The Dance of the possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativityScott Berkun - scottberkun.comConstrux Executive Summit 2017

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1884: Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier

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Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier had to convince Stephen Sauvestre to work on their design

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LESSON #1:ALL IDEAS ARE MADE OF OTHER IDEAS

@berkun - scottberkun.com MSFT ’94-’03, WP ’10-’12

Author & Speaker 7 books / 14 years

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STUDY THE HISTORY OF A PROBLEM TO FIND NEW IDEAS FOR SOLVING IT

LESSON #2:GREAT IDEAS OFTEN LOOK WEIRD (AT FIRST)

"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects …protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection … of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower“ - Committee of 300, Le Temps, 1887

"this truly tragic street lamp" (Bloy) "this belfry skeleton" (Verlaine) "this mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed" (Coppée)

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ALL MASTERPIECES START AS EXPERIMENTS

SATIR CHANGE MODEL https://pmbag.wordpress.com/tag/the-satir-change-model/

LESSON #3:OUR MINDS ARE NATURALLY CREATIVE

WHEN SUITABLY MOTIVATED BY A HARD PROBLEM CREATIVITY IS

UNAVOIDABLE

DOUBLE-TIME

1. Creativity is a kind of work 2. Escape false constraints 3. Journals and self-respect

DOUBLE-TIME

1. Creativity is a kind of work 2. Escape false constraints 3. Journals and self-respect

IF YOU REMOVE FALSE CONSTRAINTS, NEW THINKING PATHS WILL BE OPEN TO YOU

•Idea Killers: “We tried that before” •Fear of embarrassment •Criticism of unpolished ideas •Groupthink vs. 1-on-1 pitches

FALSE CONSTRAINTS EXECUTIVES CREATE

DOUBLE-TIME

1. Creativity is a kind of work 2. Escape false constraints 3. Journals and self-respect

THE COURAGE TO BE COMFORTABLE IN THE

UNKNOWN (WITH OTHERS)

1. All ideas are made from other ideas 2. Great ideas look weird (at first) 3. We are naturally creative 4. Eliminate False Constraints

LESSON SUMMARY

Thank You.

Scott Berkun | @berkun | scottberkun.com