An Interview with Roger von Oech

 

I’ll be heading to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity next week on behalf of Cannes Centrale (where you can follow along, whether you're going or not). To get myself ready to walk into the world’s most creative lion’s den, so to speak, I asked a few of my friends if they’d chat with me about the State of Creativity in 2011.

First up: Roger von Oech, creativity expert and author of the seminal how-to book on enhancing personal creativity, “A Whack on the Side of the Head.”

How has the role or importance of creativity in business changed over the past twenty years?

Creativity in business has always been important, but until say 15-20 years ago, top management typically expected it from a narrow segment of the company (R&D, engineering, and parts of marketing and advertising). Today, creativity is encouraged in many more functions that were previously told to do things “by the book” (finance, distribution and fulfillment, inventory management, etc.).

Over the past 25 years or so, more and more responsibility to adapting to change and making improvements has been pushed out from executives to the people doing a specific job. Thus we see companies encouraging many, many small changes. This used to be called “continuous improvement” (or whatever the Japanese equivalent was). Today, it’s called innovation. Creativity has been democratized.

We live in an amazing time where the answer to almost any question is just a few clicks away. Some experts are saying this isn’t necessarily a good thing. We’re not learning as much. Not remembering as much. If an idea is a new combination of existing elements, what happens if our brains aren’t holding as many elements? Will our ideas get smaller?

I agree with your central premise here. In order to be creative, you have to have the basic materials with which to create: facts, information, knowledge, experience, and whatever else you can find. If you don’t have this storehouse of diverse materials, it’s more difficult to make new (and unusual) combinations. Also, if an idea or concept isn’t in your head (as opposed to being at the end of a Google search), it’s very difficult to drag it up into consciousness. I personally am glad that I’ve spent a lifetime trying to acquire knowledge and experiences in a variety of different areas.

I think a good memory is a blessing. I also believe it is a skill that can be practiced and developed. If you get lazy (“let the machines do the work”), it can atrophy. This obviously has negative consequences on one’s creative abilities.

Your Creative Whack Pack card and best-selling iPhone/iPad app force people to view the problem they’re working on from a new perspective. Edward de Bono, who will be speaking at Cannes, calls this a “provocation.” Can’t the random flow of a Twitter stream or Facebook feed serve this very same purpose?

Sure, the random flow of a Twitter stream could do this. But, in reality, is this actually the case? First off, we pick who we  follow on Twitter, so there’s going to be some self-selection (and limitation) of the tweets we encounter. Also, I think most people don’t use Twitter for “random provocation,” but rather for a short burst of entertainment and/or procrastination.

Truth be known, if I personally want to get into a creative frame of mind, I get away from social media altogether. I do this so that I can get in touch with my own “inner springs” without the noise of many other voices. This also helps me think in larger terms, i.e., I’m not trying to frame my ideas to fit in 140 character bursts (which can be useful at times, but also quite limiting). 

So, which is it? Is technology making our ideas smaller or bigger?

Perhaps a bit of both.

The most amazing thing to happen in my lifetime is that “Moore’s Law” has continued unabated for fifty plus years. This means that ever-improving technology has given many, many, many more people inexpensive and powerful tools to create and express their ideas. Thus, technology has made the creative process significantly more democratic. This is a good thing.

On the other hand, some of the uses to which this technology has been put are tedious and derivative. Also, sometimes technology gives people the illusion that they’re doing creative things without this actually being the fact.

Someone wins a Silver Lion at Cannes this year and desperately wants to win a gold one next year. What’s one thing he or she could do right now to increase their creativity level?

I’d say: “Kiss a favorite belief goodbye.”

Every right idea is eventually the wrong one. Don’t fall in love with ideas—especially the ones that have given you success in the past. There’s something about letting go that opens up new possibilities!

Comments

[Roger von Oech]

Thanks for the "air time," Tim. Have fun in Cannes!