Author: Oliver BroadbentPage 10 of 14
A new month, new good intentions. Just like when I started a new exercise book at school, when I would commit to being extra neat (and then forgetting…
This post is another in my series about inputs to the creative process, what I call ‘Filling the Kalideascope‘. Today’s input is visiting the site, and it cuts…
In the midst of lockdown we have created a new household tradition that brings a highlight to the week. On Saturday nights we dress for dinner, enjoy our…
When I teach I realise I am drawing on ideas that I have gathered and processed over many years, but little of which exists outside my head. If…
I wrote earlier this week about getting a TV for the first time in 13 years. It reminds me of when I took my first flight in seven…
The tools you use define your work. They lock in choices about what you turn your attention to, what you can do and what you can’t. Before you…
I am grateful to the participant in this morning’s climate coaching call who reminded me of the power of asking the opposite question to the one you are…
What if you couldn’t look stuff up online? This is a question I keep returning to. One answer is that other people might become a more important source…
Television, television television. Say it a few times in a row and it sounds a bit futuristic, of science fiction even. The ability to capture moving images and…
All this week I have been writing about organising inputs to the creative process, but at the end of the week I’m feeling overwhelmed from too many inputs….
My starting point for gathering inputs to a creative project is the working brief. The technique that I use with participants in my workshops is what I call…
Yesterday I wrote about the inputs you might gather at the start of a creative project. These are what I call inputs in the moment. But there is…
In my last post I described the Kalideascope as a tool for having ideas. You fill it with inputs and then turn it to create new the connections…
In my last post I cited James Webb Young’s definition of an idea as being a new arrangement of existing elements. He goes on to suggest having an…
This week I have begun creating a series of videos to share my teaching on how to have ideas. The videos start with what simple question, what is…
With our household suddenly in self-isolation pending results of a Covid test, my daughter and I are back playing lego together and I’m revisiting that recurring question: how…
It is the moment I look for on my training courses. It is when participants switch from general interest in the topic or material to a moment of…
How do you make sure you get the most out of the investment you are making in your professional development? First you have to commit to doing the…
I am speaking to more and more people who are disillusioned with their work. Often what is in the balance is a purpose-led career versus job security and…
So many things that I am working on at the moment lead me to the conclusion that there is power in the gaps. But I feel like for…
Last night I attended the panel discussion of the excellent Clowns in Crisis conference, hosted by the Online Clown Academy, hosted by. Here are some things I took…
If you are interested in understanding how your organisation should perform in the climate emergency then you should be interested in organisational culture. An emergency is a state…
In March 2020 we were all sent home and we discovered we could meet using video conferencing instead. Suddenly our wide-angled world was sliced to a quarter of…
The fault I find in our journalism is it forces us to engage with some fresh triviality every day whereas only three or four books give us anything…
Boring post alert. Sometimes you need to be boring to be creative. This is a really boring post about something I find myself doing lots and lots: setting…
It wasn’t what I was expecting but volume 5 of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time ends on a cliff-hanger. It is incredible how such separate threads from…
I sit in my current preferred cafe bolthole and the jacket of the person opposite me catches my eye. It’s a slightly faded turquoise, not unlike a jacket…
This course, which I deliver at Constructivist for the Institution of Structural Engineers is my longest running conceptual design training course. It is an introductory course, which splits…
A year on from declarations of climate emergency in the construction industry I am looking for ways to carry on emphasising the scale of the problem and the…