9 ways to liberate your thinking.
At any given moment billions of brains are digesting the world and spitting out new versions of it. We experiment with everything from recipes to research, from craft to construction. We push the boundaries of what we know, to what we might like to know. We tinker and play with everything, from grandiose plans, to changing a paint colour.
Innovation and creative thinking are in our DNA, they’re part of our biological makeup. We are naturally restless for novelty and playing with ideas and thoughts are how we rehearse making a change. Sometimes very small changes and sometimes very big changes.
Unfortunately, as we grow and become socialised, we are taught that logic and calculation are what really count, and we are educated out of our playful, disruptive, creative thinking and we forget how to play, how to visualise and how to use our imaginations. Imagination and playfulness are one of the key components for good decision-making, so you would have thought that they would be the number one priority in our education and our lives.
Our brains are naturally playful (and creative) and run our creative software, mostly without our conscious knowledge, under the radar all the time. According to Nobel winners Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tverski, we have two modes of thinking; system 1, mostly unconscious, fast and emotional and, system 2, mostly conscious, slower and calculating. These two modes are often conflicted and competing for attention, we shift between habit and routine and imagination and playful thinking.
Playful thinking is energy consumptive. Habits are energy efficient. Consigning a task, such as driving a car, to habitual thinking means we don’t have focus on every tiny detail of how to steer, how to brake, what is around a corner, we can operate on a rule of exception; only when something out of the ordinary happens does our fast thinking, reactive brain kick in. In neural terms, well-trodden neural pathways will drive the car, but fast, associative and emotional neural pathways will alert us to danger. The brain hates repetition, yet loves pattern and habit. We are conflicted.
Our brains continuously goad us to battle the monotonous and the predictable. We thirst for new stimulus, for novelty, and this drives us to change familiar things. The drive to disrupt routine is the basis of creative and playful thinking. Yet confusingly, mastery, continuous practice to a habitual and unconscious level, allows us the freedom to roam freely with our mastered skill, to new expressive heights. It might be that consigning a skill to an unconscious level of habitual expertise, allows the space for creative and playful thinking.
Have you ever wondered why children constantly indulge in play? What purpose can play have when “education” and socialisation loom on the horizon.
Play is how we learn, how we experiment with different scenarios, how we see what would happen if… Play allows us to tinker with the future. Education is often how we socialise ourselves to become a part of accepted (and sometimes measurable) behaviours. We take on board more “education” and gradually unlearn how to play with ideas, how to be free-running with our minds and how to keep our mindsets “open”.
We need both modes of thinking. Reactive, fast, associative, playful thinking and Proactive, slow, calculating, strategizing thinking. Both modes of thinking are necessary to thrive creatively and then to have the power to implement new ideas.
Playfulness allows us to make new rules and act them out, without necessarily having to suffer the consequence. We can test an idea against what we’ve observed, we can test our boundaries and how we will interact with people and things.
As we become a little older these rules and relationships are what we would call constraints, the governing rules of the “games” (or ideas) we want to play with. These rules and rituals are how we structure our relationships and apply equally to business, politics, work, home, friends and family and our free time. Constraints are the rules that define the environment in which we wish to play (or think).
Here are 9 guidelines for playfulness;
1. Playfulness is “no judgement”.
In order to enter into the space of creative thinking it is necessary to suspend judgement. Stereotyping and habitual patterns of thinking must be put aside. There are no right or wrong, good or bad answers. In the early stages of a creative process it’s necessary to put all your pre-conceptions aside. This takes a little patience and practice, but once you get going this can become a joyful and liberating experience, particularly if you don’t focus too hard on what you expect of the outcome. This part of the process often involves warming up and beginning the deconstruction of the basic ingredients of the problem to be solved.
2. Playfulness is what-if scenarios.
Once you have deconstructed the basic elements it’s time to begin exploring different points of view. Everything depends on how we look at things. Think possibilities rather than probabilities. Our point of view informs how we think about something. So, what if we could look at the same old things but view them differently. What if we imagine a different combination and outcome? We need to intentionally shift our point of view to move away from received wisdom. We need to make choices. What-if scenarios are how you might view a future outcome, different from the present, by tinkering with an element or method in the ingredients. This is the beginning of the process of transformation. We identify what to keep, what to get rid of, what new connections to make and what to transform to our advantage. There are many ways to achieve this stage and to think differently about a problem. Flipping, reversing, combining, bending, blending, breaking, adapting, reconfiguring, associating, constraining, freeing. What-if’s open possibilities. Being loose and free with potential scenarios helps, so does a sense of humour.
3. Playfulness is storytelling.
Our brains are hard-wired to find meaning and pattern. Storytelling, internal, external and philosophical, are how we communicate ideas to others and to ourselves. Stories are one of the building blocks of our belief systems and how we view the world. So, if we could re-write the way we tell stories, we might be able to change a belief or a habit, and if you can change a belief or habit (even if it’s a small) you begin the process of change and transformation. Creative thinking is the process of change and transformation. Creative thinking by, definition, is a process of changing what is to what might be. That’s why it’s so disruptive. New stories are the fertile soil of political and social change and of improving our wellbeing.
4. Playfulness is role-playing.
In order to be able to see a problem from another point of view, we need to be able to play the role of someone else’s mind. We need to be able to pretend to be someone else and view the world from their point of view. You wouldn’t design a new child’s toy from the perspective of an adult accountant (although that may be a good idea!). Creative thinkers often need to become like actors and “play” the role of the end user. This empathy is necessary to be able to create something that other people will value. Within our brains we have something called mirror-neurons. Under fMRI scanners it has been shown that when observing other people’s pain, pleasure or emotions, these mirror-neurons will fire in the same way as a person experiencing that emotion. Thus, we have an in-built sense of empathy and connection with other people’s minds. Creative thinking and generating ideas is often about experiencing things from someone else’s point of view.
5. Playfulness is rule-making.
As with any game we play, we need to know what space the game takes place in and what the rules and aims of the game are. Similarly, when we wish to solve a problem creatively, we must first deconstruct the all elements (ingredients) and understand the constraints (the rules). Once we have established our point of view (what we can imagine) then we begin to reconstruct (shifted perspective, or new recipe) and finally we give it expression (context, personality and relevance). We can invent the rules and write the brief. We can change the rules (or imagine we can) in order to see what would happen if… We use the rules in order to define the problem and find solutions.
6. Playfulness is learning and understanding.
In early life, we learn by trial and error and by play. By trying different scenarios and relationships we gradually build a picture of where we fit into the world and develop our personal world view. Playfulness allows us to experiment with different experiences leading to new understandings of how things happen (heuristics) and what effect we have on them. There is a virtuous circle of Potential, Action, Result and Belief. If we can see a potential, then we will most likely take action. If the action produces a result then we believe that we were justified in our idea of potential and we take further action, and so on.. However, the circle can also become vicious.
7. Playfulness as metaphor and association
Metaphor and association are extremely powerful tools in taking your mind on a journey to a new understanding. The brain is associative and fragments experiences in component elements. By using metaphor, we change our perception and point of view and shed new light on the object under consideration. For instance, William Harvey realised that the blood circulatory system could be understood by understanding the technology of pumps. Our understanding of how the mind works leapt forward with the development and understanding of computer software and hardware systems. Einstein made his breakthrough in the theory of relativity when he imagined himself travelling on a beam of light and later with gravity was influenced by imagining riding a free-falling elevator. The printing press is a re-imagining and re-purposing of a winepress. Combining and associating diverse ideas often leads to breakthrough insights. We use metaphor to better understand complex concepts. We use association to create something new from familiar objects and we use visualisation to focus concentration and to project an idea into the future. The looser, the freer, the more playful we are with metaphor and association, the more creative potential we create.
8. Playfulness & Learning from errors and mistakes
As with suspension of judgement, in order to be effective with creative thinking we need to play with ideas without any regard for errors and mistakes. Often, the blind alleys we take in order to explore an idea or solution, will prove not to be fruitful. However, these errors and mistakes and a massive part of the learning process. It is as important to find out what doesn’t work, as what might work. Penicillin was discovered by following an error by an open-minded, free-thinking Alexander Fleming.
9. Playfulness is the creative process.
Playfulness is a synonym for the creative process. It should be a fun, liberating and joyous experience. There should be a buzz when you play with ideas and explore new avenues and directions to find new solutions to problems.
In simple terms there are 4 basic stages for problem solving (although we could break it down into more). Deconstruction, Point of View, Reconstruction, and Expression.
Think of it a little like making a new soup. We have the ingredients, utensils and methods which we can list, (deconstruction). We can find alternative ingredients, methods and ways of preparing (POV). We can assemble the soup, cook it and serve it. We can experiment with different methods and ingredients (reconstruction & prototyping). We can call it food, flue remedy, glue or whatever we want (expression).
It used to be said that knowledge was power. That being an expert in your field gave you a prime advantage. But what’s becoming apparent in the fast and furious cycling of today’s world is that what used to work before, no longer works today. Although still useful, knowledge alone is no longer enough to thrive, we need creative thinking to find new and interesting ways to succeed. Playfulness and creative thinking is the new power. Success is no longer about what we know, but what we can create!