Steve Jobs said that creativity is
having dots to join that’s what I love
about Ted every time I listen to a talk
it gives me more dots to join it makes
me think different but what if we need
to think differently to overcome a
challenge or an uncertainty that we face
now people say that creativity is about
thinking outside the box others that
it’s all about being creative inside the
box but what if there is no box and
that’s what I want to talk to you about
today that if you can realize what that
box is and you can remove it you can
unlock unlimited streams of creativity
now Henry Ford said that thinking is the
hardest work there is which is probably
why so few of us engage in it so I’d
like us to do some thinking today and
then ask you to interact with me today
I’m gonna start by asking a question in
your entire educational life from the
moment you started school to the moment
you’ve finished how many hours would you
say you spent learning mathematics how
many hours somebody throw out some ideas
how many hours one two hundred more than
two hundred seven thousand if you went
to university and studied mathematics
yeah probably you would have spent
thousands of hours learning mathematics
learning English learning science let me
ask you another question how many hours
did you spend during that same period of
learning about metacognition so thinking
about thinking learning how to learn
learning how to create who had
creativity 101 lessons anyone out there
zero very very few I saw a few hands but
it’s very few now therein lies the rub
as Shakespeare would say because our
educational system is really good at
feeding us information it helps us to
assimilate knowledge and that is really
important but and it’s a very big but
knowledge is no longer power the use of
knowledge is no
power it’s the creation of new knowledge
that’s power so if we can help people to
create new ideas and new knowledge
that’s where the power really is in 1968
George land was given the task of
creating a creativity tests to help NASA
find highly creative engineers now 1968
NASA was at the height of the space race
they needed to find some amazing people
to help them so they created this test
but interestingly what they did was to
put sixteen hundred five-year-olds
through the same test what percentage of
those five-year-olds do you think scored
in the highly creative range so give me
some numbers what percentage eighty
seventy five yeah we all know it’s going
to be a high percentage but did you
think it would be this high ninety-eight
percent of those five year olds scored
in the highly creative range now they
tested the same children five years
later what percentage now scored in the
highly creative range sixty bit
optimistic this group 30% again five
years later fifteen years old
what percentage now scored two percent
12 percent so it’s quite depressing
isn’t it they also put 250,000 people
over the age of 25 and that’s probably
most of us here through the same test
what percentage of those scored in the
highly creative range 2% 2% now just
think about why this happens just think
about it the five-year-olds scored 98%
in the highly creative range you don’t
have to tell a five-year-old to think of
outside the box they have no concept of
what thinking outside the box is in fact
if you give them a box and tell them
it’s a box let’s say no it’s not it’s an
aeroplane it’s a bus it’s a car it’s a
suit it’s a galaxy they have no
comprehension of what the box is the box
starts to form as we get older it’s made
up of our beliefs our habits and mainly
our assumptions
it’s
these little programs that run around in
our head that tell us what is possible
and what isn’t possible and they’re good
things because they make sense of the
world but sometimes you need to turn
those off now I’d like us to do a little
bit of a creativity test so in your bags
you’ll have the guide and you’ll have
some pens so if you could get those out
and I really want you to do this you
need to do the test so if you could just
get to get something to write on get a
pen out I’m going to give you 60 seconds
to do this creativity test and we’ll see
how you do as an audience
okay the test is very simple the test is
to come up with as many non uses of a
paperclip that you can think of starting
now so anything you just can’t use a
paperclip for non uses of a paperclip
how many non uses of a paperclip can you
come up with in sixty Seconds okay pens
down if you could just count up how many
you’ve come up with let’s see how good
you are how many had between zero and
two a few how many had between three and
eight the majority how many had more
than eight okay that’s pretty good can
you give me some examples what do you
think is a really good non use of a
paperclip more than Eric okay Boylan
Eric who else had an on use that was
better than that food food ride a bike
okay we’ve got food oil and egg and ride
a bike food oil and egg and ride a bike
what I’m going to ask you to do now in
in groups speak to the people next to
you is imagine that you’re on a debating
team and unfortunately you’ve been given
the unenviable task of debating that you
can use a paperclip as food that you can
use a paperclip to boil an egg and that
you can use a paperclip as a bike I’m
going to give you 60 seconds to come up
with how you can use a paperclip to do
all those things to speak to the people
next to you and come up with an answer
in 60 seconds
okay okay everyone I could get your
attention how can we use a paperclip as
food we could grate it on pasta so
instantly we could use it we could have
the paperclip we could grate it
perhaps we get at the added benefit of
getting extra iron into our diets so so
we can use a paperclip as food
what about boil an egg how can we boil
an egg with a paperclip oh so we just
eat the paperclip put it into the egg
over time it will heat the egg and it
will boil the eggs so we can use a
paperclip to boil an egg what about ride
a bike
so we could magnetize it and stick it to
the bike how else could we use it so we
could use lots of paperclips together to
actually make about bike out of it
so actually we can use a paperclip to do
all of those things we can now I do this
creativity test all over the world and
quite often somebody in the audience
will say Chris yeah that’s good fun but
let’s face it that’s stupid you’re never
gonna use a paperclip to boil an egg
you’re never gonna use a paperclip to
ride a bike let me tell you why I’m
telling you this no it’s just imagine we
went back in time so it’s 1928 it’s
September 1928 and I was to do this
activity with you again but this time
rather than a paperclip I said to you
right give me the non uses of mold
absolutely nothing that something you
just can’t do with mold and and somebody
might have come up with the idea well
you can never use mold to save the lives
of millions of people in the future and
then a few weeks later Alexander Fleming
would come back from his vacation and
all of a sudden invent penicillin the
whole point of this is that to be
creative you have to have an everything
as possible mindset just because you see
something as it is doesn’t mean it has
to be that way you have to challenge
those assumptions let’s look at some
other examples sort of real-world
examples just look at I’m just going to
pick out two of these but if we looked
at Kodak I mean how could Kodak go into
chapter 11 bankruptcy
I mean seriously Kodak and when I ask
people that they will all say to me how
is the digital camera you know the
digital camera put Kodak into that
position but this is Steve Sasson appear
from Kodak who actually invented the
first digital camera now the problem
they had the box that they had the
assumptions that they had was that they
were in the film business that to make
money to grow market share they had to
sell film so they couldn’t see past that
to see that they could have taken
advantage of being first in that digital
marketplace coca-cola do many of you
know why coca-cola was called coca-cola
classic for so long have you ever
thought about that you know why was it
called coca-cola classic in 1985
coca-cola did the largest taste test
that’s ever been done 200,000 people
were given a blind taste test of new
coke and the existing coke and the data
was absolutely clear people preferred
new coke it tasted you know so much
better though this was black and white
you could not fail so they released new
coke it was an absolute disaster people
were literally hoarding the the existing
coke they were buying just loads of it
putting it in their basement putting it
away they made the assumption that data
always tells this full story and we all
do this we look at the data data safe
data tells us this is the right thing to
do they looked at the data they thought
that they were safe to make this this
call but they missed the fact that
people were connected to the original
coach they didn’t want to lose the coke
they’d been drinking all of their life
they’d had an emotional connection to it
so they made the assumption that the
data would tell the full story
luckily they turned it around very very
quickly another example of this I want
you to imagine in your heads that we go
back to the day before the iPhone was
released so you don’t even know what the
that the iPhone is is going to come out
you don’t you know you have to get that
out of your mind and I want you one
minute to talk to the people around
and discuss well what would the main
market drivers in that industry at the
time what was Motorola and Nokia
concentrating on to get us to buy more
phones at the time so one minute discuss
with the people next year
[Applause]
okay okay so let’s look let’s look at
this what were the market drivers were
phones getting bigger or smaller smaller
okay we’re phones getting more
affordable or they’re getting more
expensive was battery life getting
better or worse it was getting better it
was getting better
what about signal strength were phones
better in terms of you know actually
being able to get good signal strength
absolutely these were key market drivers
in the industry at the time then all of
a sudden you had somebody like Steve
Jobs that had no box he didn’t look at
those assumptions so okay was the iPhone
small no it was one of the biggest
phones on the marketplace it must have
had a great battery life then the first
iPhone one to do it there okay it must
have been really affordable no there is
one of the most expensive and this well
the signal strength must have been
brilliant and it wasn’t not even up to
the iPhone 4 when you couldn’t put your
hand in a certain place so Steve Jobs
was not afraid to break all the rules he
he just removed the box he didn’t allow
those assumptions to control what he
wanted to invent he wanted to look at
something totally different and look at
the success that came from that so in
summary what you need to be able to do
to remove the box is just challenge
those assumptions just think about the
things that are running around inside
your head that might be dictating what
you’re doing if you’re in business for
instance and it happens to me all the
time they say Chris Chris we need we
need to increase sales you know can you
come and help us increase sales so I
take that away from them I say well what
if you can’t increase sales just imagine
what would you do then they might say
well okay we will upsell our existing
customers okay let’s take that away what
if you can’t do that what would you now
do so it just takes away the assumptions
and sometimes you can even reverse them
so for instance instead of finding new
customers how can you lose your
customers you’ll be surprised at looking
at the problem in that perspective we’ll
throw up things you hadn’t even thought
of you have to remove the box you have
to people come to me and say Chris are
I’ve got a great business idea but I
just haven’t got the resources to make
it happen well imagine you never get the
resources
would you make it happen there’s an
absolutely awesome TED talk on a
teenager that came up with a test for
pancreatic cancer nearly 5 million
people have watched that TED video now
he didn’t have the resources
he went to Home Depot and got the parts
from a DIY store and created a test for
pancreatic cancer it’s incredible so the
key thing here is remove the box you
must remove the box by challenging your
thinking people say if you keep doing
what you’ve always done you’ll always
get what you’ve always got
but in today’s fast-paced world that
just isn’t true if you keep doing what
you’ve always done you’ll get left way
behind standing still means you’re going
backwards so think without the box thank
you
[Applause]
having dots to join that’s what I love
about Ted every time I listen to a talk
it gives me more dots to join it makes
me think different but what if we need
to think differently to overcome a
challenge or an uncertainty that we face
now people say that creativity is about
thinking outside the box others that
it’s all about being creative inside the
box but what if there is no box and
that’s what I want to talk to you about
today that if you can realize what that
box is and you can remove it you can
unlock unlimited streams of creativity
now Henry Ford said that thinking is the
hardest work there is which is probably
why so few of us engage in it so I’d
like us to do some thinking today and
then ask you to interact with me today
I’m gonna start by asking a question in
your entire educational life from the
moment you started school to the moment
you’ve finished how many hours would you
say you spent learning mathematics how
many hours somebody throw out some ideas
how many hours one two hundred more than
two hundred seven thousand if you went
to university and studied mathematics
yeah probably you would have spent
thousands of hours learning mathematics
learning English learning science let me
ask you another question how many hours
did you spend during that same period of
learning about metacognition so thinking
about thinking learning how to learn
learning how to create who had
creativity 101 lessons anyone out there
zero very very few I saw a few hands but
it’s very few now therein lies the rub
as Shakespeare would say because our
educational system is really good at
feeding us information it helps us to
assimilate knowledge and that is really
important but and it’s a very big but
knowledge is no longer power the use of
knowledge is no
power it’s the creation of new knowledge
that’s power so if we can help people to
create new ideas and new knowledge
that’s where the power really is in 1968
George land was given the task of
creating a creativity tests to help NASA
find highly creative engineers now 1968
NASA was at the height of the space race
they needed to find some amazing people
to help them so they created this test
but interestingly what they did was to
put sixteen hundred five-year-olds
through the same test what percentage of
those five-year-olds do you think scored
in the highly creative range so give me
some numbers what percentage eighty
seventy five yeah we all know it’s going
to be a high percentage but did you
think it would be this high ninety-eight
percent of those five year olds scored
in the highly creative range now they
tested the same children five years
later what percentage now scored in the
highly creative range sixty bit
optimistic this group 30% again five
years later fifteen years old
what percentage now scored two percent
12 percent so it’s quite depressing
isn’t it they also put 250,000 people
over the age of 25 and that’s probably
most of us here through the same test
what percentage of those scored in the
highly creative range 2% 2% now just
think about why this happens just think
about it the five-year-olds scored 98%
in the highly creative range you don’t
have to tell a five-year-old to think of
outside the box they have no concept of
what thinking outside the box is in fact
if you give them a box and tell them
it’s a box let’s say no it’s not it’s an
aeroplane it’s a bus it’s a car it’s a
suit it’s a galaxy they have no
comprehension of what the box is the box
starts to form as we get older it’s made
up of our beliefs our habits and mainly
our assumptions
it’s
these little programs that run around in
our head that tell us what is possible
and what isn’t possible and they’re good
things because they make sense of the
world but sometimes you need to turn
those off now I’d like us to do a little
bit of a creativity test so in your bags
you’ll have the guide and you’ll have
some pens so if you could get those out
and I really want you to do this you
need to do the test so if you could just
get to get something to write on get a
pen out I’m going to give you 60 seconds
to do this creativity test and we’ll see
how you do as an audience
okay the test is very simple the test is
to come up with as many non uses of a
paperclip that you can think of starting
now so anything you just can’t use a
paperclip for non uses of a paperclip
how many non uses of a paperclip can you
come up with in sixty Seconds okay pens
down if you could just count up how many
you’ve come up with let’s see how good
you are how many had between zero and
two a few how many had between three and
eight the majority how many had more
than eight okay that’s pretty good can
you give me some examples what do you
think is a really good non use of a
paperclip more than Eric okay Boylan
Eric who else had an on use that was
better than that food food ride a bike
okay we’ve got food oil and egg and ride
a bike food oil and egg and ride a bike
what I’m going to ask you to do now in
in groups speak to the people next to
you is imagine that you’re on a debating
team and unfortunately you’ve been given
the unenviable task of debating that you
can use a paperclip as food that you can
use a paperclip to boil an egg and that
you can use a paperclip as a bike I’m
going to give you 60 seconds to come up
with how you can use a paperclip to do
all those things to speak to the people
next to you and come up with an answer
in 60 seconds
okay okay everyone I could get your
attention how can we use a paperclip as
food we could grate it on pasta so
instantly we could use it we could have
the paperclip we could grate it
perhaps we get at the added benefit of
getting extra iron into our diets so so
we can use a paperclip as food
what about boil an egg how can we boil
an egg with a paperclip oh so we just
eat the paperclip put it into the egg
over time it will heat the egg and it
will boil the eggs so we can use a
paperclip to boil an egg what about ride
a bike
so we could magnetize it and stick it to
the bike how else could we use it so we
could use lots of paperclips together to
actually make about bike out of it
so actually we can use a paperclip to do
all of those things we can now I do this
creativity test all over the world and
quite often somebody in the audience
will say Chris yeah that’s good fun but
let’s face it that’s stupid you’re never
gonna use a paperclip to boil an egg
you’re never gonna use a paperclip to
ride a bike let me tell you why I’m
telling you this no it’s just imagine we
went back in time so it’s 1928 it’s
September 1928 and I was to do this
activity with you again but this time
rather than a paperclip I said to you
right give me the non uses of mold
absolutely nothing that something you
just can’t do with mold and and somebody
might have come up with the idea well
you can never use mold to save the lives
of millions of people in the future and
then a few weeks later Alexander Fleming
would come back from his vacation and
all of a sudden invent penicillin the
whole point of this is that to be
creative you have to have an everything
as possible mindset just because you see
something as it is doesn’t mean it has
to be that way you have to challenge
those assumptions let’s look at some
other examples sort of real-world
examples just look at I’m just going to
pick out two of these but if we looked
at Kodak I mean how could Kodak go into
chapter 11 bankruptcy
I mean seriously Kodak and when I ask
people that they will all say to me how
is the digital camera you know the
digital camera put Kodak into that
position but this is Steve Sasson appear
from Kodak who actually invented the
first digital camera now the problem
they had the box that they had the
assumptions that they had was that they
were in the film business that to make
money to grow market share they had to
sell film so they couldn’t see past that
to see that they could have taken
advantage of being first in that digital
marketplace coca-cola do many of you
know why coca-cola was called coca-cola
classic for so long have you ever
thought about that you know why was it
called coca-cola classic in 1985
coca-cola did the largest taste test
that’s ever been done 200,000 people
were given a blind taste test of new
coke and the existing coke and the data
was absolutely clear people preferred
new coke it tasted you know so much
better though this was black and white
you could not fail so they released new
coke it was an absolute disaster people
were literally hoarding the the existing
coke they were buying just loads of it
putting it in their basement putting it
away they made the assumption that data
always tells this full story and we all
do this we look at the data data safe
data tells us this is the right thing to
do they looked at the data they thought
that they were safe to make this this
call but they missed the fact that
people were connected to the original
coach they didn’t want to lose the coke
they’d been drinking all of their life
they’d had an emotional connection to it
so they made the assumption that the
data would tell the full story
luckily they turned it around very very
quickly another example of this I want
you to imagine in your heads that we go
back to the day before the iPhone was
released so you don’t even know what the
that the iPhone is is going to come out
you don’t you know you have to get that
out of your mind and I want you one
minute to talk to the people around
and discuss well what would the main
market drivers in that industry at the
time what was Motorola and Nokia
concentrating on to get us to buy more
phones at the time so one minute discuss
with the people next year
[Applause]
okay okay so let’s look let’s look at
this what were the market drivers were
phones getting bigger or smaller smaller
okay we’re phones getting more
affordable or they’re getting more
expensive was battery life getting
better or worse it was getting better it
was getting better
what about signal strength were phones
better in terms of you know actually
being able to get good signal strength
absolutely these were key market drivers
in the industry at the time then all of
a sudden you had somebody like Steve
Jobs that had no box he didn’t look at
those assumptions so okay was the iPhone
small no it was one of the biggest
phones on the marketplace it must have
had a great battery life then the first
iPhone one to do it there okay it must
have been really affordable no there is
one of the most expensive and this well
the signal strength must have been
brilliant and it wasn’t not even up to
the iPhone 4 when you couldn’t put your
hand in a certain place so Steve Jobs
was not afraid to break all the rules he
he just removed the box he didn’t allow
those assumptions to control what he
wanted to invent he wanted to look at
something totally different and look at
the success that came from that so in
summary what you need to be able to do
to remove the box is just challenge
those assumptions just think about the
things that are running around inside
your head that might be dictating what
you’re doing if you’re in business for
instance and it happens to me all the
time they say Chris Chris we need we
need to increase sales you know can you
come and help us increase sales so I
take that away from them I say well what
if you can’t increase sales just imagine
what would you do then they might say
well okay we will upsell our existing
customers okay let’s take that away what
if you can’t do that what would you now
do so it just takes away the assumptions
and sometimes you can even reverse them
so for instance instead of finding new
customers how can you lose your
customers you’ll be surprised at looking
at the problem in that perspective we’ll
throw up things you hadn’t even thought
of you have to remove the box you have
to people come to me and say Chris are
I’ve got a great business idea but I
just haven’t got the resources to make
it happen well imagine you never get the
resources
would you make it happen there’s an
absolutely awesome TED talk on a
teenager that came up with a test for
pancreatic cancer nearly 5 million
people have watched that TED video now
he didn’t have the resources
he went to Home Depot and got the parts
from a DIY store and created a test for
pancreatic cancer it’s incredible so the
key thing here is remove the box you
must remove the box by challenging your
thinking people say if you keep doing
what you’ve always done you’ll always
get what you’ve always got
but in today’s fast-paced world that
just isn’t true if you keep doing what
you’ve always done you’ll get left way
behind standing still means you’re going
backwards so think without the box thank
you
[Applause]
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