Tim Brown is the CEO of IDEO the innovative design company. This talk deals with many ideas that companies can use to re-focus and push themselves to become more imaginative. Brown has some excellent ideas about how to break out of the unwritten rules that prevent us from exercising creative thinking. He describes the importance of learning through making low resolution prototypes (construction play) and being surrounded by playful materials. Role play is also significant in thinking about difficult problems that involve human interaction. Most importantly, he reminds us that "play is not anarchy. It has rules. This co-negotiation leads to productive play." The ability to move between divergent (playful) and convergent (solution focused) modes is what makes good design. It might also provide a useful model for successful learning.

He gets the audience to play during his talk, including taking the 30 circles test. You can download a pdf related to this activity by clicking the link below.

30 Circles Test handout.

A short video encapsulating the ideas in Charles Leadbeater's book We Think.
More people than ever can participate in culture, contributing their ideas, views, information. The web allows them not just to publish but to share and connect, to collaborate and when the conditions are right, to create, together, at scale. That is why the web is a platform for mass creativity and innovation.

We Think published in March 2008 is an exploration of what that will mean for our culture, the way we work, government, science and business.

The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. This talk at the RSA is all about how every one of us can find our element, connecting with our true talents and fulfilling our creative potential. Creativity expert Ken Robinson believes that we are all born with tremendous natural capacities, but that we lose touch with them as we spend more time in the world. Whether it’s a child bored in class, an employee being misused or just someone who feels frustrated but can’t quite explain why, too many people don’t know what they are really capable of achieving. Education, business and society as a whole are losing out. Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element, and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier and he argues that there is an urgent need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about ourselves.

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson asks how do we make change happen in education and how do we make it last?

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."