The content for this session is born out of my personal journey as a musician, writer, and teacher. The session is built on a very simple idea: if you want to create something, you can.

Of course, if it were easy, everyone would do it. The easy stuff is forgettable. The challenging stuff is what we remember for a lifetime.

In our hour together we will do three things:

• Introduce ourselves and say why we care about creating and making things
• I will share some fundamental concepts about creative thinking, and we will talk about them
• You will practice coming up with ideas (divergent thinking) and then combining those ideas with other ideas (convergent thinking)

Educator
Musician
Writer
Aspiring creative genius

When Del asked me to lead a session on Divergent Thinking, my first thought was: “Uh. Did I really sign up for this topic??”

My second thought was, “the best way to learn something is to try and teach it to others.”

Am I the most divergent and creative thinker you will ever meet? No. Probably not. But I have been experimenting in the creative arts for over a decade, and I spend the bulk of my free time either thinking, working on creative projects, or helping others think and/or work on creative projects. So… why not? Let’s do this.

Connect the nine dots with 4 straight lines (or less) without lifting pen from page

When it comes down to it, there are really only three influencers to your creative success

Time, Environment, and MINDSET

All of them feed each other, and we can pull any lever, but it always starts and ends with mindset. You're not going to take time out of your day to come to this new environment without some part of your current mindset that tells you its worth it. And if we do our jobs well, at the end of our time together you will leave this environment with an altered MINDSET

What I want to help you begin to glimpse is the infinite realm of possibility. The space where things you haven't even seen yet, things that your current self believes to be impossible, can come into being

What you know (WYK)
What you know you don't know (WYKYDN)
What you DON'T know you don't know (WYDNYDN)

This third category is the realm of possibility and invention

what happened:
didn't start a creative project

what we say happened: I'm lazy

-

what happened: didn't finish

what we say happened: it was too hard

anyone know who painted this? Right. Pablo Picasso. Bust of a Woman (Dora Maar), 1938

man asks picasso why are you're drawings so weird

picasso asks what do you mean?

here, the man says, and pulls out a photo, this is my wife

picasso takes it from him, examining it. then he looks up at the man, an eyebrow raised and asks 'isn't she rather small and flat?'

So now, with fresh eyes, what are we looking at here?

Cave art? How do you know? Go one step closer to reality. People? No. Go closer.

That's right. Lines carved into stone.

NOW tell a story about what we're looking at here:

(family portrait, party, artistic rendering, census)

Imagine what happened when the first tribe of people started using this? (Sinagua)

This innovation eventually led to written language.

Which paved the way for written books.

And written mathematics (computers don't work without math)

Then a guy named Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. Until then, books were only for the elite. Now, everyone had access to ideas! And could easily print and share their own ideas.

Do you think the people who made this cave art had any idea what they were starting?

No. But it doesn't matter. Because their original innovation paved the way for a cascade of more innovations that completely reshaped the way we live.

lazy, no talent, too shy, scared of failure, sacred of SUCCESS, it's not urgent, something else is MORE urgent, artists starve, I won't make any money, I don't have enough money, what if someone steals my idea?, what if they laugh at me?, I just need to know every step I'm going to take before I begin

It just goes to show you that divergent thinking is, by nature, controversial. People WILL nay say you. Always remember, just like cave art and moon shots, the people who started these ideas did not have any idea what they would lead to. The Wright brothers, who are credited with building the first airplane, were bicycle builders when they decided to tackle the challenge of manned flight. They had little money and no (obvious) experience. But they were creative, persistent, and they came at the problem in a DIVERGENT way. Everyone else trying to solve this puzzle assumed flying must be like a boat, except on air instead of water. They designed for STABILITY. A boat floats even when no one is on it. But the Wright brothers came to understand that flying was more like riding a bike. A bike doesn't stand up on its own. The rider is essential! In the end, the brothers even used a modified bicycle to get up to speed for takeoff. Sure, they crashed. A LOT. But they ultimately solved the problem no one else could. Now, we can send people to the moon, and SpaceX just successfully launched its first returnable rocket. All thanks to a couple of bicycle builders.

In every field, there are inevitable paradigms - accepted ways of explaining reality. Things that do not fit with this expected reality tend to get ignored, or in some cases, actively repressed.

For instance, almost everyone once believed that the earth was flat. Thinkers like Copernicus, who said otherwise, based on his mathematical observations of the movement of the sun, moon, and stars, were ridiculed and in some cases, even imprisoned.

But if you notice the anomalies that challenge the existing paradigm, you may open up a door to a whole new (round) world.

EVERYTHING that exists can be probed. Questioned. Just because things look one way now, don't assume it is always going to look that way. Ask why. Challenge authority. Take things apart and try to put them back together again, with your own modifications. Have more information than anyone else, because you have asked all of the questions that no one else thought to.

In our world, IDEAS are the greatest currency. Come up with ideas every day, and your life will change, and you will change the lives of those around you

think about stuff that could be better. think about HOW they could be better. solve problems for yourself and for others, and you WILL become more creative. And along the way, you might even come up with an idea that could one day change the world.

When you really think about, pretty much every single thing we are using right now is a result of divergent thinking. This whole city is a result of divergent thinking

Group activity:

• Pick an item that people use every day
• Come up with as many different ways to use that item

make room for serendipity. cross-pollinate your knowledge and ideas. the brain is an instrument for making connections. every bit of information that comes in is constantly being compared with other information. the brain is constantly searching for similarities, differences, and relationships. You can feed this natural inclination in two main ways

in the first stage of a project, widen your search as far as possible. absorb any information that seems even the least bit related or just plain interesting, even if seemingly unrelated.

the second step is to maintain a loose, open mindset. in moments of great effort, allow yourself moments of release. Go for a walk or a run. Do something unrelated, like playing an instrument, or washing dishes, or staring out the window at the trees. Take a trip to a place you've never been before. Take a power nap.

And when a new idea comes (and it will) make sure you're ready to write it down!

potential activity to do together or solo or in pairs

(need marker board/flipchart or pieces of paper and writing utensils)

pick a word. think of associative words. think of associations for those words. see where you end up.

can demonstrate one on board then have all do solo, or can just do one together on board (quicker)

Things that seem magical or out of reach are composed of smaller parts. Where might you take the big challenge in front of you and break it down to smaller parts?

Someone who can do the things that you want to learn. Someone who inspires you. Someone who will push you past the edge of your comfort zone. Who will arm you with the fundamental skills and patterns of thinking to go from good to great. From zero to hero.

Wikipedia definition: Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking

Adaptive

Examples:

Generating a list of creative ideas
Free-flowing discussion
Seeking diversity and diverse points of view
Suspending Judgement

Ask: how could this photo symbolize divergent thinking?

When you really think about, pretty much every single thing we are using right now is a result of divergent thinking.

"the thinking that got you here won't get you there."

turtle and rabbit: the story we know is kind of baloney. Slow and steady is a fine lesson, and we could talk more about when it applies in life, but actually, that story is really about the rabbit. He had all he needed to win, but he squandered it. The moral of that story is, don't be like the rabbit. Just because you have talent, doesn't mean you are going to be the best if you don't put in the work. And that is a GREAT lesson.

But the ORIGINAL legend is about Terrapin. In this legend, he races a deer, not a rabbit. Doesn't really matter. Terrapin knew straightaway that he could not win a race! He was a friggin turtle. And, in this version, the deer was running to win. No naps for that dude.

So what did Terrapin do? He got his whole family involved and had them spread out across the whole race course. The first time the deer passed 'Terrapin' he was all like #Igotthis. Until he passed Terrapin again. And again. WTF?

Terrapin was waiting at the very end, and when he saw the deer coming, he popped out and crossed the finish line. Then he dropped the mic.

Ethical question: Was Terrapin cheating?

Follow up: If someone forces you to run a race that you have no way of winning, is it wrong to rewrite the rules?

Here's what I think: for a game to be fair, everyone needs to agree to the rules, and the rules need to give everyone a fair shake. This race was all about making the deer look good. Terrapin knew it was a rigged game, so he wrote his own rules.

(maybe, if the turtle and the rabbit/deer combined powers, they would be unstoppable).