an ache. It felt like a yearning that had a clear direction. I now knew what I wanted to do and my entire body felt compelled to do it. Once again, this was beyond simple logic, it was visceral.
For some years I had felt annoyed by work being a discrete area of my life where I became somebody else. It was as if I put on the ‘Business Chris’ mask in the morning, adopted new and frankly bizarre language patterns and became the cultural stereotype that I believed would be successful in my business. I noticed the same with my friends and other colleagues. Then every now and again, I saw them become themselves. On those occasions they appeared to be more happy, creating better work and developing better relationships. They seemed whole.
After much exploration I was ready to return home and start my next journey, helping people within businesses to really be themselves in all their glory; to help them self-express, encourage their individuality and get them jumping out of bed in the morning, loving their lives. Even writing this today, I feel the ache, the excitement, that brought me to where I am today; another perfect day. During my travels, I had become more in tune with my energy and intuition, and was soon drawn to learn Reiki. Coincidences became commonplace, the quickening had begun.
I still had some refining to do so I earned my income as a freelance marketing consultant and by teaching and practising Reiki – by now I was a Reiki Master. By teaching Reiki, I came to realize that I now had technical training and facilitation skills, yet I needed a focus and outlet for these.
Consequently, in 1998, I joined ?What If!, a fast-growing group of mavericks who had, like me, been in big business but had felt stifled. They had set up an agency that was all about innovation and inspiring possibility, whether that was for clients, themselves or the world. This book is a culmination of years of exploration. Firstly on my own, and then more profoundly with the talented team that constitutes ?What If! where I’ve been ‘working’ ever since. At ?What If! we don’t put on masks in the morning, we truly are ourselves and are loved for it. I still jump out of bed to work with these guys. I can be me, and the more I am, the better work I do.
How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas is not a book of science and research – that’s just not my bag. It is simple and practical. It is based on work with thousands of people who have come to ?What If! to open the door to their imagination and channel it into their lives so they can create the freedom they deserve. It is a flexible approach that can be as easily applied to creating a new and inspiring future for ourselves, to inventing ways to spend more time with our families or how to present company quarterly results in a way that will excite an audience.
I’m not an academic or a brain expert. I am a man who has been lucky enough to meet some gifted people who have taught me and I have had the good fortune to have built a life based on helping people reclaim their Freedom …
… and I’m a bit of a monkey.
So please don’t take it too seriously – that kind of behaviour should be saved for other books! Some of this is scientifically tested, a lot isn’t.
It just works from experience.
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE CAN’T BE EXPLAINED. CREATIVITY IS A LEAP OF FAITH. SO JUMP!
Since time began there have been those that didn’t quite fit in. Many fuelled uprisings, became hermits or joined the circus. Since 1992, ?What If! have taken such creatures off the streets and provided a home where they can be themselves, a place where they can create. These people are innovative and passionate, they are driven to make an impact in the world; creative thinkers who often felt constrained by big business and wanted to break free.
Since those humble beginnings, ?What If! have become the world’s largest and most successful independent innovation company, based in London but with offices in New York, Sydney and Manchester. Their reason for being is to inject energy and life back into businesses that need it – all in the name of creativity!
?What If! have carried out thousands of innovation projects, everything from inventing new beers, helping airlines become more efficient, helping multi-nationals become more insightful, to helping Jamie Oliver with his School Dinners project. Over the years they have inspired and energized the great and the good in hundreds of businesses around the world. ?What If! also preach what they practise and practise what they preach. They have helped creative champions pump that innovation muscle in all parts of the globe and in doing so have become world leaders in releasing creativity in others.
I lead the part of ?What If! that is responsible for taking all the stuff that we do best and sharing it with the world. Our clients then apply their new creative approach to their businesses and their lives. None of the people in my team are professional trainers. We have all had real-life innovation experience and are passionate about helping others get the kicks that we have all enjoyed ourselves, creating inspiring possibilities. When we started out, we were very much about teaching tools and techniques. But while our clients loved them, they kept coming back to us saying that their creativity had really improved but somehow they still couldn’t have ideas like us. We then modelled the best innovators inside and outside ?What If! and found that, although the tools and techniques are important, the magic comes from the people themselves. Great creatives are experts in getting into the right state to have ideas and in behaving in a way that encourages that state in others. Since then much of our focus has been on combining doing of creativity with the being – the tools and techniques with Creative State.
Over the years ?What If! have worked with many different organizations. There are few famous businesses that haven’t worked with us in some way. We have trained CEOs and we have trained receptionists. Creativity helps everyone get more from their lives. We are committed to helping people discover their own personal creative genius, everyone has got one. The key is knowing how to look for it.
Using the approach that we foster for all innovation work, at ?What If! we have applied ourselves to making our company a great place to work – let’s face it, when the world is your competition for talent, you have to be good. As an equivalent of our cycling proficiency test, we have won the Financial Times’ Best Place to Work Award for the last two years, beating many larger and grown-up companies.
The secret of our success is the way we are, not what we do. We love to try new things and experiment; we don’t take ourselves too seriously and are happy to say ‘we don’t know’. But above all we love what we do, and that just keeps us shiny!
4FORALL PIZZA
In pizza retailing, innovation is a key factor in bringing in customers. But beyond introducing new toppings and playing with the base, what potential for innovation is there? To solve this challenge ?What If! helped the team from Pizza Hut stop thinking about products and start thinking about insights and unmet needs.
