Tim Brown
Tim Brown talks about creativity and play, and during the talk he runs the “30-second portrait” warm-up.
Why watch it?
Brown demonstrated this exercise at the Serious Play conference. It reveals that adults feel embarrassed to show imperfect ideas, while children draw freely.
- 1Draw the person next to youYou have thirty seconds for a portrait of the person sitting beside you.
- 2Listen to the roomAfterwards come the apologies: “I can’t draw”, “it came out awful”.
- 3Talk about the fear of judgementThe same mechanism blocks the sharing of ideas. It is worth naming it at the start of the Ideate stage.
Warm-up: the 30-second portrait
Warm-up30 seconds
A simple drawing that effortlessly opens a conversation about courage.
MechanismEmbarrassment about imperfection
This fear, picked up as we grow up, holds back creativity in design.
PrototypeWe learn from a prototype
Brown says: a successful prototype is one that teaches us something.
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