Fredrik Härén's Blog, page 27
June 10, 2020
Stay confused, stay creative?
“The first part of the creative process is to allow yourself to enter a state of confusion,” he told me.
Hanoch Piven is an award-winning illustrator, educator and seasoned creative instigator. Since 1992, his work has been published in newspapers and magazines across the world, such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and London Times.
In this week’s episode of The Creativity Explorer, Piven and I sit down to explore the role of confusion in the creative process:
While most people might run away from confusion, Piven actually embraces it as a way to tap into creativity. Much like his art, his thoughts on the creative process are equally fascinating.
I hope you enjoy the video.
The post Stay confused, stay creative? first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
May 27, 2020
Introducing “Covidification”
For this episode of The Creativity Explorer I will make a personal reflection on how Covid-19 has created positive change for me, in order to get you to think about what positive change the Coronavirus has created in your life.
Yes, Covid-19 is making millions of people very sick, and many have died – and it is also wrecking havoc with many businesses around the world. This virus is no joke. But could it also have created some positive change?
I am talking about something I call “Covidification” – which is when the Coronavirus pushes someone to finally implement a change that should have been done long ago.
Let me give you three examples of Covidification from my own life.
1) Getting a gym at home.
For years I have been thinking of building an indoor gym in one of our rooms. But I never got to it.
During the lockdown in Singapore they banned people from going to the outdoor gyms (that I would normally use) so suddenly I had no gym to go to.
It got me to buy the equipment I had always wanted and I now have my indoor gym. (And I am happy and proud to say that I today did 20 chin-ups on the pull-up bar – something I have never been close to pre-Covid. 
May 21, 2020
What we can learn about creativity from a hostage negotiator?
Suzanne Williams is an experienced hostage negotiator who has worked on some of the most high profile and dangerous hostage situations across the world. When she was at Scotland Yard she was the most senior ranking officer in charge of both the Kidnap and Hostage Negotiation Units. She is now an Associate Fellow at Oxford, and works as an independent crisis and hostage consultant. Over a 27 year career as a hostage negotiator she has worked on hostage situations involving way over 600 hostages. She had talked to Al-Qaeda, negotiated with sea pirates off the coast of Africa, and with environmental activists and many, many other hostage takers around the world.
A few days ago she talked to me.
About creativity.
I asked her what the job of hostage negotiator is like and she said: “It’s a job that only someone who is comfortable with uncertainty can do. It is very unpredictable. There really is no script.”
She went on to explain that very often they know very little about the hostage taker, and a big part of the job is to try to understand more about them, who they are, what they care about, who – and what – could influence them, what drives them etc.
Her job is about finding the chinks in the armour that she can use. A big part of her job is about looking for clues about who the people the other side are. She is constantly looking for hooks that she can use against them. To find “the magic formula that is going to unlock a specific situation.”
And she has to find out as much as possible from someone who is not very keen on sharing any information at all.
So how do they do it? And what can we learn about the creative process from these extreme situations?
Suzanne Williams told me about the importance of asking questions (“If you do not ask questions you do not learn anything new.”), about the need for empathy (“You really have to be able to put yourself into the shoes of the other person.”) and about the ability to practice active listening. (“You have to understand to be understood.”)
And then she shared something with me that I found so very interesting.
She said: “Sometimes there is a lot of negativity you have to block that out or it’s going to interfere with your creativity.“
To be creative you need to decide to block out the negativity? I asked her to elaborate, and she said:
“You have to stay positive. Do not let the bad guys win and remain in a positive frame of mind. What I physically have to do is to filter out negativity, but I also have to filter out any of my own bias and prejudge. I have to filter out my own experiences. I cannot have a (negative) pre-convinced assumption about how it is going to end I have to clear my mind. If I do (have negative preconceived assumptions) I could not do my job. And bad people will win, and good people will not be allowed to go home.”
What? “Filter out any previous experiences”?
“But would that not take away all the advantages of having 27 years of experience”, I asked.
Suzanne clarified that it is not about blocking out all your previous experiences – but to filter out all the previous NEGATIVE experiences!
She explained that we need to block our negativity in order to be able to be creative. To be able to see the possibilities.
Remember, she is dealing with situations that are extremely stressful, hostile, and uncertain, or as she put it: “It’s human misery. People die.” Hostage negotiations are no walk in the park and people who go to such drastic measures are not in a good place.
Suzanne approach is not about sugar-coating the situation or to be native – it is about being on an active lookout for some positive possibility that could turn a dire situation into a happy ending.
Because there is often very little information, and very big stakes involved there often are not very many positive things to go on so she needs to be in a state of mind that makes it possible for her to find that one sliver of hope, or for her to see that one faint possibility.
It could be some possibility lurking within the culture she is dealing with, the location where the hostage situation is happening, an anniversary that is coming up, a stakeholder who has a potential way in. Anything! Something! And her job is to find it.
In the words of Suzanne: “Make sure your mind is open enough to pick up anything positive.”
Her words really resonated with me. She seemed to argue that we can only find what we are looking for, and we will only go looking if we think we can find it.
She said: “You have to stay positive. Do not let the bad guys win and remain in a positive frame of mind.”
And it is true: Creativity really is to look for positive opportunities. It is about actively searching for positive opportunities. Very often when we need to be creative it’s because we are facing some kind of problem. Perhaps not a kidnapping, but something in our life has gone very wrong and we need new, fresh ideas to fix it.
The next time that happens keep the approach of Suzanne in mind. Make a conscious decision to push away all the negative judgments, prejudices, and experiences that might block you from seeing that one possibility that can take you out of your misery and solve the problem.
The post What we can learn about creativity from a hostage negotiator? first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
May 16, 2020
Taking a creative break
For over a year I have posted weekly videos in my series The Creativity Explorer where I have been going around the world interviewing creative people about creativity.
(I got to 66 episodes.)
I have met some amazing people and shared some great insights.
However, due to the Coronavirus putting a stop on travel I am now officially out of episodes to post.
Here’s my video about coming to (a temporary) end for the Creativity Explorer videos from around the world.
I will, however, come back soon with videos in a different format.
I still want to create videos around the topic of creativity, but I will have to do it in a different way.
So while I think about HOW I do it, I would like to know what you think. I would love your feedback.
What you have found most useful about the videos I’ve shared? What did you like? What can I improve on?
What would you like to see next? What would you like to learn from me? How would you like to learn it? What’s the best format for you – audio, video, text emails?
Please share your thoughts me me by hitting “reply” to this email.
Stay safe and stay creative,
Fredrik
p.s. What can one of the one of the leading producers of high-quality coffee machines in the world teach you about innovation?
In Episode 13 of The Creativity Suite, I interviewed Patrick Koller, who is the Chief Marketing & Chief Digital Innovation Officer at Franke Coffee System.
He had some very fascinating insights that you might enjoy.
The post Taking a creative break first appeared on The Creativity Explorer.
May 7, 2020
Creativity vs crisis
I’ve got 3 interesting things to share with you this month:
1. Virtual keynote speeches
It is clear that companies are starting to realise that with physical conferences gone, and people working more from home, the need for virtual inspiration is at an all time high.
A virtual keynote speech is the perfect solution.
So, I asked my 3 children to dress up and help me create a video on: “Virtual Speech Participation Instructions” for how to manage virtual speeches.
As a biased father, I think you will really enjoy the 1-minute video.
It’s created to give brighten up the mood of people attending a virtual speech – while getting out all the “housekeeping” matters out of the way in an entertaining manner.
This week I am giving 3 virtual keynote speeches (on two continents).
And if it’s right for you, I would love to work with your organisation to deliver a virtual keynote speech to boost the creative spirits.
Please drop me a line if you are interested in learning more…
2. Creativity vs Crisis – A Story
A lot of people ask me, “What is the most creative solution that has been created around Covid-19?”
There are SO many examples of course, and this one is perhaps not the best one – but it is funny:
A city in Sweden wanted to make sure that people did not mingle too much in a park. Generally, people would meet at this park to celebrate “Valborg” (a big party to celebrate the arrival of spring).
So, in an effort to discourage this, the city put a fence around the park…
But realised that Swedes would probably jump over the fence and party in the park anyway!
So, how do you stop people from going to the park?
In a creative turn of events, the city decided to dump tons of chicken poop (!), using the “excuse” that they would use this time with the park being fenced off to give the grass some fertiliser.
I did not see if it actually worked, but I give an “A” for creative thinking – sometime the “crappy” ideas are the best ones 
April 27, 2020
The most important creative project for a creative person
Welcome to (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 66). In this episode I share an interview I did in Myanmar a few weeks ago with Aung Ko Latt. He is CEO of Aung Ko Latt Motion Pictures…
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April 17, 2020
From 0 to 1 Billion views on Youtube. Learn from Alex Badan
In this episode, I sit down with Alexandru Badan from Romania who shares the mindset that made him and his wife grow Loo Loo kids to a YouTube channel with over 1 Billion (!) views.…
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April 5, 2020
The scariest moment for a creative: The Frankenstein Moment.
The Creativity Explorer meet with Mihai Alexandru Hash, YouTuber from Romania with 10% of the Romanian population as followers. We talk about the “Frankenstein Moment”: The scariest moment for a creative. When an idea takes…
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March 29, 2020
The most beautiful moment of the creative process (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 63.)
The most beautiful moment of the creative process is that moment when the first OTHER person realizes how great your idea is. That is when you for the first time get validation on that your…
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March 22, 2020
What can an astronaut teach you about creativity? (The Creativity Explorer meets Sergey Ryazanskiy.)
Sergey Ryazanskiy has been in space, twice. He has spent almost a year in space, performing different science projects and was the first Scientist – Spacecraft Commander. In this week’s episode, we will learn how…
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