The Medici Effect
I've been diving into some great books this past week. One of them is The Medici Effect put out by Harvard Business School Press.
I've been talking about right-brain preaching alot lately. I think one key is cross-pollinization. Jesus used agricultural concepts to package spirtual truth into unforgettable metaphors. Jesus was juxtaposing two disciplines: agriculture and theology.
Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, says, "When you step into the intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas."
I think my recent post, Preaching is a Culinary Art Form, is a great example. I had never thought of preaching in terms of cooking. But that juxtaposition helped me think about preaching in a new vein.
For what it's worth, Leonardo Da Vince said that to truly understand something you must view it from three perspectives.
Truth is kaleidscopic. Different disciplines give us different perspectives. At the end of the day, every ology is a branch of theology. I love studying physics and neurology and psychology because they reveal something about the God who created everything that is. They add depth perception to our theology.
Delving into other disciplines also keeps us from thinking the same thoughts. It is so easy to get stuck in a mental rut. We develop associative connections.
Johannson cites a cool advertising campaign that was targeted at challenging some of those associative connections. He was walking through the tunnels at Heathrow airport in London and he noticed some prominent advertisments for HSBC, one of the world's largest banks. One of the posters showed three identical yellow squares. The first square was labeled USA and it said cowardice. The second yellow square was labeled Malaysia and it said royalty; the last square was labeled Venezuela and it said lucky underware.
Yellow has very different associative connections in different places.
There were also a poster with three pictures of a grasshopper. The image labeled USA said pest. The image labeled China said pet. And the image labeled North Thailand said appetizer.
For what it's worth, expertise can limit creativity. Why? Because we develop such strong associative connections that it becomes difficult to think outside the box and make new associative connections. Johansson says, "Expertise, for all of its strengths, can make it more difficult to break out of establish patterns of thought."
Long story short, study lots of ologies. It is one key to creativity.
I've been talking about right-brain preaching alot lately. I think one key is cross-pollinization. Jesus used agricultural concepts to package spirtual truth into unforgettable metaphors. Jesus was juxtaposing two disciplines: agriculture and theology.
Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, says, "When you step into the intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas."
I think my recent post, Preaching is a Culinary Art Form, is a great example. I had never thought of preaching in terms of cooking. But that juxtaposition helped me think about preaching in a new vein.
For what it's worth, Leonardo Da Vince said that to truly understand something you must view it from three perspectives.
Truth is kaleidscopic. Different disciplines give us different perspectives. At the end of the day, every ology is a branch of theology. I love studying physics and neurology and psychology because they reveal something about the God who created everything that is. They add depth perception to our theology.
Delving into other disciplines also keeps us from thinking the same thoughts. It is so easy to get stuck in a mental rut. We develop associative connections.
Johannson cites a cool advertising campaign that was targeted at challenging some of those associative connections. He was walking through the tunnels at Heathrow airport in London and he noticed some prominent advertisments for HSBC, one of the world's largest banks. One of the posters showed three identical yellow squares. The first square was labeled USA and it said cowardice. The second yellow square was labeled Malaysia and it said royalty; the last square was labeled Venezuela and it said lucky underware.
Yellow has very different associative connections in different places.
There were also a poster with three pictures of a grasshopper. The image labeled USA said pest. The image labeled China said pet. And the image labeled North Thailand said appetizer.
For what it's worth, expertise can limit creativity. Why? Because we develop such strong associative connections that it becomes difficult to think outside the box and make new associative connections. Johansson says, "Expertise, for all of its strengths, can make it more difficult to break out of establish patterns of thought."
Long story short, study lots of ologies. It is one key to creativity.
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