In March 2020, the world came to a standstill overnight. A pandemic. A lockdown. Doors closed. Society shut down. "Within a week, all our assignments were gone," says Friso Visser, Creative Change Leader and Founder of Brain Fuel, a company that has developed a methodology for brainstorming in a completely new way to turn mediocre ideas into good ones.
When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.
‘Complaints, uncertainty. Those were the initial reactions after the announcement. It came as a bolt from the blue. But we are creative and innovative. If we couldn't find a way forward, who could?' In this context, Friso Visser refers to a Chinese proverb, which boils down to: 'When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.'
Evolve or perish
The credo in the days following the first lockdown became: "Evolve or die." The key question was: "Who would conduct a brainstorming session online?" The answer came quickly. 'Within a week, we set up the first online hackathon in the Netherlands, and a week later we were holding online brainstorming sessions. It worked. In a qualitative way. To the satisfaction of our customers and ourselves. I'm proud of that.'
The question is whether this online way of working is here to stay. Friso: "We will undoubtedly fall back into our old pattern of meeting up in person again. Not least because we have missed the social and emotional aspects of that so much. But we have had a taste of something different. A second way of working. And we will naturally learn how best to shape it in the future."
One large mound
Friso Visser believes that the coronavirus crisis has taught everyone to be creative. "Adaptability, improvisation skills. Everyone has been affected by this to a greater or lesser extent. You could call that the silver lining of such a crisis."
These are also the skills needed in a process of innovation. ‘Creating something new of value is creation. Whether that is a work of art, a joke, a drawing, or an invention. The next step is innovation, applying and implementing the innovation. There can be no innovation without creation. But the idea may be 1%; making an idea applicable and the drive required to do so accounts for the remaining 99%.’
This makes the creation of a Media Innovation Campus difficult, but also challenging, in Friso Visser's view. "Because we need to move away from 'mound thinking' in this region, which is apparently deeply rooted in the culture and mentality. Everyone does their own thing on their little mound. Whereas we need to stand together and build one big mound. We need to think in terms of an ecosystem, not an ego system. If we can do that, the Media Innovation Campus will be a success."
