Creativity Oz - Postponed till 2011

Hi folks

Every now and then we find decisions that are really, really hard to make - especially when the heart is saying one thing and the head saying another.

Over the past two weeks we've spent a lot of time talking to clients, potential sponsors, and other organisations about Creativity Oz and the state of the World right now. The bottom line is that whilst everyone I've spoken to thinks the idea of Creativity Oz is just wonderful, the number of people able to commit any support in the form of sponsorship or even attendance is remarkably low.

So we've decided to postpone Creativity Oz for one year.

There are a number of factors involved...

• As I've mentioned above, unless the economy changes radically for the better we will be hard pushed to find the numbers. Many of the people we have spoken to are pretty 'deep' inside the finance sector and whilst there is a level of upbeat about some of the published news, the inside story is just the opposite.
• There are quite a few people who have promised to come from overseas. Our reckoning is that up to half of the participants are likely to fly in. This has a number of responsibilities attached - our responsibilities I feel. I really want to avoid people buying best-value non-refundable airfares for an event that might need to be cancelled after they buy the tickets. A bit negative I hear you say... But alongside the financial issues there is the swine flu issue which it seems is largely unknown. And although mild at the moment, mutation is considered by many experts to be on the cards, and it might be this which has a bigger effect on attendance than travel issues and the economy. It's largely unknown I agree. We have been told it's even possible that we could find international events, and even large national gatherings, banned if a wider and more virulent strain of flu is encountered.
• Because this is a 'first' for Australia, a fizzer would be the worst possible outcome! We must make sure the first event goes with a bang, that we get all those wonderful international presenters that we are relying on so much, and that we get the widest appropriate exposure to the event - and that it is reported as success.

So - I think it has to be 2011. I would rather postpone early than wait and see. Obviously I'm aware that we could end up in Feb. 2010 and everything is sunshine and light - no flu, economic recovery, growth rates up and more people in work, with budgets ready to be spent on our kind of stuff! That would be annoying I guess, but won't damage anyone else. The risk of going ahead now, and events taking place that would seriously inconvenience people and cost them money, is a much bigger risk and I don't feel comfortable in doing that.

As all of you have given such sensational support to the idea and have helped in so many ways I wanted to let you know first before we sent out an email to everyone else. In the next e-News we send out from the Thinking Network I will acknowledge that support fully.

In particular I would like to thank Brendan for putting in hours and hours of work on the Creativity Oz website - it really is shaping up to be a treasure. I would also like to thanks Brendan's friend Ben - who incidentally I still haven't met! Ben - the logo you designed is just outstanding! Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into this. And Sally - thanks for agreeing to run with the PR for the event, we couldn't possibly have found anyone better suited to this task.

To everyone else - if you're looking for a web guru, a sensational graphic designer and a PR person who can walk on water - these are the people to go to. Please support them if you have an opportunity. Just ask me for their email address.

All the best

Ken

Don’t start a think tank without thinkers!

Think Tanks are all the rage!  Maybe it all started with Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit? 

Mr. Rudd asked 1,000 of Australia's top brains to map out strategies for the future at a '2020 Summit' in Canberra on 19-20 April 2008.  The results were published a year later.  962 ideas put forward resulted in nine proposals being given the green light by the Federal Government.  Was this value for money, and what can we learn from the experience? 

Proposals included a new ABC TV channel for children, research into a bionic eye, formation of a volunteer civilian force to deal with regional emergencies, a review of the tax system, a review of how the states and territories work together, a carbon pollution reduction scheme, a student scholarships award scheme, building an indigenous cultural centre and creating a white paper on homelessness.  Further initiatives include the broadband network, initiatives to help business and developing relationships with schools. 

But what if we had asked the same questions of group of people chosen at random?  Say the next ten people in a queue at the supermarket?  What proposal would they have put forward?  They may have missed out on the bionic eye, of course, that’s a bit specialized, but the rest?  My guess is they would have probably covered them all.  So was the think tank value for money?

 A more important question of course could be is there a better way to run a think tank in the future?  Surely we should expect much more from ‘the Country’s leading thinkers’?  So what might be possible? 

The Kevin Rudd experience in April 2008 can perhaps be seen as a giant version of a familiar scenario that happens in many organisations around Australia every day.  Groups of people gather together in the same room with an issue in mind and the intention of ‘brainstorming’ for the best solution. 

When the participants have been through some effective training in productive thinking the results are often spectacular.  Some great ideas have emerged and have produced amazing improvements in performance.  Delivery times cut in half, cost of production halved, huge slabs of time saved, and in the present economic climate, jobs and organisations could be saved too!

 But if the brainstormers haven’t been taught thinking skills, the results are typically disappointing.  They rely on one process and get limited results.  The outcomes are often a statement – and frequent re-statement – of opinion, and a reflection of ‘what we do around here’ married to vested interest.  Ideas re judged as soon as they appear, which suppresses any genuine creative thought.  Suggest anything radical and it’s put down as ‘too risky’. 

So why don’t we teach thinking skills?  Maybe because everyone thinks they can think?  And of course they can, but in how many different ways?  How many creative thinking strategies have you learned?  How about critical thinking?  But we know you can’t solve 21^st century problems with 20^th century thinking.  We know that the thinking that got us to where we are isn’t going to be the best thinking to get us into the future.  The thinking that created the current recession is certainly not going to be a suitable form of thinking for recovery!

 Perhaps one of the main reasons behind this lack of training in thinking skills is the view that ‘thinking’ is seen as a soft skill.  Soft skills are often considered as optional extras.  The hard skills like ‘knowing’ things take precedent.  But we didn’t ‘know’ the recession was coming.  And maybe we don’t ‘know’ how to recover?  Do we know how to cure poverty?  Do we know how to prevent terrorism?  Do we know how to maintain a healthy planet? 

So if knowing things is not enough, thinking becomes the only option; it’s not a luxury item any more.  And if that’s the case we MUST teach thinking skills at every opportunity; in schools, colleges, university, the workplace and the family. 

And as far as Think Tanks are concerned we really must teach the participants productive thinking skills, models, tools techniques and processes.  Then we have a much better chance of having a real ‘value for money’ think tank with the potential to come up with more options and better ideas.  And to extend the thinking beyond ‘what’ needs to happen, to include why it’s a good idea and how we might go about it. 

Let’s put the ‘think’ back into think tank.  Opinion tanks are a waste of time.

Creativity through connections

This is an amazing dedication to creatively using what already exists!  There should be no downturn or layoffs or bankruptcy if we could get half as much creativity into the business world!

www.thru-you.com/

Think about it - share it - do it!  How could we apply the principle in business? In education?  In government?  International trade?  How about putting an end to poverty?  Is there anyone or any organisation who WOULDN'T be better off if they could make connections, synthesise like this?  Love to hear your thoughts...

Ken

Sky Business News

Sky Business News have confirmed a spot on their 'Upside' segment for 9.45 am tomorrow, 15 April, Aussie Eastern time.  Looks like all their interview segments are about 4-5 minutes...  The focus should be on Productive Thinking, what are the barriers and why we need it - how much can you say in 5 minutes?  Another new experience though - wonder what I'll be saying about it after the event?