Working Paper: Creative Thinking Tools For Planners & Related Built Environment Professions

ISSN 1744-9847 ISBN 1-905148-03-8
Working Paper
04
Creative Thinking Tools for Planners & Related Built Environment Professions
Marilyn Higgins Heriot-Watt University and Dr. Dory Reeves Reeves Associates
September 2004
CEBE Working Paper Series

Editors: Chris Webster and Andrea Frank Editorial Assistant: Diane Bowden Published by The Centre for Education in the Built Environment Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB Tel: 029 2087 4600, Email: CEBE@heacademy.ac.uk http://www.cebe.heacademy.ac.uk/ CEBE is one of 24 subject centres forming part of the Higher Education Academy
Abstract: As increasingly complex issues face cities and regions, it is recognised that planning and built environment professionals need to adopt new approaches which are pro-active, inclusive and innovative. Guidelines and policies of government and professional bodies are emphasising the need for culture change, imaginative responses to spatial planning challenges and creative thinking. Planning education is to include new skills to prepare students for the tasks ahead, including critical thinking and creative problem solving. This working paper assumes the format of a guide book. It first explores the concept of creativity and its role in education and planning. The authors then provide an overview of several basic techniques or tools designed to stimulate creative thinking. Each technique is described and its application in the classroom illustrated by case studies. Facilitators notes support implementation of the various techniques and exercises in the curriculum. Examples relate particularly to planning but are relevant to other Built Environment fields. A list of online and paperbased references guide the reader to additional sources on the subject.
Keywords: Built Environment, Skills, Problem solving, Creative thinking, Creativity techniques.
CEBE Working Paper No 4
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Page 3
Section I: The Importance of Creativity

1. Introduction 2. What is Creativity and Why is it Important for Planning Education? 3. How can Creativity be Fostered? 5 7 10
Section II: Creativity Techniques

Creative Problem Solving 4. 5. 6. 7. Technique: Creative Problem Solving by COCD (CPS) CPS Facilitators Notes CPS Case Study: Developing Student Services CPS Case Study: Investigating Spatial Planning 14 16 18 20
Mind Body Connections 8. Technique: Mind-Body Connections developed by Mike Metelits 9. Mind-Body Facilitators Notes 10. Mind-Body Connections Case Study Medicine Wheel 11. Technique: Medicine Wheel developed by the Nowhere Foundation 12. Medicine Wheel Facilitators Notes 13. Medicine Wheel Case Study Finger Painting 14. Technique: Finger Painting 39 32 34 37 24 26 29
Section III: Creativity: The Way Forward

15. Conclusions, Potential Applications and the Way Forward 16. Web-based Resources for Creativity 17. Recommended Reading 18. List of References 42 46 46 47
CEBE Working Paper No. 4
Acknowledgements
This guide is sponsored by the Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) www.cebe.heacademy.ac.uk. CEBE is one of 24 subject centres that represent the outreach element of the newly established Higher Education Academy (http://www.heacademy.ac.uk). From January 2000 to April 2004, CEBE was part of the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN). The centre's mission under the new Higher Academy regime remains much the same, i.e. enhancing teaching and learning in HE, compiling and disseminating good practice and supporting academics. The centre serves a broad constituency ranging from architecture, landscape architecture, planning, construction and real estate, housing and transport planning. It is jointly hosted by Cardiff University (Architecture, Landscape, Town Planning, Housing and Transport and the University of Salford (Construction and Real Estate). The Centre has established a number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to conduct research into specific learning and teaching issues and form networks. This report is the result of one SIG which looked into creativity techniques and their use in planning education. The authors would particularly like to thank Andrea Frank, Chris Webster and Diane Bowden for their help and support throughout. The idea for this Special Interest Group grew out of the Creative University project. Both authors participated in an inter-disciplinary workshop in January, 2003 that made a dramatic impact on them. They would like to thank Caroline Baillie, Norman Jackson, Jane Pritchard, Chris Webster and Ellen Packham for their excellent organisation. The techniques discussed in this report were introduced during the workshop and credit must be given to the trainers who developed them: Fred Buining of COCD, Mike Metelits of Nothing Special, Cris de Groot of the Nowhere Foundation and Darrell Mann and Simon Dewulf of CREAX. Fred and Mike provided further training for the authors which helped enormously. The workshop was both inspirational and transformational, thanks in part to the participants as well. The website www.creativeuniversities.com will keep readers up-to-date with developments. Nationally, the Imaginative Curriculum project is being taken forward by Norman Jackson of the Higher Education Academy. Keep in touch with their website for reports and events: www.imaginativecurriculum.net/.
Section I: The Importance of Creativity 1. Introduction

This guide is the result of a Special Interest Group on creativity in planning funded by the Centre for Education in the Built Environment, Cardiff University and draws on a workshop held in Edinburgh in May 2004.
Aim
The aim of this guide is to equip those involved in teaching planning with the knowledge and capacity to increase the creative potential of the new generation of planning students who will be working to deliver sustainable communities and sustainable development at national, regional, local and community levels. The report will be of interest to planning practitioners interested in developing fresh approaches to problem solving. The creative thinking techniques described are also relevant in other fields and are not exclusive to planning. With increasingly complex issues facing cities and regions, professionals need to develop new sets of skills which maximise their problem solving capabilities. Fresh approaches are needed to enhance inter-professional working and generate effective partnerships. Communities expect to be involved in shaping their futures and professionals need to be equipped with up to date techniques and tools of public involvement. Some of the techniques discussed in this report have also been successfully tried with members of the public involved in planning workshops.
The Creative University Project

This guide follows on from the authors involvement in a UK-wide initiative, The Creative University project, which has already provided examples of approaches that have been successfully used in an educational context, including examples relevant to planning and related professional areas of activity (Baillie, 2003). See www.creativeuniversities.com for further information.
How to use this guide

This guide is targeted at teachers of planning primarily, although we can see its application to other related built environment professions. It explains creativity and its role in education illustrates a number of techniques provides a bibliographic review of key creativity web sites for planning updates the literature review carried out for the 1999 report on Creativity in Town Planning1 presents case studies of the use of creativity techniques outlines how these techniques could be used in planning courses at under-graduate and post graduate levels.
Town Planning Network (1999) Creativity in Town Planning, University of Westminster Press, London.
There are many different techniques to encourage creative thinking, a subject which is not new. This report concentrates on three techniques presented at the Creative University workshop: Creative Problem Solving, Mind-Body Connections and the Medicine Wheel. Neither of the authors received further training in a fourth technique, TRIZ, which was also discussed at the workshop. See Baillie, 2003 and www.CREAX.com for further information. It is hoped that further work about how this technique could be applied to planning might be carried out in future guides. It is important to read the section on How Can Creativity be Fostered, chapter 3. Effective learning and teaching will not come from the application of techniques alone. The authors advocate the long-term aim of combining various creativity techniques and not seeing them in isolation. The mind-body techniques in particular are useful when applied with other techniques. The skill comes in choosing techniques appropriate for a given task. It is also important that teachers work with students to establish how best to run sessions to ensure that all students have equal access. The Teachability Project provides guidance on creating accessible tutorials and seminars for disabled students which readers will find useful (SHEFC, 2004). Further work is needed to help teachers audit their approaches. The guide will be produced for accessing on the CEBE website (www.cebe.heacademy.ac.uk) and resources permitting, hard copies will be made available.
2. What is Creativity and Why is it Important for Planning Education?

The role of Creativity in Education
Approaches to the built environment are changing. The Government, professional institutes, universities and practitioners all recognise the need to change.
Change of culture
The Government and the profession are effecting a change in the culture of planning to make it a more innovative, active and responsive activity (ODPM, 2001). They are trying to change the image from a regulatory and negative activity to one that is wider, more positive, pro-active and central to peoples lives. This new type of planning links with the modernising local government agenda, promoting social inclusion and mainstreaming diversity. Old patterns of working will need to be reviewed.
Royal Town Planning Institute New Vision

The RTPIs New Vision for Planning is promoting a programme of radical evolution (RTPI, 2001, p. 1). Change is required in both the product and process of planning. So our agenda must be.to develop new skills...to underpin the new practice (RTPI, 2001, p. 5). Hallmarks of the New Vision include making spatial planning more sustainable, integrative, inclusive, valuedriven and action-oriented.
Planning education
Planning education is also changing for the same reasons. It is important to make sure that planning students are equipped with the right skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In its recent Policy Statement on Initial Planning Education, the RTPI says that critical thinking about space and place lies at the heart of planning (RTPI, 2004, p. 1). It is the authors contention that creative as well as critical thinking is necessary to effect the desired changes both within the profession and within the environment. Planning requires not only the ability to solve problems, but to ask the right questions in the first place. Tomorrows planners need the right skills to navigate through complex problems involving numerous different people and still reach the goal of improved communities. Creative thinking can help planners manage effective change and develop the confidence to take risks by allowing them to see problems in a new light. The RTPI includes in its first two learning outcomes for spatial planning programmes: 1. Generate visionary and imaginative responses to spatial planning challenges... 2. combine creative direction for the future with credible means of implementation (authors emphasis) (RTPI, 2004, p. 10). Higher education has a definite role in explicitly exposing students to different thinking skills. Since knowledge is changing so rapidly, education has a critical role in equipping students with the tools to define and solve complex new problems. Almost 10 years ago de Bono was saying that education does very little indeed about teaching creative thinking and today we are still getting to grips with it (de Bono, 1996, p. ii-iii).
Fresh approaches required

Fresh approaches are needed to enhance inter-professional working and generate effective working partnerships. In his review of skills required to shape the built environment, Sir John Egan recognises the need to encourage more creative thinking about local contexts in delivering national and regional policy and guidance. (Egan 2003, p. 10). In his final report
about the skills required to implement the Governments vision for sustainable communities, the report emphasises the importance of generic skills which are generally lacking, including ways of thinking which are creative, open to change, challenge assumptions and are flexible (Egan 2004, p.56). In helping to define leadership in sustainable communities, he stresses creative thinking, making lateral connections, effective networking..thinking outside the box (Egan 2004, p.103). Clearly, the ability to find fresh and creative responses to complex environmental dilemmas is a crucial ability required for tomorrows planners. All too often, however, people are told to change things and not given the tools to effect change. We live in a complicated and messy world in which work for most of our graduates is a continuous stream of problems that have no simple or unique solutions. Being able to work creatively will help your students survive and thrive in this world and help them lead more satisfying and meaningful lives. (Jackson 2003, p. 1). One of the trends in higher education is making increased use of new technology to promote elearning, allowing more flexibility in delivery. Although the approaches advocated in this report concern face-to-face group teaching, it will be important to experiment in the future with interactive information technology to apply these principles to e-learning settings. The use of discussion forums and video clips where people are filmed using these techniques should be borne in mind. The real act of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes. (Marcel Proust).
What is Creativity?
There are many books and articles on creativity based in many different disciplines; the subject has been the topic of study for some time and many definitions can be found in the literature. For the purposes of this guide we have found the most helpful definition of creativity as the ability to repackage or combine knowledge in new ways which are of practical use and add value (see Town Planning Network, 1999, p. 10). Creativity builds on self-expression and confidence; it deals with uncommon responses, novelty, flexibility and fluency, which is learned by exploring, manipulating, questioning and experimenting (Mouly, 1968, p. 403). Creativity for the purposes of this guide concentrates on making connections between things that were previously independent; it is about seeing issues from new angles as part of the process of both defining and solving planning issues, which can often be very complex. Seen in this way, creativity is not defined as the genius in a Mozart or Einstein, rather, it is a quality inherent in every individual. Thinking about creativity in this way helps make the concept accessible to planners. Creative thinking is often associated with divergent thought processes and has much in common with Edward de Bonos work on lateral thinking. He contrasts two types of thinking, lateral and vertical, thereby shedding light on concepts defining creative thinking (de Bono, 1990):
Lateral Thinking/Divergent Thinking

Changes Always looks for a better solution Looks for questions Only wrong is rigidity Provocative Makes deliberate jumps Explores least likely directions Open-ended
Vertical Thinking/Convergent Thinking

Chooses Seeks to judge whats right Looks for answers Uses yes/no Analytical Things follow directly Goes in most likely direction Closed
Both types of thinking have their uses at different times (and are not right or wrong in themselves). Much of our education develops convergent ways of thinking. Unlike much traditional academic practice, it is more generally recognized now that intuition and emotion have a valid role to play in creativity. The study of creativity is not new but the importance of it in planning education is relatively new.
3. How can Creativity be Fostered?

Attitudes
Creativity can be developed, facilitated and encouraged through active learning. It is crucial that teachers and facilitators start with a deep belief that everyone is inherently creative; to think otherwise could lead to a dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy. A major study into teachers attitudes about creativity found that 89.6% of those surveyed believe creativity can be developed (Fryer and Collings, 1990, p. 213). In this study, the distinguishing characteristic of teachers highly oriented to creativity is an emphasis on pupil centred learning, most prevalent amongst females and young teachers (Fryer and Collings, 1990, p. 214). Person orientation was an underlying pattern in teachers who valued creativity (Fryer and Collings, 1990, p. 217). Teachers have a key role, as models and examples, in motivating students, emphasising that they must take responsibility for their own learning; real changes to thinking patterns can only come internally. The psychologist Carl Rogers has written about the relationship between creativity, a climate of psychological safety promoting self-worth, and the dynamics of developing inner freedom. The qualities he associates with facilitative teachers are: trust, realness, sincerity, acceptance and empathy (Rogers, 1976, pp. 53-55). The following teaching skills have been seen to nurture creativity: Recognising and acknowledging potentialities; Being respectful of questions and ideas; Asking provocative questions; Recognising and valuing originality; Unevaluated practice and experimentation; Developing creative readers; Searching for truth with methods of research; Creative problem solving skills.
(Torrance, 1967, p. 189) While it is true that everyone has the capacity to be creative, certain personality types might have more of a predisposition to becoming creative thinkers. Maslow (1959, pp. 93-4) in his theories about motivation speaks of creativitys expressive quality, with an increased stress on the role of integration and wholeness including a lessening of distinction between work and play. According to Maslow, qualities of personality which foster creativity are boldness, courage, freedom, spontaneity, clarity, integration, self-acceptance. Attitudes and qualities are important for learners and teachers alike. We can all try to nurture a more creative mindset if we so choose (see Dewulf and Baillie, 1999, p. 9). There is strong evidence that the culture and environment within which one works influences creativity (see Town Planning Network, 1997 and Dewulf and Baillie, 1999). Fromm (1959, pp.48-51) identifies the following conditions or personal characteristics which facilitate creative attitudes:
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Capacity to be puzzled Ability to concentrate Experience of I Ability to accept conflict and tension Willingness to be born every day Courage and faith
Van Oech (1959, p. 6) asserts that creativity requires an attitude that allows a person to search for ideas, explore, break rules and take risks. He identifies 10 blockages to creativity from which we need to free our minds (Van Oech, 1990, p. 11): The right answer Thats not logical Follow the rules Be practical Play is frivolous Thats not my area Avoid ambiguity Dont be foolish To err is wrong Im not creative
Need for explicitness

The Town Planning Networks research into creativity and higher education found that While creativity is sometimes explicitly encouraged in teaching and assessment criteria, it is more often implicit and indirectMost lecturers reward creative solutions when they are presented but do not use the word overtly and consciously (Town Planning Network, 1999, p. 29). This sends confusing messages to students. Studies show that for students to understand a particular activity or experience in the way we intend, we need to make explicit the significance that we attach to it (Pardoe, 2000, p. 143). Students are able to recognise creative elements within their own learning environment and articulate the ingredients. In a survey, final year students of planning specifically mentioned benefits from live projects, group work and field trips (Town Planning Network, 1999, p. 29). Opportunities to learn by doing were valued, including seeing issues from different perspectives, including inter-disciplinary work. There was evidence that individual teachers can make a real difference, both by explicitly encouraging creativity and by being good role models themselves but the opposite is true as well and creativity was sometimes stifled by insensitive attitudes or comments.
In surveys of students on entrepreneurship courses it was found that activities such as

teamwork, practical tasks, presentations, open class discussion and active participation
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combined with fun and humour and an element of freedom resulted in the encouragement of creative thinking and increased self-confidence; teachers were friendly, informal, communicative and approachable, contributing to a conducive, relaxed atmosphere for learning (Morrison and Johnston, 2003, p.155).
Current initiatives
The Generic Centre, now part of the Higher Education Academy, has begun promoting creative thinking in the context of higher education (see Jackson, 2003). It helpfully identifies practical guidance about how to integrate some of the principles discussed in this guide into the curriculum, at various important stages of the creative process: preparation, generation, incubation, evaluation, implementation and evaluation of results (Jackson, 2003, pp. 5-6).
Equality proofing
As with all teaching, it is vital that teaching and learning processes are accessible. Disability legislation places a duty on teachers and institutions to anticipate the needs of students and make reasonable adjustments to ensure equal access. The legislation requires that disabled students should not be substantially disadvantaged through the failure of the University to make reasonable adjustments or through less favourable treatment. The best way to achieve this is to explain the format of the sessions which will form part of the curricula well in advance and discuss with students how best to run the session in order to ensure equal access. The Teachability Project provides very useful guidance (SHEFC, 2004). In addition to disability, teachers should ensure that materials and presentations, both text and imaging are gender and race proofed to challenge stereotypes and help promote equality.
Role of techniques
The techniques discussed in this guide do not in themselves produce creativity or answers; rather, they are tools to encourage people to think in ways different to the linear manner usually taught throughout our Western education system. They are useful in producing a holding space for people to reflect on issues from different angles, thus avoiding the usual rush for solutions. Interestingly, two of the techniques have their origins in non-Western cultures (medicine wheel and mind-body connections). Eastern cultures have a stronger tradition of both/and thinking as opposed to the either-or scientific analysis and argument of our culture which can limit thinking patterns; this creative tension can help people wrestle with the irreconcilable until a new frame of reference emerges (Stacey, 1993, p. 94-5). The techniques help make people feel more comfortable in sticking with dilemmas and paradoxes until new solutions emerge as thinking patterns are turned around. De Bono (1996) asserts that creativity is not the natural thinking pattern of the brain; openness and freedom are not enough, you need techniques to help facilitate creative thinking. The following sections describe techniques employed in the Creative University project to foster new thinking skills in students.
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Section II: Creativity Techniques
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4. Technique: Creative Problem Solving developed by COCD2

Origins: Fred Buining from COCD the Centre for Development of Creative Thinking, trained those involved in the Creative Universities Project. COCD was founded in the seventies by the professors Pros van Osmael and Roger De Bruyn, both working at the University of Antwerp at the time. The books and the works of people like Edward de Bono (1993, lateral thinking), Osborn (1993, brainstorm) and Koestler (1964, bi-sociation) inspired them. What: CPS provides a highly practical application of creativity. It is a quick, flexible yet structured and purposeful, interactive group-based problem-solving tool. CPS involves a number of time-limited stages which create energy for the process. Participants move from a quick initial stage to more considerate and reflective stages, finishing with action planning and presentations. The stages involve Preparation Asking the right question and over-turning assumptions Generating ideas Classifying and Organising ideas Action Planning
Participants work on their own and as a group and this means that the recognised problems of 3 group think and dominant members are minimised. The facilitator uses music and randomised images to stimulate ideas and create the appropriate environment for stimulating ideas (the divergent process) and reflection (the convergent process). Why: Often conventional project groups are run as very traditional meetings where few participate. Often dissertation supervision is a 1 to 1 activity when, at times, it could involve groups of students using CPS type approaches. The practical nature of CPS means that it focuses on how can we type questions and solutions. It has potential in inter-professional working amongst professionals as well as students. How: It works with the idea that co-operation leads to creativity. Although participants are put into situations which they may not have previously experienced, the aim is to create a comfortable non-threatening environment in which as many ideas as possible can be generated. Where: It can be used in a variety of spaces. The key is to improvise and be flexible. Ideally you want a sheltered space where large sheets of paper or equivalent can be accessed by and added to by everyone.
2 3
COCD <http://www.cocd.org> The unique feature of COCD is that participants are asked to stretch themselves and identify 4 different sets of ideas; Blue: Known and feasible, Red: New and feasible, White: Known although not yet feasible and Yellow ideas - the New and not yet feasible. The Centre for Creative Leadership uses a matrix which classifies ideas by usefulness and cost as well as acceptability and implementation www.ccl.org.org.
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When: This type of approach is useful for the big questions as well as the apparently straightforward. It is best used as part of the project design to help identify the question which needs to be addressed. Who: This approach needs a facilitator who understands the technique and can empathise with the group. As well as the facilitator, the right people need to be there, representing different facets of the problem being addressed. A wild card is important to stimulate out of the box thinking, the person who will bring ideas which no one else might bring.
Figure 1: CPS Summary in Mind Map Form
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5. CPS Facilitators Notes

These notes outline the stages the facilitator will use when running a CPS session. The timings here relate to a 1 hour 30 minutes session which would give people a feel for the technique. CPS - Facilitators Notes Preparation: Set up the space, have music to play in the background and randomised images to display on the wall. All this aims to create a stimulating environment. Introduction: I am . And I will be taking you through this CPS session. We will work through 4 stages: 1) Question definition, 2) Ideas Generation 3) Organising 4) Action Planning We have been given a question relating to the theme of today to work on. Q. How can we .. Ill ask one person to act as a question owner. Stage 1 Question Definition (15 min.) Take a couple of minutes to simply reformulate the question in your own words adding or taking away from whats there. Write your question on a post-it. Ill ask each person in turn to read your question; these will be put on the flip chart. Now Ill ask the question owner (who would be the client in a real session) to look at the question and suggest what the final version should be. Stage 2 Idea Generation (30 min.) Now well go into the idea generation stage. We will spend 20 minutes in the process and go through a number of phases lasting no more than a couple of minutes. Using silent individual brainstorming or thought showering I would like each of you to write down as many ideas that come to mind as possible in the next 2 minutes. When you have done this Ill ask each person in turn to call out their ideas and give to me to put on the flip chart (Ill number the ideas as they go up). As this is happening I want you to continue generating ideas which may be sparked from the ideas called out. (10 min.) Now I want you to spend a couple of minutes considering the assumptions which lie behind the ideas generated and I will note these on a flip chart. Then I will ask one person to choose 1 assumption and you will then reverse the assumption and
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generate a new set of ideas. (10mins) Stage 3 Organising ideas (25 min.) Give praise. Well done in the space of 20 minutes you have generated XX ideas. Now you need to classify and group the ideas. First take some coloured stickers. Blue for Known and feasible; Red for New and feasible; White for Known although not yet feasible and Yellow ideas - the New and not yet feasible. Take 5 minutes to identify 10 ideas in each category. Next working together spend a further 5 minutes to group the ideas into related areas and themes. Stage 4 Action Planning (20 min.) Go to the set of ideas you would like to work on and taking the action planning sheet spend 5 minutes to identify the key things which would enable the idea to be implemented. (What, When, Who, Where, How) If we have time we will take brief presentations otherwise simply post the action plans on the wall. REFLECTION What struck me about this technique is that .
I could see me applying the approach to .
I liked the
My concerns are that
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6. CPS Case Study Developing student services

The context
This case study shows how the CPS technique was used to help a team of people responsible for the delivery of a particular aspect of the student experience to review what they did. A group of 10 staff in Disability Services was involved, including some of those working in the Student Support Unit, Estates Department and a number of academic staff at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC).
Aims
The aim was to examine how to improve the service for disabled students. The question was developed by Karen Robson, Disability Services Manager, the problem owner, who manages and co-ordinates the Disability Department within UWIC, advising both the institution and students on legislation and external guidance and developing policies and provision relating to students with disabilities.
What Happened
In this case study the problem owner had been thinking about the objectives for the workshop a couple of weeks before the session. The facilitator met the question owner an hour before the workshop. Although not ideal we did what was needed during that hour. This was long enough to establish the issues and the question and any concerns which the question owner might have had. When everyone arrived and got settled in we started with an icebreaker designed to get people moving around the room and noticing things, seeing things in different ways. Icebreakers like the one below, start to take people out of their comfort zones. It may not always be appropriate to start a session this way.
Icebreaker: Ask everyone to walk clockwise round the space and as they touch items to call out what they are. wall, chair, jacket, window, etc. Then ask everyone to turn round and walk anti-clockwise round the room. This time when you touch the window, call out the name of the previous item you touched. Window might be switch, chair might be carpet. Then ask everyone to turn round for a last time and go clockwise. This time touch an item and call it something completely different. So a chair might be called an elephant, a switch might be a sunbeam, a window might be space ship. Push people to be inventive.
In the three-hour session, the group was taken through the CPS process: 1. Defining, clarifying and reformulating the question to gain a sense of ownership
2. Ideas generation using silent brainstorming/thought showering, group brainstorming/thought

showering, reversing the assumptions and the flower technique. Reversing the assumptions is a powerful technique. You ask the participants to think what assumptions are underlying the ideas being generated so far. And then you ask what the reverse of the assumptions would be and continue generating ideas using brainstorming until they dry up.
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In this case study the group generated over 100 ideas during stage 2. 3. During the organising and clustering, the group identified 4-5 sub headings. 4. The action planning led to some concrete suggestions about how to take the service forward.
Feedback
Here people are dealing with an issue which appears intractable, huge. CPS can generate lots of solutions in this case over 100 solutions. The Technique engages everyone and has a team-building element to it. It helps individuals understand how they see an issue and how others see an issue. Comments at the end from the participants in the workshop included: wide range of concerns with our current performance surprised me useful to step back to see the wood for the trees a positive exercise allowing for refocusing certainly allowed for thought showering
What difference did it make?

The facilitator contacted the problem owner 6 weeks after the session and when asked what she remembered about the session she instantly responded the group work, the fact that the group as a whole involved people across the university, the flip charts and post-its, and not everyone feeing comfortable with the opening exercise. It reinforced the feeling that we all sing from the same song sheet, it highlighted the fact that a lot of the issues are institutional. The team nature of the approach helps reinforce a sense of team work generally.
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7. CPS Case Study Investigating Spatial Planning

The Context
Spatial planning is at the heart of the UK governments new approach to planning. CEBE ran a workshop on creativity in January 2004 in London to introduce participants to some creativity techniques. Participants were mainly planning academics, including course leaders.
Aims
CPS was used with a group of 5 academics, planners and an architect to look at the concept of spatial planning. First the group was asked to identify a question relating to spatial planning which they wanted to work on. After a few minutes, the question which the group agreed to look at was: How is spatial planning different in terms of specificity and elements?
What Happened
A series of techniques were used to stimulate the generation of ideas: brainstorming/thought showering, identifying and reversing assumptions, the flower and metaphors. In all, 215 ideas were generated.
Identifying assumptions
Identifying and reversing the assumptions underpinning the ideas generated during the first phase of the process proved very powerful. The group felt that one of the key assumptions they were making was that given that all ideas are culturally determined, planning is seen to be based on Western values.
Reversing assumptions
When this assumption was reversed, and planning was assumed not to be based on Western values participants generated further answers to the question How does spatial planning differ?
Using the flower:

Another ideas generation technique used was the flower which helped to energise the process and give it momentum. One of the words in the question was placed at the centre of a flip chart and participants asked to simply word associate, the facilitator making a note of each word generated in the pattern of a flower around the chosen word. Having asked one person to choose a word (in this case partnership) the group was asked for further ideas to the question how is spatial planning different, thinking of the word.
Using metaphors:
Participants were then asked to think of an animal and list its characteristics; (Giraffe: reliable, tall, far-seeing, veggie, top down vision, camouflage, elegance, crick in the neck) then to consider further answers to the question How is spatial planning different thinking of the characteristics of the giraffe. They came up with organic, garden orientated, allotments, sustainable, opaque, invisible to enemy satellites, hiding conflict, tall building policy, big ideas, growth strategy, abstract.
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Figure 2: Ideas generated through various idea-showering stages
Number of the idea 134 135 136 137 138 139 145 146 147 149 150 151 168 169 167 172
Idea Open to elites specific interests Anarchic outcomes - competitions Private property rights, gated communities, nimbys Non-transport Unaccountable 5 year plan mentality Conflict resolving More localised To zone To exclude Resource allocating Tribal stewardship plus sustainable development More community involvement No conflict More inclusive clear decisions More progressive
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Plate of ideas
The final phase involved participants choosing a selection of the most important ideas generated which would form the basis of a meal, in other words those key, substantial ideas. The following made up the plate of ideas:
Unifying Joined up
Efficient
To zone
Adaptive
Big ideas Seamless Regional
More strategic Connectivity
Technical plus political Vertical integration
Evidence-based
Another set of ideas was considered to form part of the meal:
Ethics More inclusive
Organic
Conflict resolving More sensitive to needs Responsive
Clearer decisions Accountable Open Community driven
Creative
A final set of key ideas was then put together to make up the side plate of ideas ones which need to be resolved:
Partisan Private property rights
Unaccountable Interests
Open to policy capture Agenda for conflict
National interest overrides local
Open to elite specific interests
Feedback
The initial feedback from the participants was mixed. They were impressed by the number of ideas generated although sceptical about the quality of the ideas. From a facilitators point of view, it was clear that the technique allowed everyone to contribute on an equal basis. It facilitated the inter-disciplinary interaction in a positive and constructive way. It also helped to maintain a focus on the issue.
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When ideas selected in the final phase were analysed it was clear that many actually came about when assumptions underlying initial ideas were reversed. Use of metaphor also generated ideas which otherwise would not have surfaced.
What difference did it make?

The success of workshops on topics like this depends on who is in the group. It is very useful to have a wild card in a group, someone who is not associated with the problem who can pitch in fresh ideas. This exercise was very much about introducing the technique and applying it to the concept of spatial planning. As an introduction it showed the potential of the technique to handle highly abstract and complex ideas. It could usefully be applied in a workshop situation with a mix of academics and practitioners, civil servants and community representatives. The next set of questions to be addressed might be how we can evolve approaches to spatial planning which address the problems identified above.
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8. Technique: Mind-Body Connections, as developed by Mike Metelits of Nothing Special

Origins: Mike Metelits, who runs a consultancy called Nothing Special, has developed particular techniques using mind body connections which are based on: The martial arts of aikido and tai chi Gestalt psychology Current interpreters of body-centred psychology: Bacci (2000), Heckler (1993) Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, specifically the work of Antonio Damasio (2000) Traditional Buddhist and Taoist texts.
Mikes unpublished paper Training Outline (Metelits, 2003) prepared for the Creativity in Higher Education research project greatly helped in preparing this paper. What: At the heart of this technique is the concept of actively using the body as a feedback tool for enhancing many aspects of human life. Two key principles underpin the method: 1. Body awareness: continually scanning the body for tension, excess effort and being pulled off-centre 2. Returning to the centre: balancing the body and feelings through breath control and body positioning. Deep breathing combined with simple relaxation exercises help individuals be in touch with sensations in their bodies and consciously use the body as a compass to steer their course through life. Why: Our education system and Western culture are very much oriented to using our brains in a linear fashion and largely ignore our bodies from the neck down; this is a waste of resources. How: Using the body in this way can get us in touch with stress and tension that many of us carry around in our bodies. It can also help us become aware of the extra needless effort we often tend to put in to daily activities, freeing up energy and brainpower better channelled to more productive activities. These techniques are especially helpful in dealing with conflict and discomfort and can help promote confidence. They could be used to promote creativity by opening people to their real feelings, encouraging deeper insights while reframing problems by keeping in close contact with their bodies and environment. The techniques encourage a particular kind of opening up, retraining the mind and body to recognise new connections between themselves. It brings bad habits and conditioned tendencies into consciousness in a way that promotes change through awareness. The techniques can strengthen presentation skills by allowing people to engage their whole bodies in the act, so it is seen as not just a one-dimensional talk. It also helps people use the depth in their bodies to think about issues and solve particular problems. In the whole of life, it can promote emotional balance and enhance connections, promoting peak performance. It can encourage a creative mindset, facilitating construction engagement with things that were previously regarded as obstacles.
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Where: It can be used in a variety of spaces, inside or outside. It is important to have enough space for people to move freely and comfortably. It is best to have a quiet and relaxed space where people feel safe. Music may or may not be used. When: This approach is useful at the start of activities to promote group spirit and deep thinking, signalling something different. There are simpler and more complicated forms of the physical exercises. It could easily be used in conjunction with other techniques. For maximum effect, participants need to feel safe with each other. For exercises requiring physical contact with each other, permission is required from each participant. More advanced use of the technique is possible when participants trust each other and have had some practice. Participants can apply what they learn from the technique to everyday activities of life as well as problem-solving situations at work. The technique can be used successfully to try to unblock impasses. Teachers should never use exercises requiring physical contact alone with students. People with certain disabilities would require adaptation of some of the exercises. The technique has applications for: Work Goal setting Creativity Problem solving Developing values and authenticity Peak performance Presentation skills Team coordination and coaching
Life in General Peak physical performance Relaxation/stress management Accelerated learning Enhanced empathy/connection/rapport Enhanced intuition Emotional balance Spiritual development
Who: A facilitator is required who understands the purpose of the technique and can apply it in the right context and debrief appropriately. Confidence is required, as well as good interpersonal skills. It will tend to work best in receptive and open groups.
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9. Mind-Body Facilitators Notes (With reference to Metelits, 2003)

Warmup/Basics/Centring
First, explain briefly the origins and context of the technique and its purpose. Take care not to get bogged down in too much discussion at this stage its important to get into the exercises quickly. Ask people to keep an open mind. Its good to get everyones permission and say that anyone who doesnt want to participate can sit out. Permission is especially important if you are going to correct peoples body stance or do any exercises involving touching each other. Everyone stand in a circle with plenty of room around you. This is best done in a comfortable and quiet space, with relaxing music if possible. Good breathing is central to this technique. Too many of us breathe too shallowly. Stand straight and take some deep breaths but be careful not to hyper-ventilate. Feel the air fill you lungs and diaphragm. It may help to hold both hands lightly on your abdomen to ensure it is moving out on the in-breath, not moving inwards! (There are many different ways to encourage good breathing habits, use any you might be familiar with). Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel the air strike your nostrils and imagine it going up through your forehead, filling your head, your arms and hands, down to your legs and feet. Concentrate especially on the out breath and expel the stale air from your body. Breathe this way for a few moments. A simple Chi Gung exercise (like Tai Chi) can help you use your body to improve your breathing. Stand with feet shoulder width apart with knees slightly bent. Never let your knees go rigid. Push your thighs slightly outwards so your knees are over your feet. Feet should point forwards. Hold your arms like a gunslinger stance. Open up the space at your armpits as if there were small balloons under your arms. Spread the fingers apart but keep them very relaxed. Elbows should be pointing outwards. Practice your breathing in this stance. As you breathe in, pretend the crown of your head is being lifted with a string. Moving upwards helps the air fill your lungs. As you breathe out, bend your knees slightly and sink down tuck in your bottom as if you are about to sit on a stool. Put your tongue at the roof of your mouth, just behind your front teeth. This all helps the energy flow around your body. Let your feet sink into the ground. Breathe this way for a few moments. When you are relaxed, notice any sensations in your body. One of the points of this technique is to get you in touch with physical feelings in your body as a way of giving you feedback. Do you feel any tension anywhere? Aches or pains? Just standing like this and breathing can help you feel centred and on top of things. (There are a variety of warm-up exercises after the breathing is mastered. Dont rush or speak too quickly. Your pace and tone of voice are important, as is the way you are holding your body as the facilitator. Always try to be a role model.) During these exercises, get in touch with how your body if feeling. Move your necks forwards and backwards, then side to side four times each. Rotate your neck four times each way. Rotate your shoulder four times each way. With your fingers interlaced, push outwards in front of you. Keep this stance and twist around to each side. Bend forward from the hips, arms out.
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Gently kick your legs and pretend youre rinsing water from your hands (or any other light exercise).
More complicated interaction training Invading Personal Space

Tell people to find a partner. Stand apart about 12 feet, facing each other. Silently walk up to each other, invading personal space, so your faces are as near as possible. Back away to where you started. Do this three times silently. The most important thing is to notice sensations in your body raw sensations like heat, heart palpitations, sweat, not cognitive thoughts like I felt scared. (This stress will provide a range of physical sensations, emotional reactions, and movements to illustrate the basic excitement/conditioned tendency issue. It begins the process of helping people find the centre after losing it.)
Gazing (side, down nose, over shoulder)

Stand close to your partner in pairs. First one person, then the other, looks intently at their partner, then keeps eye contact but turns their head to one side, then looks down their nose while keeping eye contact, but then looks over their shoulder, not directly at them. Always think about how this makes you feel as you are being looked at. (Continues interaction training, allowing people to observe themselves and others physically respond to markers of social stigmatization. Useful for illustrating some common problems in communicating/presenting)
Front pressure test

People need to get in pairs. One person uses breathing and body awareness to get centred. The other person faces them slightly to the side and puts their hand on their upper chest and pushes very hard. If the person is centred, they will stand firm. If a question is asked like, How many e-mails will you have when you get back to the office? the person will often lose the centre and start wobbling as they respond to the cognitive query. Get people to practice feeling centred and getting back to the centre when they are pulled off. People can push really hard and experiment with different questions.
Unbendable arm
Get people in pairs. One person stands in a centred way, relaxed, deep breaths and focuses on a particular issue or problem. Put one foot slightly in front of the other. He/she holds one arm out in front, bent at the elbow, hand and fingers outstretched. This arm is going to help the person focus on the issue and point the way forwards. The partner stands to the side of the person, one hand on the upper arm and one hand nearer the wrist. Both people stand like that while the person focuses and tries to find words for the way forward. (Once some degree of cognitive/sensory integration is built, participants will often benefit from projecting it. This exercise combines pressure training with energy projection, allowing people to observe how they communicate their ideas and feelings. This can help with goal setting, intuitive problem solving, presentation skills, values and authenticity, and team coordination. Participants will feel difficulty projecting ideas, statements, attitudes which are not fully accepted. This technique was used with notable success at the end of the Creative University workshop when applied to an intractable problem.)
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Debriefing
Be clear what you want to get from each exercise. Understand the link between sensory perceptions and the intuitive/cognitive issue the exercise addresses. Refocus participants on sensory perceptions. Keep asking what does that feel like? until you get answers which refer to normally accepted sensory impressions. If you have difficulty with this, point out the process of: sense impression->reaction in the body->emotional interpretation>cognitive rationalisation. Be clear that failing at these exercises is impossible - even no feelings gives us information about conditioned tendencies and a baseline for future development. If participants arent contributing on their own, work with them on an exercise, discuss it with them, and ask them during debriefing to share their insights. Respond genuinely; you do not have a faade to keep up. If you dont know an answer, you dont. If a question elicits a response in you, use that as an example of what they are learning to observe.
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10. Mind-Body Connections Case Study

Context
The mind-body technique was used in an Urban Design (double module) Option taken by a group of 23 third and fourth year undergraduate and final year postgraduate town planning students at Heriot-Watt University. There were several mature students in the class. There were two assessments in the module: in pairs, students had to give a seminar on an aspect of urban design theory and they also had to do a graphic-based project designing a master plan for a redevelopment site in Edinburgh.
Aim
The purposes of the mind-body connection exercises were: to help students be more aware of their bodies and breathing in an effort to enhance oral presentation skills and peak performance and comfort generally to help them put their whole bodies into their vision for the project site and their drawing work (graphic work for non-design students tends to make many tense up) to help free up their thoughts and be more creative (creativity was an explicit assessment criteria) to promote better communication and team spirit.
What happened
At the beginning of the module, the mind-body techniques were explained and related to the Creative University research project. Permission was sought from the class to employ the techniques and people were given the option of sitting out. We did simple exercises in the classes, involving breathing and relaxation. One day during a field trip to Glasgow to see interesting urban design initiatives, there was a session with Mike Metelits of Nothing Special, who developed these techniques. He explained the session briefly and then went into some simple breathing, relaxing and centring exercises, followed by one where two people walk very close to each other, right up to each others face, to get in touch with sensations in the body. The next exercise had people get close to each others faces and look down their nose at each other, then out of the side of their eyes and finally over their shoulders again, to get in touch with feelings this brought up. In pairs, students then put their hands on each others chests from a sideways position while the other person thought of the centredness of their body during physical hand pressure. A switch to thinking about cognitive things tended to push people immediately off centre. Then having someone standing in front pressing on your chest and thinking about the urban design issues in Glasgow helped people think about feelings from the day.
Resources
A facilitator was required who had received some training in the mind-body techniques (two days) and had experience of using them in a group setting related to creativity. A quiet room large enough for the group to do the exercises was essential. In the university classroom, the tables and desks were pushed aside and chairs arranged in a circle, to get rid of barriers. It
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helped promote the technique to have one day with the facilitator who was different to the normal class teacher, although this was not essential.
Feedback
There was some embarrassment but all students participated in the exercises. An anonymous evaluation was carried out at the end of the module. Views about the mind-body connections were held strongly both ways. The majority of students could see the connections between relaxing, being creative, designing the project, oral presentations and having fun. Out of the 23, about 6, however, said the mind-body connections didnt do anything for them and would rather have spent the time on more conventional classes about urban design. The great majority thought the techniques helped them: see the site from a different angle, be more creative, relax, be more conscious about how their body feels, break down barriers, interact better with the class and teacher, develop self-confidence, grow less self-conscious, and have fun. My only negative feeling was that this sort of learning has taken so long to filter down to university level. I will pursue this further outside university. It made me think more about relaxing just walking around in life. Several said it was the best class theyd ever had for fun and learning. Higher education can seem highly formal and scary and it really is liberating to realise that it does not have to be constraining but can actually help you work more effectively. Growing up is quite scary and higher education is a difficult time. Too many people forget instinctive processes. I learned to control the immediate panic when you get a creative block relax and it becomes clearer. If youre not relaxed, your thoughts are confused and this works against creativity. Got me in touch with the character and aura of the site. The creativity techniques allowed me to go to the edge with my ideas, then sort out in reality they were fun and inspiring. Good to turn stress around and use that so things flow better. Breathing is most important and trying to feel how you do right before you go to sleep. Being centred is important I felt more confident. Relaxing. Helped articulate. Breaks down barriers. But there was also scepticism, analysis, questions, embarrassment. Interestingly, despite the titters and doubts from the undergraduate males, they opened up and said far more than in other classes this was remarked upon by other students. Only one person wrote that they felt so self-conscious that it was a negative experience.
What difference did it make

Interestingly, the marks for the project in this class were higher than the previous year and the difference in the work was remarked upon by the outside architect who helped mark it (and the class was generally less academically able than the previous year). The different techniques employed certainly helped the module stick in peoples minds in the longer term. Three of the students asked for an exercise session in the local park early in the morning on a field trip to Rotterdam during the subsequent term. At the end of the year, one of the students who was most sceptical admitted that he needed to make creativity an aim in his professional life because it was something he was lacking and that he could see the point of the exercises after the passage of time.
Mixture of techniques
Through the module, some of the Creative Problem Solving techniques were also used. After some body exercises, the group tried defining and reframing the problem posed by the project.
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Everyone wrote on a post-it note what the real issue was underlying the project. Each person read theirs out as they put it up on the board and the notes were grouped. Insights came out of this - there was a surprising array of different ways people were defining the problem of the site. It was a case of the whole being more than the sum of the parts and certain themes emerged. Out of this also came a strong negative image of the site (it is not part of the Edinburgh that tourists visit!). As feedback, someone said the exercise was humbling. Another person summed up the whole exercise with the words warmth and colour. The recognition of negativity about the site led on to another CPS technique turning assumptions on their head. The question was asked, if you assume that this is a beautiful area, how would you design the site? The students fed in their ideas collectively; much more creative and positive a real lightening of the atmosphere. Negativity had begun to turn around! Specifically building on the theory seminars, the daisy technique was used, where the site was at the middle of the flower and the class shouted out words and phrases that they had learned that could be applied to the site. This produced some beautiful and creative daisies. To capture all the above and start the drawing work, finger paints were produced. Students rolled their sleeves up and put their bodies into a preliminary vision for the site. They had great fun and produced an amazing array of colourful and creative pictures that were meant to guide them through the remaining design process. Some immediate feedback was, It got people talking. I havent done this since school and its great fun. This is empowering. Good technique to produce a vision and make a statement. Playful. Gets us out of the mould you cant be formal. Gets you in touch with basic instincts I did what I wanted without thinking. Reminds us of possibilities. Good to put your body into something. One of the strengths of the entire module was that different people gained from different methods some clearly gained a lot from the mind-body connections, others from the post-it reframing, others the turning around of assumptions or the finger painting.
Figure 3: Metelits (left) working with students on mind-body awareness
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11. Technique: Medicine Wheel, as developed by the Nowhere Foundation (Written with reference to Filmore and Thromond, 2004)
Origins: The medicine wheel is a mandela deriving from native American Wisdom Councils. Mandelas have been used by many ancient cultures for thinking, meaning and existing. The Chiefs ruminated about an issue from the perspectives they knew best. There are also links with ancient Chinese paradoxical questions and Zen riddles, both of which use simplicity and hold opposites in tension. There is no answer in the Western sense: the question sometimes becomes the answer; you become the answer. There is tension between opposite segments of the wheel: they are both oppositional and complementary (like yin and yang). What: A medicine wheel template is employed (see the end of this chapter), a circle divided into 8 labelled segments representing energy states and values. There are two main applications: one involves a group, where people work on specific segments, coming together in the end to feed back their ideas and the other involves an individual reflecting on every one of the 8 segments. Within the wheel, the 2 segments opposite each other are in tension and those at right angles rely on each other for support. The 8 segments are: Strategy & action Integrity & vitality Freedom & creativity Present condition & appreciation Power & danger Purpose & direction Maintenance & balance Interconnectedness & timing
Why: The medicine wheel is a tool for getting us in touch with different levels of thinking, feeling and intuition from those normally employed in our Western culture which tend to be more cognitive. It helps us listen to our inner spirit and the spirit of those around us. It also gives us confidence to speak from the heart, encouraging the development of the higher self. The wheel can give us a holding space, using creative tension to inspire ideas, avoiding the usual rush for solutions and quick fixes. It is an effective group tool that allows everyone a say and promotes communal thinking in a neutral space. How: Both the group and individual forms of employing the wheel look at a particular issue in a holistic way from a number of points of view, promoting balance and wholeness. The wheel is a tool that explicitly helps shed new light on an issue by requiring it to be examined from different angles, but congruent with the culture of the group or person involved. The Indians believed the wheel to be three dimensional: the wheel lies on the ground, in the present, and represents planning and doing; above the wheel lies the sky, representing the future, where the higher self meets potential, possibility, and inspiration; below the wheel, underground, is where the human meets the embodiment of action, generating activity allied to the collective consciousness. These three dimensions were seen to work together to generate direction and understanding.
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Where: It can be used in a variety of spaces, inside or outside. It works best in quiet and peaceful spaces. Sometimes artefacts from nature can be placed on the wheel, in which case access to outside spaces is essential. Adaptations could easily be made for people with disabilities. When: The wheel can be used effectively to help plan for changing circumstances or look at a strategic issue creatively, either for an individual or a group. The labels for the 8 segments might be adapted to meet the needs of the specific case. The wheel should never be used for trivial questions. It is best used to deliver core insights that participants then discuss and choose from. It does not in itself deliver solutions. Enough time needs to be allowed but it is possible to use the technique in a group to efficiently generate some fairly rapid and hard-hitting ideas. Who: An independent facilitator is required who understands the purpose of the technique and can apply it confidently. It can be used by an individual, who imagines him or herself sitting in the middle of the circle and faces each segment in turn. Or it can be used in a group who divide themselves to consider each segment. It is likely to work best if the participants are open and receptive to new ways of working.
Figure 4: Medicine Wheel Template
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12. Medicine Wheel Facilitators Notes

The Medicine Wheel template (see previous section) is divided into segments through which you shall address your central issue. Take the wheel to a quiet and comfortable indoor or outdoor space.
For individual work

Write your question/issue in the centre of the Wheel. The Wheel has a wheel within it, bisecting each segment. The outer half of the wheel labeled: What is needed? The inner half of the wheel is labelled: How do respond? Take about an hour or so (may vary depending on circumstance). Clear your mind of everything else and relax. We are striving for a slow and meditative atmosphere. Pretend you are sitting in the middle of the Wheel, looking outward at each segment in turn. Always start looking at the eastern segment. You may wish to sit facing eastwards. Work clockwise. Use all your senses and energies: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, body and gut feelings, movement, introspection, creative energy. Starting with Freedom and Creativity, looking east, focus on your question from this perspective and answer the two questions first from the outer, then inner wheel what is needed and how do I respond? Write your thoughts within the appropriate segment. You can use any objects you might find to place in segments rocks, flowers, leaves, etc. After youve completed the Wheel, you have different perspectives on your central issue. You may wish to highlight one or two things from the inner wheel to do as first priorities.
For Group Work Option A

Lets agree the central question/issue were going to work on and write it in the centre of the Wheel while we are sitting in this circle. Its important to make sure that we are addressing the right question and that people agree what it is. Im going to divide you into groups according to which Indian Chief you are going to be. (Groups should be between one and five ideally.) I want you to go away in your group and take 20 minutes to half an hour (can vary) to consider the central issue from the perspective of your segment only. When everyone reconvenes, starting in the East and working clockwise, each group of Chiefs will say together: We are the (Medicine Singer) Chiefs. We speak for (purpose and direction). Then they will say what they came up with in their group and write it in the appropriate segment. When each group has finished, say The (Medicine Singer) Chiefs have spoken.
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(Optional) When every group of Chiefs has spoken, well go around the circle to each individual Chief, who must indicate with hand signals I agree hand makes a half circle like the setting sun on the horizon or I dont agree hand waves like an unsettled sun. In the latter case, the Chief must indicate what you dont agree with. This could change what is in the Wheel and the process repeats until agreement is reached.
Option B
Lets agree the central question/issue were going to work on and write it in the centre of the Wheel while we are sitting in this circle. Its important to make sure that we are addressing the right question and that people agree what it is. Im going to go around each segment clockwise, starting with the one in the East. I want you all to consider the central question from the perspective of the title of each segment. Write your different thoughts for each segment on a post-it note. Im going to ask prompt questions as we consider each segment:
Freedom & Creativity

Are you constrained by a lack of freedom and creativity? Is the central issue constrained by a lack of freedom or creativity? What is needed to create more free and creative thought for you or your organisation and for the problem statement? Are you in touch with the outrageous? Do you feel free to play with all the possibilities?
Present Condition & Appreciation

Do you truly appreciate today do you take full advantage of your present condition? Does the network of people and organisations involved in your problem statement think about their impact today? Does the network of people and organisations involved in your problem statement take advantage of today to achieve better results tomorrow? How does the past affect the here and now?
Power and Danger

Who has the power to influence your problem statement how can this be increased or reduced? What power do you have to influence the problem statement how can this be increased or reduced? What are the dangers associated with the spread of power within the players of the problem statement?
Purpose & Direction

What is the sacred dream of you and your team? How does your dream map out onto the actions of those involved in your problem statement? How are you designing the future? What is the purpose of those involved in the problem statement? Is everyone working in the same direction?
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Maintenance & Balance

Is your team looking after itself is it getting the right balance of academic rigour vs. industrial pragmatism, is it getting the right balance of work vs. play? How do the players in the problem statement look after themselves are they striking the balance of profits vs. social responsibility, how do they maintain their existence? What in the wheel is currently out of balance? Where is attention needed? Where are there new areas of growth in the problem statement?
Strategy & Action

Do you, or those involved in the problem statement, have a plan? Do you, or those involved in the problem statement, have what it takes to put a plan into action? Do you, or those involved in the problem statement, have the strength and bravery to change your plans/strategy? Do you, or those involved in the problem statement, question the plans or actions of others?
Interconnectedness & Timing

How are those involved in the problem statement interconnected with each other and the outside world? What is the future for the problem statement where do you and those involved want it to be? What are the big trends that are impacting on you and the problem statement now and in the future?
Integrity & Vitality

Where does your energy to tackle the problem statement come from? What gives or takes your energy & enthusiasm? Where is there energy & enthusiasm amongst those involved in the problem statement? What takes or gives energy and enthusiasm to those involved in the problem statement? Do honesty, trust and stability exist within those involved in the problem statement? (Thromond, 2003, pp.147-49)
At the end of each segment, place your notes within the segment and explain to the group what you meant.
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13. Medicine Wheel Case Study

Context
Eight town planning staff from the School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh participated in an awayday at the end of the academic year.
Aim
The overall aim of the awayday was to create a relaxed atmosphere away from work to encourage an honest reflection about key issues facing the staff group. The Medicine Wheel was used as a group exercise at the end of the day to reflect strategically about how the year had progressed and what the key issues were for the future.
What happened
A facilitator introduced the technique, which was new to the group, and explained the origins and purpose. She allocated randomly each person into two different pairs of chiefs. Each of the eight segments of the Medicine Wheel was then considered by a pair of participants every person was able to work on two segments with a different partner. Each pair of chiefs fed back to the whole group at the very end and this was recorded on the wheel by the facilitator as a record of the reflection.
Resources
A facilitator familiar with the technique was necessary to explain and run the session. She had prepared in advance a large Medicine Wheel on a flip chart with the segments marked. Although she had an idea of the question to be addressed at the start of the day, the middle of the wheel was left blank. After agreement within the group of the question to be asked, it was quick to write the question in the centre. A large enough room was needed so the participants could break into pairs. It helped having a quiet space in which to reflect.
Feedback
Because it is different from the norm, a clear introduction to the technique is helpful. Several of the participants were unclear about what exactly they were asked to do and how it related to North American Indians. An anonymous evaluation form was completed by participants at the end of the day and there was also discussion about the techniques. In general, participants found the medicine wheel a quick and effective method to reflect and plan in a strategic way together as a group. Some were slightly sceptical about the need to assign chiefs and did not feel that added anything. The technique was useful in giving everyone equally a say in defining priorities. It was also effective in enabling one particular issue to be seen from different angles, one of the aims of creativity techniques in general.
What difference did it make

Having a technique different to the usual group discussion ensured a better focus on the particular question at hand and gave everyone an equal say. It was also effective at seeing an issue from different perspectives and quickly enabled a holistic recorded view on one sheet of paper (the medicine wheel template) that could easily be taken away and worked on further.
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The day also employed mind-body creativity techniques and these two techniques worked well together in creating a very different atmosphere compared to the office environment. The two techniques used together were helpful in team building and encouraging deep reflection. The use of these different techniques makes the day memorable in the longer term!
Figure 5: Planning lecturers using the medicine wheel to plan future action
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14. Technique: Finger Painting

Finger painting involves producing a picture or image by spreading paint with the fingers.4 Creative exercises like finger painting are about expressing ones emotions and feelings about something without words. It is also about having fun with different materials, discovering how texture, colour and shape can speak for you. The final piece is then explored with others. There is no wrong way to do these exercises and there is always something valuable to discover. You dont need to be an artist or to be able to paint. Simply let yourself explore the paints and let them show you another way to express yourself and your feelings. Planners tend to use words and graphics as a means of expression. Finger painting is often a new experience. It provides a new window to understand the spaces you are creating. It is highly kinaesthetic (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Kinaesthetic qualities in finger painting
What do I do as a tutor/facilitator
Let the group know that you will be introducing some new ways of working in the course/workshop. A Finger Painting session can be done in 20 minutes. Allow 10 minutes for the finger painting itself and 10 minutes for people in groups of 3 to hear what others think of their painting and then to respond. Then allow a few minutes for people to wash their hands. Give yourself a few minutes to set the room out. You will need to have clear tables or floor space or wall space on which everyone can do their thing. Have plenty of newspapers or plastic sheets to protect the floor just in case of the odd accident. You can use a set of 6 finger paints per 3.
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/finger+painting
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Figure 7: University students using finger painting as a fun break in the middle of a CPS session.
For Evaluation. To use the technique as part of an evaluation you might ask everyone to use finger paints to express how the session went for them. In groups of 2 or 3, ask each person to seek feedback on what they see and then give their own interpretation. Repeat for each person. If necessary allow time for people to record expressions used to describe the paintings. For a fun way of changing tempo. To use as a fun session in the middle of a workshop you might simply ask everyone to have some fun with the finger paints. Alternatively if you feel the need to be more prescriptive you might ask everyone to use the finger paints to express how things have gone so far in the session. In effect you could pose any question here. As part of situational analysis. In project work you might want to think about asking everyone to use the finger paint to express how they feel about a site, or a building, or a place. As part of an induction day. As part of an induction exercise, finger painting might be used as a way of exploring how people communicate with each other using different media. You could ask everyone to think how it feels to communicate well and use the finger paints to express this. With other Techniques. For an example of how finger painting was used in conjunction with other techniques, see the Mind-Body Connections Case Study Chapter 9. Finger painting was used successfully as an evaluation tool for the Creative University workshop in January, 2003.
Resources
GALT and Crayola make washable finger paints which cost about 5.00 for 6 small tubs. Any good art shop will have them and some toy shops too. Alternatively, you can make your own: see: http://kids.creativity-portal.com/d/recipes/finger.paint.shtml
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Section III: Creativity: The Way Forward
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15. Conclusions, Potential Applications and the Way Forward

As seen in Section I, planning is changing. As a result, initial planning education needs to enable students to develop both technical and generic skills that will help them respond to change and create sustainable communities for the future. Creative thinking is one of the key generic skills that can help bring about this culture change. The guide by Norman Jackson (2003), referred to in section I, looks at how a higher education curriculum could be designed to help students find and enjoy their own creative sparks. This guide has shown how three sets of techniques (Mind/Body Connections, Creative Problem Solving and the Medicine Wheel) could be used to help students of planning in particular. As pointed out earlier, combining the use of the mind-body connections and other techniques is likely to bring about maximum benefit.
Creativity is important
Creating stimulating conditions for learning As a generic skill Providing a tool to help solve complex problems and to ask the right questions in the first place Providing a means of engaging different publics Developing an attitude of mind which is open and expansive.
It doesnt just happen

Teachers can develop creativity in themselves and in others and the culture of planning schools can facilitate creativity explicitly. It is not something that necessarily just happens. You have to know about how to go about being creative (Creativity-relevant skills) You have to have the opportunity to be creative (Creativity relevant processes) You have to be self-motivated to be creative (Task motivation) You have to be free to think or determine a course of action (Personal autonomy) You have to know about planning before you can become a creative planner (Domain specific knowledge and skill) (Amiable 1996 in Jackson, 2003).
Wide range of applications

Potentially the creativity techniques have very wide applications in planning education. They can be applied from the level of the overall curricula to the personal level. Curricula: conception and design; marketing, communicating Course: overall aims, ethos Module: learning outcomes, activities, and assessment Session: motivation, energizing
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Personal: Self-awareness, how individuals learn, confidence building.
The techniques: increase self-awareness help focus on important points instil an energy into the processes. Planning courses are becoming more integrative, with a focus on the spatial, sustainability and equity. Planners need to be able to work in collaborative ways with other professions, local experts and diverse communities. So you can start to see where in your course or module you can think how creativity could add value: In the process of curricula design, techniques would bring a fresh way of thinking about the curricula, moderation, assessment and evaluation. During induction to courses, it could be used to introduce different ways of working and to communicate that creativity is valued. In developing marketing strategies by devising new ways of communicating what courses do. In individual modules the techniques can be used in: o Consensus building o Team Building o Unpacking ideas o Strategy development o Identifying alternatives o Cultural awareness o Defining key issues o Challenging assumptions o Promoting oral presentation skills At undergraduate and postgraduate level they could give students the tools to look at their research problem in different ways.
It may seem risky

There are risks and challenges in doing things differently: this adds excitement. Assess the support you have. Take things step by step. To take any new ideas forward requires an environment which supports unconventional ideas and gives people freedom to be expressive. Find safe places for experiment. Learn new skills. At the Creativity Workshop held in Edinburgh in May, 2004, participants summed up the day by considering how to take creativity forward, using the group Medicine Wheel technique.
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Table 1: Taking Creativity Forward Output from the Medicine Wheel Summary at the Creativity Workshop, Edinburgh, May 2004
Freedom and creativity : Compulsory designated creativity hour Support for unconventional ideas and creativity Freedom to be expressive
Maintenance and balance: Avoid overwork Prepared to try something new Better way of providing solutions Syllabus Avoid worry and over stress Influence context of work Breathe properly Awareness of feelings and reasons Interconnectedness and timing: Grounded in content Step by step Comfortable pace Dont delay or put off Building on previous technique Strategy and action: Adapt Self-led Reflection Not too much of one thing Enough time Structured environment Strong facilitation needed Integrity and energy: Beware of new and alternative holistic approaches Beware of dangers and tokenism Pool of knowledge Breathing The need to let go Relaxed =creative and fun Agree Disagree Environmental stimuli
Present condition and appreciation: Not try too hard Learn from the past Appreciate ideas Celebrate past and present creativity and learning Power and Danger: Letting genie out of the bottle Not exercising power Dangers of manipulation Risk of the new New things can be very powerful Recognise issues of power Purpose and direction: Go lightly dont push Leaving directions open Provide reassuring comments Creating a safe place
Where to next
Nationally, the Higher Education Academy is continuing work on creativity under the leadership of Norman Jackson see their website www.imaginativecurriculum.net/. Chapters 16 and 17 highlight useful websites and further references. Also see the website www.creativeuniversities.com. CEBE is hoping to set up future workshops and provide a means by which people can exchange ideas and share experience.
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The final message from Marilyn and Dory is to study the techniques, make sure you understand them and then have a go in a safe environment, preferably where a peer can give you support and constructive feedback. You will soon be on a journey of discovery as you reflect on each session and build up a body of experience. Look after your body and mind, be relaxed. Have a go!!
Figure 8: Participants at the May 2004 workshop in Edinburgh
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16. Web Based Resources for Creativity

The interactive mindmap which accompanies this handbook, and looks like the graphic below, can be accessed through the CEBE website. This will take you into a whole range of different web sites. We have reviewed the CREAX website and identified all those links which teachers of planning may find useful. Although they do not necessarily relate directly to planning, they do contain information and resources of value. They will open the door to new material.
Figure 9: Mindmap of CREAX Website
17. Recommended reading

The following references are particularly recommended for those involved in planning education: Baillie, Caroline, ed. (2003) The Travelling Case: How to Foster Creative Thinking in Higher Education, Liverpool, UK Centre for Materials Education. Higgins, M. (2003) Mind body techniques with urban design staff and students, in The Travelling Case: How to Foster Creative Thinking in Higher Education, Liverpool, UK Centre for Materials Education ed Baillie, Caroline, pp. 107-113. Dewulf, Simon and Carline Baillie (1999) CASE Creativity in Art, Science and Engineering: How to Foster Creativity, LTSN Generic Centre/Department for Education and Employment. Jackson, N. (2003) Designing for Creativity Curriculum Guide, York, LTSN Generic Centre. Reeves, D. and Fathers, J. (2003) Creative Problem Solving, In: The Travelling Case: How to Foster Creative Thinking in Higher Education, Liverpool, UK Centre for Materials Education ed Baillie, Caroline, pp. 7-16.
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Reeves, D. (2003) CPS with disability services and architectural students, in The Travelling Case: How to Foster Creative Thinking in Higher Education, Liverpool, UK Centre for Materials Education ed Baillie, Caroline, pp. 59-71. Sherwood, D. (2002) Innovation Express, Oxford: Capstone Publishing. Town Planning Network (1999) Creativity in Town Planning, London, University of Westminster.
18. List of References

Bacci, Ingrid (2000) The Art of Effortless Living Bantam Books, London. Baillie, Caroline, ed. (2003) The Travelling Case: How to Foster Creative Thinking in Higher Education, Liverpool, UK Centre for Materials Education. Damasio, Antonio (2000) The Feeling of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the Making of Consciousness Vintage Books, London. De Bono (1990) Lateral Thinking for Management, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Pelican Books. DeBono (1993) Serious Creativity, London, Harper Collins. De Bono (1996) Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas, London, Harper Collins Business. Dewulf, Simon and Carline Baillie (1999) CASE Creativity in Art, Science and Engineering: How to Foster Creativity, LTSN Generic Centre/Department for Education and Employment. Disability Rights Commission The Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 Teaching and Learning Good Practice Guide. Available online. http://www.drc-gb.org/whatwedo/index.asp (accessed 24 July 2004). Egan, Sir John (2003) The Egan Skills Review: Emerging Conclusions, ODPM/ HMT/ CBI/ LGA Planning & Productivity Conference, London, 15 December. Egan, Sir John (2004) Skills for Sustainable Communities (The Egan Review), London, ODPM. Filmore, Paul and Pete Thromond (2004) The Medicine Wheel in The Travelling Case, Caroline Baillie, ed., UK Centre for Materials Education, Liverpool University pp. 19-27. Fromm, Erich (1959) The Creative Attitude, in Creativity and its Cultivation, Harold H. Anderson, ed, New York, Harper & Row, pp. 44-54. Fryer, Marilyn and John A. Collings (1990) Teachers Views about Creativity in British Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, pp. 207-219. Heckler, Richard (1993) The Anatomy of Change: How to Move Through Lifes Transition North Atlantic Books. Jackson, Norman (2003) Designing for Creativity Curriculum Guide, Learning & Teaching Support Network Generic Centre, York. Koestler, Arthur (1964) The Act of Creation, London, Hutchinson & Co.
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Maslow, Abraham H., (1959) section in Creativity and its Cultivation, Harold H. Anderson, ed, New York, Harper & Row, pp. 83-95. Mednick, Sarnoff A. (1964) The Associative Basis of the Creative Process, in Human Learning, Arthur W. Staats, ed, New York, Holt, Rinehartand Winston, Inc. pp. 273-7. Metelits, Mike (2003) Training Outline, unpublished paper prepared for the Creativity in Higher Education research project. Morrison, Alison and Bill Johnston (2003) Personal Creativity for Entrepreneurship in Active Learning in Higher Education, Vol 4 No 2, pp. 145-58. Mouly, George J. (1968) Psychology for Effective Teaching, New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2001) Planning: Delivering a Fundamental Change, London, ODPM. Osborn, A. (1993) Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving, Buffalo, New York, The Creative Education Foundation. Pardoe, S. (2000) A question of attribution: the indeterminacy of learning from experience in Lea, M., and Steiner, B. Student Writing in Higher Education, SRHE/Open University Press. Rogers, Carl (1976) Learning to be Free in Person to Person: The Problems of Being Human, Carl Rogers and Barry Stevens, editors, New York, Pocket Books. RTPI (2001) A New Vision for Planning, London, RTPI. RTPI (2004) Policy Statement on Initial Planning Education, London, RTPI. Scottish Higher Education Council (2004) Creating accessible seminars and tutorials for disabled students, Glasgow: University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Scottish Higher Education Council (2004) Creating accessible lectures for disabled students, Glasgow: University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Stacey, R. (1993) Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics, London, Pitman Publishing. Thromond, Pete (2003) The Medicine Wheel with Research Students in Manufacturing Sciences in The Travelling Case, Caroline Baillie, ed., UK Centre for Materials Education, Liverpool University pp. 129-49. Torrance, E. Paul (1967) Nurture of Creative Talents in Explorations in Creativity, Ross L. Mooney and Taker A. Razik, editors, New York, Harper and Row. Town Planning Network (1999) Creativity in Town Planning, London, University of Westminster. Van Oech, Roger (1990) A Whack on the Side of the Head, London, Thorsons Publishing.
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Working Paper: Creative Thinking Tools For Planners & Related Built Environment Professions

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ISSN 1744-9847 ISBN 1-905148-03-8

CEBE Working Paper Series

CEBE Working Paper No 4

Section I: The Importance of Creativity

Section II: Creativity Techniques

Section III: Creativity: The Way Forward

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CEBE Working Paper No. 4

Section I: The Importance of Creativity 1. Introduction

The Creative University Project

How to use this guide

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CEBE Working Paper No. 4

2. What is Creativity and Why is it Important for Planning Education?

Royal Town Planning Institute New Vision

Fresh approaches required

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CEBE Working Paper No. 4

Lateral Thinking/Divergent Thinking

Vertical Thinking/Convergent Thinking

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3. How can Creativity be Fostered?

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Need for explicitness

In surveys of students on entrepreneurship courses it was found that activities such as

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Section II: Creativity Techniques

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4. Technique: Creative Problem Solving developed by COCD2

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5. CPS Facilitators Notes

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I could see me applying the approach to .

My concerns are that

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6. CPS Case Study Developing student services

2. Ideas generation using silent brainstorming/thought showering, group brainstorming/thought

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What difference did it make?

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7. CPS Case Study Investigating Spatial Planning

Using the flower:

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Figure 2: Ideas generated through various idea-showering stages

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Big ideas Seamless Regional

More strategic Connectivity

Technical plus political Vertical integration

Another set of ideas was considered to form part of the meal:

Ethics More inclusive

Conflict resolving More sensitive to needs Responsive

Clearer decisions Accountable Open Community driven

Partisan Private property rights

Open to policy capture Agenda for conflict

National interest overrides local

Open to elite specific interests

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What difference did it make?

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8. Technique: Mind-Body Connections, as developed by Mike Metelits of Nothing Special

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