Review 6 – Tim Brown on creativity and play

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play.html

Tim talks on the ideas of how creativity works, and how it can be encouraged. He starts off with an experiment. Everyone has a sheet of cardboard, and they draw a person’s face next to them within 30 seconds. Lots of “sorry”s are exchanged. Tim goes on to explain why adults are so embarrassed when showing their ideas to others. It’s all about trust and security; about being in an environment where everyone is free to try and fail. Then Tim contrasts adults with children, which proudly show their drawings without embarrassment  (most of the time). In early school years, activities like recess and play times let kids express their creativity by trying out different approaches to problems. Tim points out that play does need to have a predefined set of rules for the participants to follow, otherwise play is unproductive.

He then jumps to companies that encourage their employees to be creative and have fun with their work, such as Pixar, Google, and his own company IDEO. Pixar has jungle like huts which breaks the blandness of a regular cubical. Google has a giant dinosaur with pink flamingos. Weird, but cool and funny ideas which encourage playfulness. Finally, Tim explains a couple approaches to testing creative ideas. For physical objects, prototypes work great. They allow people to take a look and manipulate the idea which always generates more feedback. If it’s an experience, role playing helps by identifying the events that occur along the way, giving the designer empathy in the situation they create.

I really enjoyed hearing Tim’s ideas. As someone who has a blast playing with ideas and concepts, I was encouraged to look past the constraints of self doubt and judgment. I’ll definitely take his challenges to play as the opportunity arises.