The Art of Unlearning — Part 2
New Points Of View
The very essence of creating innovative new products or coming up with surprising brilliant solutions is approaching every challenge with a blank slate, a clean canvas to paint on.
So how do we do it?
In the first part we talked about how swapping fear with curiosity can open up a new approach to understanding humans and coming up with new solutions. This time we’ll talk about a really fun and easy exercise we can do to get our creative juices flowing.
Number 2 — New Points Of View
We so often get into the habit of repetition, we wake up in the morning, brush our teeth, make coffee, go for a walk with the dog, have a shower, get dressed, get in the car, subway or bus and commute to work.
Repetition is necessary for efficiency, it makes actions automatic, quicker and require less brain power.
While efficiency is a good friend of ‘getting more things done’, it is the number one foe of creativity. When we do the same things and walk the same paths our senses get so used to what to the surroundings that they numb out.
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” Wayne Dyer
In order to get our creativity flowing we need to stimulate our senses with new tastes, smells, sights and sounds.
In our innovation studio, Of Course, our favorite way to do so is the following:
For one week, take a different route home.
Each night, or morning when your automatic gear is turned on to take the same route leading you to your destination, change that by exploring a new way. Don’t plan your route in advance, just take a different one. Try a different subway line, a new side road or even better a dirt road home. You will be amazed at the new things your eyes will see, the new sensations you will feel and the information that you will absorb.
The magic of this exercise is that its fruits appear when you least expect it. Business will be as usual and the, all of a sudden when you sit down to write a proposal, prepare a presentation or give an important pitch new ideas will come flowing out. New connections will be made and your work will have a new quality to it.
So go out there and explore new ways to your destinations.
We’d love to hear about your discoveries at hello@ofcourseglobal.com
