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Harnessing Your Creativity 167

nizations this is described as being a “critical friend.” It is a role I
have played myself with British Telecom. As part of the process of
developing a major communication project, FutureTalk, the com-
pany was keen to have a trusted outsider who would offer con-
structive challenge and feedback as the creative team moved from
idea to product and then into the marketplace. In this case I knew
a reasonable amount about the particular project, as it covered com-
munication and learning, but the same approach would have
worked even if I had known nothing at all.

Have you used the critical friend idea? If so, how did it help? If not, can you think of an aspect
of your work that might benefit from it?

Sometimes, especially when you are at the early stage of the devel-
opment of a project, it is helpful to go still further and quite delib-
erately involve someone who is from a very different line of work.
I call this kind of person a “lay consultant.” If your project was in
the area of telecommunications, for example, you could involve a
writer, an actor, or a speech therapist to work with you as a critical
friend. Such a lay consultant’s views are often invaluable in broad-
ening and challenging assumptions.

Playing with connections

To help you get into the habit of making connections, there is a
very simple game you can play that will help train your mind.
First, make a list of about 50 everyday household, workplace,
and high street items, for example, game of Monopoly, pet dog,
sycamore seed, chair, pencil, paperclip, desk, car, pedestrian, etc.
To begin with, you may like to put each one on a separate
small piece of paper or card. Then, identify an aspect of your work
or home life on which you wish to focus. Let’s imagine that you
choose to explore something that is an issue in all organizations:
cutting your costs.
Pick one of your cards. Let’s say you chose the game of
Monopoly. For between 20 or 30 minutes, concentrate on finding
connections between cost cutting and the game of Monopoly.