A large part of what I do is to work with managers, leaders, business owners & students to help them solve problems or develop new strategies or products in new and different ways.
I have been doing this for the past 10 years.
During this time I came across what I thought was a fascinating insight.
Paradoxically whenever I gave participants in my workshops less time to solve a problem, they could not only complete this task but seemed to generate ideas that were more original and they felt more energised.
They seem to be able to unlock their full creative potential.
How could this be I wondered?
Less time — better results?
– Managers become more focussed.
– They do not have any time to procrastinate nor over-analyse.
– They spend more time on the key parts of the problem rather than on the peripheral.
– Participants in my workshops are very much in the moment (rather like performers in an improvisation comedy sketch).
This makes perfect sense to me.
But my insight goes deeper.
Perhaps the real reason people are more creative when I accelerate their thinking is that they literally have no time to listen to their (often) critical internal voice.
You know the voice — the one that says ‘what if I am wrong? or what when others say?
By not listening to this voice even for a few minutes I believe that we can all become more innovative and unlock our creative potential.
This is the true insight behind the development of my Speed Thinking theory and its practical application – Ideas Blitz.
These types of approaches do not replace traditional thinking but complements it.