It takes courage to be creative. Just as soon as you have a new idea, you are a minority of one"
E Paul Torrance.

This is the Mental Athletics Programme. An on-line creativity programme aimed at people who struggle for that elusive fresh idea, who occasionally hit a dead end and who want to think outside the box.

But I can only take you, the metaphorical horse to water, it is up to you to drink. This simple quote by James Adams expresses the challenge:

Hello I'm the Mental Athletics Programme creator, David M Weeks, a creativity consultant specializing in creativity, innovation and facilitation. My guiding philosophy is that everyone is creative, and that people and organisations benefit enormously from opportunities to explore this underutilised resource. As an 'astro-physicist' working as a creativity consultant for Abbey National, a large UK corporate bank, I acted as a virtual creative coach to thousands of staff using the intranet to reach out and stimulate their creativity through their desktops. The results of this experiment are where you are now - The Mental Athletics Programme (MAP).   Check out M1 Creativity where you can see other examples of my work.

"What can I say??? This is a Brain saver. How many times a week do we all go brain dead sitting here in our jobs like battery hens!! Thanks for the light at the end of the tunnel."

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"I only just discovered this island paradise last week and thought it was a breath of fresh air amongst the stuffiness of business sites, a window of escapism, a respite from a dull day etc."

Creativity is extinguished by our society's 'default' mode of thinking. That is argument, adversity and critical thinking are much more highly valued as business skills and they will beat up a fledgling idea every time. (Unknown)

In the beginning I needed a name for this Programme. A popular creativity technique is the use of metaphors. They also make learning effective more effective. I wanted to use a common theme using a familiar scenario to hang all this creativity stuff on.

We can all relate to athletes - they undergo a programme to ensure that they will succeed on the track. The Mental Athletics Programme is just a variation on that theme working on the mental rather than the physical.

The Mental Athletics Programme is a seven element approach, designed to help you develop your creative thinking using the metaphor of an athlete.

Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different."
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, (Nobel prize winner)

In the same way practitioners of creativity realise that they will not become an Archimedes overnight. But, it is possible in both spheres to enhance your initial skills through a programmed course of practise and theory.

For best results enter the MAP elements in sequence starting with Introduction and Assessment. Do not be tempted to move directly to the comprehensive creativity toolkit in Tactics.

The MAP is designed to introduce and apply tactics only when you are ready.

Research has shown that we need to practise the techniques of creativity often. The best approach is not to spend hours over a particular technique but often, in small amounts. Experts have shown that Creativity courses which are purely or largely techniques oriented are unlikely to be effective in producing a transfer of training effect.
In addition a program is unlikely to have lasting effects unless it is of reasonable duration - one or two day courses are unlikely to have sustained effects.

This all means you will waste your money sending your staff on short purely creativity techniques courses. Moving more slowly and systematically produces the quickest results.

"I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone weird wasn't weird at all and that it was the people saying they were weird that were weird"
Paul McCartney

Element	Time
INTRODUCTION	Allow an hour
ASSESSMENT Fuel Freedom Flexibility	20 mins 30 mins 40 mins
GYM	About 2 hours
BRAIN	About an hour
TACTICS	Overview in 1-2 hours. Open-ended
HURDLES	About two hours
INNOVATION	About two hours

I would suggest that you do not do all the assessments or Gym exercises in one go but do them in 20 minute chunks.

"If your thoughts are precisely folded and dressed right you are probably a fairly limited problem solver"
  James Adams

The only reason you should ever consider starting a creativity process is to generate more profits and make your organisation more competitive. The whole topic of creativity and innovation should not be viewed by you from any other angle. It is the way to ensure the long term success of your business. You need to look at the innovation thrust as a business investment that is going to either add or detract from your long term, net worth.

Creativity is too important to leave solely to your Research & Development or Marketing people. Everyone should be involved. Change may need to be grasped. The pain level of Status Quo will decide the extent of change. But history says that today's successful, complacent company is the one which can be trapped the easiest. The future is just not what it used to be...Competitive advantage comes to the one who invents the future first.

"The idea is there, locked inside. All you have to do is remove the access stone"
Michelangelo.

1. Minimise costs by become lean and mean.
2. Maximise income by implementing bright ideas.

There is a tendency to concentrate on the former. It is the easier of the two options - an 'Internal' fight. The second is harder - it is an external direct fight with the competition. Without creativity you will not be able to implement strategy two.

Can you afford to get out of the box by chance or through mistakes?