How to nurture, develop and liberate our kids' creativity
This all started because of Ideas Girl Number 1.
My day job has me in the ideas business. My work is travelling the world helping diverse organisations solve problems, and add new value through the substance of ideas.
One such project some years back, having just finished with American Idol in LA, I got an invite to go north to Cisco in San Jose. It was at Cisco that I first heard the statement ‘what can be digitized will be’. I was blown away. The future instantly showed itself. The Cisco project concerned marrying technology education (them) with creativity and innovation education (mine).
The next few years became all about investigating the coming need for change; the problems and the demands for massive shifts in what we teach our children.
Now, at that same time, I’ve got my young kids. I’m learning to be a dad. As my daughter turns four and enters pre-school, I start to make the connections that the robotic nature of her education - designed in the 19th century - won’t deliver anything like what she critically needs to tackle the challenges of creative problem-solving in our 21st century.
So, I set myself a challenge; I’ll nurture her creativity at home. And you know what - despite thousands of hours leading creative projects, literally training thousands of people in the behaviours of creativity, including making global organisations more innovative… I don’t know how! I mean; is it play? If I play with her is that enough? Do I formally teach her brain science? Is being outdoors the way forward? And what about screens! I know reading is key etc. but is that actually nurturing her creativity? Hmmm.
I can’t recall the moment. But one day not long after, I stumbled onto something. My daughter had done something-or-other creative and I spontaneously said…
"you’re such an Ideas Girl."
Boom. The change was palpable.
Right then, I saw this inner shift in her. I could sense immediate new confidence. It was as if resonating through her being was a profound new truth; ‘I’m an IdeasGirl’. And so it started; new ideas, spontaneous creativity, ideas as solutions to problems I posed - silly problems, real or imagined, as games and play, including cheeky ‘is it a good idea we should have ice cream now’.
Critically, we had a new language for creativity in the family; her as Ideas Girl, with Ideas Mummy and Ideas Daddy, followed very quickly by our younger son as Ideas Boy.
Later it hits me. This is a story. It wasn’t anything more than that - like a side project, a +1 passionate undertaking just because.
So, I made up a story. Then through a series of serendipitous events (giving a talk in Slovenia!) I met Jernej who could realise Ideas Girl through illustration. Together with my roaming designer Charlotte we three produced the first Ideas Girl book - a very cool moment.
I hadn’t planned to do much with the Ideas Girl story. But one day, I’m dropping my daughter off at school (then in Year 1) and her teacher comes and asks "have you written a book about your daughter?" I said no but I kinda have a storybook designed to inspire her creativity. He invites me to read it to her class. Great. But I think to myself, I’m not just going to read a book. How about I use the book to inspire the kids doing some actual creative problem-solving!
We design our 1st Ideas girl and boy problem-solving-worksheet - and I go and visit the class.
The results were unbelievable.
Without a word of a lie, the ideas they came up with were so creative, so beautifully imagined, that it shifted something in me. Their ideas were implicitly better than if I’d done the same exercise with adult clients. It sounds obvious, but to actually be present and witness little people presenting big ideas they had dreamed up - wow!
After, it occurs to me; I’m onto something.
The next step was taking the first Ideas Girl book into our local bookstore. They took 10. Then 10 more. And they sold out! So now I know I’m definitely onto something. The idea of doing this more; more books, more classes, more schools, more kids… that having been at the innovative coal face of so many different organisations, from the likes of the BBC and Spotify, to Unilever and Unicef, makes me the right fit to translate adult creativity and innovation into products and programs specifically designed to nurture kids creativity.
And so, as BIF was my company name (Better Ideas Faster), we coined BIFKiDS. And BIFKiDS now has the specific mission to develop the next generation of creative problem solvers.
My own parenting experience combined with what I’ve been up to in schools and academies, it’s critical that we support those tasked with teaching our kids. We are doing this now within education, co-creating and prototyping with educators how to do it best.
Staying true to the mission also means supporting kids at home - which is to say supporting grown-ups in the home become aware of the need for it and confidence to parent it.
This handbook is our first adult ‘product’ for the home… a handbook for parenting creative problem solvers.
We hope you like it.
The modern-day handbook for parenting creative problem-solvers
CREATIVE KIDS ARE HAPPY KIDS
What do we parents and carers want most for our kids? Isn’t it for them to ultimately be healthy and happy in their lives?
Numerous scientific studies show that “creativity is a healing, life-affirming activity”. Creative people are healthier and enjoy greater mental freedom i.e. happier!
Therefore parents, grandparents and carers of all kinds… nurturing, developing and liberating our kids' creativity - and so their imaginative capacity for problem-solving - is future-proofing them to become happy adults tooled and ready to thrive come what may.