A colleague once told me that he tried to stop putting sugar in his coffee. It wasn’t his first attempt. He had tried several times before. He knew it would be better for his health. He knew that he didn’t really need the sugar. He also knew that many others […]
Creativity
155 posts
An art student sits in front of his laptop, staring at an image that an AI generated in four seconds. It’s a landscape in the rain. The light reflects off the puddles with almost absurd precision. The color tones feel well thought out. The composition is strong. The student zooms […]
The strange thing about truly elegant ideas is that they almost always seem obvious only after someone has already thought of them. Like when someone turns a ketchup bottle upside down before putting it back in the fridge. Or when someone puts a receipt in a shoebox right after the […]
The most interesting thing in a meeting is often never said out loud. Everyone has been there. Someone shows a PowerPoint with thirty-two slides about “future collaboration strategy”. The words are well chosen. The diagrams are nice. No one objects. People nod politely. The coffee is lukewarm but professional. Then […]
It often starts with a meeting that smells of coffee and efficiency. Someone says, “I have an idea.” Then something strange happens quickly. One person leans back and asks about the budget. Another wonders if there’s already a competitor doing the same thing. A third points out that “we actually […]
The most important thing on the page is often what is not there. Imagine a poster where every millimeter is filled with text, colors, symbols, logos and exclamation points. Someone obviously wanted to say everything at once. The result is almost always the opposite. Nothing sticks. The eye does not […]
There is something fishy about perfect things. There are hotel rooms that are so perfect you almost feel uncomfortable. Everything is white, straight, quiet and polished. The pillows lie as if they had been raised in the military. Not a grain of dust is visible. Not a scratch. Not a […]
Imagine the following scene. A young manager walks into a meeting and says that the organization should stop optimizing what already works and instead start experimenting with something that is not yet yielding results. The room falls silent. Someone coughs a little strategically. Another starts talking about budget discipline. After […]
There is a particular type of meeting where someone leans forward, looks seriously at the PowerPoint and says: “We need to make sure that this initiative is strategically important and has a structure that we can present to everyone before we move on.” It sounds very sensible. The problem is […]
There are few things that feel as strangely satisfying as throwing away an old box that you’ve been moving around between storage units for ten years without ever opening it. You lift it. You look at it a little uncertain. You feel a slight twinge of guilt. And then something […]
Imagine waking up tomorrow and everything you read confirming exactly what you already believe. All articles nod in agreement. All analyzes point in the same direction. All the comments seem to be written by people who think just like you. It almost sounds like the dream of a rational society […]
Imagine a factory where everything works perfectly. The processes are optimized, waste is eliminated, and every step is carefully improved over time. The results are stable, the quality is high, and the efficiency is impressive. And yet something starts to rub. Someone asks an uncomfortable question. What if we are […]
It’s a thought that almost everyone who works with change has had at some point. You see a problem. You think it through. And suddenly the solution seems almost obvious. It could be about the climate, about how organizations should work or about how resources could be used smarter. You […]
It’s a feeling most people recognize. You sit there. A piece of paper in front of you. Or a blank presentation. Or a problem that needs to be solved. And nothing happens. Your brain feels empty. Everyone else seems to be able to come up with things. But you yourself […]
We’ve all been there. A meeting that lifts. A workshop that feels alive. Conversations flow. Ideas bounce between people. Time flies. When we leave the room, we’re satisfied, energized, and convinced that we’ve just been part of creating something important. We often think that it was our own input that […]
There is something strange happening right now. We have more help than ever. AI writes, summarizes, plans, analyzes. Automation streamlines. The flow of information is endless. Yet many people feel tired. Tired in the head. Tired in the body. Tired of constantly having to take in more. We scroll to […]
We often talk about the need to think outside the box. Less often we talk about how we actually do it. Creativity rarely arises just because we decide. The brain needs nudges, disruptions, new angles. It needs triggers that help us shift perspectives. An unexpected but powerful shift in perspective […]
In an age where information flows faster than we can think, it is easy to become a passive consumer of other people’s ideas. Flows, algorithms and short formats reward the fast and reactive. Against this, a different approach is emerging. Digital gardens. A way to slowly cultivate one’s own knowledge, […]
In many organizations, a lot of energy is put into developing the business model. You draw canvases, calculate income and formulate business plans. At the same time, the business idea is often left untouched. It is problematic because the business idea is the foundation on which everything else rests. If […]
We often confuse the terms simple and easy. Often they are used almost as synonyms but in practice they describe two completely different things. For innovation, creativity and leadership, this difference is crucial. Understanding it makes it possible to work on complex issues without simplifying away what is important. Albert […]
Leading creative workshops is an art form that combines psychology, pedagogy and practical experience. The result depends not only on the exercises but also to a large extent on how the process is designed and implemented. In practice, it is often small details that determine whether a workshop will be […]
Modern society is characterized by control. We plan our careers, our projects, our investments and our life choices as if the future were a function of how well we can optimize the present. But beneath the surface of planning and order lies a force that influences us more than we […]
Creativity often arises from the meeting of the seemingly unrelated. Being able to see the connection between two seemingly completely unrelated things is one of the most powerful skills in human thinking. This ability is called bisociation, a concept coined by Arthur Koestler in the book The Act of Creation […]
It’s easy to think that creativity is about finding the right answer. We look for solutions, we analyze data, we test and improve. But behind every brilliant idea there is often something much simpler: a good question. In fact, the most crucial steps in human development often began not with […]
We’ve all heard the stories. Archimedes getting his idea in the bath. Newton getting an apple on his head and suddenly understanding gravity. Or the artist saying that inspiration just “came to him”. It sounds like creativity is something mysterious, something that just happens randomly when the brain suddenly connects […]
When we talk about development in companies, the concepts of innovation and creativity are often mixed up. Innovation is basically about creating something new that is also realized and has an effect in the world. It can be a new product, a new process or a completely new way of […]
How we start a creative process has a decisive impact on the outcome. If we start cautiously, demanding “realistic” solutions, we limit ourselves early on and risk getting stuck in what we already know. However, if we start by really taking the plunge, setting a standard for imagination and inspiration, […]
We humans love convenience. When the brain finds a conceivable “highway,” a thought pattern that works, it tends to continue back and forth along that path day after day. It feels safe, secure, and requires minimal effort. But it’s also what often makes us miss alternative routes, small paths that […]
I remember the first time I asked an AI to explain Einstein’s theory of relativity as if I were ten years old. In a few seconds, I received an explanation that I never forgot, explained with simple images that immediately stuck with me. Previously, I would have needed an entire […]
When remote work became widespread, a common objection from managers was that creativity would be lost. The argument was that ideas are born when we meet physically, that it is in the corridors and at the coffee machine that the magic happens. But behind this statement, another question often hides: […]