Big Brain
Thinking!
Unleashing Creativity
& Innovation!
Session Takeaways:
Stretch yourself by engaging in exercises that
teach you to "flip the switch' turning on
creativity and overcoming self limiting barriers
to creative thinking.
Identify how thinking styles and perception
patterns in how we process information can
block or inhibit new ways of approaching
situations.
Leave with a toolkit of tips, techniques, and
activities to jump start idea generation and
find new ways to view, analyze, and solve your
challenges!
“The human mind, once
stretched by a new idea, never
goes back to its original
dimensions.”
Oliver Wendall Holmes
The Value of
Creative Thinking
& Innovation
To set the tone for some
creativity….
 ”Anyone
who!”
Creativity: Do only “special people”
have it?
We are born creative but it is often “taught out of us.”
We are pushed to conform, stay in line. Fit in the box,
not out of it.
A child’s creativity decreases 90 percent from age five
to seven. By the time they reach 40, creativity is at rock
bottom -- a mere two percent of what they once had.
This probably happened to you too. Want it back?
Group Activity: 2 Captions!
Workbook
Page 2
The phenomenal power of the
human mind...
 I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty udnesrtnad
waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of
the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can
sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,
but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and
I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.
How the Mind Works: Pattern
Recognition System
Language is an example. You have to create patterns for
words and sentences when you learn to talk and read. Later,
you recognize patterns of letters that make up words and
sentences.
This pattern recognition can lead us to the wrong conclusion.
When we read, we quickly try to put words and sentences
into recognizable patterns. We do the same with all kinds of
data and information. We do this so quickly that we often
overlook key data and make wrong conclusions.
Our mind creates, stores, and recognizes patterns. All three
factors have impact on creative thinking. Our mind can
create a pattern when none really exists.
Do you see gray dots in the
corners?
Do the circles appear
to be moving?
Count the Passes
http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.
com/videos.html
The Mind: Pattern Recognition


Countless examples of engineers/scientists who run
tests, create a pattern about what the data is telling
them. It gets reinforced each time they see data that
fits the pattern. If data doesn’t fit the pattern, do they
create new patterns? Many times data that doesn’t
fit is discarded or ignored because it “Must be a
problem with the test method or instrumentation.”
Why should we care about how the mind functions
and establishes patterns? It affects our creative
thinking process as those patterns become
established and difficult to change. Your awareness
of this will help open your mind to creative thinking
and new ideas, but old habits are hard to break. We
have to consciously work to interrupt our patterns.
Many of us wonder…
• “How can I think more
creatively?”
• “How can I be more
innovative?”
What Does It Look
Like? Behaviors of
Creative/Innovative
Person?
Workbook
Page 3
What’s Your Thinking Style?
There are many different ways of thinking
It’s important to have a diversity of thinking styles
when we’re trying to generate ideas or
implement new projects.
Understanding the different thinking styles helps
us work together more effectively.
Each person is capable of using all thinking styles
but generally is energized by one style.
What’s Your Thinking
Style?
Some people love to start new projects and come out of the
gate fast but sometimes run out of steam before they’re finished.
Others love to bring order out of chaos and they enjoy the
feeling of completion that comes with a job well done.
Some people love to present new ideas and help people see
connections in new ways.
Others love to tinker with concepts and gadgets, taking them
apart and putting them back together again.
Ask Yourself Two Questions:
Question: Are you more energized when you are starting
a new project or when you are organizing and
completing an ongoing project?
Question: Are you more energized when you are sharing,
presenting, or selling concepts (sell it) or when you are
researching, analyzing, or refining concepts (fix it)?
These two questions can be mapped into a quadrant to
help you understand your own thinking style and the
thinking styles of others.
The Whole Brain Model, The Ted
Hermann Group
Problem Solving
Start
Fix It
Organizing
Exploring
Sell It
Finish
Teaching
Workbook
Page 3
Quadrant
Description
Strengths
Weaknesses
ProblemSolving
Always looking for problems to solve!
Likes dealing with facts and data
Tend to be objective and logical
Problem solving!
Process and
empathetic
communication
Organizing
Love bringing order out of chaos, and
making processes better. They like to deal
with objects and reality and tend to be more
practical and concrete and better at finishing
tasks.
Order and process
knowing when to
let
go and how to
communicate
benefits.
Exploring
Love finding new possibilities and exploring the
world. Tend to see the big picture and but find
it more difficult to handle numerous details.
More apt to overlook important
facts or flaws.
Embracing
change
Too much
shooting from the
hip, not enough
follow up.
Teaching
Thrive on sharing and presenting information in
a way that leads to a natural close of a deal or
a project. Less interested in starting new things
than seeing what is in place through to
completion
Collaboration,
building
alignment, getting
people onboard.
May use instinct vs.
logic
So now we know our thinking
style, what are other barriers to
creativity and innovation?
Barrier: Conformity!
http://youtu.be/VgDx5g9ql1g
Barriers to Creativity and Innovation








There is only one right
answer
Logic!
Rules, rules, and more
rules
No time for “Play”
It’s not my job
Fear of looking foolish or
failing
Not having all the
answers
I don’t think I am
creative!
WORKBOOK
PAGE 3
Creativity on the fly!
Group
Story!
Creating a Culture of
Innovation:
Is it the culture’s natural tendency to listen to ideas?
Is information openly and widely shared?
Do people feel free to speak their minds?
Do people take calculated risks to advance great, new ideas
that will benefit the organization?
Does the organization value curiosity and learning?
Do people trust and respect each other?
Your Mission! Design a Hip
Concept Hotel
Idea Generation Tips, Tools,
and Techniques!
Better
Brainstorming/Mindmapping
Go for quantity
first
Treat every
idea as a
valued
contribution
Building on
ideas is
encouraged
Judge later—
suspend logic
during idea
generation
Avoid
elaborate
discussionfocus on
pumping out
ideas!
Convergent vs. Divergent Ideas
Two
Phases of
Creativity:
• Divergence is the stimulation of new
thinking by diversifying and exploring.
• Convergence involves refining and
choosing the best possibilities.
One Rule
of
Creativity
• Separate the two phases. Trying to
diverge and converge at the same
time doesn’t work!
Random Word Idea
Generation Technique
“Apartment:” Building...Build.... Hammer...Screwdriver....Fork.....
“So thick, you have to use a FORK”
The Five Senses:
What does the
problem look like,
feel like, sound
like…
Idea Snowball
Bucket
Genius Hour
Toss the Koosh
Idea Generation:
Trend hunting-pay attention to “cool”
i,.e. emerging technologies, viral news
(Google feed), people watch
http://www.trendhunter.com/tv/trendsin-2012-forecast-video
Recluster!
What if…future focus
Two years
from now, if
we were
celebrating
our success,
what would
have
happened?
Write the
story!
• What is the hole in X industry that is
waiting to be filled?
• If we could change one thing about
this, what would it be?
• How might we make it [better, bigger,
faster, smaller, more fun]?
• What assumptions are we making? Or,
what are we not giving ourselves
permission to do? Or, what rules have
we never questioned?
• What are our blindspots?
Convergent vs. Divergent Ideas
Two
Phases of
Creativity:
• Divergence is the stimulation of new
thinking by diversifying and exploring.
• Convergence involves refining and
choosing the best possibilities.
One Rule
of
Creativity
• Separate the two phases. Trying to
diverge and converge at the same
time doesn’t work!
Example: Cultivating Creativity & Innovation!
Additional Resources:
 Imagine:
How Creativity Works, by Jonah
Lehrer
 Creativity, by Matthew Fox
 Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of
Creative Genius, by Michael Michalko
 Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to
Drive Breakthrough Creativity, by Josh
Linkner
Email: nelsonconsultingllc@gmail.com
Takeaways?
Big Brain
Thinking!
Unleashing Creativity
& Innovation!