Basic Skills/ Fast Company/ Journal Project, Will R. Yliniemi  July 23, 1999

Fast Company Article #7, This Old House is a Home for New Ideas, by Curtis Sittenfeld, July/August 1999 Issue Fast Company, Page 58

Summary

This article written by Curtis Sittenfeld describes how creativity guru Joey Reiman, CEO of BrightHouse, an Atlanta based ideation corporation, stimulates creativity in his company by slowing the whole process down to allow time for thought. He says that you cant hurry great ideas. Reimans company of 17 people only works with one client at a time and charges $500,000 per project.

Reiman follows a four-step process for achieving goals. During the Investigation phase, BrightHouse interacts with an average of 50-75 experts. These experts include people from all walks of life, but are related to the task in question. Then comes the incubation phase which is all about taking time to think and allowing ideas to coalesce, allowing creativity to emerge at its own pace. During the illumination and illustration phases the firms big ideas really come to life.

Reiman states if you can change your mind, you can change the world and he also says that before you can be creative, you must be courageous. High speed doesnt crack big problems, which need a deliberate thinking process and better means slower. His advice for people who are feeling uncreative is to call the people on your anti-bummer squad and take them out to dinner. They will tell you how wonderful you are and how much they love you.

Reflection

The article stimulated my curiosity, because when I think back to various educational activities that I have worked on, both speed and slowness can stimulate creativity. Sometimes timelines stimulate creative juices, and other times, slow deliberate re-evaluation and re-invention produced a superior product.

Much of the work that we do in extension is reactive to situations and in many cases crisis, and normally will not wait for a slow methodical process. There are many times where I have not been completely satisfied with my performance in an educational activity because of the lack of preparation time that was allotted to the project. Several creative educational projects I have completed in recent years have been done in a slow, allow time to think process, and have turned out to be works of art. So, both slow and fast will work.

Discussion

The most interesting point that my colleagues and I found in the article that is really applicable to Extension Educators was Reimans point about the anti-bummer squad. This support network of cohorts and family, that can stimulate and encourage you, is really necessary to enhance creativity.

-- Anonymous, July 22, 1999

Answers

Will Yliniemi,

Thank you for organizing this so well. The subheadings of Summary, Reflection, and Discussion really add to the organization of your paper.

Encoragement is not only good, but essential for effective use of resources. Too often it is neglected or completely lost.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 1999