UX14 - Nurturing team and personal creativity (Marc Rettig)

The prolific English writer and comedian John Cleese has said, “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”

Our training as UX professionals gives us many ways to conduct research into the aspects of life we seek to serve, and many ways to prototype and evolve concepts into reality. But our training often leaves us empty-handed when it comes to a key aspect of our work: imagining what could be. That hinge-point between research and making, that moment of conception, is critical. Some of us experience an “ah-ha” of revelation, some of us are left feeling insecure about whether we’ve chosen “the best way.”

This workshop will proceed in two chapters. In the first, we will experience and discuss an approach for teams who want a better source of ideas than “smart people around a table.” In the second chapter, Marc will facilitate a series of activities to help you explore your personal creative barriers, fears, patterns, and possibilities. In closing, we will discuss how we can apply practices of “open creativity” within the constraints of organizational culture and tight deadlines.

Transcript

1. Marc Rettig
   UX India
   10 October 2014
   Nurturing
   Creativity
   

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2. These  slides  were  first  presented  at  UX  India  2014,  in  Bangalore  India.  For  more  
   informa?on,  see  h@p://www.2014.ux-­‐india.org/  
    
   Most  of  these  slides  do  not  have  speaker’s  notes,  and  will  make  far  more  sense  to  people  
   who  a@ended  the  workshop  than  to  those  who  didn’t.  Perhaps  in  the  future  I  can  make  a  
   more  stranger-­‐friendly  version.  In  the  mean?me,  my  thanks  to  those  who  a@ended,  and  
   all  the  best  to  you  in  your  crea?ve  journeys.    
    
   To  contact  the  author,  email  marc@fitassociates.com  
    
   Cover  art  by  Hannah  du  Plessis  of  Fit  Associates  
    
    
    
    
    
    
   This  work  is  licensed  under  the  Crea?ve  Commons  A@ribu?on-­‐NonCommercial  4.0  Interna?onal  License.  
   To  view  a  copy  of  this  license,  visit  h@p://crea?vecommons.org/licenses/by-­‐nc/4.0/.  
   

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3. Principal
   Professor, Design for Social Innovation
   Adjunct Professor
   Fit Associates
   School of Visual Arts
   Carnegie Mellon School of Design
   marc@fitassociates.com
   @mrettig
   

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4. Point of view
   As it began, and at its best, “User
   Experience” is very human.
   Therefore, it is complex. “Planning and
   decision-making” is an inadequate approach.
   And it requires heart.
   So we are going to talk about creativity.
   

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5. Point of view
   This workshop is about human experience,
   not technology.
   In particular, it is about the human
   experience of creating together – the root
   of our work, and the source of our
   professional value.
   

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6. I was farm kid.
   I became a student of anthropology, linguistics, and computing.
   NYU, Linguistic String Project, Summer Institute of Linguistics
   I became a software systems guy.
   Brooklyn Gas, Merrill Lynch, startups, Andersen Consulting Accenture
   I became a practitioner and teacher of design.
   Interaction design, user experience, strategic design; startups, agencies, consulting firms;
   Institute of Design @ IIT, Carnegie Mellon University, SVA
   I became a professional consultant.
   Independent consulting, agencies, Fit Associates since 2005
   I am becoming a facilitator and guide.
   

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7. How can we advance the practice of creating in social complexity?
   

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8. We do this through…
   Short or long-term project work Training and capacity development
   Working alongside your team: moving a
   difficult situation quickly forward through
   facilitated studios, or collaborating through
   an extended program of exploration and
   transformation
   Courses and learn-by-doing programs:
   equipping teams with the methods of
   system sensing, design, facilitating co-
   creation, and managing emergence
   We help teams, companies,
   and institutions create effectively
   in complex social situations.
   

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9. Our topic
   How does really wonderful stuff get
   started? Where does it come from?
   How can we get more of it?
   How can we do work that deeply
   satisfies us, down in the place where
   your core purpose and identity live?
   The same for your team.
   And for your company.
   

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10. 10 | Foundations of Design for Social Innovation | Course Syllabus | August 2013
    1.  The creative process versus
    “corporate” practice
    2. Creative source, creative culture
    3. Stories about the conditions for
    creativity, and how to make them
    Three parts
    

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11. What comes to mind?
    Do you have a definition?
    An example of a creative person
    or team that inspires you?
    What is creativity?
    

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12. This is a reflection workshop, not a how-to workshop.
    The topic is messy, not well understood. I don’t know
    you or your situation. I can’t tell you all personally
    what you need to do to work creatively, and I can’t tell
    you how to improve the creativity in your specific
    organization.
    But I can show you a lot of things, and we can have a
    good conversation about them.
    Your job today is to use that to make notes and plans
    for yourself. By the end of the workshop, I ask that you
    have some specific things you intend to do, starting in
    the next few days, for yourself, your team, your
    organization.
    I can’t tell you how
    

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13. Part One
    The creative process
    

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14. 14 | Foundations of Design for Social Innovation | Course Syllabus | August 2013
    Hugh Dubberly
    dubberly.com
    

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15. 15 | Foundations of Design for Social Innovation | Course Syllabus | August 2013
    http://www.dubberly.com/concept-maps
    

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17. through conversations
    with context and people
    with attention
    acting with respect and mindfulness
    contributing passion and energy
    with openness
    listening + learning
    from other people + cultures
    Observation begins as a conversation
    with others. First you’re on the outside
    looking in; slowly you immerse yourself;
    then you can step back and reflect.
    Where are we? Who is here? What are
    they doing? (What are we doing?)
    What’s important here? Why?
    Observe
    

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18. Reflect
    through conversations
    with experience + values
    to understand
    what people want
    how culture is evolving
    to integrate
    by seeing patterns
    by building consensus
    Reflection begins as a conversation
    with oneself. It considers experience
    and values. And it frames the
    situation—or selects a metaphor to
    explain it—which must then be shared
    with other people.
    

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19. Make
    through conversations
    with tools + materials
    to search
    working quickly + iterating
    taking advantage of accidents
    to envision
    imagining the future and making it tangible
    explaining what it might mean
    Making also begins as a conversation with
    oneself. As it continues it increasingly
    involves others.
    

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20. Observe
    Reflect
    Make
    

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21. Design is a way to
    walk through the
    forest at night.
    

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22. Dubberly:
    “The process need not begin with observing; it
    may begin with any step. Boundaries between
    the steps are not rigid. Each activity continues
    throughout the process, e.g., making also
    involves reflecting and observing.”
    “Don’t be dogmatic! Use it as a tool. Remember
    the power of each step, be deliberate about
    each step, but treat it more like a dance than a
    baking recipe.”
    

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23. The heart of design is intention.
    The engine of design is iteration.
    

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24. image: Yuka Uogishi, SVA
    

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25. Exploratory
    image: Julie Zhuo, Facebook
    

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26. Dubberly:
    “Simple sequences sound manageable, even
    predictable. They promise tasks we can
    schedule and budget. That makes them
    appealing to people who run organizations and
    worry about minimizing uncertainty and risk.
    But the creative process resists planning; it’s not
    a recipe, script, or formula. (How could it be?) In
    practice, the process is messy, iterative, and
    recursive.”
    

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27. BUT…
    most of us are part of something bigger.
    

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28. apqptollgatepro.blogspot.com  
    

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29. opensdlc.org  
    

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30. Our  model  for  work  when  we  think  the  situa3on  is  
    such  that  we  can  PLAN  a  SOLUTION:  
     
    Hero,  compliance,  parent-­‐child,  “knowing”,  what’s  
    rewarded,  closed,  compe??ve  
    vs.  
    Sandbox,  collabora?on  of  equals,  open,  vulnerable  
    

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31. Part Two
    Source and culture
    of creativity
    

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32. self team organization
    

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33. self team organization
    change
    

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34. Creativity is not a talent. It is not
    a talent, it is a way of operating.
    John Cleese | Full transcript of talk here:
    https://github.com/tjluoma/John-Cleese-on-Creativity/blob/master/Transcript.markdown
    

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35. We all operate in two contrasting modes,
    which might be called open and closed. The
    open mode is more relaxed, more receptive,
    more exploratory, more democratic, more
    playful and more humorous. The closed
    mode is the tighter, more rigid, more
    hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most
    people, unfortunately, spend most of their
    time in the closed mode.
    John Cleese
    

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36. Cleese is talking
    about creativity in
    general. We are
    talking about
    creativity in the
    context of design.
    

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37. And this leads me to
    the blind spot of our
    age. As Otto
    Scharmer of MIT
    points out, we are
    blind to the inner
    source of creativity
    and leadership.
    

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38. Observe
    Reflect
    Make
    2/3 of the process:
    connection and reflection
    

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39. DOWNLOADING
    Seeing what I know  
    Seeing through the lens of my
    judgments and presuppositions. Seeing
    the projection of my own beliefs and
    stories onto others and onto the world.
    Adapted from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U
    

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40. WONDER
    Opening my senses  
    Becoming a sensory “sponge.” Taking
    in what my senses bring me without
    judgment or interpretation.
    Adapted from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U
    

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41. EMPATHY
    Sensing the whole  
    Seeing myself as part of a larger
    whole. Participating in life together
    as equals.
    Adapted from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U
    

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42. CO-CREATION
    Sensing the possible future  
    Listening to a deep inner sense of
    “what wants to become,” or, “the
    future that is trying to be born.”
    Adapted from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U
    

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43. unmet need
    actionable insight
    creating from true connection
    to the people and the situation
    you aim to serve
    

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44. quality of attention à quality of result
    

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45. When we talk about
    creativity (individually,
    but especially in teams
    and organizations),
    we need to talk about
    the importance of
    conversation.
    

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46. “The creative process involves many conversations
    about goals and actions to achieve them —
    conversations with co-creators and colleagues,
    conversations with oneself. The participants and
    their language, experience, and values affect the
    conversations.
    The quality of the conversations is largely responsible
    for the outcome of the process. The quality of the
    resulting product reflects the quality of the creative
    process — and the curiosity and determination of the
    participants.”
    Hugh Dubberly
    

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47. quality of conversation à quality of result
    

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48. Otto Scharmer’s levels of dialog
    DEBATE
    Talking tough  
    Speaking from my own thoughts.
    Divergent views: I am my point of view.
    Saying what I think.
    Adaptive system
    DOWNLOADING
    Talking nice  
    Saying what I think they want to hear.
    Polite routines, empty phrases.
    Not saying what you think.
    Fragmented system
    DIALOG
    Reflective inquiry  
    Speaking from a view of myself
    as part of the whole.
    Divergent views: I am my point of view.
    Reflecting on my part.
    Self-reflective system
    PRESENCING
    Generative flow  
    Speaking from a sense of
    what is moving through us.
    Stillness, collective creativity, flow.
    Identity shift: authentic self.
    Generative system
    

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49. Tomorrow’s  talk  will  touch  on:  
    journey of becoming à quality of result
    The journey
    

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50. Part Three
    Nurturing creativity
    

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51. Focus your notes on possibilities. You will think of
    barriers: reasons why your idea won’t work, why your
    excitement won’t last. Set that aside for now, and
    record only your excitement.
    A tip about that…
    Start your notes with, “How might we / …”
    Possibility-focus
    

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52. How might we…
    How might we…
    How might we…
    Concept
    Concept
    Concept
    Concept
    Concept
    Concept
    Concept
    Concept
    

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53. Set the
    conditions
    

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54. John Cleese
    

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55. Certain conditions more likely to get us to the open mode.
    Space
    Time
    Time
    Confidence
    Humor
    

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56. Space
    Let's take space first: you can't become playful and therefore
    creative if you're under your usual pressures, because to cope
    with them you've got to be in the closed mode.
    So you have to create some space for yourself away from those
    demands. And that means sealing yourself off. You must make a
    quiet space for yourself where you will be undisturbed.
    

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57. Time    
    It's not enough to create space, you have to create your space for a specific
    period of time. …It's only by having a specific moment when your space starts and
    an equally specific moment when your space stops that you can seal yourself off
    from the every day closed mode in which we all habitually operate.
    [Quoting a historian:] "Play is distinct from ordinary life, both as to locality and
    duration. This is its main characteristic: its secludedness, its limitedness. Play
    begins and then, at a certain moment, it is over. Otherwise, it's not play.”
    So combining the first two factors we create an "oasis of quiet" for ourselves by
    setting the boundaries of space and of time. Now creativity can happen, because
    play is possible when we are separate from everyday life.
    [Your mind takes time to quiet down, so 30 minutes in your oasis is too short.
    About 90 minutes works for Cleese. 30 minutes to shed nagging “get things
    done” closed mode and move into open mode, and an hour for something to
    happen. If you’re lucky.]
    But don't put a whole morning aside. My experience is that after about an hour-
    and-a-half you need a break. So it's far better to do an hour-and-a-half now and
    then an hour-and-a-half next Thursday and maybe an hour-and-a-half the week
    after that, than to fix one four-and-a-half hour session now.
    There's another reason for that, and that's factor number three: time.
    

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58. Time    
     
    Yes, I know we've just done time, but that was half of creating our oasis.
    Now I'm going to tell you about how to use the oasis that you've created.
    Why do you still need time? Well, let me tell you a story. I was always intrigued that one of my
    Monty Python colleagues who seemed to be (to me) more talented than I was {but} did never
    produce scripts as original as mine. And I watched for some time and then I began to see
    why. If he was faced with a problem, and fairly soon saw a solution, he was inclined to take it.
    Even though (I think) he knew the solution was not very original. Whereas if I was in the same
    situation, although I was sorely tempted to take the easy way out, and finish by 5 o'clock, I just
    couldn't. I'd sit there with the problem for another hour-and-a-quarter, and by sticking at it
    would, in the end, almost always come up with something more original.
    It was that simple.
    My work was more creative than his simply because I was prepared to stick with the problem
    longer. So imagine my excitement when I found that this was exactly what MacKinnon found in
    his research. He discovered that the most creative professionals always played with a problem
    for much longer before they tried to resolve it, because they were prepared to tolerate that
    slight discomfort and anxiety that we all experience when we haven't solved a problem.
    You know I mean, if we have a problem and we need to solve it, until we do, we feel (inside us)
    a kind of internal agitation, a tension, or an uncertainty that makes us just plain uncomfortable.
    And we want to get rid of that discomfort. So, in order to do so, we take a decision. Not
    because we're sure it's the best decision, but because taking it will make us feel better.
    Well, the most creative people have learned to tolerate that discomfort for much longer. And
    so, just because they put in more pondering time, their solutions are more creative.
    

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59. Confidence    
    Now the next factor, number 4, is confidence.
    When you are in your space/time oasis, getting into the open mode,
    nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the
    fear of making a mistake.
    Now if you think about play, you'll see why. To play is experiment:
    "What happens if I do this? What would happen if we did
    that? What if…?"
    The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that
    may happen. The feeling that whatever happens, it's ok. So
    you cannot be playful if you're frightened that moving in some
    direction will be "wrong" -- something you "shouldn't have
    done."
    Well, you're either free to play, or you're not.
    As Alan Watts puts it, you can't be spontaneous within reason.
    So you've got risk saying things that are silly and illogical and
    wrong, and the best way to get the confidence to do that is to
    know that while you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no
    such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the
    break-through.
    I add: permission for things not to turn out the way you expected.
    Not “Fail” (though “permission to fail in the way you used to think
    about failure, and maybe the way your boss thinks about failure”
    could work. Remember the branching exploration diagram.
    Remember playing as a kid.
    

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60. Humor
    Well, I happen to think the main evolutionary significance of humor is that it
    gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.
    I think we all know that laughter brings relaxation, and that humor makes us
    playful, yet how many times important discussions been held where really
    original and creative ideas were desperately needed to solve important
    problems, but where humor was taboo because the subject being discussed
    was {air quotes} "so serious"?
    This attitude seems to me to stem from a very basic misunderstanding of the
    difference between 'serious' and 'solemn’.
    …[Solemnity] serves pomposity, and the self-important always know with some
    level of their consciousness that their egotism is going to be punctured by
    humor -- that's why they see it as a threat. And so {they} dishonestly pretend
    that their deficiency makes their views more substantial, when it only makes
    them feel bigger.
    No, humor is an essential part of spontaneity, an essential part of playfulness, an
    essential part of the creativity that we need to solve problems, no matter how
    'serious' they may be.
    So when you set up a space/time oasis, giggle all you want. (25:39)
    

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61. Get outside
    

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62. Car company
    Get outside #1
    

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63. Global car company
    The goal: connect long-range planning !
    to real life in unfamiliar places
    

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64. Strategic planners
    Car Designers
    Engineers
    Exploratory Group
    

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65. 65
    Different norms for personal space
    Photo: Hung Chu, via Flickr
    

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66. 66
    Different norms for close
    

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67. 67
    Different norms for risk
    Photo: Marc Rettig, Fit Associates
    

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68. 68
    Thailand (and India and Mexico and…
    A cheerful, direct engagement with life;
    compared to the developed world, people are
    less inhibited by risk avoidance and “the rules”.
    Photo: Lance Sells, Flickr
    

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69. Photo: Marc Rettig, Fit Associates
    

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70. View Slide

71. View Slide

72. Culture Bubble
    Get outside #2
    

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73. View Slide

74. Pop-up Studio
    Get outside #3
    

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75. View Slide

76. Software
    startup
    Get outside #4
    

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77. 77
    Airgini
    A mobile software startup, composed of six or so
    software developers and a manager/marketer/
    entrepreneur.
    They had their product working on their own phones,
    but didn’t know whether they had something that would
    excite customers.
    The request: “Help us integrate outside life into our
    software process: concept, design, & development.”
    
    

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78. 78
    Airgini
    Day 1: make a paper prototype
    (because it’s easy to change and you get
    rich feedback from people)
    

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79. 79
    Airgini
    Day 2a: make an 

    experience model together
    

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80. 80
    Airgini
    Day 2b: digest test results, 

    make a new prototype
    

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81. 81
    Airgini
    Day 3 & 4: two more iterations
    

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82. 82
    Airgini
    Day 5: design their organization 

    and process together
    

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83. Get outside #5
    The elephant
    

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84. One day, at a global
    consumer products
    company,…
    See the story, “Collaboration
    and the elephant that sat on it”
    on the Fit Associates site:
    fitassociates.com/elephant
    

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85. We learned to see & listen without judgment.
    

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86. We visited customers in their homes.
    

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87. Then we watched all the videos together.
    

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88. It used a lot of sticky notes.
    

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89. People from all over the system, together 

    making sense of what they’d seen
    

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90. 90
    ..and there was a side effect…
    DEBATE
    Talking tough
    Speaking from my own thoughts.
    Divergent views: I am my point of view.
    Saying what I think.
    Adaptive system
    DOWNLOADING
    Talking nice
    Saying what I think they want to hear.
    Polite routines, empty phrases.
    Not saying what you think.
    Fragmented system
    DIALOG
    Reflective inquiry
    Speaking from a view of myself
    as part of the whole.
    Divergent views: I am my point of view.
    Reflecting on my part.
    Self-reflective system
    PRESENCING
    Generative flow
    Speaking from a sense of
    what is moving through us.
    Stillness, collective creativity, flow.
    Identity shift: authentic self.
    Generative system
    

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92. 92
    Designing ways to use the pent-up heart for quality.
    

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93. Spark
    Experiments
    

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94. Better Block
    Spark experiments
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntwqVDzdqAU    
    

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95. Thank you.
    

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