GLENN CAPELLI
Five “F” Factors Push yourself to think in new ways, and who knows how far you’ll go.
I
recently placed this on my Thinking Caps Facebook page:
“What’s a must have word in your Dictionary of Life?” Reader Warwick kicked off with oxygen; Wendy followed with resilience, and Angeria added wait. I like them all: a necessity, a character trait, and a virtue. To the list I then added Ideation – the formation of ideas and concepts. As beings, we are ideational. As teachers and learners, how, what, when and why we ideate is a wonder and can make the difference between leading quality lives or struggling in quicksand. Each week for the past seven years I scratch my itch of ideation and design a Thinking Caps topic for radio. On the ABC in Australia, we called it Thinking Caps Brave Souls and invited brave souls to simply call in and we’d give them a topic to chat about. These days Thinking Caps is on 3AW Melbourne and we call it Reverse Talkback.
Teachers Matter
In regular talkback radio you have a topic and listeners call in because they have a thought or opinion based on the topic. In Reverse Talkback, folk call in and then we give them the topic. The notion is that everyone can think on their feet (or in their mouths) and good stories, great ideas and nifty humour will emerge. And it does.
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Inventing a weekly theme is a good creativity. In the Har vard University publication The Innovator’s DNA, the theme of discovery is outlined as a necessity for innovation. I combined the discover y elements into an acronym:- “AQ1.” The A is association. Innovation and creativity rely on recombining things or mixing two, three, four or more previously unlinked concepts together. Albert Einstein once famously said, “thinking for me is combinatory play.”
The Q is questioning. Steven Jobs once asked “why do computers need a fan?” This core question led to the Apple, a quieter, smaller, more personal, computer. The 1 represents ONE, which is an acronym for Obser vation, Networking and Experimenting. The design company IDEO have a mantra that says “Innovation begins with an eye” meaning innovative ideas emerge from what we notice. Educator Maria Montessori once said “that to be a good teacher you need to love learning, love children and be observant.” The Networking aspect of ideation isn’t simply going to lots of parties with business cards in hand. It refers more to extending your curiosity by stepping into other fields of play. Widening your horizon by reading in areas you normally wouldn’t read, having conversations with folk in diverse industries (or who have diverse hobbies) and stretching beyond your own knowledge areas. The Experimenting aspect is mucking about with some cardboard, paper, pens, glue, bits of string and making prototypes, building models, creating possibilities while you chat with your building buddies, muse possibilities and allow your physical experimenting to extend your mental. One week on the radio, I associated the concept of cities with the sixth letter of the alphabet and came up with “Five F Factors” for cities. The Fun Factor The Friendly Factor The Feast Factor The Fear Factor The Frankenstein Factor Of course, you could also associate the Fs with your work place, your community, family and school.
The Fun Factor On a scale of 0 to 5, what score would you give your place as a fun place to work? Why? How does the fun shape up? Is the fun within the work or after work? Is it fun because of the folk you work with or are other factors involved? What do you do to help create the fun? Is fun important as a motivator? Sociologist Richard Florida, who wrote The Creative Class, tells us that a good pay cheque (the dollar) may attract a talented person to come to an organisation but it won’t keep them there. What will keep a talented worker is a fun environment where they work with other good people on interesting projects. Researcher Jeffrey Pfeffer indicates that sustainable organisations’ (schools) “human factor” is responsible for good productivity and innovation. The Human Factor hugs the Fun Factor.
The Friendly Factor This F may be essential to the F of Fun. Richard Florida writes that creative environments are tolerant of diversity and embrace some of the oddity of what makes up the human tapestry. When I first went out teaching, my principal, Glynn Watkins, would say “there is a mysterious thing in a school and classroom called a climate. You feel the climate that creates good learning environments.” Even though we had been told at teachers’ college to “not smile till Easter,” Glynn suggested good teaching required strong values, wellestablished boundaries and smiling! How is your environment: Friendly, tolerant and welcoming of people and ideas?
