Why be Creative? Why challenge the rules? Why run the risk of failing and looking foolish.”
Sometimes, what worked two years ago, does not work today. We live in an ever changing world and we need to adapt to the changes. Creative thinking is a lot of fun, sometimes things no longer work or become stagnate and we can either sit and complain or we can try to generate new ways of doing things. The real key to being creative is what we do with our knowledge. It requires curiosity and play with our knowledge and experiences.
Nobel Prize physician Albert Szent-Gyorgyi says: “Discovery consists of looking at everyone else and thinking something different.”
We don’t need to be creative for most of the things that we do. Most of us have certain attitudes that lock our thinking into the Status Quo and keeps us thinking more of the same. This attitude is necessary for most of our daily lives, but they get in the way when we need to be creative. It is hard to be creative if you are so focused on being practical, logical, afraid to make mistakes or with other mental blocks.
There are many reasons and phrases that we are told by others and by ourselves.
- The right answer
- That’s not logical
- Follow the rules
- Be practical
- Play is frivolous
- That’s not m area
- Don’t be foolish
- To err is wrong
- I’m not creative
To be open to receive the teachings of thinking creatively we need to first “unpack”, or as VanOech says: empty out what you have in your mental cup. We need to unlearn what we know.
The history of discovery and invention is filled with the people whose routines were interrupted and who were forced to come up with alternative solutions. Inventions, new ideas tend to be discovered because we are forced to break our routine. Most of our education system is geared towards finding the “right answer.” What if I told you there were many right answers – all depending on what you are looking for. If you think there is only one right answer you will stop looking after you find it.
Some games:
- Find the third right answer
- Metaphors, find metaphors for something specific. The meaning of life….a box of chocolates??
- Ask What if?
Presentation Unit Three
I am attaching my presentation slides and the script I wrote for the presentation to share (in five minutes) what I did for over three months. Enjoy!
Today, I’m excited to share with you a glimpse into my research journey. My focus has been on reawakening creativity in adults and the methods I’ve employed to uncover insights in this area. Before I delve into my findings, let’s start with the fundamental question that guided my exploration.
How can we reignite creativity, given its decline in adulthood?
To tackle this, I embraced a Mixed Research Methodology:
- Action Research: to actively intervene and observe the effects of
creativity-enhancing activities. - Qualitative Methods: These allowed me to deeply explore participants’ perceptions,
experiences, and attitudes. - Questionnaires and Interviews: By collecting both structured and open-ended
responses, I gained a broader perspective on creativity. - Interventions: I conducted three creative workshops to test the impact of
interactive activities. - Longitudinal Research: Over two months, I maintained continuous
interactions with stakeholders to capture evolving insights.
My Interventions and Initial Evidence:
- Creativity Continuity Workshop: This one-hour workshop targeted UAL students. Through improv and artistic games, participants reported improved problem-solving using creativity. The need for ongoing sessions was highlighted.
- 21 day CREATIVITY CHALLENGE – which I will delve into more deeply during the presentation.
- Relaxed Creativity Workshop: A 1.5-hour workshop for diverse age groups yielded positive outcomes, with participants experiencing connection, innovation, and a shift in perspective.
The 21 day Creativity Challenge…..
- 21 ActivitIes
- 5 minutes a day
- 140 participants
- From 11 countries
- 4 Surveys. 2 polls, 2 surveys and individual conversations.
EVERY DAY HAD A CHALLENGE
EVERY CHALLENGE A NAME AND A PURPOSE.
FOR EXAMPLE.
Sounds of your day.
Stakeholders were told to: Not use headphones or take calls when taking a walk. Instead notice the sounds around you, write them down after the five minutes are up.
Positive feedback and anecdotal evidence revealed transformative shifts in participants’ self-perceptions and creativity.
For example, one participant told me at the beginning: “I am joining because it’s you. I was not born creative.” Throughout the challenge, she connected almost every day. At the end, she called and thanked me. “I realised at age 52 that in fact I am creative. I just didn’t know.” A month later, she sent me photos of her son’s dorm in college, which she had just decorated, saying: “Look at what I achieved after the creativity course!!!! I feel like Picaso!!.”
What did I learn?
My research led me to several key insights:
- Creativity does indeed decline in adulthood, with the need for rekindling becoming more pressing.
- Misconceptions about creativity- PEOPLE STILL TEND TO BELIEVE IT IS A TALENT
- Trust is crucial for individuals to embrace creative thinking.
- Curious individuals are more receptive to change.
Building on these findings, I plan to develop interventions tailored for specific groups, such as artists, teachers, and businesses. BOTH IN PERSON AND DIGITAL, WITH TARGETED GAMES FOR EACH GROUP, SMALLER GROUPS, AND WITH EXPERTS HELPING ME DEVELOP THE GAMES.
In conclusion, my research journey has provided me with a deeper understanding of reawakening creativity in adults. Through a comprehensive methodology, I’ve uncovered initial evidence that interventions and interactive challenges have the potential to transform perceptions of creativity. As I continue this exploration, I am excited about the potential to make a broader impact on how we perceive and nurture creativity in various aspects of life.
Moleskine Exhibition @Saatchi Gallery
As you enter it reads:
“The Detour exhibition is an exceptional gathering of works on a Moleskine notebook created by artists, architects, film directors, graphic designers, musicians, illustrators and writers of international acclaim, donated to the Moleskine Foundation to support its mission of “Creativity For Social Change.
The selection presented here puts the Moleskine Foundation Collection in dialogue with the current exhibition “Civilization” and its main topics: Hive, Alone Together, Flow, Persuasion, Control, Rupture, Escape, and Next.
All the exhibited works were developed through the creative use of notebooks.
Each notebook tells a different story, a dream or a project, a distinctive way of being, relating to the world. Limited space creates an expressive constraint that urges invention. The extreme freedom of blank pages, and what can be done with them, to give space to the creativity of each individual.”
I found it fascinating to discover this intervention. It inspired me to think of companies to “Team up” with to create new challenges. Participants were given a Moleskine notebook to intervene. The exhibit has a big question in the entrance:
There are two cabinets with the Moleskine book that people from around the world sent. Some photos of the books submitted:
This small exhibit sparked all kinds of ideas of how I could improve my interventions. What if I sent my participants a notebook to work in? Or even a digital notebook? What if this was later exhibited. Maybe a journal to track down their progress. What if I created materials – like a “creativity packet” that people could get before the challenge, work on it and see their progress. Loved this Moleskine intervention, definitely filled my head with possibilities.
Relaxed Creativity. Intervention Three
As I was doing the 21 day challenge I felt the need to have more contact with participants in a relaxed setting. I wanted to see how people react to an “impromptu” set of creative challenges. If this affected the way they thought or felt, and it it had an imprint for the future.
I organised a dinner party, there were 9 guests and me. After dinner- in what we call in Spanish “la sobremesa” (after dinner discussion), I asked it they would be willing to play a simple game. Arielle had an intervention that involved small window frames and had given me some to ask my friends to do. It was a creative challenge, I had included a version of it in my 21 day 5 minute a day Creativity challenge. It was a perfect opportunity to try to get my guests to do her challenge, which would also help in my research.
The activity: Give everyone a small cardboard frame. Ask them to find a frame in the room, think of a word or phrase to go with the frame and take a photo. Move frame to another part of the room, using the phrase you wrote down on the frame- what would be your next photo? Did the text influence what you took a photo of? Do you feel you were more creative because you had the text? The fact that we were all going to share our photos after, did that make you want to behave differently? Were you more afraid to make a mistake? to not get it right?
Many things happened. It was really interesting how one person (18 years old) became utterly stressed under the setting of sharing. She felt pressured to do something “perfect”, she kept asking questions about the rules. Another went right to the obvious, but than saw what other people were doing and became more competitive and decided to evaluate his photos to make them more “different.” Another went off on his own and took his time, but really enjoyed the process, a fourth person laughed by themselves through the whole creative process. Keep in mind each person acted individually, none made teams or tried to “break the rules.” Overall I had 9 people react in different ways, some positive and some negative. The 18 year old needed a push to hurry and finish- she could not make up her mind. After some gentle pressuring (timer rang), she delivered.
We all shared our photos and our experience and more importantly how we felt. Although there was stress involved- everyone felt they had used a side of the brain they were not used to using. Everyone laughed. Everyone was proud of their work. Everyone wanted to do more games….which I did….”impromptu.” People in games that followed felt more relaxed and with less stress.
I would like to do more of these, in person, creative challenges. Maybe even have a monthly group of Creative challenges and evaluate how we grow and how we feel and if it has an effect on our daily personal and profesional lives.
Three examples of very clever outcomes:
Emails Received
During the 21 day Creativity challenge I received over 100 emails from participants telling me about their creativity. I also received calls, DMs, IG posts that tagged me. These are some of the things people shared. For more detailed explanation of each day and more comments and photos visit each individual day.
Cultural Events
Over the last 6 months I have been inspired for this project by many exhibits, plays, musicals, artworks, etc. I now attend or visit these events thinking – what is the intervention? what is the change they want to happen? How does this relate to my project? What do they do that I can learn from for my research.
Following is a list of some of the ones that inspired me most. For some I made a blog post to share how it inspired me.
Theatre
- Zoonation – at The Royal Opera
- Sweeney Todd
- And Juliet
- Ain’t too Proud
- Sylvia
- Cabaret
- Newsies
- Punchdrunk: The Burnt City
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Crucible
- Back to the Future
- Guys and Dolls
- The Vault Theatre Festival
- Improv shows
- And many more….
Exhibits
- Street Art at Saatchi Gallery
- Cezanne at Tate Modern
- Royal Botanical Gardens private collection
- Invisible Collection Private viewing
- Tate Modern – Uniqlo Tate Play
- Play Studio at the Tate Britain
- The Serpentine Gallery
- No Place like home. Museum of the Home
- David Hockney. Bigger and Closer
- Many more…..
Research and Challenges from 21 day Creativity Challenge
Research Methodology
Mixed research methodology based on grounded theory.
- Action research
- Qualitative
- Questionnaires
- Interviews
- Interventions
- longitudinal research that involved several contacts with stakeholders over a period of two months.
21 creative challenges, 5 minute a day. 140 participants. Of the 140 I am familiar with 63 of them, the rest were strangers that had received the link through a friend or social media. These are some of the responses from the polls and surveys. If you would like to know more about the challenge, what exercises I used, responses people sent me per exercise, please go to this link.
Objective: Awareness, trust, habit, reflection.
Activity: Creative activities sent via private chat. 5 minutes a day for 21 days.
Audience: 15-60 year olds volunteers. (defined as “non-creative’). 148 signed up initially. Backgrounds ranged from: Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, UK, USA, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Belarus and Thailand.
Measurement: Poll: Day 7, Survey: Day 15, Poll and Survey: Day 21. Individual conversations with participants and emails DM.
- POLL – DAY 7 of 21. 33 responded.
Done within the Chat on day 7 of the challenge. 33 people responded. I asked what activity have you done? By asking this I would know how many people were engaged more or less and which games were more liked. This helped me determine what games to follow up with, I also wanted some insight on day of the week, does the day of the week influence wether you did it or not. I lost 6 people this week that left the chat.
Challenge: I realised that I had no idea how many people participated. 140 people were in the chat, but the poll only represents people who answer the poll. I talked to friends that were in the chat the did not answer the poll and they answered – I am doing it, just did not have time to answer the poll.
2. SURVEY – DAY 15 of 21. 14 responded.
I used Survey Monkey to see if I could get more interesting information in a survey vs a simple poll in the chat. In this survey I asked things like:
Do the activities stress you?
Are you noticing things more?
Do you feel happier after doing the activity?
Is the activity Fun for you?
Would you be interested in knowing what part of the brain these activities are for?
Do you feel your attitude has work has changed?
Challenges: Only 14 people answered. I used Survey Monkey because a participant had told me she would not answer the polls because they were not private. People preferred convenience over privacy. The fact that it was not in the chat was an inconvenience. I still was not aware how many people were actually doing the challenge, and I lost two participants that left the group. I did get comments- 10 people sent me comments- and this was very valuable. I lost 2 people this week, one (a graphic designer) said she was frustrated because she felt that maybe she was not creative. (FYI- she has her own DIY youtube channel with artistic activities. ) I started sending explanations as to what type of thinking you were using in each activity.
Some Comments:
3. POLL- DAY 21 of 21. 31 responses.
I decided to go try both venues this time, so I started with a poll and offered a survey for those who had more time available. I received 30 responses from the poll. I asked:
Do you feel you notice things more?
Was the challenge too long for you?
Has your perception of creativity changed?
Do you feel more creative?
4. Survey Day 21 of 21. 18 Responses.
I decided to make this survey more in depth, with more open ended questions. Also I was seeing from the emails that creativity meant different things to different people, so I wanted to know what creativity meant for them. What messages they were getting at home or at work regarding wether they were creative or not. What fears did they have?
Has your perception of Creativity changed?
What does creativity mean to you?
– It means facing situations, events and people with openness of mind and being able to propose a variety of ways, ideas, solutions, and possibilities upon these encounters.
– Creativity to me is expanding and creating ideas, breaking out of a prescribed set of limitations or boundaries that are the norm to create something new.
– to think out of the box, to find new o different resolutions to a know answer, thing.
– Inventiveness, inspiration, giving life some “color”.
– Happiness, life style, optimism , solution
– Ideas and storytelling
Comments from end of survey
Challenges: I was surprised that 31 people responded. I expected more. I still did not know how many people were doing the challenge. I was surprised 20 people responded they did not feel it was too long. I felt it was too long. At the beginning of the challenge I was doing all the activities with the group and I had gotten tired of doing them, I was only doing them when a friend or a family member did it with me, so I discovered that the challenge was too long for me, but apparently not for all.
Things I would do differently when I repeat a challenge:
- Targeted groups- try to find a commonality in the group so they can collaborate and communicate with each other. Have empathy with each other. I.E. Same nationality, creatives vs nos creatives, all artists, all writers, anything that brings them together in some way, even when they don’t know each other. etc.
- Smaller group. Try a group of 12 people that can share and communicate within the group.
- Open Chat. The chat would be open for comments.
- Daily Reflection within the chat. How did it make you feel? challenges, joys of activity?
Justin Gary – Taking the Path Less Traveled. Tim Ferris Show
The Phenomenon of “Magic: The gathering,” How analytical People Can Become”Creative”People, Finding the Third Right Answer, and How to Escape Your Need for Control.
I was hesitant to listen to this podcast since it was 2 hours long. I usually listen to podcasts in my daily hourly walk. My attention span usually does not last this long. I loved it, had to stop my walk several times to take notes. I want to share my notes, they were useful for my research, for my own personal life, for my work.
Justin Gary is a game designer, educator and coach. He designed many games, one of them is Discord. These are notes that I took while listening to the Podcast.
Elements a game should have:
- Immersion- experiences tell a story
- Connection – A place where you socialice
- Aspiration- Competition, wanting to win, to achieve
- Growth- Learn
- Expression- customise- role play- make it your own.
He recommends book:
A whack on the side of the head- by Von Oech, because it Demystifies creativity.
Some games he suggests: Turn object around. Random constraints. Move past the right answer. Take a random page from a book. Throw scrabble on the floor and pick three- that is your constraint.
A trick he uses at work: Assumptions challenge. You write down all your assumptions and you challenge them. What if that were not true- what if you take it around. 1. Make it explicit and 2. Turn it around
He says: “There’s nothing the differentiates a creative person from a noncreative person other than process.”
How do you create:
6 step process.
- Inspiration– what is driving you? The heart of what you are doing?
- Framing-put constraints around it. Short deadline. Constraints with components and time.
- Brainstorming – 3 steps. 20 minutes each. 1. Open exploring. Write down as many ideas as you can. 2. Organice- find patterns in your ideas. Put structure around it. Fill gaps in.
- Elimination – get to as few ideas as possible. How can I test each of these ideas?
- Prototype – What do I need to do- What is the smallest thing I can make/do to test my idea?
- Test Idea – Show others and get feedback
- Reiterating – See what you learn from testing and review idea.
- Repeat process
Tips for everyday: Three goals a day- Three goals for the week. We have long “To Do lists”, every morning choose three and make a goal to to these three. If you do more great, just make sure you do these three.
One piece of advice for everyone that you live by: Cultivate comfort with uncertainty and permanence. So much of what we do is because we are afraid we are going to loose something. If you can be OK in that space of not knowing, accepting the fact that things are going to change, then life gets so much easier.
Justin Gary website.
Some Podcasts Heard that Inspired me.
The Tim Ferris Show– Justin Gary- Taking the road less travelled
Hidden Brain:
– Slow Down 2.0
– How your beliefs shape reality
– Overcoming stage fright
– How to open your mind
– Humor us
The Mindvalley show with Susan David. 4 steps to emotional agility
Mel Robbins
-How to have more fun
Shaping business minds through art- The Artian:
– Daniel Canogar. Experiencing vs Visualizing data
– Jeffery Madoff- Creativity- The need to express
Jo Firestone– How to find humor in everyday life