I am sitting in a conference room in Singapore listening Tony Buzan’s views on creativity, memory, innovation and good thinking. Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps and author of 98 books, brings unique insight into how our brain works and how to get the most out of it. Here are some examples:
Creativity is your main thinking tool, helping you solve problems on a daily basis — if you don’t know how creativity works and its serious underpinnings, you can’t have good thinking.
If you apply the wrong formula, just like using all your strength to get out of quicksand, you will go down faster. Thinking is the same — most of us use the wrong formula.
“Knowledge Management” is all the rage these days, but perhaps it’s more important to manage the manager of knowledge — ie, your brain.
So what is the correct formula? Here are a few instructions that should go into your brain’s Operator’s Manual:-
- Play imagination games.
- Normal is not natural — reawaken your child-like fascination for things. In creativity tests carried out in Utah in the US, Under 5s scored 95% while adults with degrees scored 10%.
- Develop your multiple intelligences — creative, social, spiritual, personal (these three are considered emotional intelligences by Goleman and Gardiner), physical and sensory intelligences, as well as the traditional IQ: verbal, mathematical, spatial.
- Learn how to learn and invest in your personal intellectual capital. Learn a new skill/subject every year.
- Healthy body, healthy mind. Good Food = Good Brain. Junk Food = Junk Brain.
- Explore the universe in your head by playing imagination games and daydreaming.
What would you add as a “must have” in your brain’s Operator’s Manual?
