Fredrik Härén's Blog, page 22

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.

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.

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.

Start New Chapters. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 119)

Last week, I moved from Singapore to Sweden after having lived in Asia since 2005.

 

We moved for many reasons:

– To be closer to my old mother.

– To give the kids a dose of Swedish culture and language.

– To spend more time on our island, etc.

 

But having lived here in Stockholm for a few days I realised that there was one more reason we did the move:

– To start a new chapter in our lives.

 

As an author, I know the power of chapters.

 

They keep the story moving forward while at the same time introducing some new aspects to it.

 

In just a few days in Sweden, I already feel that the amount of new inspiration, ideas, and reflections have been something like ten or twenty times higher than had I lived the same days in Singapore.

 

I do not mean that in any way negatively about Singapore (Singapore is an amazing place and we plan to move back there again).

 

I mean it from the perspective of realising that living for a few more days in the same place I had lived for years would not have ignited my creativity in the same way this move did.

 

We should start more new chapters in our lives.

 

It makes the story of our lives a more interesting one.

 

What new chapter are you going to write in your life?

 

Whatever it will be I am sure it will trigger a lot of new ideas. It sure did for me.

 

 

Keep exploring. Keep developing your creativity.

 

Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer, now exploring the world of creativity with Sweden as my base for a while.

 

The post Start New Chapters. (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 119) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.

Start New Chapters (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 119)

Last week, I moved from Singapore to Sweden after having lived in Asia since 2005.

 

We moved for many reasons:

 

– To be closer to my old mother.

– To give the kids a dose of Swedish culture and language.

– To spend more time on our island, etc.

 

But having lived here in Stockholm for a few days I realised that there was one more reason we did the move:

– To start a new chapter in our lives.

 

As an author, I know the power of chapters.

 

They keep the story moving forward while at the same time introducing some new aspects to it.

 

In just a few days in Sweden, I already feel that the amount of new inspiration, ideas, and reflections have been something like ten or twenty times higher than had I lived the same days in Singapore.

 

I do not mean that in any way negatively about Singapore (Singapore is an amazing place and we plan to move back there again).

 

I mean it from the perspective of realising that living for a few more days in the same place I had lived for years would not have ignited my creativity in the same way this move did.

 

We should start more new chapters in our lives.

 

It makes the story of our lives a more interesting one.

 

What new chapter are you going to write in your life?

 

Whatever it will be I am sure it will trigger a lot of new ideas. It sure did for me.

 

 

Keep exploring. Keep developing your creativity.

 

Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer, now exploring the world of creativity with Sweden as my base for a while.

 

The post Start New Chapters (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 119) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.

The Woman Building a Real-Life SimCity. (The Creativity Explorer Ep. 118)

One of the most common techniques for coming up with ideas is the “What if-question”.

 

I want to introduce you to a more powerful version of it: The “What if-then-question”.

 

I learned about the power of the “What-if-then-question” from Isabell Koh.

 

Isabell is a user experience expert at Singapore ETH Center and she works on the Cooling Singapore project. Cooling Singapore is a research project dedicated to developing solutions to address the urban heat challenge in Singapore. They do so by building advanced computer models that can simulate changes in the urban climate (temperature, wind, humidity, thermal comfort, etc.) based on imagined changes in Singapore.

 

 

 

When I asked her: “So you are basically building SimCity?” she replied, “Yes, but a more practical one than the computer game.”

 

Isabell is part of the team creating the “Digital Urban Climate Twin” which combines many of the simulation models that exist (climate models, building energy models, traffic models, etc). The project is still in development but the goal is to soon be able to run simulations to test different ideas on how to reduce the temperature in Singapore.

 

They will then be able to test a wide range of questions and hypotheses such as:

 

“What would happen if we removed all gasoline cars on the roads of Singapore and exchanged them with electric cars?”

 

“What if we painted all houses in Singapore with a heat-reflective paint?”

 

“What if all highways in Singapore were covered by a tunnel covered by trees?”

 

In the near future, questions like this could be fed into the model, and out would come a projection of what the result would be.

 

Not just WHAT IF we did X – but also an answer: THEN Y would most likely happen.

 

When developing a city there are so many different things to consider: economy, environment, bio-diversity, livability, etc. Making changes can be very expensive, complicated and time-consuming.

 

So to be able to test ideas via a model first is crucial.

 

Isabell explained that one way their system will be used is to test extreme scenarios to help broaden the thinking around what could be done to make Singapore a better city to live in. Changes that could never be tested in real life.

“What if we moved all the cars underground?”

 

“What if we removed all the trees in Singapore?”

 

“What if we removed all tall buildings in Singapore?”

 

Again, the model will spit out the answer and that can help trigger new insights around how to build a city.

With the dramatic developments in data processing capabilities that we have seen recently, it has suddenly become possible to build models where we can test all kinds of things. Models where we do not only have to say: “What if…?” to trigger our imagination, but we can also ask “What if…?” and THEN put that question into a model to find out what would most likely happen.

 

From a creativity and imagination point of view, that is like night and day versus just being able to ask the “What if-question”.

 

What kind of questions could you have answered if you had a model built?

 

What kind of ideas could you develop if you just did not ask the what-if-question, but also had the possibility to have a model to answer that question?

​

Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer

 

P.S. You can read more about “Cooling Singapore” at: https://sec.ethz.ch/research/cs.html​

The post The Woman Building a Real-Life SimCity. (The Creativity Explorer Ep. 118) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.

The Woman Building a Real-Life SimCity (The Creativity Explorer Ep. 118)

One of the most common techniques for coming up with ideas is the “What if-question”.

 

I want to introduce you to a more powerful version of it: The “What if-then-question”.

 

I learned about the power of the “What-if-then-question” from Isabell Koh.

 

Isabell is a user experience expert at Singapore ETH Center and she works on the Cooling Singapore project. Cooling Singapore is a research project dedicated to developing solutions to address the urban heat challenge in Singapore. They do so by building advanced computer models that can simulate changes in the urban climate (temperature, wind, humidity, thermal comfort, etc.) based on imagined changes in Singapore.

 

 

 

When I asked her: “So you are basically building SimCity?” she replied, “Yes, but a more practical one than the computer game.”

 

Isabell is part of the team creating the “Digital Urban Climate Twin” which combines many of the simulation models that exist (climate models, building energy models, traffic models, etc). The project is still in development but the goal is to soon be able to run simulations to test different ideas on how to reduce the temperature in Singapore.

 

They will then be able to test a wide range of questions and hypotheses such as:

 

“What would happen if we removed all gasoline cars on the roads of Singapore and exchanged them with electric cars?”

 

“What if we painted all houses in Singapore with a heat-reflective paint?”

 

“What if all highways in Singapore were covered by a tunnel covered by trees?”

 

In the near future, questions like this could be fed into the model, and out would come a projection of what the result would be.

 

Not just WHAT IF we did X – but also an answer: THEN Y would most likely happen.

 

When developing a city there are so many different things to consider: economy, environment, bio-diversity, livability, etc. Making changes can be very expensive, complicated and time-consuming.

 

So to be able to test ideas via a model first is crucial.

 

Isabell explained that one way their system will be used is to test extreme scenarios to help broaden the thinking around what could be done to make Singapore a better city to live in. Changes that could never be tested in real life.

“What if we moved all the cars underground?”

 

“What if we removed all the trees in Singapore?”

 

“What if we removed all tall buildings in Singapore?”

 

Again, the model will spit out the answer and that can help trigger new insights around how to build a city.

With the dramatic developments in data processing capabilities that we have seen recently, it has suddenly become possible to build models where we can test all kinds of things. Models where we do not only have to say: “What if…?” to trigger our imagination, but we can also ask “What if…?” and THEN put that question into a model to find out what would most likely happen.

 

From a creativity and imagination point of view, that is like night and day versus just being able to ask the “What if-question”.

 

What kind of questions could you have answered if you had a model built?

 

What kind of ideas could you develop if you just did not ask the what-if-question, but also had the possibility to have a model to answer that question?

​

Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer

 

P.S. You can read more about “Cooling Singapore” at: https://sec.ethz.ch/research/cs.html​

The post The Woman Building a Real-Life SimCity (The Creativity Explorer Ep. 118) first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.