da Vinci & Connessione

Connections or Connessione is, to my mind, probably what is at the heart of just about all of Leonardo da Vinci’s fantastic work. In concept it is the understanding that all things are connected in some form or another, and that great ideas flow from this interconnectivity. Also called “Systems Thinking”, this methodology is one of the main sources of Leonardo’s creativity; the ability to form new patterns through connections and combinations of different elements.

Of course the most obvious is random words and images, and we’ve used this successfully in developing THEiDEASGAME. Although people in the creative fields of advertising, promotion and design take to this concept like a fish to water, I have found more serious corporate-world teams battle with it somewhat. The idea is to start out by looking at what is similar between your problem, and let’s say, an elephant.

The obvious ones might be size, large feet, the trunk/tail image. On a broader spectrum there are concepts such as herding, the female who leads the herd or even how they “hold hands”, trunk-to-tail, when they walk. Then there are “signs” of stress, such as the mature elephants that “cry”, or the concept of “cooling”: large ears, used to flap or simply using the trunk to splash water over themselves.

Each one of these concepts we extract from the random image, could lead directly to a new connection one could make with a particular problem such as developing new hardware/software, a new design or layout for a website or restructuring a department. It really works every time, and the connections you’ll make are new every time. Start by exploring a few simple ones:

• comparison; look for things similar to your problem
• what’s different; look for things that are different to what your problem faces, and explore those
• behavior; look for ways the object/item behaves, and see if you could extract a concept you could bring back to the problem

DIALOGUES

There are also deeper layers of Connessione. Instead of a Random Image, you can make a connection between your problem and a person. Have a physical “conversation” with that person, let’s say a famous politician. How would he approach the problem? What does he think about the outcome? You could also extract principles any politician may apply and see if those could benefit your problem.

SYSTEMS

A lot to be gained by looking at a particular system or inner workings of a concept in a totally unrelated field to yours – or your problem. Could you compare taxi ranks or public transport systems to your situation? How is buying a movie ticket similar to this? Could you extract anything from the scoring system of a PS2 game and use this in solving your problem?

ORIGIN-ALL

Think about the origin of things. How did a problem start? What created it first? What elements were involved in this process? Is there anything you could pull back to solve your situation?

AMBIGUITY

Finally, a little ambiguity goes a long way! The stranger a concept feels in making a connection, the finer the chance that you will come upon a fantastic new idea. It all starts with the Willingness to Explore. If you have some trouble with this, why not learn from the Father of Challenge, Thomas Edison, HERE.

Wishing everyone a week of Great Connections and Super Ideas!