Handout for a seminar on lateral thinking and constructive creativity.

1. SPORTS MARKETING: CREATIVITY SEMINAR
Sports Marketing: Creativity Seminar
The brain is designed to be ‘non-creative’ otherwise we wouldn’t ever
get things done. Removing inhibition through brainstorming is of value
but only a weak way of developing creativity. Here we explore ways of
improving lateral thinking and use tools to improve creative problem
solving in groups, teams and in meetings.
Classic problem-solving
1. Problem Identification: Define and agree the problem by "brainstorming"
2. Problem Selection: Agree on the problem to be addressed.
3. Problem Analysis: Gather data associated with the problem.
4. Come up with potential Solutions.
5. Agree best solution.
6. Create Implementation plan.
7. Present findings.
8. Implement solutions.
Creativity is a skill
Everyone can learn to be creative and improve through practice. Not the
same as artistic creativity - you could not create a Beethoven but you can
teach ‘idea creativity’.
Definition
‘Create’ means bringing something into being. So you can ‘create a mess’. Is
that being creative? Other qualities are needed. ‘Value’, the idea needs to
have value and needs to be ‘new’.
Types of creative thinking
Perceptual creativity involves looking at things in different ways. It involves
extracting values, opening up connections and associations.
Constructive creativity to put things together to deliver value. This is ‘design
thinking’.
‘Lateral thinking is serious and systematic creativity. It is not being different for
the sake of being different… It is not a matter of messing around in a
brainstorming session. There are formal tools and processes that can be used
deliberately and with discipline… For the first time in history we can treat
creativity as a mental skill, not just a matter of talent or inspiration.’
Edward de Bono
Materials designed by the Leeds Met Ideas Factory

2. SPORTS MARKETING: CREATIVITY SEMINAR
Brain waves
Left and Right Brain Thinking
Left Right
Positive Intuitive
Analytical Faces
Logical Holistic
Linear Synthesis
Sequential Spontaneous
Reason Emotion
Lists Recognition
Explicit Artistic
Rational Patterns
Mathematics Colours
Goal-oriented Rhythm
Reading Music
Concrete Parallel-processing
Language Visual
Numbers Imagination
Writing Creativity
Verbal Daydreaming
Active Playful
Convergent thinking. In which the person is good at bringing material from a
variety of sources to bear on a problem, in such a way as to produce the
"correct" answer. This kind of thinking is particularly appropriate in science,
maths and technology. Syllabus-bound – Sylb.
Divergent thinking. Here the student's skill is in broadly creative elaboration
of ideas prompted by a stimulus, and is more suited to artistic pursuits and
study in the humanities. Syllabus-free – Sylf.
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3. SPORTS MARKETING: CREATIVITY SEMINAR
The 4-Diamond Model
4P+T Model
Person – Belbin*, Myers-Briggs**, de Bono***
Process – divergent and convergent
Product – deliverable
Press – culture
Tool – checklist, metaphor/analogy, scenarios, brainstorming, force field
analysis, lateral thinking, storyboard, synechtics, SCAMMPERR****,
TRANSFORM*****
*Implementer | Co-ordinator | Shaper Plant | Resource Investigator | Monitor-evaluator | Team worker |
Completer
** Creativity = 3(SN)* + JP - EI - 0,5(TF)
*** Six Hats – see below
**** Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify/Minify, Modify, Put together, Eliminate, Rearrange, Reverse
***** Twist, Turn, Reverse/Rotate, Adapt, Novelise, Substitute, Fuse, Omit, Rearrange, Magnify
Materials designed by the Leeds Met Ideas Factory

4. SPORTS MARKETING: CREATIVITY SEMINAR
Exercise
Six Thinking Hats
Early in the 1980s Edward de Bono invented the Six Thinking Hats method.
The method is a framework for lateral thinking. Valuable judgmental thinking
has its place in the system but is not allowed to dominate as in normal
thinking. Dr. de Bono organized a network of authorized trainers to introduce
the Six Thinking Hats.
Organizations such as Prudential Insurance, IBM, Federal Express, British
Airways, Polaroid, Pepsico, DuPont, and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph,
possibly the world's largest company, use Six Thinking Hats.
The six hats represent six modes of thinking and are directions to think rather
than labels for thinking. That is, the hats are used proactively rather than
reactively.
The method promotes fuller input from more people. In de Bono's words it
"separates ego from performance". Everyone is able to contribute to the
exploration without denting egos as they are just using the yellow hat or
whatever hat. The six hats system encourages performance rather than ego
defence. People can contribute under any hat even though they initially
support the opposite view.
White Hat:
With this thinking hat you focus on the data available. Look at the information
you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your
knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them.
This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical
data.
Red Hat:
'Wearing' the red hat, you look at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and
emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally. Try to
understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.
Black Hat:
Using black hat thinking, look at all the bad points of the decision. Look at it
cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important
because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them,
alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them.
Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher' and more resilient. It
can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course
of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as
many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they
cannot see problems in advance. This leaves them under-prepared for
Materials designed by the Leeds Met Ideas Factory

5. SPORTS MARKETING: CREATIVITY SEMINAR
difficulties.
Yellow Hat:
The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that
helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat
thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.
Green Hat:
The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative
solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is
little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here.
Blue Hat:
The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people
chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running
dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans
are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, etc.
Materials designed by the Leeds Met Ideas Factory

6. SPORTS MARKETING: CREATIVITY SEMINAR
Materials designed by the Leeds Met Ideas Factory