Mr Chav.

Came across this interesting team-building game on Business Balls.

lifestyle acronyms game

A simple exercise to encourage thinking about demographics, generational ideas, language, and communications.

For groups of any size. Split into pairs, threes, or work teams and review as a creative exercise, or run the activity as a quick ice-breaker.

How to do it:

Acronyms are powerful in communicating a lot of information succinctly. If you are working in marketing, new product development, service development or brand development you may find this exercise interesting (and amusing) as a creative team-building game, which relates to generational issues.

It can be useful for your target demographic audiences more understandable to everyone, and making them more amusing than say the Acorn Demographic Profiling System.

We have probably all heard of amusing lifestyle acronyms such as DINKY (Double Income, No Kids Yet); GOFER (Genial Old Farts Enjoying Retirement); ORCHID (One Recent Child, Heavily In Debt); and the more formal term NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).

What acronym can you devise (or suggest one you know already) that is particularly appropriate for modern times?

Where groups devise their own acronyms you may optionally award a point for each letter in the acronym and bonus points for:

• true acronyms (which either seem like a word or make a real word, using the first letter from each word in the full expression.)

Review/discuss results as appropriate for your situation.

Optional equipment – dictionary and thesaurus.

DILDO

Double Income Little Dog Owners/Dual Income Little Dogs Only.

DIMWIT

Dual Income Mortgage We’re In Trouble.

DINKY

Double Income No Kids Yet.

DITCHED

Dual Income, Two/Three CHildren, Expanding Debts. Adaptation (devised by R Burn-Smith, thanks) of the famous DINKY demographic acronym.

GLAM

Greying, Leisured, Affluent, Married.

GOFER

Genial Old Farts Enjoying Retirement. Alternative meaning in similar context is Genial Old Fisherman Enjoying Recreation.

HEW

High Earning Worker.

HOPEFUL

Hard-up Old Person Expecting Full Useful Life.

KIPPERS

Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings.

LOMBARD

Loads Of Money But A Real Donut/Dickhead.

LIFER

Lazy Ignorant Fool Expecting Retirement.

MUPPIE

Middle-aged Urban Professional.

NEET

Not in Employment, Education or Training.

NINJA

No Income, No Job or Assets.

OINKY

One Income, No Kids Yet.

ORCHID

One Recent Child, Heavily In Debt.

RABADAD

Running A Business And Doing A Degree.

ROB

Rich Ordinary Briton.

ROMEO

Retired/Rich/Respectable Old Men Eating Out/Enjoying Outings.

RUB

Rich Urban Biker.

SADFAB

Single And Desperate For A Baby.

SAL

Suburban Asset Lightweight.

SINBAD

Single Income No Boyfriend And Desperate.

SITCOM

Single Income Two Children Oppressive Mortgage.

SKI-ing

Spending the Kids’ Inheritance.

SNAG

Sensitive New-Age Guy.

SNERT

Snot-Nosed Egostical Rude Teenager.

SPOOLA/SPOOLAs

Stripped Pine, Olive Oil, Laura Ashley.

TEPID

Tastes Expensive, Pension Inadequate, Dammit.

VEST

Very Egotistical Stupid Twit.

WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

WOOF

Well Off Older Folk.

WOOP

Well Off Older Person.

WOTCHA

Wonderful Old Thing Considering His/Her Age.

YUPPIE

Young Upwardly-mobile Professional.

You can find other team building exercises from Business Balls here 

Beautiful wine labels from the Francis Coppola Reserve

High quality, superior taste needs a work of art for a wine label… so that’s what illustrator, Dean Tavoularis, was commissioned to do. While they create compelling contemporary caricatures that infuse even more personality into the products, it’s the subtle reference to modern artists like Henri Matisse that convey the positioning of the brand.

The collection of specially made fermented beverages becomes sensational souvenirs for vineyard visitors and wine club members.

What if...?

This is a very simple exercise which can open up discussion for more strategic possibilities such as implementing change in a company or writing new content for on-line communications etc. Any number of people can take part, but it’s better with smaller groups from a variety of departments or disciplines. It’s also very simple, but the important part is analysing the answers and taking them forward.

The idea behind exploring “what ifs” is to get us to look at our environment and imagine the consequences of “change”. 

The first thing to do, is for the facilitator to write-up some prompts on the whiteboard. These may relate to your core business, but also to more general issues, such as communication, working environment etc.

• …if there were no floors in this building?
• …light had a scent?
• …the telephone had never been invented?
• …if everyone was blind?

Then everyone has to choose a prompt, and the group then has five minutes of freewriting in response.

There are cognitive benefits of doing an exercise like this one:

When you start imagining simple scenarios and actually seeing them in your mind’s eye and then visualise all the consequences that might occur, this is not a trivial or a silly exercise. When you do it you’re actually forging pathways in the brain that will allow you to activate this envision brainset more easily in the future…

As we mature, our prefrontal cortex matures. And this is the part of the brain that’s discerning. It helps us to plan for the future, but it does that by judging the information that’s being given to it from the rest of the brain.

So, how does this help us in terms of strategic content?

Well, because writing things down is difficult, not to mention writing well (which requires different kinds of thinking and different approaches. This is the challenge that anyone responsible for strategy, leadership, content management or creation faces all the time. It is especially a challenge for those who have been responsible for these issues for a while and feel like they’re running out of ideas.

Many successful content strategies, will depend heavily upon an internal culture that invests time and resources in enrichment and educational experiences, just like this exercise could be. One result of making these kinds of experiences common should be in maintaining the flow and quality of content, but another will be the growth of the people creating that content. They’ll be smarter, more perceptive, and better at communicating the ideas that are central to what you do.

Let’s have a look at some possible responses to “What if light had a scent?”

• there wouldn’t be a need for air fresheners in homes
• houses would be personally scented to depict the owners’ personality.
• The postmen could be blind, delivering by smell alone.
• electricity costs would go up because people would enjoy smelling the light
• there’d be a market for bad-smelling lights that introverts could buy to discourage visitors
• districts or neighbourhoods would have their own scented geographic boundaries.
• Lights would have colours to match the aromas.

Gardner's 8 Intelligences

I recently came across an article about Howard Gardner’s theories on Multiple Intelligences. Being a lecturer and facilitator, I am always looking for new ways to teach and motivate my students in creative ways.  Gardner’s theories are not new, as you may know the first book by this Harvard psychologist about his ideas about intelligence and creativity was Frames of Mind written in 1983 and then Multiple Intelligences in 1999. But they are still relevant, in that, as classrooms get larger, teachers are becoming more distant from their students than ever before.

I read recently that in France, due to the lack of funding in some universities, students taking lectures in the afternoon, would be listening to a tape recording of the lecture given in the morning… this is OK if you are a “listener” but if you are “Visual-spatial (see below) the lecture would be far less motivating.

We all know that children, students and adults learn in different ways. So we need to know how to tap into the best way to make them be motivated enough to learn.

Effective teachers know that students’ learning is improved when their interests, talents, and needs are taken into account. This can be difficult in larger classes where you need to tune into 50 heads at the same time. This can also be difficult when you are giving workshops over short periods of time. There are many techniques of tapping into the students mindset, NLP being one of the most effective in terms of speed, but us teachers must make learning relevant for all students, and so we need to address their differing ways of learning by using many techniques during a particular lecture or course in order to interest them in the subject we are teaching.

When effective teachers provide students with activities that are fun and meaningful, students’ are able to use their higher order thinking skills through the use of multiple intelligences.  Howard Gardner presents a definition of human intelligence by using three characteristics in his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The three characteristics are:

- being able to solve life’s problems,

- being able to create a product or offer a service and

- recognizing or creating problems.

There are twelve principles that are based upon Howard Gardner’s theory and he has identified eight multiple intelligences which are beneficial for teachers so that they can reach every student.

The first intelligence is linguistic, which is the ability to use language and communicate either orally or in writing to make sense of the world.  Linguistic students are those who are stimulated and excited about language.  They enjoy story telling and word games.

The second intelligence is logical-mathematical, which is the “ability to reason and calculate” and “the ability to use mathematics” and science.  Logical-mathematical students are comfortable with numbers, patterns, categories, relationships, and reasoning.  These students would enjoy more left-brained activities relating to who statistics and analysing situations.

The third intelligence is visual-spatial, which is the ability to visualize mental pictures and recreate them in one’s mind using colors, lines, shapes, forms, and space . Visual-spatial students would rather read charts or visual materials, look at images or pictures rather than words.

The fourth intelligence is musical, which is the ability to comprehend or create music and understand meanings of sound using rhythm, pitch, melody, or timbre.   A musical student might be tapping his desk, making a rhythm or humming to himself.

The fifth intelligence is bodily-kinesthetic, which is the ability to use one’s body to communicate and solve problems. Bodily-kinesthetic students are able to express their feelings and ideas by using their body and skillfully handle objects   A student who loves physical education or one that would rather do a project instead of a worksheet has this intelligence.

The sixth intelligence is interpersonal, which is the ability to work with others in a group and recognize other’s feelings, moods, and motivations. Interpersonal learners are able to relate to other individuals.   These students are the ones who work best in a group and relate well to others.

The seventh intelligence is intrapersonal, which is the ability to “know one’s strengths and weaknesses” and know one’s own feelings. Intrapersonal students relate to themselves and focus on themselves.  Intrapersonal students prefer to work alone rather than in a group.

The eighth intelligence is naturalist, which is the ability to “make other consequential distinctions in the natural world and to use this ability productively”.  Naturalist intelligence is also described by Gardner as “the human ability to solve problems”.  Naturalists relate to the world around them.

A ninth intelligence, spiritual, was identified, but was changed to “moral” and then left as a part of naturalist intelligence.

Gardner states that using multiple intelligences influences students to use skills that are valued in places other than the school.  Second, using multiple intelligences requires that teachers teach higher order thinking rather than wrote memorization.

Teaching strategies which ensure that all of the intelligences are accommodated ensure that education is relative to all students.

What learning strategies do you put into place to ensure that everyone is engaged?Please share them with Créativité’s blog followers.

What did you enjoy doing as a child?

I found a very interesting article in www.entrepreneur.com the other day, and wanted to tell you about it, because it gets away from the traditional methods of thinking of a business idea, developing a business plan and going to the bank or backer to see what they think. The creative techniques proposed in the article, plus my further ideas and adaptations on the subject below, will help you to determine what you want to do, how you want to do it, and to get out there and do it – to test the market. We know that bankers or business advisors are not always known for being creative, visionary people, and sometimes they can quash an idea before it gets of the ground. So, if you want to go it alone, to become master of your own destiny, try these exercises, and see if you can make it happen, before they can!So let’s imagine that you’ve decided that you want to start a business but you are not sure what you can do. You may have certain skills you know you’re good at but perhaps you think you cannot make a business out of them. You may have worked in a particular career for the last 20 years and are desperate to change directions, or you may just feel like a change!Benjamin Disraeli, a 19th century British Prime Minister, once said, “Man is only great when he acts from passion.”

For today’s aspiring entrepreneur, exploring avenues of creativity to find your passion is likely to be the quickest route to increase your chances of launching a successful business. So where do you start? Here are five exercises to help you uncover your passion.

Exercise 1 - Revisit your childhood. What did you love to do?
Sometimes you can forget the things that brought you the most joy. We think of the practical rather than the things we love doing.So make a list of all the things you remember enjoying as a child. Would you enjoy that activity now? For example, Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s greatest architect, played with wooden blocks all through childhood and perhaps well past it.Research shows that there is much to be discovered in play, even as adults. Here’s a link to a great TED video from Tom Brown of IDEO which discusses the importance between creativity and play.Revisit some of the positive activities, foods and events of childhood. Can they be translated and added into your life now? How can those past experiences shape your career choices now? I am sure that those of you with children of a certain age, can already see through your children’s activities, what they might be interested in as adults, in terms of the things they enjoy doing, the way that they do them and the pleasure derived from them. So although we always say “It’s never too late” it’s also “never too young” Here are some great examples of  “child entrepreneurs” who found their passion very young and got started immediately.

Exercise 2 - Make a Creativity Board.
Start by taking a large poster board, put the words “New Business” in the centre and create a collage of images, sayings, articles, poems and other inspirations, suggests Michael Michalko, a creativity expert based in the US , and author of creativity books and tools, including ThinkPak.

Looking back, looking forwards…

“The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of your intention — who you want to become or what you want to create — your awareness and passion will grow,” Michalko says.As your board evolves and becomes more focused, you will begin to recognize what is missing and imagine ways to fill the blanks and realize your vision. (In the business world we call this “gaps in the market” or possible “niche markets”)

Exercise 3 - Make a list of people who are where you want to be.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Study people who have been successful in the area you want to pursue.For example, during the recession, many people shied away from the real estate market because they thought it was a dead-end. However, some people believe that it’s  the perfect time to jump in — when most others are bailing out and for those who stay working in the market, what techniques do they use to survive, to make the difference? Study them, figure out how and why they are able to remain successful when everyone else is folding and then set up structures to emulate them. Then perhaps think about an initial plan of action. How might you attack the market. Be different. Create a new way of doing things using the techniques of those you admire?

Exercise 4 – Take a break from business thinking.While it might feel uncomfortable to step outside of “business mode”, the mind sometimes needs a rest from such bottom-line thinking. Whenever I work with students of professionals who are blocked for ideas. I tell them to go and do something different, something like going for a walk in nature, painting, doing a sport, a hobby, listening to music…

Take a break...

After you have taken a break by indulging in something you’re passionate about, coming back to your business note-book and write down any business ideas that have come to mind.You’ll be amazed at how refreshed your ideas are. Doing something different, looking at beautiful things, doing something we enjoy, creates connections that we often neglect to notice. Notice them, capture them in writing and use them.”

Exercise 5 – Start doing what you love, even without a business plan
A lot of people wait until they have an extensive business plan written down, along with Business Angels wanting to throw cash at them – and their ideas never see the light of day.Be brave. Do what you enjoy, even if you haven’t yet figured out how to make money from it. Test what it might be like to work in an area you’re passionate about, build your business network and ask for feedback that will help you develop and refine a business plan.It’s a way to not only show the value you would bring to the market, but you can also get testimonials that will help launch your business when you’re ready to make it official.Perhaps the most important thing it will bring is a sense of confidence and enjoyment. The negative notions of fear will have transformed into “I can do it!”  and the joy of seeing the difference your contribution makes will fuel your creativity. At this point, these initial experiences will give you more power, ambition and drive to get out there and secure funding for your new project.

And now let’s get down to business…So by now, you will have more ideas about what you would like to do, how you might like do to it, and you may have already tested the market with your ideas.At this stage, this is where experts, backers and bankers and business advisors may be very helpful, and indeed, crucial to the development of your business. We all know that finding your passion is not always enough to get your business off the ground. It also depends on how ambitious you are for your business. Do you want to let it just tick over giving you enough money to live comfortably each month, or do you want more than that?It’s for you to decide which path to go down now… whichever path you take. Good luck!

How can you be more kind and human to your clients?

I was working on a Spring School Conference and workshop last week with two colleagues, Victoria Caldy of My Marketing Team and Joanne Taaffe, an independent journalist, with 80 International Students around the theme of “Create the Future”.

The key idea was to take an existing SME and create future products or services for its brand, using current trends. I use a variety of web-sites for tracking trends but I find trendwatching one of the best.

We gave the students 4 trends, one of which was R.A.K. Random Acts of Kindness.

R.A.K. is an interesting one, as it has its roots in the financial crisis we have been experiencing over the last 2 years. I think it’s going to be BIG. So let me tell you a little about it.

It’s really for consumers, who are fed up and annoyed by  distant, inflexible and self-serving corporations.For brands, it’s increasingly about open communications both with and between consumers (especially online). What does this mean? This means that the more you know your customer, the more you will know how to please them,  surprise and delight them with R.A.K.: whether that’s sending them a gift, responding to their publicly expressed moods quickly and appropriately or just showing that you care.

R.A.K. appeals to the vast (and ever-growing) number of consumers who make up GENERATION G (that’s G for Generosity not Greed).

Increasingly expect businesses to be socially, ethically and environmentally responsible.

The Human Touch. Consumers increasingly want to see the human side of brands (or if indeed a brand has a human side at all , making R.A.K. more welcome than ever.

R.A.K. are just a fun and light-hearted demonstration of how brands can access some of this publicly available information to brighten consumers’ days.

As Trendwatching states “Just to be clear: R.A.K. are not about rewarding customers for tweeting / liking your product, and not about giving away lots of free samples (that would be FREE LOVE), but about selected, random acts of kindness (hence the name “

So here are some examples…

In October 2010, flower delivery service Interflora launched a social media campaign in the UK designed to brighten up the lives of Twitter users by sending them flowers. Interflora monitored Twitter users that needed cheering up. Once found, the users were
contacted and sent a bouquet of flowers as a surprise.

A "Random Act of Kindness" from Interflora

Washington-based eco-conscious restaurant chain Sweetgreen employs a street team to perform « random Acts of Sweetness » for its customers. Previous acts include covering people’s bike seats when it rains, or leaving gift certificates for drivers who’ve received parking tickets.

Got a Parking Ticket? Don't worry Sweetgreen will make it feel better with a R.A.K.

So, do you know any brands who are kind or human, or both. If so, take a look closely at how they do it. Think about how your brand can be more human to your customers.

Créativité Consultants, Where Creativity Comes from the Heart.

I have recently changed my logo to a heart-shaped flower from the red flower I had before and when I sense that my colleagues or clients are feeling stressed or having a bad day, I send them a bouquet of virtual flowers. It puts a smile on their face to let them know that someone is thinking about them if nothing else. What can you do to make the difference? Find out more information about this trend here…

250 napkins were sent out to writers, some famous, some not.

They had to write a short story on a napkin and send it back. Here are some of the results…

This is a great idea to start a creative workshop, to get the neurons working. Choose your theme. It could be a drawing, construct something with the napkin, or write something. A napkin is large enough to make it interesting in a short amount of time.

Napkin Project by Chris Paling

Napkin Project Neil Smith

Napkin Project Yiyun-Li.

You can find all the results here…http://www.esquire.com/fiction/napkin-project/

What would you write?

Take things slow...The "Slow" Movement

I am just about to start a project with L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique within a context of Slow Design, so I have been researching the “Slow” movement in all of its forms…

What does that mean exactly?

Well as the name implies, it means generally to slow down processes: people, products, things (such as eating, moving around spaces), to enable us to begin to really understand the source of things; the manufacturing processes, the people who invent and produce them, how they are made, to have new user-experiences, to enjoy, relate to, understand in a new way, a new context, of taking things “slow!”

Perfect, one might think for our increasingly fast pace of life… but is it really achievable? Well, the Italians started it with Slow Food. Taking time to enjoy food. Waiting for food to be grown at the proper time – seasonal food, in season. A more sustainable, educative approach to growing; preparing, tasting (sensory pleasure), eating and enjoying.

According to the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini  ”Slow food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature.”

The slow food movement has focused on making connections between the way a morsel is grown, and how it tastes, helping us to reflect on how our consumer choices relate to human and eco impacts through transparency about origins. This has led to strategies such as Food Traceability and Food passports – so that we can see clearly where our food is coming from and how it is produced, transported etc. Here’s the web-site for Slow Food to find out more.

Food traceability using bar-code technology

Then we have “Slow Fashion”

Slow fashion means clothing and accessories that start with thoughtfully chosen beginnings, are constructed by well-paid individuals, and are meant to remain wearable for years to come.

The Classic Black Dress is reinvented… An early example from 2004  is knitwear company Makepiece formed by Beate Kubitz former advocate for Amnesty International and Nicola Sherlock designer and community agriculture expert.

The flock of sheep used to make Makepiece's clothing.

By rearing their own sheep, and keeping all production in the UK, they are able to vouch for environmental, ethical, and animal well-being standards. Their two yearly collections offer trans-seasonal beauty.

Another early example is Entermodal’s Cradle to Cradle-minded luxury leather bags. Source: www.treehugger.com

So how has this movement developed since 2004? The Ecologist reports that “Fast fashion isn’t really about speed, but greed: selling more, making more money. Time is just one factor of production, along with labour, capital and natural resources that get juggled and squeezed in the pursuit of maximum profits. But fast is not free. Short lead times and cheap clothes are only made possible by exploitation of labour and natural resources.”

We all know of global brands who exploit the poor so that we can benefit from (sometimes) cheaper, quicker production processes. exploitation of factory works, cotton pickers and growers, jean dyers etc… We know that Zara’s strategy is to be quick-to-market with the latest fashions… but do we really want or need to be fast or SLOW?

So, back to slow design…

Let's start the revolution in the present continuous.

If we take a look at some of SlowLab’s work in New York, they are currently working on “Place-ness” strange expression? When and how can a place be labelled “slow?” to encourage new ways of ‘knowing’ the physical, social and cultural phenomena of urban contexts.

Let’s take this theme, what could you imagine?

Fast food restaurants become slow, so that we can really enjoy the food and surroundings much more?

Supermarkets add contemplative aspects to the cash-point area so that we enjoy the wait?

Exhibitions at the Grand Palais slow down even more so that we spend all day queuing – but we enjoy the exterior as much as the interior?

No, it goes deeper than that: here’s a quick definitive guide to slow design principles:

Well, who started this notion of Slow Design?

Slow design chair "Cube"

Slow Design was set up by Alastair Fuad-Luke in 2004 to stimulate debate around the concept of ‘slow design’. It’s premise is that  we can perceive ‘design’ and ‘slowness’ as a positive influence towards more sustainable ways of living.

Alastair Fuad-Luke also set down some interesting principles around this theme:

I think we now need Slow Communication, slow Social Media… and yes, it’s starting… with Avenoo for example…

Avenoo’s slogan is “garden of global consciousness”. It describes itself as “a haven of mindful interaction where we honor the web of life and nourish our relationships… Here you can breathe and just be present.”

It is also promoting on its web-site the Slow Living Conference taking place in June this year in New England, USA.

We also have http://socialmediatoday.com/ Here Rick Liebling, sets out his principles for Slow Social Media:

So, we need to ask ourselves do we really need to be fast? Are we really enjoying “Fast living?” What is it really providing us with in terms of enrichment. Are we making ‘real’ connections on-line? What do our ‘friends’ really mean to us? How can we enjoy being longer at doing something… we seem to have forgotten how to be SLOW.

Yes, we only live once and yes we can do much more if we are fast? But are we really taking the time to enjoy what we are doing when we are doing it? And are we doing it well? Good enough? With as much thought when we are fast?

I think the SLOW movement is really interesting in all its guises… what do you think?