The Idea Gym

A deep dive on creative questions with Dr. Roger Firestien

What's your problem? Tune in for some solid gold expert tips by Dr. Roger Firestien to help you use creative questions to help you speak the language of possibilities, uplevel your creativity and provide greater quality to your solutions. 
Dr. Firestien discusses two common types of questions we ask that can often block your creativity and how creative questions can invite curiosity, open ourselves to creativity and help us lead a “choose your own adventure” life. Since most all of us solve for for the wrong problem, how could just five minutes on creative questions set us onto a more informed path?
We also dive into the universal creative problem-solving process and how it can apply to any industry and subject from the medical field to the arts. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to tag us @the.idea.gym on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
Dr. Roger Firestien- website and resources
Problem finding study: Runco, Mark & Nemiro, Jill. (1994). Problem finding and problem solving: Problem finding, creativity, and giftedness. Roeper Review. 16. 235-241. 10.1080/02783199409553588. 
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Being Flexible: Building capacity for change

What does a local's table in a bar and touching your toes have in common? Nothing, if you're not flexible. In this episode, we discuss how Being Flexible helps us to think differently, entertain different thoughts, embrace change and try something different. When we stretch our mental capacity for change, we lean into the discomfort and can discover new and innovative ideas, concepts, and roundabout ways to reach our goals. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to tag us @the.idea.gym on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory
 
Kaizen at Toyota
 
The Next Hour: Make Space, Fill w/ Intention, Create Change! (creativityandeducation.com)
 
Creativity scars - Dr. Brene Brown, (Daring Greatly, 2015, p. 189-190)
Thinking Skills: Weaving Creativity: Into Every Strand of your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti
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Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn | Blog
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

Producing and considering many alternatives: Finding freedom in the options

Want a good idea? A great idea? It's by generating multiple ideas that you create the freedom of choice and have the best chance of finding that golden gem. While ideas are not solutions, generating lots of ideas invites us to dance with possibility before we move toward decision making. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to tag us @the.idea.gym on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
Guilford, J. P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. McGraw Hill.
Osborn, A.F. (1953). Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of Creative Problem Solving (3rd ed.) New York: Scribner’s. 
Parnes, S.J. (Ed.). Source book for creative problem solving. Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation Press. 
Thinking Skills: Weaving Creativity: Into Every Strand of your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti
Connect with The Idea Gym
The Idea Gym:  Website | Email | Instagram
Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn | Blog
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

Highlighting the Essence: Clarifying with intention and simplicity with Amanda Olivia

Complexity is real. It's easy to get lost in the mess of it all and yet, when we boil it all down to the core issues or values, the actual problem is often simple.  To Highlight the Essence is to get clear on what matters, what's important as an intention that is visionary. Working backwards from this point with activities to support what you value. Just like flowers emit their essential energies, we too can flow toward goals by affirming what matters most. 
We were delighted to have Amanda Olivia (@iamamandaolivia & @centerforwholepeace) who is the founder of The Center for Whole Peace & Simple Harmony Flower Essences. She believes that every problem has a solution and is an expert at bringing optimism, love, & kindness through all of life's challenges. Amanda brilliantly shared how she highlights the essence, whether creating custom flower blends or utilizing her background in instructional design to help her clients to simplify their lives and lead lives they most desire. She generously offered 40% off of her flower essence blends to our listeners using the code ESSENCE. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to tag us @the.idea.gym on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
The Center for Whole Peace 
Simple Harmony Flower Essences (40% off using code ESSENCE)
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
In and Out Thinking (Miller, Vehar and Firestein from Creativity…Unbound, 2001)
Thinking Skills: Weaving Creativity: Into Every Strand of your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti
Connect with The Idea Gym
The Idea Gym:  Website | Email | Instagram
Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn | Blog
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

Embracing the Challenge: Building capacity for complexity

Life is challenging. Full stop. This week’s episode we embrace the challenge! We talk about how looking at a problem as a challenge helps to enable a mindset and capacity for better problem solving. Giving ourselves a pause, using language that opens ourselves up to solution-finding and accepting that change is inevitable allows us to leverage our creativity and build our confidence to help solve complex challenges, whether personal or professional.
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to tag us @the.idea.gym on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
Dr. Ruth Noller (SUNY Buffalo State) equation for creativity: C = ƒa(K,I,E)
Creativity(C) is a function (ƒ) of your attitude (a) multiplied by knowledge (K), imagination (I) and evaluation (E)
Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. (2014). Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling. Management science, 60(2), 283–299. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1784
Thinking Skills: Weaving Creativity: Into Every Strand of your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti
Connect with The Idea Gym
The Idea Gym:  Website | Email | Instagram
Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

Looking At It Another Way: Reframing your process with Scott Schultz

This week we were joined by the incredibly talented Scott Schultz, creator of 30 Second Concerts, a YouTube channel dedicated to arrangement, created by himself, of all types of music from multiple eras played on children's instruments. 
Scott is a former professional French Horn player who gave up music for the business world over 20 years ago. As a way to reconnect to a creative outlet and pass the time during a pandemic (and see the time in another way), he bought a cheap wooden recorder to make some simple duets. Those "simple duets" most unintentionally grew into 30 Second Concerts (with more than 60,000 views on YouTube!). 
As we hear in this week’s episode, Scott combines his business knowledge and creativity to transform the way people do business through creative problem-solving and ideation. We talk about the benefits of reframing challenges as opportunities, how new perspectives help us build empathy and tips to help us see things in a new light. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to take a screenshot of your drawing challenge and tag us @the.idea.gym and Scott @30secondconcerts on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
30 Second Concerts
Thinking Skills: Weaving Creativity: Into Every Strand of your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti
Connect with The Idea Gym
The Idea Gym:  Website | Email | Instagram
Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

Risk-Taking: Failing better with Kim Zanti

We were thrilled to have creativity specialist, artist and blogger Kim Zanti join us who has contributed to the field of creativity with published articles, a blog (Catalyst Muse), and is currently working on a short documentary about creative placemaking.
Kim explores risk-taking with us with a quick game (Risk Roulette!), just as she recently did in an LA Libraries workshop on risk-taking for career pivots. We dig into the fear of failure, opportunities for growth, how to follow our gut and set the environment to feel aligned in our risk-taking. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to take a screenshot and tag us @the.idea.gym and Kim @zanti_kay on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
Catalyst Muse blog 
Failure vs. low-point study: Estabrooks, L. B., & Couch, S. R. (2018). Failure as an active agent in the development of creative and inventive mindsets. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 30, 103-115. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2018.02.015
Failure Resume by Dr. Melanie Stefan
Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion | TED - Bing video
Thinking Skills: Weaving Creativity: Into Every Strand of your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti
Torrance, E., & Safter, H. (1990). The incubation model of teaching : getting beyond the aha!. Buffalo, N.Y: Bearly Ltd.
Connect with The Idea Gym
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Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
 

Curiosity: I wonder why we should be curious?

Curiosity is one of the main doorways to creativity. Wonder why that is? Lots of reasons really, but mostly because what interests you matters. Internal motivation is key in becoming a better learner and living out a fully rich + creative life. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to take a screenshot and tag us @the.idea.gym on Instagram.
Resources from the show:
Books to check out for extended learning:
Think Again by Adam Grant
A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas by Warren Berger
Why? What makes us curious by Marv Livio
Wonder by Vlad Glaveanu
Dr. Tracy Dalgleish
Harvard Business Review, “The Business Case for Curiosity” September-October 2018
Opdal, P.M. Curiosity, Wonder and Education seen as Perspective Development. Studies in Philosophy and Education 20, 331–344 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011851211125
Start with Why by Simon Sinek TED Talk
Torrance, E., & Safter, H. (1990). The incubation model of teaching : getting beyond the aha!. Buffalo, N.Y: Bearly Ltd.
Wharton School interview with Marv Livio
Connect with The Idea Gym
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Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

Keep Open: a key to creativity

Because drawing to learn is so powerful, Osa the artist (IG: @osatheartist) joins The Idea Gym again in kicking off our Creative Thinking Skills exploration with a simple exercise to resonate on this fundamental skill in keeping open. 
We would love to see your own drawings from this episode's exercise and hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to take a screenshot and tag us @the.idea.gym and Osa @osatheartist on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
Torrance, E., & Safter, H. (1990). The incubation model of teaching : getting beyond the aha!. Buffalo, N.Y: Bearly Ltd.
Connect with The Idea Gym
The Idea Gym:  Website | Email | Instagram
Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn

”Creativity is Breathing”: Creativity as arts with Osa Elaiho

Think creativity is reserved for artists? Think again.
Osa the artist (IG: @osatheartist), a Nigerian born artist who has been painting for over two decades shares his thoughts on creativity and beautifully describes his creative process for painting. When we think like artists, the creative problem solving process naturally emerges. 
We would love to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening and we invite you to take a screenshot and tag us @the.idea.gym and Osa @osatheartist on Instagram. 
Resources from the show:
The 4 Ps of Creativity: Rhodes, M., (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305-310. 
Connect with The Idea Gym
The Idea Gym:  Website | Email | Instagram
Tanya Knudsen: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn
Rachel Voelkle-Kuhlmann: Email | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn