The Lardner Report

Unleash your creative superpowers!

French Girl Rewrites Classic Children’s Story

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Toddler improvises radically new version of Winnie the Pooh

Next time you’re creatively stuck — consider the unabashed creative license this little girl, “Capucine” takes with this children’s classic. Her rendition has made You Tube and countless other pop video sources.  She happens to be beyond adorable, but she reminded me what it takes to be truly, authentically creative. It’s not just imagination, nor a child’s innate, unbridled sense of play. I believe it comes down to one thing: fearlessness — a quality that allows kids to create something out of nothing — with no rules — because they don’t care what you think.

Creativity is often defined as “the production of something ventolin original or useful.” According to a recent article in Newsweek, “To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result).” And a recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. So consider this:  your 3-year-old already has the goods.

Now enjoy the new and improved Winnie the Pooh — the one with crocodiles, ghosts, giraffes, and the hippo allergic to magic. It’s time you heard the truth.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”  — Pablo Picasso

“Think Outside The Box” — Who Came Up With This One?

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(Pic #1) "Outside the Box" Furniture Design: by Bauke Knottnerus

The origin of this well-worn phrase dates back to a brain game invented almost a century ago

I get asked about this phrase all the time in my corporate wokrshops. The reference, it turns out, is quite literal. The “box” they were talking about was actually a 2-dimensional square made up of nine small dots. (Pic #2) The image appeared in Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums in 1914.  Instructions read this way:

(Pic #3) Nearly 100 years old: Sam Loyd's Egg Puzzle

“Draw a continuous line through the center of all the eggs so as to mark them off in the fewest number of strokes.”  Loyd was apparently a little sloppy with the game’s rules and probably should have added that the lines must be straight, although he did supply an illustration that makes the meaning clear. (Pic #3)

(Pic #2) Nine dot puzzle: Click on dots for animated solution.

Simply put: Without letting your pen leave the paper, draw four straight lines through the nine dots. If it’s your first time, you might assume you are bound by an imaginary square or flattened box. But that perception leads nowhere. No matter how many times you try to draw four straight lines without lifting your pen, a dot is always left over.

What if….

This is where creative xenical thinking comes into play. “What would happen if I extend one of these lines beyond the box?” What happens — is the solution. (Click on dots on the left.) There’s even more than one  way to win (Pics #4 & #5).

(Pic #5) Puzzle solution #2

In the 1960s and 70s, business consultants resurrected the old Nine Dot Puzzle as a test for corporate trainees.  The “box” – with its elements of rigidity and squareness –  symbolizes constrained and unimaginative thinking. This is in contrast to the open and unrestricted  “outside the box” or “blue-sky” approach to problem-solving.

(Pic # 4) Puzzle solution #1

Quite often, creativity trainers won’t mention to their groups that they are allowed to extend their lines outside the box. Once they hear they were allowed, the trainees protest that it’s not fair — and typically the presenter will respond by saying, ” I didn’t tell you you couldn’t go outside the box.”

What is this fear?

Why wouldn’t we naturally explore the outer limits of this open square? I suspect that it calls up our childhood sense of obedience when we were repeatedly told to color “inside the lines.” When I think of this notion, I am grateful that the little Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Rauschenberg had other ideas. 

(Pic #6) de Kooning, "Woman V" 1953

(Pic #7) Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)

Creativity: Don’t Stop the Flow!

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(Pic #1) Husband home alone

Or, how my husband replaced me with an iconic action figure

(Pic #2) Chan: The perfect model: "Surprisingly easy to work with"

For years, my husband Josh has been a passionate, and very gifted photographer. So it’s not unusual to find him exploring new territory, using state-of-the-art equipment, trying new techniques, and shooting spontaneously around the house. He’ll often say, “Can I take your picture today?” And, depending on just how fat or old I feel at the moment, I might oblige. (Truth is, he is the go-to guy for all my headshots, because he is, in fact, a master. See a recent shot at the beach in Pic #4 below.)

Well, I suppose it should not have been a surprise — when I returned from the gym this weekend — to find Josh alone in the living room, shooting away, with a brand new lighting system, a jerry-rigged backdrop made from purple bedroom sheets, and, well, what appeared to be a very elaborate, professional portrait set-up.

His subject? A bobblehead doll of superstar action hero Jackie Chan.

The plastic model was poised on a stool, in the center of a living room, facing the photographer, in a classic martial arts stance. This, amidst an audience of a couple of very confused cats. (Pics #1 and #2)

(Pic #3) Models in waiting

I stood there, in what can only be described as a parallel acyclovir universe, and decided to ask. “What the heck are you doing?” I said gently. Josh’s answer sent me falling solidly in love with him one more time.

He said he had gotten a brainstorm about a lighting technique, which he wanted to try out on me, or his 19-year-old son, Jake. But because I was out of the house, and Jake was at school,  he needed someone else to “sit” for his session. He stressed that the experiment couldn’t wait. So he headed toward Jake’s bedroom Bobblehead doll collection, and asked Jackie to oblige. (Pic #3)

Feeling slightly awkward, but creatively stoked nonetheless, Josh began to shoot. He said he was “in the zone” and could not have been happier about the possibilities. That day he got to play with light and shadow, responded to his creative instincts, and said that despite being such a huge international star, Jackie Chan “was surprisingly easy to work with.”

(Pic #4) I can keep a secret for a sweet headhsot

As a reporter, blogger, and creativity consultant, I talk about this critical need to create – every day. But the true challenge comes in knowing how to really shove aside the obstacles that stop us from answering the call — the call of inspiration. (Even if it means encountering the somewhat pathetic sight of a grown man and a six-inch action figure sharing an intimate moment.)