Creating sustainable futures/CSF104/Inspiring/Having the right people

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Tokyo by night
Coming up with new ideas is a challenge. Where do they come from? How did Apple come up with the idea for the iPod, and the iPad before anyone else? What was the inspiration for these innovations?

Creative solutions take imagination and an open mind. It requires us to suspend our judgment about the present, and imagine what could be possible, and what that might look like. It requires us to create a thinking environment and personal space for inspired thought and clarity.

Collaboration is a powerful way of developing new ideas. When done well, it provides a dialogue where ideas are exchanged, knowledge is shared and - when focused on solving a specific challenge - can result in imaginative ideas that borrow from numerous existing techniques to create new ones, or apply old thinking in new ways. For example, Canadian building company Landmark Group looked to the aerospace design industry when looking for ways to reduce waste and achieve consistently higher accuracy for designing buildings.

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Video activity
This short animated video explains what sort of working environment and conditions best enable new thinking and creative ideas: Where good ideas come from, based on a book of the same name by Steven Johnson.

As you watch this video consider what environment you get your ideas in, and what detracts you from having these.




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Introduction to WEnotes activity

This activity is designed to provide an opportunity to practice posting a comment to the Course Feed using our WEnotes technology.

  1. You will need to register on this course site by clicking on the user icon ( ) in the site menu and completing the form. You need to be logged in to post using WEnotes before attempting this activity.
  2. Think about the message in the video
  3. Share your ideas on this topic by visiting the Course Feed and read what others think. Put People in the room at the beginning of your post to aid reading
    Here are a few example posts to show what you might post:
    • People in the room: The most important message was...
    • People in the room: I think creative ideas happen when ...
    • People in the room: The best working environment for new ideas is ...


Post here or go to the Course Feed to post and read what others say.