Gordon brown brain juice - workshop 1

How To Create An Inspirational

& Sustainable Idea .

March 30th, 2012

// Who am I?

Gordon Brown, yeah that’s right!

// GORDON BROWN

Over twenty five years educational and business experience in sales and marketing

This included fourteen years with Bass Brewers finishing as Director of Brands for the Tennents portfolio

In 2000, as a board director, Gordon was part of the successful floatation of e-comsport Group plc - a sports technology company

Education includes an Honours Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma in Management Studies and an MBA

Gordon is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketers, Member of the Marketing Society and a Chartered Marketer

// GORDON BROWN

• Circuit Break: (formed 2001) • Marketing consultancy

• Branding advice

• Marketing coaching and training

• Consumer insight advice

• Marketing/Brand/Activity planning

• Brain Juice: (formed 2005) • Unlocking creative thinking

• Creativity course

• Workshops/Brainstorm facilitation

• Novels: (first published 2009) • Crime thriller writer

// HOW DID WE DISCOVER BRAIN JUICE?

WHO DO WE WORK WITH?

So what is creativity?

// Some thoughts:

• Idea = Doing something you currently do better (or worse) or doing something that is completely new

• Innovation = Brilliant Ideas – Passionately Executed

// Another definition:

Need + Idea + Implementation = Creative Process

The Three Stages of the Creative Process

DEFINITION

GENERATION

IMPLEMENTATION

An unhealthy obsession

// Definition Which is the easier question to answer:

• What is 7 multiplied by 6?

or

• What is answer to the life, the universe and everything

// Generation The tools and techniques to create new ideas

Kick Start Eccentric Thoughts Yo – Yo Similar People

Business world Creative world

// Implementation How many people have been to a brainstorm – generated a lot of ideas and then, nothing has happened as a result?

Wheat from Chaff

Personal Action + Structure

The Three Stages of the Creative Process

DEFINITION

GENERATION

IMPLEMENTATION

// But why is creativity important to the organisation…?

// Why is creativity important…?

CHANGE

// Change? Computers?

• 1946 = 5,000 operations a second

• 2001 = 2 Million operations a second

• 2014 = 20,000 Trillion operations a second (It would take 120 billion people with 120 billion calculators 50 years to do this in a day.)

Online sales – UK

• £60 billion spend by UK shoppers online. (2010)

// Change? How long to 50 Million users?

• Radio = 38 years

• TV = 17 years

• PC’s = 16 years

• Internet = 4 years

• iPad = 2 Years?

So is creativity all about the ‘ONE’ big idea?

Scale

of

Idea

Time

+

-

// Analysing via Thinking Urban Myth – but what does it tell us?

Analysing –

• NASA– 2 Years– $20 Million = Space Pen

Thinking –

• USSR – 0 Days – 0 Cost = Pencil!

// Quotes

// I think there is a world market for maybe five computers Thomas J Watson, 1943, Chairman IBM

// Who the hell wants to hear actors talk

Harry M Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

// 640k ought to be enough for anyone Bill Gates, 1981

// “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out.” Decca Records rejecting the Beatles, 1962

// Whatever happens the US navy is not going to get caught napping Frank Knox, US Secretary of Navy, Dec 4th 1941 (Pearl Harbour attacked on Dec 7th)

Innovate or stagnate

// What are the barriers to creativity?

// Barriers • Destructive criticism

// Destructive criticism • ‘that idea is rotten’

• ‘we’ve tried that before’

• ‘we don’t have the time’

• ‘be serious’

• ‘let’s sleep on that one’

• ‘have you been sleeping?’

• ‘my boss will never buy that one’

• ‘get real’

// Barriers • Destructive criticism

• Need for conformity

// Need for Conformity

// There ain’t no rules around here! we’re trying to accomplish something!

Thomas A. Edison (1847 – 1931)

// There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965)

// Barriers • Destructive criticism

• Need for conformity

• Time

Business world Creative world

// Barriers • Destructive criticism

• Need for conformity

• Time

• Physical Environment

// Barriers • Destructive criticism

• Need for conformity

• Time

• Physical Environment

• Bravery

// Three types of people:

• Those who make things happen

• Those who watch things happen

• Those who wonder what happened!

THE BIGGEST BARRIER

SHOUT OUT THE COLOUR OF THE LETTERS

BLUE

GREEN

WHITE

ORANGE

BLACK

Some exercise to demonstrate the point

ON YOUR OWN

// QUESTION 1 A WOMAN LIVES IN TEXAS IN THE U.S.A. OVER THE COURSE OF A COUPLE OF DAYS SHE DRIVES TO NEW YORK AND THEN HOME TO TEXAS. ALL THE WHILE SHE ONLY EVER USES A SOUTHBOUND CARRIAGEWAY. EXPLAIN? She started her journey north of New York

// QUESTION 2 A BLIND MAN DRIVES UP TO A HOUSE, GETS OUT OF THE CAR AND GOES UP TO THE DOOR WITH A PACKAGE. THE HOMEOWNER TAKES THE PACKAGE AND GIVES THE BLIND MAN A CHEQUE. THE BLIND MAN THEN DRIVES AWAY. WHAT WAS IN THE PACKAGE? Blinds

// QUESTION 3 Using each symbol below exactly once each, form the name of an eight letter mammal.

Eledhaut

e h a t d u l e

Eledhaut

Elephant

// QUESTION 4 What are the next two numbers in this sequence? 36,91,21,51,82,12,42

3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27,30,33,36

3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,2

3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27,3

// QUESTION 5 Add three more unbroken matches so that a cube is formed = 8 = 23

// Barriers to creativity

You are out in the city centre and you see a dark blue Ford Mondeo pull up beside you. In the car is a man with a business suit on and a briefcase on the passenger seat. The back seat is filled with filing boxes and paper. He is talking into his mobile phone.

Describe the person in the car. What does he do? Who is he? What kind of life does he have?

What if you are wrong what else could he be?

// Why do you think the way you do?

// There are a number of barriers but the biggest is your brain…

EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE AND A PLACE FOR EVERTHING

Work

Rest Play

The river

// THE RIVER

THE KEY TO GETTING OUT OF THE RIVER…

Stimulation

// Cracking creativity Kick Start Eccentric Thoughts Yo – Yo Similar People

// THE RIVER

// THE RIVER

// Cracking creativity – quick tips

Take a break.

In a digital world notepads are still good.

Look for stimulation.

Meet away from the office.

Steal with glee.

If really stuck re express the problem.

It’s ok to have fun while looking for a new idea.

// Three Steps

• DEFINITION

• GENERATION

• IMPLEMENTATION

Summary

Barrier to Creativity

Solution

K

E

Y

S

Business Management Ian MacKenzie

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QUESTIONS