Fredrik Härén's Blog, page 21
July 7, 2022
Grilling and Creativity (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 125)
What is the connection between grilling and creativity?
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a garden grill party at a friend’s house (Peter Watz) and he had invited Henrik Stensvad – world champion in Grilling (in the category of “chicken”).
While I was watching Henrik prepare all kinds of amazing grilled food (from salmon to ribs to vegetables) I took the opportunity to listen to his views on creativity.
Here are two of the insights I got from him:
1) Follow your dreams – not your dream.
Henrik told me how, when he was younger, he had been working so much (since cooking is his passion) that he had not had enough time with his kid.
But when he, later in life, became a father again, he decided to better split his time between his passion for cooking and his passion for his kid.
Many people seem to think that you have to sacrifice everything for your passion.
But Henrik reminded me that you can have multiple dreams (being a great dad and a great BBQ chef)
Remember the saying is “follow your dreams” – in plural.
2) 10,000 hours for creativity.
Henrik also talked about the classic message of “putting in your 10,000 hours”, but not from the perspective of mastering something, but from the perspective of becoming more creative.
He talked to me about how – by really studying a subject – you get to know so many different facets of it that you more easily can combine them into something new.
Think of knowledge as putting loads of mental ingredients into the kitchen storage that is your mind – and then think of creativity as you taking out these ingredients to combine them into a wonderful dish.
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer. Still with the taste of the best ribs I have ever had in my mouth 
The post Grilling and Creativity (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 125) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
July 5, 2022
Be Inspired to Have New Ideas
Are you looking for some inspiration for finding your Eden for your ideas?
Well, the 2022 Ideas Island season has begun and our first guest – filmmaker Wayne Roberts – just sent this testimonial and these pictures after spending a week on Ideas Island:
“A truly perfect and idyllic setting to work on one’s creative endeavors. The week in the Swedish archipelago was both inspiring and so too restorative, and went far and above my expectations. A profound thank you to Fredrik for generously sharing his picturesque base of Ideas Island, enabling artists to find stillness and peace.”
Just the kind of experience we hope to create for our Ideas Island guests.
2022 season is fully booked already, but there will be more chances to go to Ideas Island in the future.
Regardless if you get a chance to go or not, I hope Wayne’s message will resonate with you and inspire you to go find your own creative Eden where you can develop your best ideas.
Make it a creative summer!
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer and founder of Ideas Island.
The post Be Inspired to Have New Ideas first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
June 22, 2022
Creativity Is Hope for a Better World Tomorrow. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 124)
Some days back I was gifted, by a friend in Ukraine, one of the rare stamps created by Ukraine that shows a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to the Russian warship outside Snake Island.
The stamp was launched the day before Ukraine sank that very warship. Talk about symbolism.
Just as I opened the letter that the stamp arrived in, a huge rainbow appeared in front of our island.
I took this picture as a symbol of a symbol.
The stamp being a symbol of creative resistance. The rainbow being a symbol of hope after dark times.
Sometimes we need creative symbols to keep the hope.
Because what is creativity, if not just hope for a better world tomorrow?
How will you use creativity to bring hope to your world?
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer
The post Creativity Is Hope for a Better World Tomorrow. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 124) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
June 15, 2022
The Coolest Innovation I’ve Seen Since I Saw the Internet for the First Time. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 123)
Some days you get blown away. I just was. Lived for days like that.
Nanoponics is a novel way to grow plants that drastically reduces the resources needed to feed humanity – it might be the coolest innovation I have seen since I saw the Internet for the first time. Perhaps even cooler.
Remember where you first heard about Nanoponics – the tiny innovation that could change the world in a gigantic way.
I just attended the first ever public launch of Nanoponics at the food-tech conference Big Meet organized by Johan Jörgensson.
So why is Nanoponics so amazing?
The “normal” way of farming – plants in soil – uses a lot of water and space. For example: growing tomatoes use 400 litres of water.
If you use aquaponics (growing plants with roots in water) you just need 70 liters of water for the same yield.
But here comes Nanoponics. Nanoponics means growing plants by nutrients being pushed into the cells of the roots by a gas!
And suddenly you only need 2,5 liters (!) of water – not 400 liters -, virtually zero electricity and just daylight!
Read that sentence again.
Soon you can have a refrigerator-sized box in your kitchen growing about 250 kg of produce per square meter in your home using very few resources.
Imagine how this could change how we get our food.
I had the privilege to have a conversation with the founders behind this innovation a humble and calm man by the name of Suchad Chiaranussati from Thailand and Robert Åkerblom, an equally humble Swede.
Suchad told me how he has a shopping container on his lawn at his home in Singapore where they have successfully grown more than 45 different plants in their system.
Growing food by pushing nutrients straight into the cells of the roots – now that is exciting!
When I saw the internet for the first time in the 1990s most people at the time did not see the potential for that new technology for many years yet, but people who did got super excited.
I feel around nanoponics just like I felt around hearing about the internet back then. Nanoponcis has not changed the world yet – but based on what I have seen – I am convinced it very soon, and in a very big way, will.
Ideas like this – and the people like Suchad Chiaranussati and Robert Åkerblom who make them happen – is what inspires me.
There are only a few times in our lives when we get to be present at the reveal of an innovation that has the potential to drastically improve the life of humanity.
At the food tech conference Big Meet I had the privilege of being at the launch of Nanoponics. That I will always remember.
Follow them at: https://lnkd.in/ePUW3QTV
Help them spread the word about their potentially world-changing innovation with their big – and tiny – invention.
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer
The post The Coolest Innovation I’ve Seen Since I Saw the Internet for the First Time. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 123) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
June 8, 2022
Innovation Reveal – “Where Were You When…?”. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 122)
I just saw the future of food – heck, I saw the future of humanity. And I will forever remember “Big Meet” organised by the one and only Johan Jörgensen where this new innovation was revealed a few days ago.
I will write about the innovation I saw – it’s crazy cool – in my next post, but today I want to talk about the concept of “Innovation Reveal”.
People ask things like “Do you remember where you were when JFK was shot?” or “Do you remember where you were when you heard about 9/11?”
I am much more interested in where you were when you found out about amazing innovations.
Things like: “Do you remember the first time someone showed you the Internet?” (For me: 1993 at a university in Kansas.)
“When did you first hear about Bitcoin?” Me: 16 May 2011 in an email from Andreas Ehn to an email list run by Mikael Pawlo (1 Bitcoin was 5 USD then 
…. And no, I did not buy. Never did.)
And so at Big Meet, a conference about food-tech, I again saw an innovation that rocked my thinking.
The days we see new, amazing innovations are days worth remembering.
Which Innovation Reveals do you remember?
Please share here. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Fredrik Härén – The Creativity Explorer
The post Innovation Reveal – “Where Were You When…?”. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 122) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
Innovation Reveal – “Where Were You When…?”
I just saw the future of food – heck, I saw the future of humanity. And I will forever remember “Big Meet” organised by the one and only Johan Jörgensen where this new innovation was revealed a few days ago.
I will write about the innovation I saw – it’s crazy cool – in my next post, but today I want to talk about the concept of “Innovation Reveal”.
People ask things like “Do you remember where you were when JFK was shot?” or “Do you remember where you were when you heard about 9/11?”
I am much more interested in where you were when you found out about amazing innovations.
Things like: “Do you remember the first time someone showed you the Internet?” (For me: 1993 at a university in Kansas.)
“When did you first hear about Bitcoin?” Me: 16 May 2011 in an email from Andreas Ehn to an email list run by Mikael Pawlo (1 Bitcoin was 5 USD then …. And no, I did not buy. Never did.)
And so at Big Meet, a conference about food-tech, I again saw an innovation that rocked my thinking.
The days we see new, amazing innovations are days worth remembering.
Which Innovation Reveals do you remember?
Please share here. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Fredrik Härén – The Creativity Explorer
The post Innovation Reveal – “Where Were You When…?” first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
May 31, 2022
In-Person Meetings Are Better for Creativity than Virtual Meetings. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 121)
The photo above is from a recent conference where I spoke for a global group meeting in Berlin.
Note the reactions of the crowd.
Now, this is the kind of laughter and smiles you want at a conference.
True joy while learning to be creative while being together with one’s colleagues.
Nothing beats the creative energy of a group creating together. And now science backs this up.
DesignTaxi recently reported:
“A study conducted by Dr Melanie Brucks of Columbia University in New York and Jonathan Levav of Stanford University validates suspicions that it’s easier to get creative in-person with coworkers than on video conferencing apps. Their findings are published in the Nature journal.
In one lab experiment, 602 participants were paired up to brainstorm creative ideas. Half were assigned to complete the challenge in a room, while the other half communicated over Zoom. The volunteers were all tasked to come up with creative ways to use a Frisbee or bubble wrap in five minutes.
Independent judges concluded that the ideas proposed on Zoom were 20% less creative than those developed face to face.”
Dr Brucks said: “[Participants] are not only generating a larger number of creative ideas, but their best idea is better.”
I personally also think that this is true!
In the last few months I have conducted in-person speeches and workshops in Germany, Sweden, Finland and the UK and the creative energy in a group of people who are in the same room is NOTICEABLY higher than in virtual meetings on Zoom.
It’s time to meet again.
It’s time to boost the creativity of your people.
If you want the same kind of reactions as in the picture above from your own people, why not book a creativity session with “The Creativity Explorer” for your next in-person conference?
Looking forward to helping you and your team discover their full creative potential.
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer.
The post In-Person Meetings Are Better for Creativity than Virtual Meetings. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 121) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
In-Person Meetings Are Better for Creativity than Virtual Meetings
The photo above is from a recent conference where I spoke for a global group meeting in Berlin.
Note the reactions of the crowd.
Now, this is the kind of laughter and smiles you want at a conference.
True joy while learning to be creative while being together with one’s colleagues.
Nothing beats the creative energy of a group creating together. And now science backs this up.
DesignTaxi recently reported:
“A study conducted by Dr Melanie Brucks of Columbia University in New York and Jonathan Levav of Stanford University validates suspicions that it’s easier to get creative in-person with coworkers than on video conferencing apps. Their findings are published in the Nature journal.
In one lab experiment, 602 participants were paired up to brainstorm creative ideas. Half were assigned to complete the challenge in a room, while the other half communicated over Zoom. The volunteers were all tasked to come up with creative ways to use a Frisbee or bubble wrap in five minutes.
Independent judges concluded that the ideas proposed on Zoom were 20% less creative than those developed face to face.”
Dr Brucks said: “[Participants] are not only generating a larger number of creative ideas, but their best idea is better.”
I personally also think that this is true!
In the last few months I have conducted in-person speeches and workshops in Germany, Sweden, Finland and the UK and the creative energy in a group of people who are in the same room is NOTICEABLY higher than in virtual meetings on Zoom.
It’s time to meet again.
It’s time to boost the creativity of your people.
If you want the same kind of reactions as in the picture above from your own people, why not book a creativity session with “The Creativity Explorer” for your next in-person conference?
Looking forward to helping you and your team discover their full creative potential.
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer.
The post In-Person Meetings Are Better for Creativity than Virtual Meetings first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
May 16, 2022
What Is Your Creativity Catalyst? (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 120)
We all have different things that help to accelerate our creative ability.
For some it’s solitude, for some it’s pressure, for some it’s drugs, and for some it’s something else.
For me, it’s traveling.
What is it for you?
Last week I had the joy and privilege of speaking in London on Monday, in Sweden on Wednesday at a castle, and in Berlin on Friday.
I got to learn about ways of doing insurance, innovative ways of approaching recruitment, and cutting edge tech.
And I got to travel.
I had lunch in an English pub in the building where the first BBC TV broadcast was sent from, had the most amazing soup of my life (asparagus and passion fruit (!) soup) next to the river in Berlin, lived in a hotel in Berlin with a 6-stories aquarium in the lobby as well as got to sleep in a venue where the oldest hotel rooms are from the 1600s.
Old and new. Tradition and innovation. New insights, impressions and ideas.
Weeks like this inspire me for months.
They show me the diversity of our world, the infinite ways of doing things and the power of human diversity in creativity. And they enhance my focus on being “The Creativity Explorer”.
It might not work for you, but it works perfectly for me.
So what does work for you?
What is that one thing that boosts your creativity more than anything else?
What is your creativity catalyst? And how could you make sure you get to do more of that?
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer
The post What Is Your Creativity Catalyst? (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 120) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
What Is Your Creativity Catalyst?
We all have different things that help to accelerate our creative ability.
For some it’s solitude, for some it’s pressure, for some it’s drugs, and for some it’s something else.
For me, it’s traveling.
What is it for you?
Last week I had the joy and privilege of speaking in London on Monday, in Sweden on Wednesday at a castle, and in Berlin on Friday.
I got to learn about ways of doing insurance, innovative ways of approaching recruitment, and cutting edge tech.
And I got to travel.
I had lunch in an English pub in the building where the first BBC TV broadcast was sent from, had the most amazing soup of my life (asparagus and passion fruit (!) soup) next to the river in Berlin, lived in a hotel in Berlin with a 6-stories aquarium in the lobby as well as got to sleep in a venue where the oldest hotel rooms are from the 1600s.
Old and new. Tradition and innovation. New insights, impressions and ideas.
Weeks like this inspire me for months.
They show me the diversity of our world, the infinite ways of doing things and the power of human diversity in creativity. And they enhance my focus on being “The Creativity Explorer”.
It might not work for you, but it works perfectly for me.
So what does work for you?
What is that one thing that boosts your creativity more than anything else?
What is your creativity catalyst? And how could you make sure you get to do more of that?
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer
The post What Is Your Creativity Catalyst? first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
