This document provides an overview of a presentation by Nick Jankel on teaching creativity. It discusses how creativity is more than just a talent, but a way of operating. It also discusses how fear can stop creativity and how having more expertise can limit possibilities. The presentation encourages participants to embrace chaos, break through barriers, and switch their mindset to see problems as opportunities. It emphasizes opening the hand, head and heart to fuel creativity. The overall message is that creativity can be learned and unlocked through challenging assumptions and taking risks.

1. @NICKWECREATE
RELEASING
PROMETHEUS
TEACHING ‘SWITCHED ON’ CREATIVITY
NICK JANKEL, WECREATE
CHELTENHAM DESIGN FESTIVAL
APRIL 2012

2. wecreate enlightens,
empowers and enables
change-makers to co-
create a radically better
world.
We do this through purpose-
driven innovation. service design.
org design. masterclasses.
intensive training. high-impact
coaching. leadership development.

3. WARNING
NOTHING IN HERE IS ‘TRUE’
(BUT IT MIGHT SERIOUSLY SWITCH YOU ON)

4. START
WITH A SMALL QUESTION

5. CREATIVITY
WHAT ON %#&@ IS IT?

7. “THING”
TO BE PRODUCED & CONSUMED

8. Prometheus, Teacher
in Every Art, Brought
the Fire That Hath
Proved to Mortals a
Means to Mighty Ends.

9. “Creativity is not a talent.
It is a way of operating.”
JOHN CLEESE

10. BEING
(AND THEN DOING)

11. JOURNEY
TO BE EXPERIENCED
(USUALLY TOGETHER)

12. HAND
BEHAVIOURS & ACTIONS
TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

13. HEAD
COGNITIVE FRAMES
CONNECTING IDEAS & CONTENT
LOGICAL REASONS
MENTAL MAPS & MEANING

14. HEART
FEELINGS
EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
INTUITIONS

15. “In order to create there
must be a dynamic force,
and what force is greater
that love?”
STRAVINSKY

16. BUT THERE IS A
CATCH

17. WIRED
TO SURVIVE

19. PATTERNS
BRAIN SENSES THREATS BASED ON PAST
EXPERIENCE AND ‘PROGRAMMING’

20. FEAR RESPONSE

21. HAND
FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZE
(FUCK)

22. HEAD
I KNOW THE ANSWER
IT’S A PROBLEM / BAD
THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING

23. HEART
FEAR
ANXIETY
LACK
SUFFERING

25. “Nothing will stop you
being creative so effectively
as the fear of making a
mistake.”
JOHN CLEESE

26. 26
OFF
REACT,
OFF = RETREAT,
REPEAT
OFF

27. “Experts can only give you incremental
evolution. As I was reading these books on
how pattern matching in the neocortex
works, I learned that the more information
you have and the more you’re an expert in a
certain subject, the moment a new project
comes in, the lowest level of neocortex
starts to find a match -you think, "Oh, this
looks very much like this other problem, and
by the way you can just tweak here and
you’ll have a solution." Whereas if you’ve
never heard about a problem, [it has to]
work with a higher level of neocortex.”
NAVEEN JAIN, BILLIONAIRE ENTREPRENEUR

28. “In the beginner's mind
there are many possibilities,
in the expert's mind there
are few.”
SHUNRYU SUZUKI

29. “At the onset of every work, you
must recreate your primal
innocence.”
RAINER MARIA RILKE

30. REWIRE
TO THRIVE

31. CO-CREATE
WITH LIFE

32. “There are only two ways to live your
life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle.”
ALBERT EINSTEIN

33. OPEN
HAND
HEAD
HEART

34. 34
ON
ON = CREATE
ON

35. The Switch
Intentions Possibility
Problems Executional idea
Partnership
Concept
Sense Making Purpose
Patterns
Passion
Programs Peace
© wecreate 2012

36. The Switch
Intentions
ORDER ORDER
Executional idea
Concept
Sense Making
CHAOS © wecreate 2012

37. “One must have chaos in
order to give birth to a
dancing star.”
NIETZSCHE

38. BE READY TO ENTER
THE MATRIX

40. “You take the blue pill, the
story ends, you wake up in
your bed and believe
whatever you want to
believe. You take the red
pill, you stay in Wonderland,
and I show you how deep
the rabbit hole goes.”
MORPHEUS

41. EPIPHANY
EUREKA!

44. “In short, it is a question of
processes that, even if they
do not originate in the
heavens, certainly go
beyond our intention and
our control, acquiring - with
respect to the individual - a
kind of transcendence.”
ITALO CALVINO

45. SOURCE
OF CREATIVITY

46. “Much of the source, like an
iceberg, is deep underwater,
unseen.”
DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER

47. The Switch
Intentions
ORDER ORDER
Executional idea
Concept
Sense Making
THE EXTENT OF THE
BREAKTHROUGH
DEPENDS ON HOW DEEP
WE ARE WILLING TO GO
TO MAKE THE SWITCH
CHAOS © wecreate 2012

48. EMBRACE THE
CHAOS
LOVE THE LIMBO

49. OPEN
AND CLOSE
(DIVERGENT & CONVERGENT)

50. “We need to be in the open
mode when pondering a
problem – but! – once we
come up with a solution, we
must then switch to the
closed mode to implement
it.”
JOHN CLEESE

51. RIGOUR
IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF CREATIVITY

52. “Creativity needs to be
expressed through a
medium... We must aquire
the neccessary knowledge
through study and pratice. ”
FRANK BARRON

53. The Switch
Intentions
ORDER ORDER
Executional idea
Concept
Sense Making
RESEARCH REFINE
RIGOUR RIGOUR
CHAOS © wecreate 2012

54. The Switch
Intentions Possibility
Problems Executional idea
Partnership
Concept
Sense Making Purpose
Patterns
Passion
Programs Peace
© wecreate 2012

55. PROBLEMS
CONTAIN WITHIN THEM THE ESSENCE OF THEIR
CREATIVE SOLUTION

56. IN 1983, ONLY
THOSE WHO
COULD USE A
COMMAND LINE
COULD USE A
COMPUTER

57. The Innovation Switch
Breakthrough
Problem Opportunity
What is the problem, in human terms? What kind of headline ideas could seize this opportunity ?
Everyday people are not buying
or using computers as much as Think different with a Mac...
they could.
Breakthrough
Proposition Proposition
What is the current proposition [product offer, business model, org process] What value proposition [product offer, business model, org process]
that leads to this problem? emerges from this insight?
We design and sell computers as We design and sell ‘computers’ as creativity
productivity maximers - they help maximisers - they can help people thrive.
businesses win.
Assumptions Breakthrough
Insight
What do we have to believe to generate and validate this proposition? What is a more insightful, future-positive belief?
Productivity is the goal of life. Technology Creativity is the goal of life. Technology
helps us be more productive cogs in the can help liberate us, empower us and
business machine (growing profits, GDP inspire us.
etc.)
© wecreate 2012

59. SWITCH
ANYTHING INTO AN OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE
THE FUTURE

60. IF (AND IT’S A BIG IF)

61. LET GO
TECHNIQUES, BOUNDARIES
IDEAS, BELIEFS, REASONS, RULES
FEARS, WORRIES

63. ASSUME
TO BE TRUE

65. BREAK
THROUGH

66. BREAK
THROUGH THE BARRIERS OF HAND, HEAD &
HEART

67. BREAK
RULES

68. BROKE THE
RULES OF
THE GODS

69. TRAINED
NOT TO QUESTION
NOT TO CHALLENGE
NOT TO THINK DIFFERENTLY
NOT TO SEARCH FOR THE POSSIBLE

70. CREATIVITY IS IN
OUR DNA AND
MAKES US
HUMAN

71. NOT
GETTING SOMETHING

72. ALL
IS WAITING FOR US

73. I saw the angel in the
marble and carved
until I set him free.
MICHELANGELO

74. ‘Switched on’ people
carve away everything -
their own patterns and
assumptions most of all
- to set themselves free.

75. “I must create a system or
be enslav’d by another
man’s.”
WILLIAM BLAKE

76. To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This
is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.”
SHELLEY, PROMETHEUS UNBOUND

77. RISKY?
TO MAKE THE SWITCH

78. SURE!
CREATIVITY IN LIFE AND WORK IS RISK
INCARNATE

79. “He was a bold man that first ate
an oyster.”
JONATHAN SWIFT

81. HOLDING
ONTO OLD IDEAS

82. FAR MORE
DANGEROUS THAN
RISKING NEW ONES

83. THOUGH IT DOES
NOT STOP PEOPLE
TRYING

84. SWITCH ON
REWIRE OUR MINDS AND THE SYSTEM TO SEE
POSSIBILITIES FOR ALL WITHIN PROBLEMS OF
SO MANY

85. WORLD
IS WAITING FOR US

86. PICK
A PROBLEM
THE BIGGER & JUICIER THE BETTER

87. OPEN
HAND, MIND & HEART

88. Who rescued me from certain death,
From slavery?
Didst thou not do all this thyself,
My sacred glowing heart?
GOETHE, PROMETHEUS

89. PROBLEMS
ARE THE KEYS WHICH UNLOCK THE DOORS OF
PEACE, PURPOSE & POSSIBILITY

90. You are only ever one
(deep) assumption away
from a (massive)
breakthrough.

91. The pioneering
creative leadership
& collaboration
coaching
programme

92. CONNECT
NICK@WECREATE.CC
WECREATE.CC: SWITCHED ON INNOVATION &
LEADERSHIP
NICKJANKEL.COM: LIFE SWITCHED ON

93. “The act of feeling frustrated is
an essential part of the creative
process. Before we can find the
answer – before we can even
know the question – we must be
immersed in disappointment,
convinced that a solution is
beyond our reach. We need to
have wrestled with the problem
and lost. Because it's only after
we stop searching that an
answer may arrive.”
JONAH LEHRER

94. “Tis true without lying, certain &
most true.
That which is below is like that
which is above & that which is
above is like that which is below.”
ISAAC NEWTON

95. Breakthrough Leadership
Intentions Proactivity
Problems Executional idea
Possibility
Concept
Sense Making Purpose
Patterns
Passion
Pain Peace
© wecreate 2012

96. PLEASURE
IS NO SOLUTION TO PAIN

98. “‘I could have let hatred for this act
consume me. I could have curled up in
a ball and cried, asking, “Why me?” But
I didn’t. From the moment I was given
the option of choosing life, I made a
pact that if I did survive I would live a
full life, a good and rich life.”
GILL HICKS

100. “We who lived in the concentration
camps can remember the men who
walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in
number but they offer sufficient proof
that everything can be taken from a
man but one thing: the last of the
human freedoms – to choose one’s
attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose one’s own
way.”
VIKTOR FRANKL

101. 101
Relentlessly seeking out
opportunities to grow and
flourish with every challenge

102. “What I think is that a good life is
one hero journey after another. Over
and over again, you are called to the
realm of adventure, you are called to
new horizons. Each time, there is the
same problem: do I dare? And then
if you do dare, the dangers are
there, and the help also, and the
fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s
always the possibility of fiasco.
But there’s also the possibility of
bliss.”
Joseph Campbell

103. “Computationally… the unfolding of
behavior can be thought of as a ball
rolling down a continually shifting
landscape of possibilities, always
seeking the deepest valleys. This
computational understanding of the
nature of perception, motivation, and
action offers some intriguing insights
into the meaning of, and the prospects
for, the pursuit of happiness.”
PROFESSOR SHIMON EDELMAN, CORNELL