My New Friends from China

Just yesterday I gave another talk to a new group of Chinese leaders interested in hearing thoughts about Israeli innovation.

I drove up to WOPA in Raanana (that’s where they were).

I met my host, Cassie (right) and my translator, Ching (center). They were wonderful.

WOPA is a lovely, modern place.

There was a wonderful auditorium, but not too many people in the audience. Attendance was 0.000000000000004.7% of the Chinese population.

But they were very special people.

We talked about the characteristics of creative people. They suggested:

Imaginative

Passionate

Not satisfied with the status quo

Stubborn

Observant

Curious

They see details

Flexible

Question askers

Fun lovers

Learn fast

Prepared to fail

Don’t mind being silly

Different

Anina asked “Aren’t 4-6 year old kids like this?”  And I agreed.

We practised childhood pasttimes, such as barking out loud. I explained that the ability to do childish things and not be afraid of criticism and ridicule is important for entrepreneurs. After all, all new ideas appear ridiculous.

We played the game “Everything is Yogurt”. First, they suggested things that are associated with yogurt.

The list included:

Water

Beautiful

Farmers

Grass

Alcohol

Breakfast

Bacteria

Then we asked them to list things that had no connection with yogurt. We then tried to find the unexpected connections. That was more challenging, and much more creative. Here is a list of the ideas that came up.

Scroll down to see all:

Cows

Children

Lady

Tonsils

Soap

Toothbrush

Camel

Person that doesn’t like yogurt

Moon

Mars

Nun

Speaker

Shoes

Pen

Emperor

Farthest planet in the whole universe

We then looked for odd, weird and wonderful ways to connect the whole list with yogurt. After all, creativity is all about making unexpected connections between things that appear unconnectable. I call it ‘thinking between the boxes‘. The Israeli inventors and innovators whom I know all do it on a regular basis!

We had intermission.

Then we talked about creativity as a two step process. It’s not only about being able to answer question in a creative way, but about asking creative questions. Finding interesting hypothesis. Asking amazing, almost impossible questions. Then we came up with commercial possibilities for rice cookers!

This couple had to go early. Actually they went at the beginning. I promised them to summarize the lecture in a book. So thank you, this book is for you!

So thank you all for a wonderful afternoon. I really hoped you enjoyed it!