CREATIVITY IN THE BOX
Ali Anani, PhD
Creativity
In the Box
Nearly all examples in this presentation are based
on my personal experiences in turning the familiar
ideas into unfamiliar applications in a host of areas
such as sales, marketing and teaching
One definition of creativity is to turn familiar
assumptions into unfamiliar ones. The reverse
thinking is also true.
Thinking out of the box is a familiar expression for
creative thinking. One way to turn this statement into
unfamiliar one is by reversing it into Thinking in the
Box.
Is that possible? Or needed? And how? Is thinking in
the Box a bad thing?
Challenging assumptions is one key to creativity.
First, a Little Introduction
An interesting story is that of a man who slipped in a muddy
soil and dropped his car keys late at night in a rainy day.
A policeman saw him and wondered why the man was
standing in the rain
Approaching and asking him about his concern, the man
replied that he was looking for car keys that dropped over
there, pointing with his finger.
“If you dropped them over there, then why are you looking
for them here”? The policeman asked astonishingly
“You want me to look for the keys in the darkness and leave
the street light”?
First, a Little Introduction- 2
For me both the policeman and gentleman were
wrong.
Ideally, the man should stand at an edge where he
may maximize the benefit of the street light to get
as closely as possible to the place where he
believed he dropped his key in the darkness
The more intense the street light gets, the closer he
may get to the place where he dropped the keys
The man moves within a zone restricted by the
strength of the streetlight
First, a Little Introduction- 3
The changing light makes the man adjust his position
The resulting edge I call “The edge of choice”
It is at this edge that creativity sparks. This is what
we know from the Theory of Complexity
Complex systems may grow in a bounded zone
(box) and manage to stretch and fold to
accommodate an exponential growth of ideas
within the same boundary
First, a Little Introduction- 4
This way Thinking in the Box may generate creative
ideas from within the system
Complex system may have an additional attribute
in addition to what we know about them: their
ability to be creative within a box. Strange
attractors evolve in a box and not outside a box.
So do not be surprised if some ideas and
applications in this presentation stemmed up in box
and NOT out the box thinking
First, a Little Introduction- 5
You need to go one step closer to your creativity
breakthrough. Creativity lies at the edge of chaos and
it is important to make small changes that may induce
large changes
Negative thinking is toxic to creativity. People who tend
to think negatively do not open new directions and
confine their energy to self-destruction. This is a form of
creativity-suicide.
Information Flow
The flow of information is complex.
The information flow reminds me of the water flow in
the water barrel metaphor. As long as the water flow is
within limit the water wheel rotates in an predictable
manner. However; once the rate of flow of water
exceeds a critical limit the water barrels rotate
chaotically.
I believe that information flow works analogously. If we
are bombarded with a rapid flow of information the
wheels of our minds start rotating chaotically and
disorderly. We need at this point to self-organize to
cope with the flow of information.
Information Flow- 2
The water barrel metaphor we used for information
flow finds support.
The greatest non-technical issue is the mindset. We have
to view information as a flow rather than as a thing.
Online learning is a flow. It’s like electricity or water. It’s
there, it’s available and it flows. It’s not stuff you collect.
I don’t see myself sitting in my home collecting jars of
water. I use the water as it comes. If you think the
internet as an environment that is moving and shaping
all around you, then you will have a better attitude to
be able to handle the flood of information that is
coming at you"
Information Flow- 3
Our economy is based on information. We either
get flooded by this information, or rearrange it
within boundaries at the edge of its chaotic flow to
generate new idea in the box, and not outside it
Creative Business Ideas from Known
Facts
Customers buy benefits and not tools
I generated few ideas by stretching this concept
I present examples in the next few slides
Putting Benefits before Costs
A new newspaper could not attract advertisers to
advertise for rear the new newspaper does not
circulate properly and in enough copies
How I generated ideas to overcome this worry?
Putting Benefits First
If advertisers reap the benefits first they would
advertise in a new newspaper
The first idea was to offer the first three ads free
and then escalate the remaining four ads.
Any client was tempted to advertise seven times in
keeping with the Rule of Seven and sign a contract
to this effect
As we knew his benefit from the first ads would be
minimal we offered the first three ads for free
Putting Benefits First- 2
The cost for free ads was zero and any thing you divide
by zero gives you infinity of benefits
As of the fourth advertisement we expected readers to
move from awareness and interest phase into the desire
phase, so we made the advertiser pay.
We increased the price exponentially as we
approached the fifth advertisement. Now, we expected
the benefits of the repeated ad to be clear as sales of
the advertiser would increase and his benefits would
become evident thus lessening the impact of the cost of
the ads
The idea was met with an overwhelming success
Putting Benefits First- 3
A modification of the idea was later applied to
collect early cash.
Again, the advertiser had to sign a seven-ad
campaign
However; this time he agreed to pay a fixed cost of
the add, which approximated 50% of the contract
The remaining 50% were to be paid in parallel to
the benefit the advertiser reaped from the ad
Putting Benefits First- 4
Skepticism was high among colleagues for fear that
the advertiser will not pay the remaining 50%
My answer was that we should not assume all
advertisers are dishonest. Secondly, he will not be
able to repeat the campaign because he will have
no justification to do that unless he benefited from
the first one. This way we may gauge our own
performance
Putting Benefits First- 5
Thirdly, this skepticism prompted me to generate
creative ideas to monitor the impact of our ads
We convinced an advertiser to give coupons that
carried 20% discounts for customers who have the
coupon with them when they made purchases. These
coupons were part of his ads
The advertiser decided to advertise in an
established newspaper and us. The background of
the ad was the same
Putting Benefits First- 6
I objected on the ground that it would be difficult for
him to tell from which ad the coupon was torn off
The advertiser was very happy with the idea and
changed the background from white to orange in his ad
in our newspaper
We did a study on his branches and namely in areas
where the competitive newspaper did not circulate
properly
The result: 80% of the coupons in some areas had
orange background. The advertiser signed a one year
contract with us
Expand Benefit and Distribute Cost- 7
I developed later a modified version of this
approach by maximizing the benefit and
distributing the cost. The Revolving Ad concept or
Time-Share idea was sprung.
The idea was based on having four advertisers
share one page. The page was divided into four
equal quadrants
The four advertisers had to sign a contract and
each pay for one page in advance to ensure that
no advertiser defects.
Expand Benefit and Distribute Cost- 8
The advertisers did not occupy the same quadrant;
they rotated clockwise so that they had equal
opportunities
The selection of advertisers was based on the
criteria that they reinforced each other and not
competed with each other
The psychology behind this idea was that the first
advertisement might not generate the expected
return. We tried to minimize this risk by having
reinforcing ads
Expand Benefits and Distribute Cost- 9
The second ad had a different psychology: they have
already paid for the ad and now the advertisers get free
benefit!
The result was fantastic as the ads were repeated multiple
times. This reduced our fixed and promotional costs and
made our customers very loyal to us as well as getting the
four ads money in advance
One unexpected benefit was us getting “sweet complaints”.
One advertiser requested us to freeze his last ad because
he had no capacity to accept more contracts! We distributed
his ad space to the other three advertisers
It was a win: win situation for all parties
Measure Intensions and Handle Them
Creatively
To finish with the newspaper creative examples and
move into other fields of creativity let me end with
this creative example
Advertisers would not advertise in a new
newspaper
Once the newspaper has established credibility
some advertisers might change their perception and
intensions
To measure that change in perception I developed
a survey
Measure Intensions and Handle Them
Creatively- 2
The survey carried several questions, but not exactly in
the given order below
Do you know about the newspaper (X)?
What do you think about it?
If the answer is yes to the preceding question then
Do you intend to advertise in the newspaper? And only of
yes,
Do you mind if a salesperson contacts you? And only if yes,
What is the most convenient time for the salesperson to
contact you?
Measure Intensions and Handle Them
Creatively- 3
Almost 200 person of the surveyed sample
indicated their readiness to have a salesperson
contact them within a month
The salesperson had confidence because he/she
had a written commitment from the potential
advertiser to contact him/her
The result: Fifty new advertisers advertised
Measure Intensions and Handle Them
Creatively- 4
I later modified this approach to study the
acceptance of a new venture: the investment in a
grand sushi restaurant
The people in the country in which this venture was
to be established were not very fond of fish
because it was all imported and they had doubts
about the freshness of fish in general
I designed a simple survey, of which the key
question was (guess it before moving to the next
slide)
Measure Intensions and Handle Them
Creatively- 5
I later modified this approach to study the
acceptance of a new venture: the investment in a
grand sushi restaurant
The people in the country in which this venture was
to be established were not very fond of fish
because it was all imported and they had doubts
about the freshness of fish in general
I designed a simple survey, of which the key
question was (guess it before moving to the next
slide)
Measure Intensions and Handle Them
Creatively- 6
The question was: if you were invited to a wedding
party (free meal) and you had the following list of
meals: which ones would you eat (click all those
apply)
Only 3% of the respondents picked the free sushi.
As expensive as sushi is, still people did not desire it
for free
The rest is history as the investment was abandoned
Measure Intensions and Handle Them-
7
I extended the idea of intention measurement to the
banking sector
A bank wanted to initiate a program in which it
would allow the depositors into the savings accounts
to win prizes, in emulation of other banks
The bank wanted to distribute weekly prizes instead
of monthly prizes as a way of differentiating itself
from the crowdies of banks
Measure Intensions and Handle Them-
8
I suggested conducting a survey first to which the
bank agreed
The survey asked many questions on how people
choose their bank. Surely, the survey carried some
questions on saving accounts
The last question was the most important one: Name
the first three banks as they cross your mind
Measure Intensions and Handle Them-
9
Surprisingly, a good portion of those surveyed said
that prizes on saving accounts were very minor to
them in deciding which bank to deal with
Cross-tabulation of importance of prizes against
which banks crossed the mind revealed a very
interesting pattern
96% consistency was registered in that people who
said prizes were not important did not mention a
bank that offered prizes on savings accounts
Measure Intensions and Handle Them-
10
It turned out that business people did not care for
prizes
Small accounts were interested in the hope that they
might be fortunate enough to win the prize
The bank was advised to abandon the idea of
offering prizes on savings, which he did
Not surprisingly, few more banks dropped this
program later on
Creative approaches to measuring intensions pays
off
Creativity That Is Not Creativity
We create nothing- it is the borrowing and mixing
of ideas that generate new applications
Try before you buy (get the benefit before you pay
the cost) is very well-practiced in the software
industry and e-books where you may read a
chapter for free
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to
In our world today we need to shoot moving targets
as customers change their preferences and loyalty
The question turns into how to shoot a moving target
in abandonment of the long-established law of not
shooting a moving target
The question is how?
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 2
Let me start by giving a short story
Two prisoners were put in one jail- a small room
with a small window
The two prisoners had opposite characters: one of
them was so active and the other prisoner was so
lazy
One day they had a fight
The guard got angry with them and decided they
had only chickpeas for lunch
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 3
The guard opened the small window and poured
the chickpeas from a small bucket. The beans
scattered everywhere
The active prisoner collected the beans while the
other lazy prisoner was motionless
The active prisoner had all the beans, except for
one
He threw the last bean at the lazy prisoner, which
he accepted gratefully
To his surprise, the dusty bean was a pearl
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 4
Should we repeat this experiment hundred times
what are the chances the lazy prisoner would get
the pearl again?
In business we need to maximize this possibility and
shoot our moving target
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 5
I experienced this challenge. A company in a
developing country established a soft drink industry
To its surprise, all sold well except for the
strawberry flavored one as it sold in winter and not
in the very hot and humid summer
The assumption was that consumers consume soft
drinks mostly during summer
The company contacted me because of my
background in chemistry and business to help it
solve this problem
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 6
Having inspected the previous futile efforts of the
company to solve this issue I realized that the
customer was left out
I prepared a survey and distributed it to big
supermarkets (in fact, they were mini markets)
The survey was distributed to consumers so that
those who bought or did not buy the strawberry
flavored product were questioned
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 7
I used data mining techniques to analyze the survey
To my surprise, the survey revealed a rule: if the
consumer did buy the strawberry product most
likely the consumer was she and not he and in the
age range between 17-26 years
A second survey resolved the problem: High schools
and universities were open during winter and closed
during summer. Girls bought the strawberry
flavored product to use it as a make up and not for
its cooling effect
You Can Shoot a Moving Target and
You Have to- 8
I advised the company to increase the concentration
of the strawberry and double the prices
The strawberry product became the cash cow
product
The pearl was the golden finding: girls buy
strawberry for other uses than the company
assumed
Again, measuring the intension of consumers allows
for finding the pearl
Float and Do Not Sink
You do not want to get drowned in the sea of changes
Put a limestone in a beaker filled with water and it sinks
Repeat the experiment with the surface of limestone
coated with a proper wax and it floats
The inner of the stone has not changed; only the
surface. A superficial change that dragged
considerable effects
Many advertisement are not coated with wax to make
them float. They sink and sink sales as well
Mixing Opposites
A famous Arabic story is about a man who had a
camel. The camel got very sick. The owner made a
promise to sell the camel for a dollar should it recover
The camel recovered and the owner was reluctant to
sell it very cheap
One of his friends advised him to keep his promise in a
different way: to shout that the camel is for a dollar
and the cat for 100 dollars, but you have to buy the
two together (bundle selling). No body bought the
bundle and the man kept his promise
Mixing Opposites
A very interesting and creative tilt of this story is the
story of the Tortoise and the Hare to illustrate
creatively the importance of teamwork
The common story is known to all of us in that the
hare lost the race because of overconfidence
The hare challenged the tortoise to race again and
won because it learnt from its previous failure
The tortoise was creative in challenging the hare to
race again in a field of the tortoise choice
Mixing Opposites- 2
The hare ran far ahead of the tortoise to be
surprised that eventually it had to cross a lake. The
hare failed because it could not swim
The tortoise arrived comfortably later on to swim
the lake and win the race
There is no camel and cat: there is changing roles.
The hare and rabbit decided to team up: the hare
carries the tortoise on land and the tortoise carries
the hare in water. It is building on the strength of
each one
Mixing Opposites- 3
I am surprised by efforts directed at isolating
unprofitable customers from profitable one.
Remember that in certain circumstances the small
customer might carry you in difficult times
An example- well think of one before turning to the
next slide
Mixing Opposites- 4
I read about a telecommunication company in the
Philippines that turned small customers into profitable
ones
The idea was to sell telephone SIM cards at a discount
to a major customers and the customer in turn would sell
minutes to small telephone users. I call major customers
“hub customers” because they act as nodes of
distribution
Think of ants how they glue sand particles together so
as not to sink. Glue your small customers together to
carry you to success. Think positively
Managing Expectations
I accepted under pressure a part-time job as a
lecturer in a private university
I gave the first open book exam. I still remember
how students reacted in disbelief of the new reality
that they could harmlessly open a book during an
exam
All students, except for two, finished the two-hour
exam in one hour
The two remaining students complained that time
was not enough
Managing Expectations
The students reported to other teaching staff how
they had two hours to solve such an easy exam and
were allowed to open books on top of that
The staff accused me of giving an easy exam so
that students would enroll in my class
I corrected the exam and the class average was 16
out of 30
The staff who complained about me alluring the
students to enroll in my classes had a different view
(guess it)
Managing Expectations- 2
This time they warned me of the forthcoming trouble
that students had high expectation and that they
pay high fees and therefore would revolt against
me
I challenged them if one student would complain.
The trick was to manage the students’ expectations
As I went in the class I asked each student to
estimate his mark. The class average was 23 out 30
Managing Expectations- 3
I went on to tell the students that I was going to
solve the exam first
The realization of the students that the exam was
within their domain and that they did not give
enough serious thinking to the exam grew as I went
on solving it
Having finished solving the exam, I asked to
students to reevaluate their possible grades
The average dropped to 12 out of 30
Managing Expectations- 4
I distributed the exam papers and not a single
complaint was made
They students expected an average of 12 and they
got 16. That exceeded their expectations. Had I
distributed the papers when their average
expectation was 23 I would have run into trouble
Next time you evaluate employees try first to tame
their animal of expectations
My Creative Scale of Measuring
Positive Attitude
I introduced an idea of measuring to what positive
degree people are
The idea is based on reading a word that carries
double meaning
The word I used mostly is in Arabic, It is Nashtum.
You may read this word as Nashtam meaning to
smell or Nashtom meaning to curse
(98% of the people read it as curse and only 2%
read it as smell)
My Creative Scale of Measuring
Positive Attitude- 2
Now, I added the flowers after the word Nashtum
and still around 40% of people read it as curse the
flowers and not small the flowers
I found out that those who read it the wrong way or
the negative way were the least creative and most
complaining
Small tests can reveal a lot
Separation and Creative Mixing
Oil and water do not mix
In some regional universities mixing classes is like
mixing oil and water- you end up with an emulsion
I experienced this as I was on loan to teach a course
on applied statistics
Separation and Creative Mixing
I had to teach the female students first then in 15
minutes to repeat the same lecture to the male students
As if repetition was not enough; I discovered that the
female students were more serious than the male
students
The female students dressed well and were in high
spirits. To the contrary, the male students either cared
about their dress or spirit
I realized I had a formidable task ahead and I needed
a creative solution
Separation and Creative Mixing- 2
I decided to mix the classes, but with seating the
male students in the front rows and behind them the
female students. Not a real mixing, but was sort of
an emulsion
I managed to foresee the male students more
closely
The female students took active roles in the
discussion and excelled over the male students
The male students felt ashamed as the female
students scored higher grades than them
Separation and Creative Mixing- 3
Gradually, the male students improved
I had enough breathing time before the dean called me
to his office with many surprises on his face
The first surprise was that by reducing my teaching
hours into half meant that I get half my rate
The second surprise was that I overlooked the rules of
the university
Having explained to the dean my motives and the
improved results I was getting he allowed me to
continue with the experimentation
It was a success and the University paid me as if I
taught double classes.
Measuring Desirability
Teaching statistics in another university gave me a
different experience
I did not allow a student to enter the lecture room
even if he/she was ten seconds late
I kept on doing that for four lectures and then told
the students that I was no longer going to take
names and those who desire may come to the class
Those students who do not attend classes were not
to be penalized and could take the exams without
having to attend classes
Measuring Desirability- 2
I based my experiment on the equation that:
Performance = Desirability * Ability
I needed four lectures to teach students statistics by
using “A lab. approach”, or an experimental
statistics approach to help students see animations
of statistics and visualize it in action
If I increased their ability then I believed I could
increase their desirability to study statistics.
If their desirability was high enough then they
would attend classes without being forced to
Measuring Desirability- 3
The result: not a single student was absent
Those who were absent due to illness insisted to
bring medical reports to justify their absence
Not a single student failed
Do not drag your employees to work. Instead, make
the work desirable and workers will flow in
The more control you have to exercise, the less
desiring your employees are to come to work
Not even six-sigma will get you anywhere
Final Note
I have many more personal experiences to share
with you.
If I feel there is a desire from you to know about
them then I shall present them in a forthcoming
presentation
I wish you a creative life