Latitude

But the adult is not the highest stage of development. The end of the cycle is that of the independent, clear-minded, all-seeing Child.

Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh, excerpted on Andy Eklund’s blog, “Creativity Streak.”

Innovation-Thinking

Many brilliant innovations come about by transposing one solution onto a new category of problem, the result of which may strike us as a kind of curious juxtaposition. (Blogging by e-mail, anyone? How about systems thinking and children’s toys?)

Kids Solve Problems

Children are naturally more fluent with ideas than adults, unfettered by the “necessity” and experience of applying their underlying thinking ability to knowledge areas in conditioned ways, within the boundaries of what is practical and possible. (Rote learning is an extreme example of the thinking “refinement” we undergo on the way to adulthood.)

A child’s knowledge and experience are limited and so the problem solutions are often impractical. But what matters is the way the child’s mind uses the limited material at its disposal.

When children were given the “political” problem of stopping a cat and a dog from fighting, their ideas went far beyond the approaches used by politicians.

Edward de Bono, Children Solve Problems

In a 2006 Developmental Psychology study by Zheng Yan, children between the ages of 9 and 13 were asked to represent pictorially what the Internet looks like. Some of the drawings (c & d below), convey a complex understanding of a system that even most adults struggle to comprehend.

The Merlin Factor: Putting Kids’ Solutions to Practical Use

It takes some insight and patience (the more you look, the more you find) for an adult to appreciate the creativity in children’s responses because they are often unconventional or “impossible.” Thus, questions posed to children should be targeted and thoughtful–a structured problem-solving objective should exist–to elicit solutions that manifest the power of children’s undamped creativity.

For example, asking children: “If you wanted to build a house more quickly, how would you do it?” ultimately requires children to generate solutions for how to make an existing process faster and more efficient. (Example from Edward de Bono’s, Children Solve Problems).

Latitude 42: Children’s “Future Requests” for Computers & the Internet

As part of its 42s: An Innovation Series, Latitude is launching a generative thought study around Web technology–with the help of children ages 12 and under.

What would be really interesting or fun to do on your computer/the Internet that your computer can’t do right now?  Please draw a picture of what this activity looks like.

Additionally, the study will explore: how children use and understand Web technology, which environmental factors contribute to these understandings, and the extent to which children can think “innovatively” (beyond the bounds of their known environment).

We expect to be impressed. We also expect to learn a few things from our participants.

Let’s say you get an idea – or, as Pooh would more accurately say – it gets you. Where did it come from? If you are able to trace it all the way back to its source, you will discover that it came from Nothing. And chances are, the greater the idea, the more directly it came from there.

The wise are children who know their minds have been emptied of the countless minute somethings of small learning, and filled with the wisdom of the Great Nothing.

Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh, excerpted on Andy Eklund’s blog, “Creativity Streak.”

To learn more about Latitude 42: Children’s “Future Requests” for Computers & the Internet, check back at life-connected.com over the next week.

To request participation (children ages 12 and under), email innovation@latd.com.

Header image courtesy of mamchenkov’s flickr, (cc) some rights reserved.